Approaches to Teaching and Learning Writing Task Make

Approaches to Teaching and Learning Writing

Task Make lists of all the things you have written in English/in another language in the last few days. Compare your lists with your partner and classify the writing into categories.

Why have YOU written these things in English? Why should we teach writing in class? 1. Some students will have particular needs in writing 2. It is a basic skill: students could be disadvantaged without it (literacy). 3. Examinations. 4. Different mental process. 5. Lesson variety. 6. Memorisation (repeated encounters) 7. Enjoyment! (Adapted from Scrivener, 2004)

Writing genres What are the generic features that tell you a piece of writing is: a. A letter b. A list c. An assignment?

What is a genre? • genre [zhahnr], the French term for a type, species, or class of composition. A literary genre is a recognizable and established category of written work employing such common conventions as will prevent readers or audiences from mistaking it for another kind. • http: //www. answers. com/topic/genre

Why are genres important in writing? Writing is a mix of fairly rigid generic conventions (layout, organisation, style, register, formality, punctuation and so on) and effective use of language. Students have to have practice in recognising and producing the genre and in producing effective language (appropriate, accurate, creative).

What does this mean for the classroom? Balance of accuracy and fluency activities. Expose students to a range of genres. Students identify the features and copy the features.

Dictation Product vs Process For many years teachers have been concerned with the final product of writing, such as a letter, a poem or an article. It is important that these products are generically accurate in terms of organisation, register, style and linguistic form.

Process vs. product More recently, teachers have become interested in the process of writing. This means they have focused on how the learner creates the content and message. In process approaches, teachers encourage students to write and rewrite work, receive feedback from others and write for a particular audience. Students learn to understand the process of composing and realise that in many cases writers discover what they want to say as they write.

A Process Writing Lesson Brainstorm Write a plan Write first draft Get feedback Write second draft Feedback

Responding to written work Look at the piece of work produced by an elementary learner of English. What feedback would you give the student?