byrne teaching writing skills

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WitingSldlls . NEW IDITION Donn Byrne Gaching a_f,' -4 |l{' .-' ', Ei -ti E,i -- E' 'j E*J -- r:_ rHl E -I E rL- E fLrI E --i E -ar E -- E E E -- E H E r- E t}- E IL'T E H E --t E E' L- H u -- u E Et u EI u rU u. -I\ E -- T

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Page 1: Byrne Teaching Writing Skills

WitingSldlls

. NEW IDITIONDonn Byrne

Gaching

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Page 2: Byrne Teaching Writing Skills

Longman Handbooks for Language Teachers

Donn Byrne

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Longmoni!!London and New York

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TeachlngWrltlngSldllsNew Edition

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[,ongman GrouP UK Limited'Lort-gntan Hotrsc' Burnt lltti l l, Harlotr'

655.'1 f.1/20 2JE. Englandi,ri ,.tttoriored Companics Ihrottgltotrt lltc vorld'

,O Longman GrouP UK Limited 19E8

f,tt ,lioir,t resert'ed; no part o.f this publication

nnt"be reproduced' stored in a relrteral syslern'

u,l'|,routrritted in an.v .[ornt or b1'..artt' tttcut,ts, el.ectronic.

ntechanit'al, photocopring' recordtng' or ot tter)t'tsc'

,,ri,iri,t the' prior u'r'iircn perrnissiort o-[ thc Ptrblisher's'

First publ ished 1988Sixth impression 1993

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

Bvme, Donn, 1929--Teaching wri t ing ski i ls ' -New ed'-

fi""g*it handlooks for language teachers)'

i. Eriglish language-Writing-Stud.vand teachingI. Ti t le808 ' , .042 ' ,07 PE1404

rsBN 0-58e-?'1b51-5

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

Bvrne. Donn. 1929-Teaching writrng skills'

frong*i" handbooks for language teachers)

inclules bibl iographies and index' , .i. englittt language--Study and teaching-Foreign

,p;;kd t. Engiistr" tanguage-Rhetori c.-.Studv an d

;;;;hl;;. i. rnltitt' tanluale-c-omposition and exercises

--StuOy-unO teaching' I' Title' II ' !erle^s,^pE1128.A28938 i988 808 ' , '042 87-4238

ISBN 0-582-7465 l-5 (Pbk.)

Produced by Longman Singapore Publishers Pte Ltd

Printed in SingaPore

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to the following for permission to reproduce

copl righl il lustrative material:

Cassell PLC fbr page 39 (top) (TakenAom the Foundation Series'

t4tririns I by Louise wooitj;'iollins Publishers for page 24 (Taken

rt"^?nrh, r,rsiitn gooi{' t bv Vincent' Foll and Cripweli;

Macmillan Pubiishers Li-it.o io. page 58 (Taken from wr.iting in';;;i;;i;t

Anita Pincas; Thomas Ne6ol and Sons Limited for pages

;;";;; i4rl Functr pruii.utlo"t Limited for page 94; Reprinted bv

oitrti*i"t oi unlt.oF.aiuie synalcate' Inc for pages 2l and 122'

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Contents

Preface

1 The nature and purpose of writ ing

1.1 What is writ ing?1.2 What do we write?1.3 Speech and writ ing1.4 Why writing is difficult1.5 Learning to write: mother tongue and foreign language situations

compared1.6 Why teach writ ing?

Discussion/Exercises/References

2 Learning to use the resources of the written language

2.1 Understanding how the written language functions2.2 The reseurces of the written language

Discussion/Exercises/References

3 General principles for teaching writ ing

3.1 Approaches to teaching writ ing3.2 The state of the art3.3 The role of guidance3.4 The needs of the learners

Discussion/Exercises/Refere nces

4 Writ ing in the early stages

4.1 Some basic considerations4.2 Copying as a writing acrivity4.3 Reinforcement activit ies4.4 Sentence l inking activit ies4.5 Communication activit ies4.6 Writ ing for fun

Discussion/Exercises/Refere nces

5 Developing sk i l ls

5.1 The importance of demonstrating progress5.2 Reinforcement activit ies5.3 Sentence l inking and sequencing activit ies5.4 Reproduct ion exerc ises5.5 Communication activit ies5.6 Writ ing for fun

Discussion/Exercises/References

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6 Contexts for wr i t ing: the use of texts

6.1 The text as context6.2 ComPrehension act iv i t ies(r .3 Note-taking and summaris ing

DiscussioniExe rcises/Refe re nces

7 Contexts for wr i t ing: the use of v isual mater ia l

7.1 Some general considerat ions1 .2 The role of the teacher7.3 The use of v isual mater ia l : some examples

Discussion/Exercises/References

Integrated ski l ls

8.1 The importance8.2 Pro jec t work8.3 Ski l l sequences

of integrating skil ls

8.4 Simulations as a frameworkDiscussion/Exercises/References

for rvrit ing activit ies

Wri t ing at the post- intermediate level

9.1 Problem areas9.2 Remedial work: the value of a functional approach

9.3 Free writ ing: some suggested procedures

Discussion/Exercises/Refere n ces

Correcting written work

10. L Errors and mistakes1,0.2 Teacher and student correction10:3 Correction ProceduresD iscussion/Exe rcises/Ref ere nces

Wri t ing act iv i t ies for chi ldren

11.1 Reasons for teaching wri t ing

I 1 .2 Wr i t ing ac t iv i t iesDiscussion/Exercises/References

Teaching the Engl ish scr iPt

12.1 The needs of the learners12.2 Letter shapesL2.3 Procedures for teaching script

Discussion/Exercises/References

Appendix: Cohesive devices

Bib l iographY

lndex

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Preface

The main purpose of this book in i ts revised edit ion remains unchanged: toshow how various kinds of writ ing activit ies, both guided exercises to developpart icular ski l ls and communication tasks involving free expression, can bebuil t up into a coherent writ ing programme. Through such a programme it isintended that the learners should not only make systematic progress, throughtheir growing mastery of the written language, but also see how writing is usedfor the purpose of communication.

The book has been extensively revised to ensure that i t ref lects currentmethodological practice. Integrated ski l ls, highlighted even in the f irst edit ion,now have a chapter of their own. The number of examples has been expandedthroughout, so that the book can be used for resource material. In particular,the activities in the Writing for/un sections should prove a useful and flexibleaddition for any teaching situation. Correcting written work and teachinghandwrit ing have now been expanded into chapters, and there is a completelynew chapter on teaching children.

The substance of this book is based on.teacher-training courses, seminarsand lectures given over the last f i f teen years. A series of seminars on teachingwriting which I had to give in Latin America in the early seventies set methinking about the subject, while the interest and encouragement of thestudents of 'Course 317' on 'Composition' which I taught at ConcordiaUniversity, Montreal, in 1976, obliged me to give my views on teaching writinga little more cohesion and coherence. However, a spell back in the classroom,with adolescents and children, made me appreciate once again what everyteacher knows: that it is not enough to do the'right' things. The 'writing forfun' activities came directly out of that experience.

Page 7: Byrne Teaching Writing Skills

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1 .1What is writ ing?

The nature and purpose of writing

When we rvrite, we use graphic s1'rnbols: that is, letters or combinations ofletters which relate to the sounds rve make when we speak. On one level, then,writ ing can be said to be the act of forming these symbols: making marks on aflat surface of some kind. But writ ing is clearly much more than the productionof graphic symbols, just as speech is more than the production of sounds. Thesymbols have to be arranged, according to certain conventions, to form words,and words have to be arranged to form sentences, although again we can besaid to be 'writ ing' i f we are merely making l ists of words, as in inventories ofi tems such as shopping l ists.

As a rule, horvever, we do not write justbne sentence or even a number ofunrelated sentences. We produc e a sequence of sentences arranged in aparticular order and linked togetlter in certain ways. The sequence may be veryshort - perhaps only trvo or three sentences - but, because of the way thesentences have been put in order and l inked together, they form a coherentwhole. They form lvhat we may call a'text ' .

Not a great deal is known about individual methods of composing a text,but most people -.professional rvri ters among them - would agree that i t isusually neither an easy nor a spontaneous activitv. Sometimes writ ing comeseasily, i f we are in the right 'mood' or have a clear and perhaps pressing need toexpress something, but as a ruie i t requires some conscious mental effort: we'think out' our sentences and consider various ways of combining and arrangingthem. We reread rvhat we have rl r i t ten as a st imulus to further writ ing. Othercommon practices are making notes, draft ing and revising. We may even rvri te

several versions of a text before \\ 'e are satisf ied with the result. Noticc' forexample, how the rvri ter corrected and modif ied his draft of the text t ' r t t page2.

The reason for this is that we are writ ing for a reader. Writ ing involves the

encoding of a message of some kind: that is, we translate our thoughts lnto

language. Reading involves the decoding or interpretation of this mcssaqe.But. exceDt on those occitsions nhen rve are writ ing for ourselvs5 - lr t lr

Page 8: Byrne Teaching Writing Skills

TEACHING WRIT ING SKILLS

1.2What do wewrite?

1 .3Speech andwriting

2

shopping l ist may h:tve been for this purpose - the reader is someone who lsnot physical l .v present. This, after al l . is why we normally choose this part icular

channel of communication rather than the more common one of speech. And

because our reader is not present. and in some citses may not even be known to

us, we have toensure that what wewrite can beunderstood withoutany further helpfrom us. This is thereason for the carewe have to takewith writ ing. I t isby the organisationof our sentencesinto a text, into acoherent wholewhich is as explicitas possible andcomplete in i tself,that we are able (orhope to be able) tocommunicatesuccessfully withour reader throughthe medium ofwrit ing.

It is helpful to keep in mind some of the many uses we are likely to make ofwrit ing. For example, on a personal level, most of us use writ ing to make a noteof something (things we have to do or want others to do, l ike our shopping l ist),and to keep records of things we want to remember. We send messages andwrite letters to friends, and a few of us keep diaries. Most of us have to fi l l informs from time to time (especially applications - for example, for insurance- or questionnaires) and occasionally we write formal letters (for example, ifu'e change our job). Apart from this, the amount of writ ing we do regularly wil lrelate to our professional l i fe. Some might spend a good deal of t ime writ ingletters, instructions. reports. etc. For others this wil l only be an occasionalactivity.

Few of us, on the other hand, are l ikely to spend any time writ ing poetry

A comparison between speech and writ ing should help us to understand someof the diff iculties we experience when we write. The table on the next pagehighlights the main differences. Note, however, that it does not take into

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or fiction. And, outside the classroom, we never write 'compositions' (My daily t;;routine, My favourite pastime, etc. ) of the kind that are still a feature of many

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Page 9: Byrne Teaching Writing Skills

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THE NATURE AND PURPOSE OF WRITING

account certain situations in which the spoken language is used, such astelephoning and lecturing.

Although writ ing is clearly much more dependent on how effectively weuse the l inguist ic resources of the language (see 1.4.2), i t would be wrone toconclude that al l the advantages are on the side of speech. While i t is tru! thatin writ ing we have the task of organising our sentences careful ly so as to makeour meaning as explicit as possible without the help of feedback from thereader, on the other hand we do not normally have to write quickly: we canrewrite and revise our sentences until we are satisfied that we have expressed'our

meaning. Equally, the reader is in a more privi leged posit ion than thelistener to some extent: he can read at his own pace and reread as often as helikes. In this way, then, some of the disadvantages of communicating throughthe written medium are offset.

SPEECH WRITING

1 Takes place in a context, whichoften makes references clear (e.g.' fhatth i ng ov er th ere' I

1 Creates i ts own context andthere fore has to be fu l l y exp l i c i t

2 Speaker and l i s tener (s ) incontac t . In te rac t and exchanqero les

2 Reader no t p resent and noin te rac t ion poss ib le

3 Usua l ly person addressed issoecif ic

3 Reader not necessari ly known towri ter

4 lmmedia te feedback g iven andexpected(a) verba l : ques t ions , comments

. . . m u r m u r s , g r u n t s( b ) n o n - v e r b a l : f a c i a l

express ions

4 No immedia te feedback poss ib le .Wri ter may try to ant ic ipatereader 's reac t ions andincorporate them into text

5 Speech is t rans i to ry . In tended tobe unders tood immedia te lv . l fnot, l istener expected to interact

5 Wr i t ing is permanent . Can bereread as often as necessarv andat own soeed

Sentences o f ten incomple te andsomet imes ungrammat ica l .Hes i ta t ions and pauses commonand usua l ly some redundancyand repet i t ion

6 Sentences expected to becare fu l l y cons t ruc ted , and l inkedand organ ised to fo rm a tex t

7 Range of devices (stress,in tonat ion , p i tch , speed) to he lpconvey mean ing . Fac ia lexpressions, body movementsand ges tures a lso used fo r th ispu rpose

Dev ices to he lp convey mean ingare punc tua t ion , cap i ta ls andunder l in ing ( fo r emphas is ) .Sentence boundar ies c lear lyind ica ted

Page 10: Byrne Teaching Writing Skills

TEACH I NG \^JRiTI NI G SKILLS

1.4WhY wri t ing is

diff icult

1 .4 . 1Psychologicalproblems

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Linguisticproblems

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Cognitiveprobierns

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we can norv begin to understand why writ ing is a diff icult activity for most

peop le .bo th i n themo the r tongueand ina fo re i gn language .Wesha l l l ooka tirr" irour"rns which are caused by rvri t i 'g under three headings -

psychologica l ' I inguis t icand.ogni t iu . -a l thoughtheseinevi tab lyover laptosome extent .

Speech i s thena tu ra l andno rma lmed iumo fcommun ica t i on fo rus inmos tc i rcumstancesandaccustomsusbothtohavingSomeonephysica l lypresentwhen we use lunguug" and to gett ing feedback of some kind. Writ ing, on the

other hand. is essentially a solitary activity and the fact that we are required t<;

write on our own, without the possibility of interaction or the benefit of

feedback. in i tse l fmakestheactofwr i t ingdi f f icu l t .

oral communication is sustained through a process. o.f interaction and' except

in special circumstances. such as a lecture, t^he participants help to keep it

going. Because speech is normally spontaneous' we have l i t t le t ime to pay

at tent ion e i ther to orqanis ing our sentence st ructure or to connect ing our

sentences: to some "it .nt

the latter is maintained through the process of

interaction. We repeat. backtrack, expand ald so on, dependingon how

peoplereact towhatwesay ' Incompleteandevenungrammat ica lut terancesusually pass unnoticed. Some of these features are i l lustrated in the sample of

conversation u'hich has been transcribed below:

Pete, you composed th is p iece at the p iano ' ls that how you

norma l lY work?

Always, Up to th is po int , a lways ' l t may be that T igf ' ]change tn

the fu ture, when t fe l more in to, you know' work ing f rom

r.iurct.r witfr syntn'urit t t t , but at the moment I do write at the

pianp. Actual ly r o ion; t . . - . ' r hard ly rea l isec l l 'd wr i t ten th is unt i l I

had ! (Laugns. t One o i those th ings that just dropped out o f t l re

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Wel l , how d id You star t , then?

