Practical Tasks for Mastering the

Mechanics of Writing and Going

Just Beyond

Presenter: Melika Rajabi

What is involved in mastering the

mechanics of writing

Communication is imp: interaction

When the goal of

interaction is meaningful

communication

Writing skill emerges

Up-to-date

digital message

on PC, cell

phone, …

Traditional

paper & pencil

What are the imp components when

learning to write a new lg?

• Writer reader

• At very beginning level when Ss can create smallest meaningful messages 2 aspects of writing stressed:

1. Values on the goal of writing

2. Values on the perceived reader audience

Interactive process

• Because writing interaction lacks feedback, the writershould:

1. anticipate the reader’s reactions

2. Adhere to Grice cooperative principle

• If necessary clues are available in text, the reader willinterpret the text due to the writer’s presumed intention

• As linguistic accuracy, clarity of presentation &organization of ideas supply clues for interpretation, theysupport the efficacy of communicative act

In ESL/ EFL context, writing activities at first focus on

mechanical aspects of writing skill and then move to a

more communicative goal

Writing systems

Ss L1 has a writing system based on

Meaning: the graphic sign is linked to a meaning in the

real world: Chinese

Sounds: The graphic sign is linked to a spoken sound or

a syllable (a phoneme in English/ Japanese katakana

writing system)

meaning

sounds

Many lgs in the sound-based writing group use an

alphabetic system in which a graphic sign stands

for a phoneme. Korean

Some of the alphabetic writing systems are more

transparent and consistent in representing these

correspondences than others. Italian & French

English: less transparent, complicated rules for

linking graphemes with phonemes.

Phoneme-grapheme or sound-

to-letter correspondences

Up & down/ in columns

Traditional Chinese and Japanese

Direction

left to right: Roman, Cyrillic

In lines

right to left: Arabic, Urdu

European and middle Eastern lgs

Early writing in a new lg Learners L1= Roman alphabet

- have the appropriate direction of R,W

- recognize & use letters with same shape

- aware of the phonological processing route

Learners L1 employs alphabetic system Roman alphabet

Focus on:

1. Appropriate direction of R & W

2. Learning to recognize & produce actual graphic characters

3. Learning both regularities and irregularities of the Eng writing system

Learners L1= meaning-based writing system

1. Need careful training in associating a graphic sign with a vocal

sound

2. recognizing sequences of such graphic signs as words

1. Appropriate direction of R & W

2. Learning both regularities and

irregularities of the Eng writing

system

Partially familiar

with phonological

process

Phonemic awareness

The mechanics of reading and writing

Early stage of letter recognition, letter discrimination,

sound-to-letter correspondence, word recognition &

basic rules of spelling.

Beyond this stage

•Expand the spelling rules

•Focus on punctuation and capitalization

•Cover the comprehension and production of sentences &

short paragraphs

Sound-spelling correspondence

English has a systematic set of sound-spelling

correspondences

Helps ESL/EFL teacher to combine teaching

- phonetic units + graphic units

-give Ss practice in pronunciation along with

practice in spelling

Learners L1 alphabet = English

Learners L1 alphabet different W sys

syllable-based sys

meaning-based sys

Teacher: emphasis the recognition of every consonant letter

The English consonants

Focus= unique

features of Eng

& irregularities

The English consonants

Sounds of consonant letters depend on theenvironment they occur

/k/ followed by vowel a, o, u (call, cook, cup)

consonant l, r, k (click, crew, rocker)

/s/ followed by vowel e, i, y ( cell, cinch, cyst)

c

The English vowels

Complex sound-spelling correspondence

Two- basic types of syllable environment in English

orthography.

1. CVC for short vowels

2. CV or CVCe for long vowels

Place too much emphasis on length than phonetic

quality. (pin, pine)

How do we teach mechanics?

1. To enhance letter recognition when learners come from

a different W sys

2. To practice sound-spelling correspondences via all 4 lg

skills

3. To help the learner move from letters and words to

meaningful sentences & larger units of discourse

Three major types of recognition tasks

Matching tasks

Obj: practice quick & effective recognition of Eng letters

Drills: similar to native speakers

Ss distinguish certain letter from other similar letters

Match words beginning or ending with the same small or capital letter

Search for a certain letter within a group of different letters

Advanced stage: Ss match words with pic & short sentences

with pic

Writing tasks

Obj: allow Ss to produce the shapes of the letters both

as a recognition and a production task

•Tracing letters

•Ss focus on detailed characteristics of the letters

Only for Ss with

different

writing sys

Meaningful sound-spelling

correspondence

Obj: Ss match individual sounds or sequences of sounds

& words with their written form

Focus: listening & recognizing the sound corresponding

to the relevant written form

Teachers= give opportunities for copying

Challenging: create sent. for new context

Imp feature: accustom learners to using the appropriate

capitalization rule in Eng and some basic rules of punctuation

More advanced writing tasks Focus: accuracy and content with communicative goal

Three types of writing tasks

1. Practical writing tasks

2. Emotive writing tasks

3. School-oriented tasks

The task description

The content description

The audience description

Format cues

Linguistic cues

Spelling and punctuation cues

1. Practical writing tasks

- focus: spelling and morphology

- Lists: things to do, things completed, shopping lists

- notes & messages left for another person or sent via email

- completion of forms on paper or on computer & preparation of

invitations, greetings, …

2. Emotive writing tasks

- personal writing: letter to friends, narratives

3. school-oriented tasks

- writing activities should be given attention at linguistic accuracy level

and at message transmission level

- Dialogue journal writing at the early stages

- Special discussion forums