teaching writing to L2 learners

Pateyeva Natalia, PhD

Teacher trainer

“Writing is a way of talking without being

interrupted.”

Jules Renard

By the end of this workshop

participants will be able to:

Assess the issues involved in teaching writing in their own

classrooms.

Identify the approaches involved in producing different types of

writing.

Match writing sub-skills to a process writing framework.

Analyze writing tasks from the point of view of audience, purpose and

context.

To provide an understanding on the principles of teaching writing

To provide a short overview on how writing is taught and evaluated

by teachers to achieve certain objectives

The main points to present

1. Writing at glance and types of classroom writing performance

2. The principles of teaching writing

3. How student writing is evaluated

To communicate over distances

To communicate across time

To participate in society

To remember and record

To “make thought visible” and express your

inner self

Notes emails letters essays stories

Signs advertisements subtitles articles

Diaries/journals magazines plays recipes

Labels/brands brochures maps textbooks

Writing at glance

Writing is the last skill of language after listening, speaking

and reading

Many consider that writing is the most difficult skill among

the other three

To be able to write well, one should work hard to practice

writing in addition to understanding writing concept and

tools

Location

Where do learners do most writing – in class or at home?

Difficulties

What difficulties do your learners have with writing?

Class dynamics

Do your learners work alone or collaboratively on writing

tasks? Why?

Results

How successful are your learners at writing?

Tests

Do your learners do writing tests? How does this

influence your teaching?

Purpose

For what reasons do your learners write?

Challenges

What challenges/frustrations do you experience as a

teacher?

Writing in your

classroom

Using your plan and ideas to write

a ‘rough’ preliminary version.

Presenting the piece of writing to

the readers.

Checking, making alterations and

re-writing.

Generating ideas and planning what

to write.

generating ideas and planning what to write

using your plan and ideas to write a

‘rough’ preliminary version

checking, making alterations and re-writing.

presenting the piece of writing

to the readers.

planning

brainstorming

re-ordering

selecting/rejecting ideas

structuring

revising

mind-mapping

questioning

revising

re-structuring

presenting finished piece

to readers

checking focusing on

grammar and vocabulary

Pre-writing: brainstorming, mind-mapping

Drafting: selecting/rejecting, structuring,

questioning

Editing: revising, checking, re-ordering, re-

structuring, focusing on grammar and

vocabulary

Publishing: presenting finished piece to

readers

writers need :

a purpose – a reason for writing,

an audience –the readers,

a context – background information to make it meaningful

and to motivate learners to write.

Consider examples of writing tasks from

textbooks in terms of how they meet the above

criteria.

1. There is no audience. To make it more

meaningful ask learners to write an article for an

international student magazine, special issue on

festivals around the world.

2. The task works as it is but could be made more

meaningful by having half the class write the

complaint and the other half write the manager’s

response.

3. The task provides no guidance to help learners

write the story. Support could be given by

supplying pictures, prompt words, gapped

sentences, the beginning of a story etc. If the

learners work in groups, they could write the

stories for their classmates.

4. This task could be contextualized, for example,

“You are having a party. Your classmates are your

guests. Draw a map from the school to your home,

without indicating exactly where your home is. Now

write directions.” The ‘guests’ then have to pinpoint

the home of the ‘host’ from the directions.

5. This needs a purpose and an audience. For

example:”Imagine you are at a crossroads in your

life. You have an appointment with a ‘life coach’ but

first she has asked you to write about yourself.

What can you tell her to prepare for your meeting?

Think about your plans and ambitions etc.

Takes too much time

Loss of student focus / interest

Not suited to some personalities

Students need to be taught it (peer

editing / planning / stages)

Restricts spontaneity and range of

writing activities.

The creation of a product

Writing seen as a communicative and

purposeful activity

Teaches students to plan and research

Student collaboration is developed.

Feedback and response given.

Isn't it surprising how many things, if

not said immediately, seem not worth

saying ten minutes from now? ~

Arnot L. Sheppard, Jr.

Speaking Vs Writing

Impermanent Permanent

Immediate (unplanned) Delayed (planned)

Variation / Casual Conventional / Stylized

Low lexical density High lexical density

High Paralinguistics Low Paralinguistics

Communal activity Solitary Activity

Universal Learned

Simple sentences Complex sentences

Voiced Thought / Read

Pronounce Spell

Feedback No feedback

Pause / Intonation Punctuation

Speaking Vs Writing

The evaluation of writing, especially in a process-oriented classroom is a thorny issue. In writing class, a teacher serves as a guide and facilitator of students’ performance in the ongoing process of developing a piece of written work, but at the same time he/she should also serve as a judge.

To serve this dual role requires wisdom and sensitivity.

Fairness and explicitness in what teacher takes into account in evaluation are the keys of being writing judge.

Then how to evaluate?

There are six general categories that are often the basis for the evaluation of student writing

1. Content : thesis statement, related ideas, development of ideas through personal experience, illustration, facts, opinions

2. Organization : effectiveness of introduction, logical sequence of ideas, conclusion, appropriate length

next categories

3. Discourse : topic sentence, paragraph unity, transitions, cohesion, rhetorical conventions, reference, economy, variation

4. Syntax

5. Vocabulary

6. Mechanics : spelling, punctuation, citation of reference (if applicable), neatness and appearance

How is the system of weighting of each?

Please note that the most evaluative feedback a

teacher may give is the comments, both specific and

summative of student’ work

If numerical score is needed, a teacher can establish a

point scale for each category (e.g. 0 – 5) and return the

paper with six different scores on them.

If single grade or score is needed, consider weighting

the first few categories more heavily, or you may

emphasize on the content based flavor of the

evaluation

Examples of weighting (Brown, 2001 p.358)

Content : 0 – 24

Organization : 0 – 20

Discourse : 0 – 20

Syntax : 0 – 12

Vocabulary : 0 – 12

Mechanics : 0 – 12

TOTAL : 100

What did I know about process writing before the

workshop?

What new information have I learnt?

How will what I have learnt impact on my

teaching?

Thank you very much

Is there any question?

References

Writing, Tricia Hedge, OUP (1998).

HD. Brown. (2001). Teaching by Principles. London: Longman

Simple Writing Activities (Oxford Basics), Jill and Charles

Hadfield, OUP (2000).

Process Writing, White R & Arndt V, pp 51–52; pp 69-77; pp108-

109; pp 122-123, and pp 137–138,

Longman (1991).

Harmer J, The Practise of English Language Teaching, pp255-

268 Longman (2001).

Ur P, A Coursebook in Language Teaching, pp159-175 CUP

(1996).

http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/think/articles/approaches-

process-writing