Er, wel l , we decided on a, erm, a sor t o f musica l f lavour that we

; ; ; ; iJ ; ; "p t for , to t l t ' ' i t 'pa ' t icu lar number ' and ' erm' just

fo l lowed where my f ingeis took me' . rea l ly ' you kn.o.w' Er ' we ' ' '

i , f nuO in i n t ro l ' d l ' ' f i uu t ;u t t nood l i ng and dood l i ng a t t he

piano wi th th is ' ' ' lsound of p ianol

As we have seen, we also have a considerable range of devices at our disposal .

tohelpgetourmeaningacroSS.Inwri t ing,wehavetocomp.exT:"- I^" : : l : .absence of these features: we have to t

""p the chamel of communicati<ln open !

th roughourownef fo r tsand toensure 'bo th th roughourcho iceo fsen tence-structure and by the way our senten.., ur" linked together and sequencecl' thai !

the text we produce can be interpreted on its own' E

We grow up learnrng to speak and in normal circumstances spend much of our i

t imedo ing i t .Wea lsoappear tospeakwi thou tmuchconsc iouse f fo r to r - .thought and generally we talk becau," *. want to, about matters which are of !

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THE NATURE AND PURPOSE OFWRITING

interest or relevant to us socially or professionally. Writing, on the other handis learned through a process of instructiorz: we have to master the written formof the language and to learn certain structures which are less used in speech, orperhaps not used at all, but which are important for effective.o.muni.ution inwriting. We also have to learn how to organise our ideas in such a way that theycan be understood by a reader who is not present and perhaps by a reader whois not known to us.

Finally, writing is a task which is often imposed on us, perhaps bycircumstances. This not only has a psychological effect; it may also cause aproblem in terms of content - what to say. Being at a loss for ideas is a familiarexperience to most of us when we are obliged to write.

1.5 So fa'r we have looked at writing in general, without drawing any distinctionLearning to between writing in the mother tongue and writing in a foreign language.write: mother Clearly, however, there are important differences, particularly in the learninetongue and situation, and attention is now drawn to these.foreign language Most chi ldren learn to write in their mother tongue at school, general lysituations between the ages of five and seven. By this time they have a well-developedcompared command of the spoken language, adequate at least to their social needs, but

their experience of the written language is still very limited. Most children willof course have been exposed to it to some degree through being read to aloud.writing itself, however, is a totally new experience for most of them.

Most children acquire this new skill fairly laboriously. On the other hand,they are required to make regular use of it, both in classes devoted to writingpractice and, as their education progresses, in other lessons (history,geography, etc.) which involve some form of related and purposeful writtenwork. Certain types of writing, particularly those which involve projection intoadult-type roles, tend to cause them difficulty. Many children, in fact, simplydo not enjoy writing, partly because of the nature of the task and partlybecause, out of school, it has little value for them as a form of socialinteraction, although in most cultures the ability to write carries prestige. Veryfew children succeed in becoming really proficient at writing and many cease touse this skill once they leave school, or use it only occasionally-for specialisedpurposes (e.g. f i l l ing in forms).

In the light of this, we should, as foreign language teachers, be able tomake certain assumptions, subject of course to cultural variations, and to avoidmaking others. Most of our students will already be familiar with the process ofwriting, unless they are very young, in which case writing will not - and shouldnot - figure very prominently in the foreign language programme. Thev mayhave to learn a new script but writing itself will not be a new experience forthem. They are also likely to have had a fairly wide experience of writtenlanguage through reading in their mother tongue. They may also be at an agewhen they can learn through reading and perhaps the written language hascome to have some psychological value for them as a form of support whenlearning something new.

We should not assume, however, that they are proficient at writ ing in theirmother tongue, or that they already possess the necessary organisational ski l lsfor writ ing effectively. Nor should we assume that the abil i ty to write in themother tongue can be transferred to the foreign language, although some

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T E A C H I N G W R I T I N G S K I L L S

1.6Why teachwri t ing?

global transfer, as with reading abil i ty, often seems to take place (that is,

ieopte who are highly l i terate in their own language easily become l i terate in

nnoiher;. I t is also possible that the students' previous experience of learning to

write and of practising writ ing in their own language was frustrating or

unrewarding. At for their att i tudes towards learning to write in a foreign

language. we are rarely in a posit ion to make any assumptions at al l : these may

,un"g" fiom no interest at all to a firm belief in its value to them as learners.

One very significant factor which affects writing in the foreign language

classroom is that. even if we delay the introduction of writ ing for some time

(see 4.1), the amount of language which the learners wil l have at their disposal

io, *r i t ing wil l be very l imited - so l imited that i t might seem to make it

impossible to introduce any meaningful form of writing practice' At thesame

time, the learners, being more mature than they were when they learned to

write in their mother tongue, are conscious of the limitations which the foreign

language imposes on the expression of their ideas. To resolve this problem it

will be necessary to strike some sort of balance which prevents them from going

beyond their linguistic attainment in the foreign language and yet will still

provide them u,ith writ ing activit ies which satisfy them on an intel lectual level.

Clearly it is possible to learn to speak a foreign language without learning how

to wriie in i iand for many of our students, perhaps even the majority of them,

writing will be the skill in which they are not only least proficient, even after

considerable practice, but also the one for which they will have the least use.

The situation is not so very different in the mother tongue, aS we have already

Seen, except for those of us who use writing in some professional capacity'

Because, therefore, writing is a skillwhich is both limited in value and difficult

to acquire, we should be very clear about our purpose in teaching it'

tn ttre early. stages of a course oriented towards oral proficiency, writing

serves a variety of, pedagoglcal purposes:

(a) The introduction and practice of some form of writing enables us to

provide for different liarning styles and needs. Some learners, especially

thor. who do not learn easily through oral practice alone, feel more secure

if they are allowed to read and write in the language. For such students,

writing is likely to be an aid to retention, if only because they feel more at

ease and relaxed.

(b) Written work serves to provide the learners with some tangible evidence

that they are making progress in the language. It is not likely to be a true

index of their attainment, but once again it satisfies a psychological need'

(c) Exposure to the foreign language through more than one medium,

especially if skills are properly integrated, appears to be more effective

than relying on a singie medium alone. Even at an elementary level there

are many opportunities for activities that effectively integrate skills'

(d) Writing provides variety in classroom activities, serving as a break from

orat *ori (and is therefore a quieter and more relaxed time for both

students and teacherl). At the same time, it increases the amount oflanguage contact through work that can be set out of class.

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Discussion

Exercises

THE NATURE AND PURPOSE OF WRITING

(e) Writ ing is often needed for formal and informal.testing. Although ingeneral oral abi l i ty should be measured through oral tests, in practice weare often obliged by circumstances, such as the amount of t ime we have atour disposal and the number of students there are in the class, to use someform of writ ten test. In some cases, of course, a written test may even beappropriate: for example, making notes while l istening.

These considerations strongly suggest that, while we should still concentrate onaural-oral ski l ls in the early stages, we can make good use of writ ing, as part ofan integrated skills approach to language learning. Although at this stagewriting activities will be largely a reinforcement of language learned orally* , thisneed not imply that writing has to be an unsatisfying or even rigidly controlledaclivity (see 3.3). I t can also be taught in such a way that i t prepares thelearners for more realistic forms of writing at a later stage.

As the learners progress to the intermediate stages of language learning,the pedagogical factors which we have noted above still apply but, in addition,we can provide for written work on a more extensive scale and in particularintegrate it more effectively with other skills (see Chapter 8). At this level, thewritten language itself will also provide contexts for learning - throughreading - and writ ing activit ies may be related to these. At the same time,both here and at the post-intermediatelevel, writ ing may become a goal initself . Although in language programmes which do not have a specificorientation we are not in a position to predict which students are likely to havea need for writing as one of the outcomes of their course, most students willhave to do some form of written examination and this will increase theirmotivation to learn to write well. In addition, we can identify and concentrateon forms of writing which have a proctical value, the relevance of which shouldbe easily apparent to the learners. Specific needs can also be met becausewriting practice can to some extent be individualised.

Clearly, however, the situation is so complex that there is no one set ofanswers, although this applies to the teaching of other ski l ls too. But onpedagogicalgrounds alone it rvould seem that writ ing is a ski l l worthdeveloping in the foreign language. Our problem is how to do this in such a waythat the learners see the purpose of writ ing and make measurable progressthrough the performance of realist ic and relevant tasks.

Which of the differences between speech and writ ing, l isted in the table onpage 3, do you think are especial ly important when teaching writ ing?From your own experience of teaching (or learning) a foreign language, doyou agree that writing is worth teaching on pedagogical grounds alone?

It was said in 1.1 that rve do not know much about individual methods ofcomposing a text. Note dorvn some of the things you do when you are writ ingand compare them with a fr iend.

*This term is used here and elsewhere to refer to language which is presented and practised oral ly( fo r example . th rough d ia logues and re la ted ac t iv i t ies ) . I t does no t imp ly tha t the learners have no t

seen the writ ten [orm.

Page 14: Byrne Teaching Writing Skills

TEACHING WRITING SKILLS

References*

2 We produce a sequence of sentences . . ' linked together in certairt ways '

Reiead 1.1 and make a l ist of some of the l inking devices used.

Make a l ist of the things you use writ ing for ' Arrange them as fol lows:

!a4

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PE IISONAL PftOFEs5IONAL

Compare your list with a friend.Write out a version of the conversationnormal written Prose stYle'

The corrected draft on page 2 comes from J Barzun and HF Gtaff' The

Modern Researcher (1970). The transcript of spoken English on page 4

comes from the David Freernan Show (i985), in which David Freeman

interviews professional musicians'On writ ing see J Britton in A Davies (1975): TeachingWriting; F Smith

(1982), S i(rashen (198a) pages 4-19 and Y Zamel (1981 and 1983).

bn paralinguistic features see D Abercrombie in J Laver and S Hutcheson

(1,91 2) : P ar al an g uag e .bn tne ways in which languages organise thought patterns in different ways

see R B Kaplan in K Croft (1980): Cultural Thought Patterns in Inter-

Cultural Education.On the pedagogical value of writing see C Bratt Paulston (1972) pages 33-6'

For a more extreme view of the value of teaching writing see M Sharwood-

Smith (1,97 6)pages I '7 -19.

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Page 15: Byrne Teaching Writing Skills

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2.1 One of our ma jor tasks is to famil iarise fhe learners with the devices that areUnderstanding needed for effective communication through the medium of writ ing. In extent,how the written this is not unlike the task we have in teaching the appropriate use of stress andlanguage intonation for oral communication. In both cases an awareness of howfunctions language functions as a communication system can only be taught through

adequate exposure to the language and through activities which lead to anunderstanding of the devices which the language employs. Of the two,exposure is the more important.

For this reason, reading will play an extremely important part in thedevelopment of writ ing abil i ty because, although in i tself i t wi l l not producegood writers. i t appears to be an essential pre-condit ion. Reading may ofcourse be a goal in its own right and in any case islikely to be a more importantone than writ ing. But the two ski l ls can and should be developed in closecollaboration. In any case, true understanding of a text - any type of textranging from an informal letter to the formal exposit ion of some highly factualtopic - depends on an appreciation of the devices which the writer hasemployed in order to convey his meaning through the medium of writ ing. Thisappreciation is an important step torvards effective writ ing.

To develop this understanding it is not enough to focus attention on thosebits of information which the reader can easily retr ieve from the text at asuperf icial level of understanding. This type of activity may be a usefulexpedient for certain kinds of oraipractice, but i t does not signif icantlv help thelearners to understand how the rvri ter is gett ing his meaning across, andtherefore. in the long run, does not contribute greatly to reading eff iciency. Weneed to get them to examine the text at a much deeper level. In t ime it is hopedthat they rvi l l begin to do this more or iess intuit ively.

Two examples of horv texts can be dealt with for this purpose are qivenon the next page.

Page 16: Byrne Teaching Writing Skills

TEACHING WRIT ING SKILLS

2.1.rPersonalcommunicatiot-t

The f i rs t example u 'e shal lexarn ine is a le t ter . The text is a p iece of personal

communication: the u'r i ter knou'S his reader and u'e may assume that he had

reasons for n,r i t ir tg to him. rather thzrn speaAirig to l-r im directly (for example,

on the phone) .

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What, then, are the kinds of thing we can do in order to get the learners to

look at this letter as a piece of personal communication? A possible approach is

outl ined here.

10

Page 17: Byrne Teaching Writing Skills

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(a) What is the writer's purpose?That is, we want the students to decide why Nick is writ ing to Mike. If theycan recognise that Nick is apologising and giving his reasons (or excuses!)for not doing something, then they have idintinio ttre overal lcommunicative purpose of the letter. In this case it is fair ly obvious, but inother contexts i t may be harder to elucidate. The point or tne activity is todemonstrate that understanding the writer 's communicative purpos. i , unessential part of understanding the text.

(b) How does the writer achieve his purpose?Here we get the students to consider some of the ways in which the writerdoes this. For example, how does he apologi.se? How does he try to assureMike that he intended to come to his partyi Ho* does he assure him thathe tried to get in touch with him? whar is the significance of: well, Icouldn't refuse, could I? and I know you needeimy record.s? why does hemention that he had such a boring evening himself? It is through questionsof this kind that w: can begin to get the students to understand why thewriter wrote certain things and expressed them in a certain way.

(c) How does the writer establish and maintain contact with his reader?Here we can get the students to look both at the language in general and atparticular expressions to draw their attention to the ways in which he doesthis. In this letter it is done partly through the informal style, which reflectscertain features of conversational English (for example, the use ofcontracted forms such as wasn't, couldn't and ellipsis: sorry I wasn,t able)and partly through appealing to his reader directly with: well, I couldn,trefuse, could I? and I hope you,ll understand..

(d) what typical features of written English are there in the text?Here we wil l get the students to look at features such as l inking devices,sentence structure and inter-sentence structure. while we would notexpect to f ind a great manv samples within the context of an informal lettersuch as this (the third sentence provicles the best example. with cohesionthrough the use of the pronoun he and the structure of the sentence itself),we want them to appreciate that this is not speech written d.own,horveverinformal the style may be and horvever much it reflects certain features ofconversational English. To reinforce this point, we might get them totransform the letter into a conversation, which, even t[ough it ishypothetical, wil l underl ine the differences between the two mediums ofcommunication. A conversation between Nick and Mike might have gonesomething l ike this:

Nrcr: Look, Mike. I 'm terriblv sorry I couldn't get to your party . . .Irrrp: Yeah . . . why didn't you phone?Nlcx: Wel l , I d id t ry . . . I just couldn ' t get through . . .Irrre: So what happened, then?Nrcx: well , just at the last minute . . . I rvas just about to leave in fact . . .

and the phone rang and. r i 'el l . I 've got this fr iencl in Teheran. vousee ,and . . . ( e t c . l

l 1

Page 18: Byrne Teaching Writing Skills

TEACHING WRIT ING SKILLs

2.r .2Non-personaicommunication

Finally, we might get the students to compare this letter with a formal note

of apology. such as this:

I regret that I was unable to at tend the party

to which you so kindly invi ted me, due to

circumstances beyond- my control . Flease

accept my s incere aPo log ies .

We might also ask them to consider the circumstances in which such a

note might have been written and why. unlike Nick' the writer does not go

into the reasons for his not going to the party'

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For our second example, u'e shall look at a piece of expository writ ing.* Unlike -<the text in7.1.. i , i t is not addressed to a person known to the writer ' t-

E lect r ic i ty is the most usefu l form of energy there is . l t is easy top roduce ; ' i t can be t ransmi t ted ove r l ong d i s tances ; i t i s c lean to use

and i t has no sme l l . Above a l l , i t i s conven ien t 'The e lect r ic i ty produced by nature - l ightn ing - is a d i f ferent

k ind of e lect r ic i ty f rom that which f lows through an e lect r ic l ight

bulb. l t is ca l led s tat ic e lect r ic i ty , because i t exer ts a force which is

stat ionary. l t is easy to demonstrate e lect rostat ic a t t ract ion ' Rub a

comb on ihe s leeve of your jersey. This wi l l charge the comb wi th

stat ic e lect r ic i ty , and i t w i l l now p ick up smal l p ieces of paper .

The other k ind of e lect r ic i ty needs to f low in order to have any

ef fect . The e lect r ic i ty in a bat tery , for example, wi l l not make a l ight

bu lb g low un t i l bu lb and ba t te ry a re l i nked by w i res th rough wh ich

the e iect r ic i ty can f low. This k ind of e lect r ic i ty is o f ten ca l led current

e lec t r i c i t y ; tHe w i re ' channe l ' t h rough wh ich i t f l ows i s known as the

c i rcu i t .

This kind of text is clearly very different from the one in2.1.1. As we have

noted, the writer is not addressing anyone in particular, at least not anyone

known to him personally. However, we must assume that he has some sort o.f

readerin mind. and that this is relevant to the way he writes. We might begin.

therefore, by trying to get the students to identify what sort of person this is. If

we examine the text. we find that the writer is presenting some basic

information on rhe subject of electricity. The reader he is addressing, then,

whom he keeps in mind throughout, is presumably someone who knows litt le

or nothing about the subject. and his purpose, his communicative goal, is to

inform him of some basic facts.Having established the writer's intention. we might then get the students

to considerhow he goes about presenting these basic facts to the reader. We

could begin by invit ing them to consider, in a general way, on the basis of their

experience. what we normally do in a situation l ike this when we want to get

*From The Sampson Lou' Great Wor ld Enc-vc lopaedia (1975) '

Page 19: Byrne Teaching Writing Skills

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LEARNING TO USE THE RESOURCES OF THE WRITTEN LANGUAGE

across some information to a person who is unfamil iar with the subiect.Some useful questions to ask the students would be:- How important is it to sequence the various pieces of information? (What

happens, for example, i f the various pieces of information are jumbled up?)- How does it help to compare and contrasl certain items?- What is the purpose of. giving examples?- How important is it to define new terms and how do we do it?

We can then move from the general experience of the students to anexamination of the text itself. At this stage some useful questions to ask wouldbe :- How has the writer sequenced his information?- Hai he separated one piece of information from another? (How has he

done it?)- Has he made any comparisons or contrasts? (How do these help the reader

to understand the subject matter?)- Has he defined any terms? (Horv has he done it?)

Our examination of the text along these l ines should help the students to see, inparticular, that the structuring of the second and third paragraphs is quitedeliberate: the writer might have gone about i t in a different way but what hechose to do was to deal first with one type of electricity and then with another,contrasting the two kinds and support ing each with examples.

We can draw attention to the overall structure of the text through somesort of diagrammatic analysis. For example:

Para l: Introductory statement about the value of electricitySupporting statements as examples of i ts value

Para 2: First type of electricity contrasted with the secondDefinit ion of termExample

Para 3: Second type of electr icityExampleDelinit ion of terms

Even a simple breakdown l ike this rvi l l help the students to appreciate not onlythat the text has an identifiable structttre but also that it is this structure,together with the language through rvhich i t is realised, that enables the writerto communicate effectively with his reader.

Finally. we can get the students to look at some of the l inguist ic deviceswhich the ivri ter has used. Some of these serve to unify the text, while othersrealise the organisational structure outl ined above. These devices areexamined in greater detai l in2.2.2. Here, however, we might note the varietyof ways in which the writer presents his examples to the reader.

Puru l: He uses a series of support ing statements.

Paru 2: He makes a direct appeal to the reader to carry out a simpleexper iment .

Pura 3: He provides a concrete example.

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Page 20: Byrne Teaching Writing Skills

r L n v t r l l r u

I . L , J

Pedagogicalimplications

2.2The resources ofthe writtenlanguage

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We should also note horv ire unifies his textkind of . . . This kind of . . . and through the

alternated *' ith repetit ion of the key lexical

through devices such as The otltaruse of the pronoun form irttent electricitt' .

We cannot pretend that anall,sis of texts along these lines rvil l b,y itsef enable

the studenti to learn to u,rite effectively. This can only be achieved through

adequate exposure to the rvritten language backed up by appropriate practice'

But, given the problems of expressing oneself through the medium of writ ing'

it would seem that some explicit examination of how we communicate through

writing is an indispensable part of the programme' In particular, it serves to

make ihe students aware that any piece of writing is an attempt to communicate

something: that the writer has a goal or purpose in mind; that he has to establislt

and maintain contact v,ith his reader; that he ltas to organise his material and that

he does this through the use of certain logical and gramn"tatical devices.

We shall of course have to examine a great many different kinds of writ ing

and it is assumed that the analt,sis of texts along these lines would be an

ongoing activity. carried out at different levels of diff iculty at different stages of

the"pro"grarn.n.. In the early stages we shall have to use the students'mother

tongu. ior this purpose. otherrvise they may miss the finer points of the

analysis. Later on, we shall also want to refine our two types of writ ing and

.rtublirh sub-types: different kinds of letters" reports. narrative texts and so on'

But the basic distinction which has been drawn - between those situations in

which the writer is addressing someone he knows and those in which he is

writing in some kind of institutional capacity - is a fundamental one. Each

type oT writ ing has its own value, both in terms of developing writ ing skil ls and

for the learners PersonallY.

When we speak of the u,ritten language and its resources, this should not be

taken to imply that we can draw any sharp dividing line between the language

used in speech and the language used in writ ing. Rather, we have two

independent but interrelated forms, embodied, at the level of phonology and

graphology. in two different mediums. Both the spoken.and the written forms

can draw on the same linguistic resources of the language, its grammar and

lexis, but the extent to which they draw on Some lesources rather than on

others relates largely to the nature of the two channels: speech as the languaee

of immediate communication; writ ing as the way of making contact at a

distance.Thus, certain types of sentence structure, such as non-restrictive clauses

(for example: This type of clause, which is rarely heard in speech, is quite

common in writing) are more typical of the rvritten language, butthey may

occur in speech. However, to take the example of non-restrictive clauses,

speech has its own wav of handling parenthetic constructions. For example:

ilrit ryp, of clause - you don't often hear it in speech - is quite common in

writing.Similarly, most sentence-linking devices and those used to express logical

relationships also occur in the spoken language but, because of the nature of

the channel (the immediacy of the l istener, the possibil i ty of interaction), thel'

are less frequent than in u,rit ing, where they are essential for the construction

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Page 21: Byrne Teaching Writing Skills

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LEARNING TO USE THE RESOURCES OF THE WRITTEN LANGUAGE

of a text which has to be understood without further help from the writer.In general, therefore, i t can be said that our purpose in selecting certain

types of sentence structure rather than others und in making greater use ofl inking and other devices is determined by the need to make ihe meaning of thetext as explicit as possible. Thus in speech an utterance such as:

John may go.

is clear. In writing, however, we may have to use a different kind of modalconstruction which does not depend on intonation. For example:

There is a possibility that John will go.

Similarly, in speech:

John didit.

is clear, but in writ ing we can help our reader by using an alternativeconstruction such as:

It was John who did i t .

In the written form of the language, then, there is greater rel iance on thestructural elements alone and this, together with the time the writer has fororganising his text, accounts for the highi:r frequency of certain structures.

These include spelling, punctuation and other devices which the writtenlanguage makes use of in order to convey patterns of meaning. This section isnot intended to provide a spelling or punctuation guide but rather to assess thevalue of these features as part of the resources of the written form of thelanguage and therefore their relative importance in a writing programme.

(a) Spelling

Nlastery of the writing system includes the ability to spell. However,because in English the relationship between sound and symbol is acomplex one, * spell ing is a problem for many users of the language, nativeand non-native speakers al ike, and most of us are oblieed to consult adict ionary from time to t ime. while we do not want to-encourase thelearners to be indifferent towards spell ing, we should acknowledge thatmis-spell ing rarely interferes with communication - in fact, Englishspell ing was not standardised unti l the eighteenth century - any morethan, on a phonemic level, mistakes of pronunciation greatly afiectin te l l ig ib i l i ty .

It is inappropriate, therefore. in a writ ing programme, to adopt tooprescript ive an att i tude towards spell ing. This tends to be encouraged bythe fact that writ ing is open to inspection and is used in tests and \examinations. Responsibility for ensurin g an adequate masterv of spellingshould be divided between the teacher and the learner: i t is the teacher'sresponsibi l i ty to provide guidance in key areas, through rules, sinceEnglish spell ing is by no means unsvstematic and much help can be given in

*There are forty-four phonemes in English and trventy-six letters of the alphabet. In theorthographic s) 'stt-m' lettc-rs are combinecl to form dif ferent symbols (e.g. n and ng) while somesvmtro ls c lo doub lc durv (c .g . - ] , represcnts bo th thc r i l and l i l phoncmes) i

15

Page 22: Byrne Teaching Writing Skills

TEACHING WRIT ING SKILLS E-.d

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This habit rvi l l be greatly encouraged bv dran' ing attentiorl to mistakes

rather than correctir lg them (see Chapter 10). On the whole. however.

spell ing eff iciency and irnproventent is l ikely to relate to reading (i .e. the

amount of exposure) and this again emphasises the importance of readinc

in developing writ ing abil i tY.

(b\ Purtctuatiot"t

Except in a few areas. the conventions governing the use of the visual

devices known as punctuation are fair ly well established, although

punctuation has never been standardised to the same extent as spell ing.

Att i tudes, therefore, tend to be fair ly prescript ive, extending even into

areas where variat ion in usage is tolerated. The result of this is that the

learners are incl ined to treat punctuation as something that can be done

mechanically and as an 'extra' rather than as an essential part of the writ ing

system.The cornrnunicatit,e value of punctuation needs tobe demonstrated-

For example, i t is precisely because the reader expects sentence

boundaries to be marked (with a capital letter at the start and a ful l stop, or

Some equivalent device, at the close) and because he expects questions to

be signalled with a question mark, even though the presence of this symbol

*uy b. redundant in most cases, that these conventions cannot be igncired.

Similarly, at a higher level, the reader expects to have paragraphs marked

for him, normally by f inding the opening sentence indented and the rest of

the line after the last sentence left blank. These conventions tell him that

the writer intends this set of sentences to be taken together. On the other

hand, with devices such aS commas and semi-colons, there is great

variat ion both in how they are used and the extent to which they are used'

and this should be freely acknowledged. We should also admit that there

are areasof difficulty for most of us, such as the use of hyphens in

compound nouns. where recourse to a dict ionary is the only solution'

In the area of punctuation. then, we can best help the students i f we

provide them with guidance that is not too rigidly prescriptive, and at the

Same time encourage them to consider the effect on the reader if, for

example, sentence and paragraph boundaries are not marked. Likewise.

instead of cri t icising a sentence or a paragraph for being ' too long', we

might ask them to consider whether i t places a strain on the reader in any

*uy. So-. punctuation devices admittedly call for a cautious use (for

example, the use of exclamation marks and dashes) and here there is no

harmln tel l ing our students to use them sparingly. On the other hand, i t

would be wrong to deny the learners an expedient such as underl ining

words or phrasis that cal l for special emphasis, since this is the equivalent

of i tal icisation in Print.

(c) Other graphological resources

Other graphological resources which form part of the wide range of devices

available to us in the writ ing system include the use of headings, footnotes.

tables of contents and indexes. These wil l not be relevant to al l our

students. but at least thev should be aware that a heading enables the

t6

Page 23: Byrne Teaching Writing Skills

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2.2 .2Rhetoricalresources

LEARNING TO USE THE RESOURCES OF THE WRITTEN LANGUAGE

writer to give his reader some advance notice of what to expect, while afootnote enables him to extract a supplementary piece of information fromthe text and sti l l make it accessible to the reader.

This term is used to refer to all the devices which are needed in writing in orderto produce a text in which the sentences are organised into a coherent whole, insuch a way that they fulfil the writer's communicative purpose. This section isintended to provide a brief survey of these resources. A more detailed list,together with examples, is given in the Appendix.

Rhetorical devices are looked at here under three headings logical,srammatical and lexical.

Logical devices

Logical devices are words or phrases which indicate meaning relationshipsbetween or within sentences. These include those of addit ion, comparison,contrast, result, exemplification and so on (some of these we have alreadylooked atin2.2.2). It is through devices such as these that the.writer is ableto organise his ideas and to help his reader follow him from one sentence toanother.

To express addition, we may, for example, use the co-ordinator and,but other devices are available to u's, such as/urthermore, moreover,besides, in addition (to . . .), what is more, etc. The appropriate use of oneof these devices tells the reader that two sentences are intended to be takentogether. For example:

The public library has 21,000 books which can be taken out onloan. In addition, there is a reference section of over 6,000volumes.

Similarly with the relationship of contrast: this may be signalled throughthe co-ordinaror but or by using however, yet, while, on the other hand, etc.For example (to continue the sequence above):

. . . In addition there is a reference section of over 6,000 volumes.Many of the books in this section, however, are not kept on theshelves and are only available to the public on request.

Through the use of however the writer has signalled a difference betweenthe part of the library which contains the books that can be borrowed (andare on the shelves) and the reference section, where some books are storedseparately.

We have seen in 2.l .2how important these devices are in presentingideas so that the text has a clear structure. This helps the reader to followthe writer's thought. In certain types of text, it would be extremely difficbltto organise the content effectively without the appropriate use of devicesfor enumeration (first(ly), in the first place, second(ly) . . . finally, last of all,etc.) and for summarising (in short, on the whole, etc.).

Grammatical devices

Equally important for the cohesion of a text are the l inks established bycertain grammatical devices. such as those, for example, which signal

(a )

(b )

17

Page 24: Byrne Teaching Writing Skills

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relationships betrveen sentences bv means of. back referettce (or anaphora).

There are severa l instances of th is type of l ink ing in the text in 2. I .2 . For

example:

Here the l ink between the sentences is established through the use ofthe pronominal form it. The examination of almost any text will reveal thatthis is an extremely common way of binding sentences together and giving

a text cohesion. It is not a device, however, whose value is immediatelyappreciated by non-native users of the language.

Back reference binding two sentences together may also be effectedby means of. a deictic, such as a demonstrative adjective or pronoun or anart icle. For example, in (a) above we had:

In addit ion, there is a reference section of over 6,000 volumes. Manyof the books indfriE6ilon. however. . . .

In the text in 2.7.2wehad:

'will charse the combwith static electr icitv.

Tftls links the second sentence with the whole of the preceding one.Compare, for example:

Go to theneed.

relerence sectlon. is where you will find the books you

static electr icity.

Here the link through this ts only with part of the preceding sentence: thereference section

The text in 2 .1.2 also provides an example of the anaphoric use of. the .

Rubwith

Here the use of. the signals to the reader that the writer is referring to thecomb mentioned in the previous sentence.

Finally. we should note that sentences are frequently linked through achange of word or phrase order: for example, by placing a word or phrasein the front position in the sentence:

Go to the reference library. you wil l f ind the books you need.

John worked in the l ibrarv betweenlibrary . . .

Elefiricitf is the most useful form of energv there is.can be transmitted over lone distances (etc. ).

1970 and 1975.

i8

the

Page 25: Byrne Teaching Writing Skills

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2.2 .3Pedagogicalimplications

LEARNING TO USE THE RESOURCES OF THE WRITTEN LANGUAGE

(c) Lexical devices

Almost any text displays a great deal of cohesion on a lexical level. Tosome extent this might be felt to be inevitable, but nevertheless this isanother significant way in which sentences are linked together.

Key words, for example, are often repeated: erectriii| occurs tentimes in the text inz.r.z although it is also replaced by ir to givegrammatical cohesion. Key items are also repeated in different forms:thus, in the text in2.I.2 we have not only electricity but also electric andelectrostatic. Another common device is the use of a synonymous word orphrase. For instance, in the first example in (a) above we have books in thefirst sentence and volumes in the second.

The pedagogical problems we are faced with in this area are clearlyconsiderable. For the most part, oral work will have focused mainiy on amastery of sentence structure, which in itself is a formidable learning task, withlittle or no attention being paid to the way in which sentences are linked orsequenced. In any case, as we have seen, the nature of the medium calls for adifferent kind of organisation, much more rigorous than in speech, so that,even if the learners are familiar with some of these devic"s, they will still haveto learn how to use them in writ ing. The writ ing programme requires,therefore, both an extensive understandihg ofthese resources and considerablepractice in using them in appropriate forms of written expression.

Analysis of texts can contribute significantly to the learners' understandingof these devices. In particular, we might note that many students are simply noTaware, for example, how the use of the pronominal forms and othersubstitut ion devices contribute to the cohesion of a text ( in their mother tonguethe subject pronominal forms such as he, she, it, they may even be optionalelements in sentence structure). The use of adverbial words and phiases in thefront position in the sentence (referred to on page 1g) will probably requirespecialteaching, since on the whole this will have been discourage dfoi oratproduction. In oralwork, i t is often a problem to get the learners to use: Therewas a book on the table,whereas.. on the table there was a book misht be theappropriate form in a written sequence of sentences.

The logical devices may also present problems on a conceptual level. Thelearners have to understand not only the semantic differences between onetype of device and another, but also the different shades of meanins betweenone item and another, since they are not al l freely interchangeable,-There isobviously considerable danger, therefore, in exposing the stirdents to too manyof these devices at one t ime (for example, in the form of a l ist). Theirintroduction into the writ ing programme must be gradual and systematic. Atthe same time, however, since a[ the devices - logical, grammatical andlexical- occur simultaneously in a text and since sentenies intended to be \taken together commonly display more than one l inking feature, i t does notseem feasible or even desirable to try to deal with these different kinds ofl inking devices separately. This probrem is rooked at asain in 3.3.

r9

Page 26: Byrne Teaching Writing Skills

TEACHING WRIT ING SKILLS

Discussion

Exercises

References

Ln2.L 1 (d) you have the beginning of a

Mike. Suggest how it might continue.Read the following text carefullY:

Smoking,

conversation between Nick and

1)

Do you agree that reading is an important f i tctor in leaching rvri t ing?

Wtry is i t important to trv to get students to understand a writer 's

communicative PurPose ?

Do you agree that i t is necessar)I to pay atteution to spell ing and

punctuation?i..o- your experience of teaching (or learning) a foreign language. do you

think that the rhetorical devices l isted in2.2.2 could be picked up (e.g. from

reading) or need to be taught s1'stematical l l ' r

Repeat Exercise 2 onChapter 1.

page 8, which you first attempted after reading

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Srfoking$hiclmay be a pleasure for some pe-rople. is a source of

se ri ous d i scrc-m f o rt to t@fe I I ows . lFu rtFe m e di c a I a ut h o rit i e s e x p re ss

their concern about the effect of smoking on the healthlnot onlj lof those

who smokelU[falsolthose who must involuntarily inhale the contribution

of the smokers to the atmosPhere.As you are doubtless aware, a considerable number of our students

have joined together in an effort to pelsuade the university to ban

smoking in the classrooms. I believe they are entirely right in their aim'

However, I would hope that it is possible to achieve this by an appeal to

reason and to concern for others rather than by regulation'Smoking is prohibited by City by-laws in theatres and in halls used

for showing films as well as laboratories where there may be a fire

hazard. Elsewhere, it is up to your own good sense.I am therefore asking you to maintain 'No Smoking' in the

auditoria, classrooms and seminar rooms where you teach. This proof of

your interest for their health and well-being is very important to a large

number of our students.

In the first paragraph, back reference has been indicated by means of a circle

and an u.ro*. Other l inking devices have been boxed. Mark the rest of the

text in the same waY.

1 On the importance of teaching comprehension of a text, see A Davies and

H G Widdowson in J P B Allen and S Pit Corder (1974) Reading and

Writing.2 Ontp"lling, see J Pealce in P Doughty, J Pearce and G Thornton (1972)

Spoien ondWritt,z. For spell ing rules, see R A Close (1975) and E Abbott

( 1 e7e).3 On punctuation, see R Quirk et al (1972) and R A Close (1975).

4 On ihe rhetorical resources of the written language, see A Tadros in

D L Bouchard and L J Spaventa (1980) and V Horn (1972). The division into

logical, grammatical and lexical is based on the description given by Tadros.

For more extensive treatments of cohesion. see R Quirk (1912) Sentence

Connecr ion and M A K Hal l iday and R Hasan (1916).

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Page 27: Byrne Teaching Writing Skills

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3 .1Approaches toteaching writ ing

a t l- 1 . l . I

Focus on accuracy

General principlesfor teaching writing

\

Attempts to teach rvri t ing - since the t ime when students were merely given atopic of some kind and asked to produce a 'composit ion' without further help- have usually focused on some part icular problematical aspect of the rvri t ingsituation. Some key approaches are examined below.

Mistakes show up in rvri t ten rvork (especial lv since this is usuall i , 'subject torigorous'correction') and not unnatural ly come to be regarded as a major

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Page 28: Byrne Teaching Writing Skills

TEACHING WRIT ING SKILLSI

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problem. I t was assumed that s tudents made mistakes because thcy were

allowed to rvri te r l 'hat r/ro,u'anted. and accuracy-oriented approachcs herve

therefore stressed the importance of control in order to el iminate them from

wri t ten work. Students are taught how to u ' r i te and combine var ious sentcnce

types and manipulation exercises l ike the one belorv arc used tc-r gi l 'e them thc

experience of u'r i t ing connected sentences.

A (1 ) man (2 )wa lked (3 ) down the s t ree t ' A (4 ) g i r l ( 5 )was wa i t i ng fo rh im ou ts ide a (6 ) shop . As he app roached , she sm i led (7 )and sa id ''He l l o . How a re you? '

(1 ) t a l l , young , we l l -d ressed(2 ) w i th a bea rd , i n a b lack ha t , w i th sung lasses(3 ) rap id l y , hu r r i ed l y , impa t ien t l y(4) pret ty , fa i r -ha i red, dark-sk inned(5 ) i n h igh - l ree led shoes , w i th an umbre l l a , i n a p ink ha t(6) chemist 's , grocer 's , b icYcle(7) p leasant ly , a t t ract ive ly , in a f r iendly manner

Gradually the amount of control is reduced and the students are asked tq frexercise meaningful choice (in the example above they do not have to thinkand they cannot make mistakes). At a sti l l later stage. they ma1'be given a ! 'good deal of guidance with larrguage and content. but allowed some --/

6pportunities for self-expression. '=

This controlled-to-free approach was very much a product of the audio- tslingual period, with its emphisis on step-by-step learning and formal -,correctness. Many such schemes were carefully thought out and. although no .ylonger fashionable, they produced many useful ideas on how to guide writ ing.

F

In contrast, this approach encollrages stl ldents to write as much as possible and tsas quickly as possible - u'ithout worrying about making mistakes. The _ ,important thing is to get one's ideas down on paper. ln this way students feel Pthat they are actually writ irtg. not merely doing 'exercises' of some kind; thev -,write what theywant to write and consequently writ ing is an enjoyable P

e.xperience frAl thoughth isapproachdoesnotSo lVeSon}eof thepr r rb lemswhich

students have u,hen thev come to write in a foreign language (see 4.1), it drau's Yattention to certain points we need to keep in mind. Many students write badl'v' ibecause they do not u'rite enough and for the same reason they feel inhibited G

rvhen their pick up a pen. Most of us write less well if we are obligett to write Eaboutsomethins'Af luenc1'-approach.perhapschannel ledintosomethingl ikekeeping a diary. can be a useful antidote. P

T-his approach stresses the importance of the paragraph as the basic unit of E

written expression and is therefore mainly concernedto teach students how to Fcons t ruc tandorgan iSeparagraphs . I tuSeSavar ie tyo f techn iques ,s ing lyand incombination. suih us' P

- forming paragraphs from jumbled sentences, F- writ ing parallel paragraphs; >a- developing paragraphs from topic sentences (with or without cues)

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3.1 .2Focus onfluency

3.1 .3Focus on text

22

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Page 29: Byrne Teaching Writing Skills

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3.7 .4

GENEBAL PRINCIPLES FOR TEACHING WRITING

Once again this approach identifies and tries to overcome one of the centralproblems in writing: getting students to express themselves effectively at a levelbeyond the sentence.

In real life, as we have seen, we normally have a reason for writing and weFocus on purpose write to or for somebody . These are factors which have often been neglected in

teaching and practising writing. Yet it is easy to devise situations which allowstudents to write purposefully: for example, they can write to one another inthe classroom or use writing in roleplay situations.

Although, like fluency writing, this approach does not solve specificproblems which students have when handling the rvritten language, it doesmotivate them to write and shows how writins is a form of communication.

3.2 Although some writing schemes and programmes have tended to rely largely orThe state of the exclusively on one or other of these approaches, in practice most teachers andart textbook writers have drawn on more than one and have combined and

modified them to suit their purpose.In recent years classroom methodology has been heavily influenced by the

communicative approach, with its emphasis on task-oriented activities thatinvolve, where possible, the exchange of information and the free use oflanguage, without undue concern for mistakes. Receptive skills are also givenmore prominence and students are exposed to a wide range of spoken andwritten language. A good deal of recommended writing practice directlyreflects the main concerns of this approach, although in practice both teachersand textbook writers deal with the classroom situation pragmatically andtherefore retain a good deal of controlled practice. In general, however,attention is paid to motivation and there is usually some room for self-expression, iven at the lower levels, as the .*u*iI . , on page 24 show.

No less interesting and significant are some of the 'side effects' of thecommunicative approach. For example:- Students get more opportunit ies to read (and also to read more interesting

and natural ly writ ten texts) and this kind of exposure to the writtenlanguage is beneficialto writ ing.

- Both l istening and reading materialhave related activit ies (see 6.3.1), manyof which lead to incidental writ ing of a natural kind, such as note-taking.This in turn can lead on to further writing, such as using the notes to write areport. The factual nature of much reading and l istening material is alsouseful for related writ ing activit ies.

- Learners are encouraged to interact and the activit ies required for this ofteninvolve writ ing (e.g. questionnaires, quizzes, etc.). Many of these activit iesinvolve an element of ' fun', so that students often enjoy writ ing (withoutperhaps realising it).

- Students are encouraged to work together in pairs and groups and to sharewrit ing tasks. This removes the feeling of isolation which bothers manylearners.

In spite of these.advances, however. rvri t ing ski l ls are st i l l relat ively neglectedin many courses. Objectives are rarely spelt out as clearly as they are for oral

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Page 30: Byrne Teaching Writing Skills

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Page 31: Byrne Teaching Writing Skills

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3.3The role ofguidance

GENERAL PRINCIPLES FOR TEACHING WRITING

In view of the many diff icult ies with which the students are faced in learninghow to write a foreign language. the fundamental principle of guiding them invarious ways towards a masterv of writ ing ski l ls, and sometimes control l ingwhat they write, is not one we can l ightly dismiss, even if the principle has tosome extent been misapplied (for example, in trying to el iminate mistakes).Rather, we should consider more careful ly what kind of guidance we shouldgive them, part icularly in relation to the various problems they have whenwr i t ing (see 1 .4) .

On a l inguist ic level, since our aim is to develop their abi l i ty to write a text,one way of helping the students. and therefore of providing guidance, is byusfng the text as our basic formot for practice, even in the early stages. Whilethis does not rule out some sort of sentence practice, which may be necessaryfor the masterv of certain types of compound and complex sentence structure,best practised through writing because they are most commonly used in writing(see 4.4), we do not need to build into the writ ing programme a step-by-stepapproach which will take the learners in easy stages from sentence practice tothe production of a text. With the text as our basic format for practice, we canteach within i ts framervork al l the rhetorical devices - logical, grammaticaland lexical- which the learners need to master. While we must be careful notto overwhelm them with too many diff icult ies at any one t ime (see 2.2.3), thereis no apparent justification for attemptirlg to separate features of the writtenlanguage which go natural ly together.

By using texts ( letters and reports, for example - even dialogues in theearly stages) as our basic practice format, rather than some other unit such asthe sentence or even the paragraph, we can make writ ing activit ies much moremeaningful for the students and thereby increase their motivation to write well .The text provides ct settirtg vvithin which they can practise, for example, sentencecompletion, sentence combination. paragraph construction, etc. in relation tolo-nger stretches of discourse. In this way they can see not only why they areryriting but also lvrite in a manner appropriate to the commttnicative goal of thetext.

This, then. is one wav of helping the learners: by making writ ing tasksmore realist ic, by relating practice to a specif ic purpose instead of asking themto write simply for the sake of rvri t ing. In order to f ind our contexts for rvri t tenwork, we shall also need to explore opportunit ies for integrating i t effectivelywith other classroom activit ies involvinq not only reading but also speaking andlistening. Writ ing tends to get relegated to the level of exercises part lv becauseit is treated as a compendium to the lesson rather than as a rvorthwhile learningactivity in i tself. While i t is convenient, as we have acknowledged (see 1.6 (d)),to be able to set rvri t ten rvork as homework and while writ ing may not comevery high on the l ist of priori t ies. this does not mean that i t cannot take its placeas part of a natural sequence of learning activit ies.

A lvri t ing acti l ' i ty, for example. can derive in a naturalrvay from someprior activity such as i l conversation or something read. As in real l i fe . i t can bethe consequence of a certain situation. We see an advert isement for a job, forexample, which involves rentl ir tg. We talk about i t and perhaps phone up aboutit . rvhich involves .speuking and l isrening. We then decide to apply for the job -

which involves wr i t i r tg . A l though. perhaps, we cannot complete ly in tegrater.vri t ing rvith other activit ies rvithcrut a racl ical change in materials clesign (see

25

Page 32: Byrne Teaching Writing Skills

TEACHING WRITING SKILL5 JJ

:

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8.3), there is much \\1e can do to relate i t more effectively to other classrclom

activit ies: for example. b1'extending the contexts u'hich we have set up for oral

work, through simple role-play activit ies, to provide a meaningful sett ing for

writ ing activit ies as u,el l . In this \\ 'aV we can hope to overcome Soff le of the

diff icult ies rvhich the learners have u' i th role projection for writ ing tasks.

So far we have looked at guidance in terms of u'hat kind of framework -

l inguist ic and contextual - \ /e can provide in order to make writ ing tasks

more purposeful rather than in terms of the actual support we can give the

students in order to ensure that thev complete their tasks with reasonable

success. Since the major part of this book is concerned with an exploration of

the various techniques and procedures we can use, at this stage we shall only

stress that we need a v,hole range of techniques. each appropriate to specific

goals and needs. Variety is important, as in oral work. This is essential for the

sake of interest: the learners get bored if they are constantly asked to perform

the same type of task. But another signif icant factor is that certain techniques

are effective for developing part icular writ in-e ski i ls. For example. texts (read

or heard) provide the right sort of context for note-taking: they nct only lead

on to meaningful writ ing tasks but also provide a model for the kind of writ ing

expected. Visual material. on the other hand. properly used (see Chapter 7)

provides a more open-ended framework for writ ing activit ies of different kinds

at different levels, but i t is less suited for elementary writ ing activit ies than is

often assumed. Part icular kinds of visual material. such as diagrams and tables,

are valuable for developing organisational ski l ls. Clearly, then, our approach

should be as eclectic as possible, using those forms of guidance rvhich are

appropriate to different kinds of writing at different levels of attainment.

One thing that needs special emphasis, however, is that guidance need not- indeed should not - imply t ight control over what the learners write. I f . for

example, we accept that errors in speech are not only inevitable but are also a

natural part of learning a language, then we should accept that they wil l occur,

and to some extent should be al lowed to occur, in writ ing too. Unless the

learners are giveri opportunities to write what they want to write, they will

never learn this ski l l . As in speech, when we provide opportunit ies for free

expression, errors wil l occur, but this is a situation which we must accept.

Perhaps it is largely out attitude towards these errors that is wrong: because

they occur in writ ing, we feel that they must be corrected, whereas in speech,

perhaps because it is more transient, we are incl ined to be more tolerant.

This is far from suggesting that free expression is the solution to learning

to write: on the contrary, the learners have need of guidance, as they do with

oral work. They must also be encouraged to look crit ical ly at what they write

and taught to draft, corlect and rewrite. But since no approach to teaching

writ ing has yet been devised which wil l take them smoothly from writ ing under

control to free expression. i t seems reasonable to provide some opportunit ies

for writing freely, even in the early stages, as we do for oral work. This will not

only enable us to see whether the students are making any real progress; i t wil l

also ensure that thev becom e learners rather lhan leaners.

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3.4The needs of thelearners

GENERAL PRINCIPLES FOR TEACHING WRITING

In this section some of the main issues of Chapters 1-3 are reviewed. They arenow presented in the form of guidelines for a writing programme.

(a) Teach the learners how to write.

The ability to write is all too often assumed, especially if the learners aremature, can write reasonably well in their mother tongue and have alsoacquired some proficiency in the spoken language. But oral skills - bothlistening and speaking - have to be taught, through appropriatetechniques and through appropriate forms of practice. Since the spokenand written forms of the language are not the same and since writing is adifferent way of communicating from speech, it follows that writing skillsrequire special teaching too.

(b) Provide adequate and relevant experience of the written language.

We work on the principle that oral ability requires a firm foundation inlistening and that the latter must be on a broader basis than speaking.Similarly, writing has to be preceded and accompanied by wide exposureto appropriate models of written language. If the learners have only seendialogues in their textbooks and narrative prose in their readers, theycannot be expected to produce other varieties of the written languageappropriate, for example, to letters,or reports.

(c) Show the learners how the written language functions as a system ofcommunication.

Exposure toJhe written form of the language by itself is not sufficient. Thelearners also have to be made aware of how we communicate through thewritten medium and how this differs from speech. In particular, they needto be shown that any piece of writing, whether or not it is addressed to aspecific reader, has a communicative purpose. They need to understand,therefore, how the resources of the written language are used to fulfil thispurpose, by establishing and maintaining contact with the reader in orderto get one's 'message' across.

(d) Teach the learners how to write texts.' ' ' ' W. have already seen that writing, at least in any significant form, involves

the ability to organise sentences into a coherent whole or text. Mostwriting practice should from the start aim to teach those devices of thewritten language (as identifiedin2.2.2) which are needed to write varioustypes of text. The practice of these devices should, wherever possible, bewithin the framework of a text which has a definite communicative goal, sothat the learners see the purpose of what they are writing. The learnersmust also be given opportunities to practise organising their ideas toform acceptable paragraphs.

(e) Teach the learners how to write different kinds of texts.

The learners cannot be expected to master all the different varieties of thewritten form of the language. Many of them, in any case, would not berelevant to their needs, to the extent that these can be identif ied in awrit ing programme. At the same time, i t is not enough to try to teach thema kind of 'neutral ' general purpose form of writ ten expression. As in

27

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T E A C H I N G W H I I I N ( j b K I L L S E

speech, they have to some extent at least to be able to select an approprlate

siyle, formal or informal, depending on *'hat they are writ ing about and

rvhom they are addressing. and to be able to present this to the reader in an

appropriate form. such as a letter or a report. Although it cannot be said

ttrat ttr is is easy. manv of the diff iculties rvhich the learners have in this area

arise because of the nature of the writ ing tasks: for example, simply being

asked to write a paragraph out of context. Also, this kind of task does not

encourage them to think of rvrit ing as communication. Likewise, it might

be noted, our goal should not be to teach different kinds of writ ing (such as

narrative, descriptive, expository and so on) but rather to see that these

are practised within the wider context of a text. For example, a letter may

involve some'narrat ion'(see the let ter in2. I .1) or 'descr ipt ion" whi le a

report might provide the setting for some expository writ ing.

(f) Make writing tasks realistic and relevant.

All too often writing tasks lack reality for the learners because they do not

give them the feeling that they are writ ing to or for somebody. They are

done solely as a form of exercise for the benefit of the teacher, who reacts

to them more l ike a judge than a genuine reader! The use of texts as the

basic format for practice (see (d)) is only part of the solution. We must also

attempt to identify those forms of writing which are most likely to be

relevant to the learnerS' needs, such as various types of personal

communication (notes, letters) and'institutional' communication (formal

letters, reports) and to establish classroom contexts for practising them (as

suggested in 3.3. This aspect is further developed in 4.5 and 5.5). This does

noi rule out the possibility of other kinds of writing (for example, creative

writing, such as stories, although of course at a fairly low level), provided

the motivation for this kind of work can be established'

(g) Integrate writing with other skilk.

Writing tends to be the 'Cinderella' of the four skills (at least at the lower

levels) and is often relegated to the end of the teaching unit and used

mainly for homework. This is unlikely to make the learners want to write.

Where possible, we should introduce writ ing activit ies that lead naturally

onto or from the use of other skil ls, so that the learners see writ ing as a real

activity.

(h) Use a variety of techniques and practice formats-

This is important because the learners get bored with the same type of

activity (however worthyl). Also, as we have Seen, some techniques and

formats are appropriate to certain levels. For example, letter writing is

especially suitable for use in the early stages because it permits the learners

to make some use of the spoken forms of the language within a new

framework. We must also recognise that, in terms of developing writ ing

skills, we cannot be sure how effective any single technique is.

(i) Provide approPriate suPPort'

We have already noted (in 3.3) the importance of guidance and how,

broadly, it can be interpreted in the writ ing programme in a variety of

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GENEBAL PRINCIPLES FOR TEACHING WRITING

ways. It has been argued that guidance should be tempered withopportunit ies for free expression. we should remember, however, thatwriting tasks are generally imposed and that the learners may not haveeither the relevant ideas, when this involves some contribution on theirpart, or be sufficiently stimulated by the tasks to think of them. Theproblem is further compounded by their having to work on their own.Clearly there are many solutions to this problem and they need to beexplored in a ffexible way. In particular, however, the use of techniquesand procedures which have proved valuable for oral work, such as pair andgroup work, need to be examined within the context of the writingprogramme. There seems no reason why, in the classroom at least, writingneed be a sol i tary activitv.

(j) Be sympathetic!

we have considered at length the many problems involved in writing andthese are freely acknowledged to prevail when we write in our mothertongue, not only in a foreign language. Except in specialised programmes,heavily weighted in favour of reading and writing skills, we cannot expecttoo high a level of proficiency. with the help of a programme which takesthe learners'problems into account, we can hope to make writ ing a morerewarding activity for them, both in terms of attainment and satisfaction.But we need to surrender our role as ' judges', except when writ ing is beingtested or examined, and view what the learners write as attempts, howeverinadequate, to communicate. There is always a great temptation, perhapsa natural inclination, to concentrate on what is wrong in a piece of writing,mainly because, as we have already noted, it is there for us to read andreread. But if we are to be truly readers rather than judges, we shouldperhaps look not so much at what the learnershave failed to achieve butrather at what they have actually succeeded in doing.

1 which of the approaches described in 3.1 do you think is most important?whv?

Q What reasons are given for taking the text as the basic format for practice?. Do you agree with this proposal?3 From your own experience of teaching (or learning) the written form of a

foreign language, do you agree that free expression, as well as writ ing undercontrol, should be a feature of the writ ing programme, even in the earlystages?

4 In the guidelines for a writ ing programme in 3.4 why are the fol lowing pointsemphasised?(a) The learners have to be exposed to different varieties of the written form

of the language.(b) The learners have to be set realist ic tasks.(c) The learners'efforts need to be viewed sympathetical ly.Do you agree with these viewpoints?

29

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Exercises

References

Examine any textbook of your own choosing to see what kinds of guidedwriting exercises are provided. In particular, consider whether the textbookwriter tends to rely on a l imited range of exercise types and whether he givesthe learners any opportunities for free expression.Rewrite the exercise in 3.1.1 so that a meaninsful choice has to be madefrom the items provided.

For surveys of teaching writing, and in particular the use of guided writing,see C Bratt Paulston (1912). Also A Raimes and M Sharwood Smith inD L Bouchard and L J Spaventa (1980) and W Slager in The Art of TESOL(1982). Other accounts of teaching writing may be found in G Broughton etal (1978) and A Raimes (1983). For a description of the 'fluency' approachsee Briere (1966).The controlled writing exercise on page 22 comes from DH Spencer GuidedComposition Exercises (Longman1967). Not all the exercises in this bookare manipulative.For the purpose of writing this chapter, the following courses were surveyedfor writing activities: B Abbs and I Freebairn Strategies (various levels) ,(Longman); S Axbey Journeys (Longman); J BlundellVisa (OUP);D Bolton and L Peterson Breakaway (Nelson); J CarmichaelWay Ahead(Penguin); M Ellis and P Elhs Counterpoint (Nelson); J Harmer Meridian(Longman);B Hartley and P Viney Streamline English (OUP); R O'NeillKernel (Longman);M Palmer and D Byrne Track (Longman); M Swan andC Walters The Cambridge English Course (CUP); M Vincent et al Time forEnglish (Collins) and N Whitney Checkpoint English (OUP).The illustrative material on page24 comes from M vincent et al Time forEnglish (Collins ELT 1984) top; M Palmer and D Byrne Track (Longman1982) centre left;J CarmichaelWay Ahead (Penguin 1985) centre right, andJ Harmer Meridian (Longman 1985) bottom.

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4 .1Some basicconsiderations

Writing in the early stages

In the early stages of a language course, * the principal factor which affects boththe quantity and the kind of writing that can be done is the small amount oflanguage that the learners have at their disposal - language which to a largeextent they have acquired orally and to a lesser degree through reading.

The weighting, in favour of dialogue or narrative/descriptive type texts,may vary from one coursebook to another, but by and large we may assumethat at this level patterns typical of the spoken language have been selected andthat these are presented in contexts designed to promote oral fluency. Weshould also remember that the actual input of language is likely to be fairlyslow: the students are learning how to understand and how to make themselvesunderstood through the spoken medium. This is a situation which we havealready contrasted with the one in the mother tongue classroom, when thelearners f irst go to school (see 1.5).

One solution to this problem would be to delay the introduction of writ ing,at least in any significant form, until the learners have a much greater commandof the language, in the form of a plateau on which written work could be muchmore easily based. However, if we adopted this solution, we should fail tosatisfy needs which the learners have in the early stages and which can be metth;rcugh writing: reinforcement of material learned orally, variety of activity inthe classroom and increased contact with the language through work that canbe done out of class (see i .6) . These are good reasons for introducing writingand it would be wrong to ignore them. In any case, although we have to workmainly within the limits of language which has been learned for oral purposes,it is possible to introduce a small number of items needed specifically for

*The first 75-90 hours or approximately the first year of a secondary school course. In somecountries it is common for schoolchildren to have had some orevious instruction in the lansuage(e.g. at a middle school level) where the focus has been mainly on oral skil ls.

J 1

Page 38: Byrne Teaching Writing Skills

written work. These wil l enable us to make writ ing activit ies more interestingand also pave the way for more effective writ ing practice at a later stage.

Although most writ ing at this stage wil l be under control, we can and shouldavoid manipulative procedures which do not encourage the learners to thinkabout what they write and which in any case do not help them to understandhow the written language functions. We must also introduce activit ies which,however simple, demonstrate that writ ing can be used for the purpose ofcommunication. Our objectives at this stage, however, must necessarily bemodest.

The following goals are suggested:

(a) Writing actit'ities should satisfy immediate needs by providing the learnerswith opportunities for handling, through the medium of writing, languagewhich they have learned orally.

For this purpose. it is suggested that we should use dialogue writ ing as themain type of activity. This is a type of text which the students are familiarwith; it provides a context for reinforcing and practising sentence structureand to some extent aliows them to be creative.

(b) Writing activities should also be forward-looking b1, beginning to familiarisethe learners with patterns of language typical of the written medium: inparticular, some of the devices needed for linking and sequencing sentences.For this purpose, letter-u,ritirzg offers a format which has many advantages.If the letters are informal, the language used can to a large extent be basedon what the learners have already learned orally, but at the same time wecan introduce a small number of l inking and sequencing devices (see 4.4).For the most part, then, 'exercises'to practise these devices wil l beembedded within the contexts of letters. An important point to note is thatthe students will also be learning something new through writing: forexampleithe Iayout of a letter, modes of address and certain opening and --1closing formulas. =

(c) Writing activities should also give the learners opportunities to communicate rtthrough wr iting and, equally important, simply to enjoy writing. -aAlthough we cannot afford to neglect other types of writing activity in the

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FYou will need to get the nght balance between these various types of activity So - -:as to meet the needs of vour particular students. F

EAfter selectingthe appropriate writ ing activity (see 4.3 for examples): F(a) Decide how to present the activity to the class. i

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writing with the students, on the board or overhead projector. This is =especially useful for the type of activity described in 4.4, where the -=students are learning something new, such as the use of certain connectiver --_

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WRITING IN THE EARLY STAGES

or the layout of a letter (etc). In part icular, i t also provides an opportunityto discuss alternative answers. reasons for certain choices and so on. On asimple levelwe can thus begin to demonstrate that writing is a thinkingprocess.

Prepare the students orally.

This should be regarded as a standard procedure for writing activities inthe early stages (and later when introducing any new type of activity).Make sure, through a number of worked examples, that the students knowexactly what they have to do. Do not, however, go through the whole taskorally because this will leave the activity without any element of challengeand reduce interest in the actual writing task.

Decide how the writing task should be carried out.

An activity may be done individually, in pairs or in small groups.Collaboration on a task, for example, will help to reduce the feeling ofisolation which we noted in 1.4. 1. Students also tend to get more involvedin an activity if they are allowed to talk about it together rather than sit insilence. Some activities may be begun in pairs or in groups but concludedon an individual basis. In the early stages it would seem appropriate toallow many of the tasks to be done collaboratively except when feedbackon individual progress is needed.

Decide on correction procedures.

It is not essential or even desirable to examine everything the studentswrite, although many students will want to have their work looked at.However, they can be asked to exchange their completed work and toevaluate one another's efforts. This helps to train them to look at writtenwork ciitically, as readers, and will help them to view their own work in thesame way at a later stage in the course. Work can also of course bediscussed on a class basis and the students asked to make their owncorrections.

In the course of the writing pro_qramme we shall be asking the students to carryout various kinds of activities. Some of these will of course have morepermanent value than others, providing, for example, an index of the iearners'progress in this ski l l , while other things they write may be needed for referencepurposes (see, for example, 4.2.I). The question, therefore, of how theirarrange their writ ten work in their books is an important one. In any case, i fthe students are al lowed to be casual, imposing no sort of organisation on theirwrit ten work, writ ing is bound to seem less purposeful.

Ideally, perhaps, writ ten work should be done on loose leaf sheets andarranged on a f i le, which has been divided into appropriate sections.Alternatively, one or more exercise books may be used for this purpose. Forexample, one book or one section of a book might consist of reference materialwhich can be used for oral activit ies; another might contain work which hasbeen done to develop a mastery of sentence structure, sentence combinationand sentence sequencing, while a third one might be reserved for pieces ofwrit ing which demonstrate the communicative value of writ ing (for example,

(d)

4 .1 .3The organisationof written work

J J

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4.2Copying as awriting activity

4.2 .1 .An example ofmeaningfulcopying

copies of the activit ies suggested in 4.5). In this way, all the material which thestudents produce is accessible both for future use or reference.

Some discussion of the value of copying is necessary because it is sometimespresented as the first stage in a writing programme. This of course will be thecase if the learners have problems at the graphological level (that is, if theyhave to learn new graphic symbols or how to write from left to right). Thisaspect is dealt with in Chapter 12.

Equally commonly, however, copying is held to be valuable because ithelps to teach spelling or to reinforce sentence structure. For example, wesometimes write words and sentences on the board and ask our students tocopy them down. At the beginning of the course, such an activity may have acertain novelty value, and can of course serve to introduce the learners to thewritten form of what has been learned orally. But the novelty will soon wear offand copying wil l then become just one more classroom routine. Besides, whatthe learners copy tends to get lost in a jumble of notes made in the same way.One may well wonder whether this activity - like reading aloud - is not oftenjust a way of f i l l ing in a l itt le t ime in the lesson.

Yet copying need not be a pointless activity. Most of us would agree, onthe basis of our own experience of trying to learn something new, that copyingis an aid to retention. Furthermore, in real life, we frequently copy things downin order to have a record of them: for example, we copy addresses, the times oftrains, telephone numbers as well as other bits of useful information ormaterial for which we think we may have a future use. For example, we quiteoften make copies of songs and poems. The students can be asked to maketheir own copies of this type of material in a special notebook.

Copying, then, canbe presented to the learners as a meaningful activity,particularly if we can get them to see it as a way of making a record ofsomething which is not otherwise available to them (i.e. it does not appear inthe textbook) or is not available to them rnthe form in which they have copiedit (i.e. they havebrought together certain data which is distributed in variouslessons in their textbook). We must also demonstrate to them, through someactivity either at the time or later, that they have done the copying to somepurpose.

Vocabulary is an area which gives the students various kinds of learningproblems, including spelling. It is also an area where it can be useful for themto have reference lists, in the form of lexical sets, such as clothes, furniture,food, etc. Let us take one such set - furniture - and see how we can presentthe compilation of a list of items as a purposeful copying task. The followingsteps are suggested.

(a) Ask the students to draw a plan of a house which includes the followingrooms: kitchen, sitt ing-room, dining-room, bedroom and bathroom. Askthem to write in the names of the rooms on their plan.

(b) Ask them to dictate to you a list of items - furniture and some smallerobjects (such as lamps, telephone, vase of flowers, etc.) - which could befound in any of these rooms. Write these on the board, asking the studentsto tell you how to spell them.

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WRITING IN THE EARLY STAGES

(c) Ask the students to use the list on the board to compile five lists, one foreach room of their house, on a rough piece of pup"i. Each list shouldcontain items which might be found in that .oom. An item may of courseappear in more than one l ist (e.g. chair).

(d) Ask the students to put the items in each list in alphabetical brder and tocopy these lists into their exercise books. Each fisl should appear under itsappropriate heading (e.g. kitchen, sit t ing-room, etc.).

(e) Ask the students to compare their lists with those of other students in theclass.

Thus, what the students have compiled in their exercise books is a smallreference section on furniture, which they should be encouraged to keep up todate by adding new items as they learn them. Although the aclivity wasprimarily a copying one - we may of course also allow them to include itemswhich were not on the board - it also involved thinking: they had to divide upthe list on the board, decide which items to include moie than once and also toput them into alphabetical order.

Now that the students have made their reference list, which might be onlyone of many topic areas dealt with in the same or in a similar way, they shouldalso be given an opportunity to use it: either in a writing activity, perhaps atsome later stage, or in an oral activity for which reference to suctra list mightbe called for. For example, lists of this kind are useful for certain types oflanguage game which involve vocabulary repetition (such as variations on: ̂ Iwent to the market and I bought . . .).

Notice that some of the activities in 4.2.1 mainly involve copying (e.g. (a)-(c))since the students do not actually have to contribute to the text.

(a) Putting a list of words in alphaberical order

(b) Putting a list of words in their coruect sequenceFor example, days of the week, months, numbers.

(c) Putting words in categories

For example, arranging a listof words under headinss:

(d) Doing puzzles

For example, here are thenames of 1 l countr ies:

Brazil, Egypt, England,France, Greece, India, I taly,Peru, Portugal, Spain,Turkey.

Complete the crossword.Which countries are notthere?

35

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TEACHING WRITING SKILLS

A's l ist

4.3Reinforcementactivities

4 .3 .1Dialogue writing

(e) Playing Bingo

This involves selective copying and is an excellent way of revising

vocabularv sets (e.g. colours. occupations. clothes, etc.) through a game'

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Write, with the helP of suggestionsfrom the class, 12-16 items on theboard (e.g. for clothes: iacket, hat,shirt, socks, etc.). Ask the studentsto copy any words from the list.Then read out the words from thelist lrr any order. The first student tohear all his words read out calls outBINGO!

From these suggestions it should be clear that copying need never be a

boring activity! Some of the following activit ies. particularly dialogue

writing, also involve copyingl the students do not actually have to

contribute to the text.

Various ways of reinforcing language learned orally in the early stages are

suggested below:*

(a) Writing parallel dialogues with the help of keywords

Read this dialogue:e: Give me that book, Please.n: Which one?a: The bigbne - on the table.n: Here you are!a: Thanks verY much

Now use these keywords to write similar diaiogues:(a) umbrellaired/behind/armchair(b) box/small/on toP of/cuPboard(c) hammer/h eavy lnearlwindow, etc.

(b) Completing a dialogue, choosing from a list of iumbled sentences

Use these Sentences, which are not in the correct order, to complete the

dialogue below:I've never seen you there At Clarkson'sI usually take mY car Do You like it?

Mine's Jennie

Mv name's Bob.

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*These and all other examples in the book are intended to i l lustrate types of actit ' iry. The actual

Ianguage used in the examples does not re late to any par t icu lar coursc '

Page 43: Byrne Teaching Writing Skills

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a: Where do you work?B :

e: Really? I work there too.B :

e: Well, i t 's a big place and I only started last week.B :

R: It 's not bad. Besides, I can now go to work by bus.B : . . . .

e: Do you? Well, perhaps you can give me a l i f t !The students may also be asked to write a continuation of the dialosue.

(c) Putting sentences in order to form a dialogueInstead of providing a dialogue frame, as in (b), al l the sentences arejumbled up. It helps to number the f irst i tem, however, and also to l imitthe number of i tems to (say) eight.

(d) Provide the students with a dialogue frame, similar to (b), which they haveto complete with ideas of their own.

For this type of activity the students are given a model text of some kind andare asked to write a similar text with the help of cues. These may be verbal as inthe first example below or visual as in the second. The text may recycle items ofspoken or written language and can be used as an introduction to organisingideas in the form of a paragraph.(a )

4.3 .2Parallel writing

Address

it-" 6"To;? 7 Height

'

Age -r-1 -.-za

: ';,;,,*

OccuPation

Read and writeA'lRead this, then copy and complete the information.

Peter Smi rh i s th i r ty -n ine years o ld . He is a ta l l manwi th b rown eyes and brown ha i r . He is a bus inessmanf rom Eng land bu t he l i ves in Amer ica .

5W r i t e a about Jane Creen.

Narne

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37

Page 44: Byrne Teaching Writing Skills

(b )

Read about Sn' i tzer land:

a) Nolv lvr i te abotrt .^\ t rstr i i l ' l lsc thcse nt l tcs:

nor th : Germany i t t rc l Czechos lovak ia / cas t :Hungary / sou t i r : \ ' ugos lav i i r and I ta ly , / n 'es t

Srvi tzer land / 7 nr i l l ion ; ' Certnan

b) Now wri te about Yot lr or\rn countr\ ' .

Srvi tzer land is in Europe. I t stands betn'een

Germany in the north, Austr ia in the east, l ta l l '

in the south and France in the rvest. About 5jmi l l ion people l ive in Switzer land and thel ' speal<French, German or I tal ian.

{tttroSWITZER-

LAN D

TEACHING WRITING SKILLS

4.3 .3Dictation as areinforcementactivity

4.4Sentence l inkingactivit ies

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The purpose of this short section is to indicate where dictation belongs in a

writing programme. Clearly it differs from the reinforcement activities

described above, because it involves listening and the ability to transform what

is heard into its written form. However. since a dictation should be based on

language with which the students are already familiar through other contexts(that is, it is essentially a re-presentation of known language items), it can be

useful as an alternative reinforcement activity.The difficulties which students have with this type of exercise should not

be underestimated. An alternative approach to the'conventional' dictation is

to provide the students with an outline, in the form of an incomplete text,

which they filIin from what they hear read aloud. This permits a more natural

form of delivery, although less writing is involved. Texts uged for dictation may

also be in the form of notes and short letters, thus adding to the realism of the

activity.

Our goal through this type of activity is to begin to familiarise the students with

the cohesive devices which are used in composing a text. They can then begin

to combine structures which they have learned orally to form an acceptable

sequence in writing. For this purpose, in order to make any headway, it will be

necessary to introduce a selected number of linking devices and to practise

these through writing. A basic kil at this stage might consist of the following:

Co-ordinators and, but, or, soConjunctions although, when, until, so that (etc.)Sequencers then, after that, meanwhile, first, next, finallyLinkers moreover, however, therefore, as a result, in fact, of

course. on the other hand. etc.

J6

Page 45: Byrne Teaching Writing Skills

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WRITING IN THE EARLY STAGES

some procedures for practising these are suggested below. Although thisshould normally be done within the context of a text, such as a letter, this doesnot preclude some initial practice for the purpose of familiarising the studentswith linkingsentences, as in the first example below.

(a)

TYy and join these parrs of sentences correctly to make one sentence each trme -use hnes like thrs:

Mary lkes tennrs.

I work rn slunmer

I go on hohday rn wlnrer

I hke my lob

She doesn't hke lootba]l

He hkes brg crtres

Tony hves in London.

I work rn a bank.

El-h;;;lt " - " " * "1

The students then have to write four true sentences about themselves.

The students complete a short text, rning suitable linking words or phrasesfrom a given list.

For example:

complete the letter below. use suilable words or phrases from this box:

although and by the way so thatalso because however thatand but so that

(b)

Notice that 'exercises' l ikethese, in the form of a compietetext, also serve to introduce thestudent to such points as thelayout of a letter, differentmodes of address andsalutation, etc. Examples ofthese should be written up onthe board and the studentsasked to copy them into theirnotebooks for reference. It isimportant, therefore, toincorporate a range of suchfeatures which will be useful tothe students when theythemselves are asked to writeletters (as communicationtasks, for example).

/a+n sedwLq qcl.L r/rr/ tpu addrtrs,... qou aom"niia tdmz. Of coptrseI .i. !rq, .,. ytu,^i// cot"z trynit/< its souia.

/ Li*c m.ot'ruw house, . . . ;t Ls veryu.tisl/. ,. irt Lrruar a' marn rrrld .. , . ,-tno1 be/'rcon is a,t. tiu back ofthihoi'se,... ldan't h"earr a,r1'4 r

vwise a.t ru46trorvL is a't-thz frw,t .-.. sfu tet/' ...shz ca*it skep/". . . ,the send's y-ttr-lur best wisfus, Writz sswt. /aot:l,oTkkt4g fwAtr."d to hearing lronyil.Ati ittz best. yttyrs,

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Page 46: Byrne Teaching Writing Skills

ETEACHING WRITING SKILLS

4.5Communica t ionactivit ies

(.) The students complete a text bt, inserting cluttses artd serttences frorn ujuntbled list of itents (see (b) page 34) in the correct places.

For example, the 'out l ine ' for the second paragraph in the le t ter above

could be presented as fol lows:

although because

Howeve r . . so . . . .Bu t . . . . . and

tha t . . . . .Bv thewav .

Throughout this stage. while rvri t ing activit ies are st i l l to a large extent serving

to reinforce oral work and rvhi le the foundation for writ ing ski l ls is st i l l being

Iaid (as indicated in 4.1 .2), i t is nevertheless important to show the students

that writ ing can be used for the purpose of communication. The activit ies

which we set up for this purpose are necessari ly simple in form and l imited in

scope but they wil l serve to motivate the students towards learning how to

express themselves through u'r i t ing. Some examples are given below.

(a) The students write instmctions v,hich other students in the class (or the

teacher!) have to carry out.

For example:

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be asked to u'rite a sequence of instructions to bea useful device for practising items such as First . . .. . . Fo rexample :

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G o a4'rd. hn/d 6eorqe's harn"d. I

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40

Page 47: Byrne Teaching Writing Skills

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These instructions may be given to anyone inAlternatively, they may be addressed to someonea note or short letter. For examole:

WRITING IN THE EARLY STAGES

the class to perform.by name, in the form of

(b)

Activities along these lines are particularly useful for practisingstructures and items of vocabuiary which have recently been taught for oralpurposes.

The students write to one another to ask for information.

The student who gets one of these requests can simply write theinformation on the same piece of paper. This enables the activity to go at amuch faster pace - which is part of the fun!

Ask the stltdents to write short messages to one another in the form of a noteor short letter.

For example:

(c )

Dra,r M*rq,

I Lihe qowr Taow cLress. W l+e,reotid yow

-tury .i! ?Y'otrrs,

AyunI

Dearr Anm,, lted,tt,esd'ag

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YqwrtFt,;d

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Wha's ycLW fr'uowrtfu smgetr?

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4 1

Page 48: Byrne Teaching Writing Skills

TEACHING WRITING SKILLS-=

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These 'messages'must be answered by the students to whom they are

addressed. For examPle:

This activity can quickly generate a flow of correspondence round theclass.

(d) Ask the students to write short letters to one another which involve some

form of roleplay.

For example, they may send one another invitations to a party, togetherwith a request to bring certain items. Relevant language may be written onthe board as a guide. For example: Would you like to . . .? Will you plecsebr ing . . .?

Deart' FreQ,

l,Yculd I4nI,L Li,kL to corrte to Yn qparrft/ aw'5a't<urda'q Juurle 9 7 lt"'starrts of

"ryM o'"o{-oc'h

lf taou, oan avvte, wW qau- p{"easz-b-"tg s,i,x, p I'afus,' fu .un j l'a-siesarn'd, Sovng v-&@T--oLs.

Eert wisl'tes,Yturrs,

fiaa,ry

As with the'messages'in (c), these invitations must be answered.Theperson to whom they are addressed can accept the invitation or decline tocome, giving his reasons. If he accepts the invitation, he should saywhether he can bring all the items requested or only some of them. Theactivity may be extended to include giving or asking for directions to get tosomebody's house.

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yourrs,Ma.ry

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Page 49: Byrne Teaching Writing Skills

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4.6Writ ing for fun

WRITING IN THE EARLY STAGES

The activities in this section are not intended to help develop the learners'composition skills - because as a rule they will not be writing a text in aconventional sense. For the most part they will be writing things -questionnaires, puzzles, programmes, for example - which they can dosomething with. Usually they will be working together, in pairs or small groups,and this will involve talking as well as writing. Students usually enjoy theseactivities because they see the point of doing them, like those in the previoussection, and also because in a small way, even at this elementary level, they getthe opportunity to express themselves imaginatively.

(a) Writing questionnaires

The students, preferably working in pairs, write questionnaires which theycan use to interview one or more other students in the class. Notice thevarious types of questionnaire.

Questionnaires can focus on specific topics and even particular items oflanguage. This need not make the activity less enjoyable.

Writing quizzes

Students enjoy writing questions. in the form of a short quiz, on a text theyhave just read (as an alternative to 'comprehension questions' in thebookl). They should work in small groups for this and then exchange theirquizzes with another group.

(b)

Hove gou got a- dog?

F /TVD 5O ' IFOUE WHO: NAMEca.*t plat/ thz guitaralutagr goes to btd earlyhas o ffiher attd a pister

likes qeng frT walhsit intereited irL tcih4ce

GROUPS

WRITE

Q U I Z Z E S

GROUPS EXCHANGE

Q U I Z Z E S A N D

WRITE ANS\ \ 'ERS

GROUPS

CHECK

ANSWERS

In the same way they can write quizzes which involve remembering or

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Page 50: Byrne Teaching Writing Skills

TEACHING WHI I IN (J > I \ I LLD

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looking for information given

form of revision!) or 'general

Haa otd' r.s B/K'k7

in previous units in the coursebook (a useful

knoi l ledge' qu izzes.

2 Ca4L Pen ng sPea-/e SPa,rtisl't'?

(d) Writing programmes

The students, working in grouPs

to share their ideas, u'r i te a

TV/radio Programme to cover a

possible evening's entertainment'Each student then makes his own

copy of the Programme, which

can be used for Pairworkactivit ies, such as tel l ing Yourpartner what You saw or l istened

to the Prev ious evening or

agreeing u'hich Programmes to

watch or l isten to that evening.

2 Whal, langu.age do rhz! speak h+ ?r*zil ?

(.) Writing PuzzlesThe students. u,orking individually or in pairs, write one or more puzzles

like these. which thel'give to other students to answer'

WH ATIt Li,ves i,/( thl/t loos not Laae

IS IT?sga . /f nn's te'rt, artns.alty bonzs. lf i,s kaL efr'lh I

In the Same way, studeirts can write 'secret messages' for one another in

some kind of code, which other students have to interpret.

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CANT OUCO MEAN OSET rt4EAT ELEV ENOC lOCK

44

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Page 51: Byrne Teaching Writing Skills

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WRITING IN THE EARLY STAGES

Writing jumbled texts

The students work in pairs or small groups to write a dialogue or a four-tofive-sentence story sequence, which they then cut up into separatesentences and give to another pair or group to put together.

I tr ,rrct5 eta.r-p-. IA / ,

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(0 Writing role descriptions

Normally, when we want students to do a roleplay activity, we give them adescription of the role we want them to play. However, even at anelementary levelthe students can write simple role descriptions for oneanother. Incidentally, they involve little use of cohesive devices.

Give the students pictures(male or female faces) as astimulus and a list of theitems to be included (e.g.name. age. nat ional i ty , job.interests, etc.). Each studentwrites a role description forone other specific student inthe class. This is importantbecause it adds to the fun:the students usually write insome unusual features forthe partner they have chosenor been given!

(g) Wririrtg mysterv stories

For this activity the studentsare given a series of questionswhich they must answer inorder. For example: Who wasthe person? Where was slhe?What was slhe doing? What didslhe say ? What did slhe do afterthat? Each student then takes itin turns to answer a question.When the first student hasanswered his question, he foldsthe paper over so that the nextstudent cannot see what he haswritten (and so on). When al lthe quest ions have been answered,

7r"u'*":*w'After thot he slept!

Yow a're Maryt Aom t"L&h.Yw a,re /hh,t//- tlree.

Thsy a,re all qr,r[s.Yo;rr hutsba;d's rua,rnz Ls8 ill a4rd fu i,s o tazLdri4v,r. Yawr hobbizs are

A futrvtorvw'rfh,by o!%\N0s on \op of \he

Ynourfra \n .#e u.a.s o{4t2//r'g his

\ \ . t ( ( z

Y\O Sol,d" OotY\g vYvr- t lo-t so \ ' )

Tlrrru fu unvfcthpd.TV.

the students unfold the sheet of paper and read their mvsterv storv

.15

Page 52: Byrne Teaching Writing Skills

T E A C H I N G W H I l l N U > K l L L r

4.7Writing in class

frouoi/l / a+n ntt wetl todaylWtrot s/tlp wdd la,st rualct,

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(h) Writirtg imaginar,r- diaries

THE PRIME MINISTER'5 PIARY

I had a. bad' &rza+n-

about a b*nh, H

fhzVedf{z frffi lrke mzl A?rd lao+t Ukz 4E eeaVtzlI a,m,gst'/-19 ttryl+ ary-q Affi?riaa!_My @W

Art

The students may of course be asked to keep real diartes - at this stage or

perhaps sl ightly later on in the course. but they wil l not want and should

not Ue asked to show these to one another. On the other hand, writ ing the

imaginarV diary for a famous person of their choice or for a fictitious

chaiacter is something they wil l be wil l ing to share and wil l very l ikely

stimulate their imaginations. The students should work in pairs or groups

(although this is an activity they could equally well do on their own). They

may like to continue writing about their character from time to time.

(i) Writing abour pictures

This is an activitY esPeciallYintended to stimulate theimagination and selfexpression. The students will

need a picture showing a

situation that is likelY tosuggest differentinterpretations. Ask them totalk about their Picture and to

decide what the situation is

about. Then get them to write

down their ideas - without

L . . * .

worrying too much about sentence connection. They should then compare

their ideas with those of another group.Instead of pictures, you can use speech bubbles drawn on the board. For

example, about this one the students might write: A boy is in a shop. He

wants an icecream. His mother buys one but it is small. So he says: " . .. .. ..."

The activities in the last two sections are intended to be done in class. Some

could even take up a fair amount of time. This should require no justification

because generally the students are also talking. However, the important thing

is that activities of this kind change students' attitudes towards writing: they

come to see how they can communicate through writing; how they can use

writing purposefully and how it forms a natural part of certain activities. In

addition toihis, you can also work with the students either collaborating with

them on a task or joining in an activity (e.g.you should also write to your

students and get them to write to you for the activities in 4.5; you can also write

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Page 53: Byrne Teaching Writing Skills

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Discussion

Exercises

References

WRITING IN THE EARLY STAGES

questionnaires, quizzes, etc.). You wil l also get opportunit ies to check theirwork informally while the activity is still fresh in their minds. This is verydifferent from the typical teacher role of correcting homeworkl

Reread 4.1.1 and 4.I.2. What advice would you give a fel low teacher (orintending teacher) about setting up writing activities in the early stages?From your own experience, do you agree that copying is an aid to retentionin language learning?From your own experience of learning to write in a foreign language, do youthink enough attention was paid to activities:(a) to practise linking sentences and sequencing ideas;(b) to show how you can communicate through writing;(c) to show how writ ing can be enjoyable?What is your view of the value of dictation as a writing activity?

Fxamine any coursebook to see what provision it makes for the presentationand practice of linking devices in the early stages.Examine any coursebook to see what provision it makes for meaningfulcopying.Devise a parallel writing activity, for use in the early stages, similar to thosein 4 .3 .2 .Devise an exercise in linking sentences, for use in the early stages, similar tothe one in 4.4 (b) .Suggest a writing activity,to be used in the earlystages, which could bebased on this mao. tq H S-TREET

-rArroN

Devise an activity which could be used in the early stages to let the learnersenjoy writ ing.

On the importance of gett ing the learners to evaluate one another's writ ingsee C Brumfit in S Holden (ed.) (1983).For writ ing in the early stages, see G Abbott and P Wingard (1981) Ch.6;J Harmer (1983) pages 65-75 P Hubbard et al (1983) pages 61-71 andA Pincas (1982a) pages 18-21 and 91-101.For examples of writ ing activit ies in the early stages see T Hedge (1983a);A Pincas (1982b) and L Woods (1986).Examples of writing activities in this chapter have been taken fromJ Harmer: Meridian (Longman 1985) (4.3.2 (a));L Woods: Writ ing I(Cassell i986) (1.4 (a)) and M Palmer and D Byrne: Track (Longman 1982)(1 .2 .2 (d ) and 4 .3 .2 (b ) ) .

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Page 54: Byrne Teaching Writing Skills

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5.1The importanceof demonstratingprogress

5 .1 .1The main featuresof the writingprogramme

Developing skills

At the post-elementary to intermediate level,* i t is essential that.

whatever the scope of the writing programme, it should not lose direction and

momentum. This means that the writing programme must be carefully planned

to develop a mastery of new skills, which the learners can use for a continually

expanding range of tasks. At the same time, since writing will still be guided to

a lirge extent, we need to make the activities as varied as possible, avoiding a

monolithic approach which relies on a limited range of exercise types.

(a) The writing programme should continue to provide opportunities forreinforcing language learned orally.

At the ru-. ii-e, however, we may assume that the learners'are being

exposed to a greater amount of written language either through the type of

texts in their coursebook or through supplementary redding. At this stage,

therefore, the amount of dialogue writing should be gradually reduced,

although it should not be abandoned altogether, partly because it is one

way of getting the students to write material which they can use themselves- for oral work, for example - and partly because dialogue writing may

be one of the requirements of the examination. However, as the main

format for reinforcement practice at this level, we can now begin to make

greater use of informal letter-writing, since this provides a convenient and

appropriate way of re-presenting material learned orally and of course by

this stage the learners are already familiar with this type of writing.

(b) The writing programme should be designed to include a greater range of the

resources of the written language.

The basic kit, suggested in 4.4 should be expanded to incorporate, for

*90-225 hours or approximatelv the second and third years ofa secondary school course. The

suggestions in this ihapter must be read in conjunction with Chapters 6 and 7 on the use of texts

and visual material.

48

Page 55: Byrne Teaching Writing Skills

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5.2Reinforcementactivit ies

DEVELOPING SKILLS

example, both a wider range of conjunctions used in compound andcomplex sentence structures and other l inking devices. At the same time,we must increase the learners' awareness of rhetorical devices such ascomparison and contrast, definit ion, exemplif ication, etc. (see theprocedures suggested in2.1.2) and their abi l i ty to use these. For thispurpose, we should now begin to introduce a certain amount ofinstitutional-type writing, such as formal letters and reports. As at theprevious stage of the programme, when the students were introduced towriting informal letters, this component will teach them something newthrough writing and willtherefore increase their interest and motivation.

(.) The amount of control over what the learners write should be reduced.

At this stage they should learn to respond to 'cues' which stimulate theirimaginations but leave them relatively or completely free to decide whatthey actually write and how they organise their ideas.

(d) The range of communication tasks should be extended.

Thus, alongside the guided writing activities suggested in 5.2-5.4, thelearners are also given opportunities for free expression. These will tosome extent involve greater reliance on roleplay techniques.

It has been emphasised that this is a delicate and crucial stage of the writingprogramme. It is especial ly important, therefore, to:

(a) Get the right balance of writing activities.

For example, with regard to dialogue writing, this should be reducedconsiderably unless it is an examination requirement. At the same time, itis important to extend systematically the sentence linking and sequencingcomponent of the programme described in 5.3. No real progress will bemade unless this is done.

(b) Ensure that the type of writing activiry* and the formats used to practise theseare sfficiently varied so that the students do not get bored.

Practice materials may have to be selected and adapted from a varietv ofsources.

(c) Gattge carefully the amottnt of guidance required.

It is l ikely that the amount of oral preparation for many writ ing activit iescan now be reduced. The amount of individual writ ing may also beincreased, especial ly when the students approach the t ime when they wil lhave to do a public writ ten examination. For certain activit ies, however, i thas been suggested that pair and group work wil l st i l l be extremelyvaluable.

The need to provide opportunities for practising what has been learned orallycontinues throughout this stage. although the increasing use of texts other thandialogues now makes it possible to introduce writ ing activit ies which are basedmore directly on a reading text (see Chapter 6). As we have noted. dialoguewrit ing has almost outl ived its usefulness as a writ ing activity and. i f rvecontinue to use it , we must look for fresh ways of presenting it to the learners.

49

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J/

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5.2.rDialogue writ ing

The suggestions for reinforcement activit ies qiven below are classif ied

according to the t1'pe of n'r i t inq involved.

(a) The students are gitten a ntodel dialogue, togetller v'itlt cues.for v'ritirtg

parallel versiorts.

This task is much freer than the one in 4.3.1: i t is guided rather than

control led and the students can select from the cues provided. In the

example belou'. which focuses on offering advice. the students also have to

modify the form of the cues (for example, the.v must use the -lng form

after How about . . .?)*

Read this dialogue:e: What 's up. Mike?s: I don't know what to do this evening.a: Well, u'hy don't you go to the club, then?B: Oh, that 's not much fun, is i t?e: Well. hou'about coming to the cinema u' i th me?

B: Hm, /f tcl sounds l ike a much better ideal

Nov, choose any of these ideas (or use ones of vour own) to v'rite similar

dialosues:go and see (Jane) go for a walk

help me cook the supper sit and read the paper

have a game of cards write some lettershelp me wash the car go and watch television

(b) The students are given an incomplete dialogue, together u,ith instructions forcompleting it. These do not specify the actual words to be used.

Complete this dialogue:A: . . . . . . . . . . (Sug gest do ing someth ing)n: Oh, al l r ight. I f that 's what you really want to do.A: . . . . . . . . . . . (Enqui re about B 's wishes)B: Don't know. Go to the cinema, perhaps.A: .. (Ob ject to this idea)B: Oh, a l l r ight . then. Let 's

Now write (2) similar dialogues of vour own.

(c) The students write the complete dialogue. They are given an outline or'map'of the dialogue, but none of the actual words to be used.

AGive you r phone number .Ask who i s speak ing .

Persuade A.

Con f i rm a r rangemen tsand end conversat ion.

*As for Chapter 4, i t should be ke pt in mind that the language used in the examples does not re lateto anv par t icu lar course.

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Te l l B abou t you r hea l th .

50

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DEVELOPING SKILLS

Another possibi l i ty is to give the students a'scenario'.

Mr A has an appointment with Mr B in a big office block. whenhe enters the building, he announces his arrival to the receptionist,who speaks to Mr B on the phone. The receptionist then tells Mr Ahow to get to Mr B's office. Mr A gets out of the lift on the wrongfloor. He meets an employee, who offers to take him to Mr B's office.when he gets there, Mr A, who is now rather late, makes his excusesand explains what happened.

It may be felt that this is rather a long way round to get the students towrite a dialogue but remember at this stage we are looking for ways ofproviding guidance without control. Both the dialogue 'maps' and'scenarios' direct the students towards certain uses of language, and thusprevent the production of rambling and often trivial dialogues, but at thesame time require them to think of the actualwords which will fit thesituation. when they translate the scenarios into dialogue form, they canalso write some narrative commentary in the form of stage directions. Itshould be noted that both dialogue 'maps' and'scenarios' can be used atdifferent levels of language attainmgnt, depending on the sophistication ofthe task involved.

(d) The students write a dialogue for w-hich the setting is defined and somesuggestions are given for the language to be used.For example:

You are in a restaurant with a friend. You are looking at the menu, trying todecide what to have. write the conversation you have. You may use thesephrases:

Howabou t . . . ?What shallwe have to . . .? I wonder what . . .Haveyoueve r . . . ? Whydon ' twe . . .Th i s l ooks . . . Le t ' sask . . .

For activit ies (b) to (d), i t is suggested that the students should be al lowedto collaborate. either in pairs or in small groups, at least for the init ial stageof the activity, when various possible forms of expression can be discussed.Thus, the students'talk over' the dialogue together, work out a roughversion and then. i f they lvish, each produce their own f inal version.

By this stage the students are alreadl ' famil iar with writ ing informal letters. but

example, we can teach new rvays of beginning and ending letters. we can alsosee that the students are given systematic opportunit ies to practise writ ingletters which have. overal l . a specif ic function such as makin_q an apology (acomplaint, an excuse), sending congratulations, giving directions, etc.,and at the same time show horv such tasks rvi l l require very different uses oflanguage on different occasions and in part icular how these depend on therelationship between the * 'r i ter ancl the person he is acldressins.

Tha t ' s ( r a the r ) . . .

5.2 .2

IettersWrit ing notes and there are various things we can do to give this activitv a new slant. For

51

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TEACHING WRI I ING 5K ILL5

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(a) The stutlents ore giverl o tnodel text, togethet'h)ith cues for v)rititl7 parallel

versiotls.

This is s imi lar to 5.2.1 (a) . The cues mav be phased out so that the s tudents

produce their ou'n versions. For example:

Read the follox'ing. It is an extract from a letter.

l , n l , tUca/l'Jdn'rL,

to l6dle ot'iifiyout

(i) [Jse these notes to write a letter to a friend v,ho wants advice about a

holiday:go to . ./do not stav in the town itself/find a quiet hotel just

outside the town/get a room with a good view/make a booking as early as

possible.

(ii) Use these notes to write a letter to a friend who wants advice about how

to find a new job:

try to get a job with a new firm/do not go to an agency/buy a paper which

has ads for jobs/.

(lli) Write a letter to a friend who wants advice about how to learn (a foreignlanguage).

(b) The students are given an incomplete text, with suggestions or instructions

about how to complete it.

This activity can be particularly useful for practising specific items of

language, such as the -ing form, as in the example below.

You are introducing yourself to a penfriend. Complete this letter with

reference to vour own likes and dislikes, etc-

That rulnrllds mz- g/ot'L oLtkad' rrty a'drice a,bou,f

bryag a c.a/r. foirna1,gt f ! r* yy, l( gota'qfu. secan'd- /'ts4'Ld 6rc .' E ut aoitt qo A; ontgf"t/tose b{.q fir.t tE Tru to qst mr fi'orni,/- fiarnrs"tD' sc// his-carrVrhmteh't, MahztLt/re tiwt {hure s rffi'tunq wanq wfr,fl'Ltf, (f@//rs1l ln fi'{ yot'L Jh,i^/d gilt a rue.c}t6rrt'ic

lfuw /'d' ti'lto to tillqolt son^erhi*r'q ahowtrrlt/se/f . 0* nf nethin^cs I l;'hz d.oi'toq-tnost fufuen ftu,vefine-!) k'..... - Tht a/'snvai tu4"d 6/ . . .1. o a

'l qwife tikl. . -.. 0t wel'L, alrlwgh lw

,*i ir^t qo-'sol at it. Cn cliz drhorr Lwnd', l'tttwf, ue'rl Lnt*esfzd'in ettli^ei ov' . . . . . n'or do / ,aAl,b L;fu . . - - . At fu - - - - -)I *hsclute/q h,s,tc //tl

52

Page 59: Byrne Teaching Writing Skills

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DEVELOPING SKILLS

The students completea text by expandingnotes.

The notes in thisexample are withinthe framework of aletter, the theme ofwhich is assumed torelate to a topicexplored through alesson in thecoursebook.

Complete this letter.Use the notes to writethe second and thirdparagraphs.

Activities like those suggested in (b) and (c) lend themselves well torelated writing tasks within the context already established. For example,the students may be asked to write a short reply to Bob's letter based oncues like the following:

Write back to say that yott are interested in Bob's proposal but ask for moreinformation about the following points:- how much is the rent?- what other expenses are there?- what arrangements are there for having guests?- is it easy to find parking near the flat?- who are the other people in the flat?

(d) The students write the complete text. They are given guidance for the contentbut not for the language to be ttsed.

For example:You bought a bottle of perfume or after-shave lotion after seeing anadvertisement for it. It gave you a skin complaint. Write a letter to the firmwhich made the prodttct, saying:- what you bought ( invent a suitable name)- where you saw the advertisement and what the advertisement claimed

(e.g. good for the skin)- why you bought a verv large bottle- how it affected your skin- what the doctor said- why you want your money back

Dea,rJarh,I hza'rqotu are oh,ort'4+n4 aowr jab

shorcty,'l lw,ue a nryg-ain-/ W@ da,'t'tqol't' 6rxz and. l*ue tt A,L ur? At f,/pe'1rr4?r41'rri

fh%ea'r-fou,, a/ t+: tlA.rugthu /&t, bat enzpar'torL is luuirtT a.btlu ond q thz m.*tet.

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q an- ca'n & whaflfio Likz hgr<., Let-wr-'/a4aw afuat i't 6s sowt-a-t poit;,U-e.

Yo*o,B"O

53

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TEACHING WRI I INU 5K ILL5

Writ ine shortr p n r ) l ' t q

The students ma)'also be given a guided introduction to writ ing reports. For

this, guidance should focus chieflv on the organisation and orderly presentation

o f i deas .

(a) ,4s a prelininary step. the students complete fornts similar to this one.

A penf r iendagency has sentyou th is fo rm.Complete i t wi thdeta i l s aboutyou rsel f .

(b) The students are given a model text, together with cues for writing parallel

versiotts.

Read this short reportlAlan is very practi cal. but he is a/so rather untidy. For example, he is

very good at repair ing things, such as bikes, buthe never puts his tools

away afterwards.

Now write sintilar reports, using these adjectives or others of your own

choice:careless hard working lazY rude

clever kind nice si l lY

The students may also be given outlines and asked to write reports on

other students in the class. For example:

. . . (Narr la) isvery . . . and asaru le (he) isa lso. ' . . Forexample, " . .

On the other hand. (he) can be . . . and sometimes (he) is also . . . .

The information for reports may also be derived from completed

forms, s imi lar to the one in (a) .

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Reg. Of f ice: 29 Bolsover Street , London W'1 .

Please wr i te leg ib ly . l tems 1-6 should be completed incaoi ta l le t ters.

4 Nat iona l i t y

5 R e l i g i o n

7 Educat ion

B How long have you been learn ing Eng l ish?

9 Where d id you learn i t?

10 Have you ever v is i ted England?

1 1 l { so , g ive de ta i l s

12 fuief statement of interests and hobbies

13 Reason{s} for want ing a penfr iend

14 Deta i ls of type of penf r iend requi red

54

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DEVELOPING SKILLS

The students are given a moder text and, after focused practice (e.g.identifiing advantages and disadvantages) are asked to write a parallel one.Look at the detai ls of these two beaches. write a report about which beachwould be suitable for a new hotel. rJse although and because.

ADVANTAGES DISADVANTAGES

bea u t i f u leasy t o ge t t o

very rougn seasma l l beach

Sunset Beach' ; : . ; - : - . t i : - : ' - ' * . ' - -

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5.3Sentence l inkingand sequencingactivities

It has been suggested that this component of the writing programme should beextended and strengthened by varying the formats for prictice to includeformal letters (for this the students must be given appropriate models) andreports, and by expanding the basic kit of l inking devices. This may be done bydrawing systematical ly on the items in the Appendix. Suggestions ior activit iesare given below.

(a) The students complete a short,r.r, ay using suitable linking words orphrases.

we can use this type of exercise for various purposes. First, to familiarisethe students with a wider range of linking devicis from the expanded basickit. After this, thev mav be asked to serect from a listwhich is moreextensive than the number of i tems omitted from the text. Finallv. thevmay be asked to sttppl.v their ovvn tinking devices. An example rrom ttresecond stage (i .e. choosing from a more extensive l ist) is given below.use suitable linking devices from the box to complete the text below:

alsoalthoughandandbecause

butbut alsoforfor the momenthowever

incidental lyin part icularin this wayinsteadmeanwhile

not onlyon the other handsincethereforetoo

Janet west's sister is an air hostess for a famous international air l ine,. . . Janet wants to become one . . . , she is st i l l too young: theminimum age for an air hostess is twenty. . . . Janet is onty iuit oversixteen.

. . . shehas takena job in ano f f i ce . . . . she . . . a t t endseven ingclasses. . . . , she wants to improve her French and Spanish, . . . foreignlanguages are an essential quali f ication for an air hostess.

. . . , Janet is gaining experience through her present job. . . . theoff ice whereshe works is atravel agency. . . . she is learning. . . howto deal with people . . . quite a lot about the places she one dav hopesto visit .

Page 62: Byrne Teaching Writing Skills

TEACHING WRITING SKILLS

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Again the students lnav be asked to do these tasks in pairs or in small

groups. So that they can discuss the various possibi l i t ies. I t should be

emphasised that there need be no one Correct version. What is important is

that. i f the students choose an item which did not appear in the originalversion, they' should consider r i 'hether this affects the meaning of the text

and if so. in u'hat u'a,v.At this stage \\'e mav also use incomplete texts to get the students to

consider other semantic l inks through grammar and lexis. For example, the

first paragraph of the text above might be presented with the fol lowing

items omitted.

Janet West's sister is an air hostess for a famous international . . . , and

Janetwantsto become . . . too. At the moment . . . . iss t i l l too young: . .

for an air hostess is twentv and . . . is only just over sixteen.

All the i tems omitt ed- air l ine, one, she, the minimum age, Janet'

which would appear as part of a much longer l ist, are ones which

contribute to the srammatical and lexical cohesion of the text.

The students combine sentences so that Thsy form an acceptable sequence.

The l inking devices to be used may either be provided or the students may

be asked to supply their own. For example:

Join these sentences in anv, suitable t4)a)t so that they form a sequence. Use'she' in place of 'Janet' v,here appropriate.

1 Janet is gaining experience through her present job'

2 Janet works in a travel agency.3 Janet is learning how to deal with people.4 Janet is learning quite a lot about the places she one day hopes to

visit .

The students rex'rite texts v,ithin the framework of a related outline'

For example:

Read this text. Then contplete the text below so that the same ideas areexpressed in a different w'a\':

There are two sides to the work of stuntmen. They actually do most ofthe things vou see on the screen. For example, they jump from highbuildings. However, they do not fall onto hard ground but onto emptycardboard boxes covered with a mattress.

The work of stuntmen . . . to it. They actually do almost . . . which you see

them . . . , such as. . . . But insteadof . . . , they. . . onto cardboardboxeswh i ch . . . .

The students form texts from a list of jumbled sentences.

See 4.3.1 (c), u'here the students formed a dialogue in this way, and 4.6(e), where they wrote their own texts. While the purpose of this activity isto get the students to think about sentence sequencing, i t must not become

\ L /

(d )

56

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just a puzzle. Narrative texts usuallv have a fair ly transparent sequenceand therefore provide a good start ing point. You can provide someframework of reference. as with the map in the activity below. As a f inalstage, use expository texts with a clear opening'topic' sentence. otherwisethe f irst sentence should be indicated.

Look at the map. John lives at 7, Elm Lane. He's having a party. Whatdirections must he give to his friends? Put these instructions in the riphtorder. Number them I to 7.

Walk along unril 1'ou get to the l ibrary.

V/alk around the pond to Hazelbank Road.

I I Gct of f the bus ar The Green Alan.

Turn r ight into Elm Lane .

I T u r n r r s h r i n t o F i r t r e e L a n e .. l

Number 7 is on the lefr.

Go over the bridge.

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TEACHING WRIT ING SK ILLS

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The students can be given a diagram which shows how the ideas in the text

have been organised. For the act iv i tv below, the students have alreadv

seen a paral lel text.

Here is a p lan o f the f i rs t paragraph in Exerc ise l . Use thesesentences to wr i te a paragraph about London w i th the same p lan '

E d i n b u r g h

The East End has a lo t o f charm,o l d g r e y b u i l d i n g s .London is Eng land 's cap i ta l c i tY .I r i s very d i f fe ren t f ro rn the Westshops and love ly g reen parks .I ts old name was Londiniunr.London has many shops , res taurants and thea l res and o f ie rs a

l o t t o v i s i r o r s .f T h i s m e a n s t h e o f t h e b o l d m a n .

Sentences can be broken dorvn into clauses to draw further attention to the

logical structure of a text. For example:

Use these sentences to write a paragraph about the pygmies. Change the

order and add any necessar)' punctuation.

They can move easilf in the forest

and they are not afraid of it

The forest in the centre of Africa is a dangerous place

Pygmies knou'the forest wel l

because they are verY small

A big pygmy is onlY lm 40cm tall

but the pygmies are haPPY there

The students do exercises which specifically direct their attentiotl to the way

ideas are organised in a text.

This may be done in a guided form at the start, with the help of

information presented in tabular form, together with examples of the kind

of text which the students are required to write. For example:

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Study the two texts, which are based on information given in the table. Thenwrite similar texts of your own. to form part of a letter telling someone howto get to a place.

Destination Alternatives

I z

Time for I

alrportsports groundmotor showtheatrehospitalport

coach taxitube bustaxi tubeon foot taxibus on footboat bus

Vzhour10 mins5 mins7+ hour

*Use any suitable period of t ime

You can go to the airport either by coach or by taxi. If you go bycoach, i t takes at least half an hour. By taxi, on the other hand, i t takesonly ten minutes. For that reason, I suggest the second possibility.

There are two ways of getting td the sports ground: either by tube orby bus. By tube it only takes ten minutes, while if you go by bus, on theother hand, it may take you over twenty minutes. My advice to you,then, is to go by tube.

(0 The students write texts based on a model that has a clear logicaldevelooment.

This may be shown For example:

2DI

1_2_

SADVANTAGES

Sharing a f lat has certain advantages. For one thing, you do not have todo all the housework yourself . Besides, it is also cheaper. On the otherhand, you may not have much privacy and, moreover, i t may be noisy.All in al l , i t is probably better to l ive on your own!

The students are then given topics which can be written about within asimilar framework. For example:

1 Living in a big city2 Owning a car3 Working in an office4 Beins a housewife

through a diagram.

TOPIC

Flat sharing

ADVANTACES

CONCLUSION

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TEACHING WRITING SKILLS

5.4Reproduct ionexercises

5.5Communicat ionactivit ies

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These resemble dictations, in that the students have to i isten to a text which is

read alourl to them. However. instead of being asked to take this down

segment by segment. u,hich makes dictation a someu'hat art i f icialexercise, they

l isten to the complete text a number of t imes (usuall-v three or more) before

theya reasked tou ' r i t e .The i ' a re then requ i red to ' rep roduce ' the tex t theyhave heard as accurately as possible. but they may f i l l in with their own words

u,here their memorv of the original fai ls them'

Like dictation. this type of activity also involves careful l istening and the

transformation of u'hat is heard into its written form. However, it focuses much

more on grasping the overal l meaning of a text and in part icular how one

sentence relates to another. We can also make our own 'rules' for this activity.

For example. the students may be al lowed to make brief notes during the f inal

reading. Alternatively, we may write key words and phrases on the board,

to remind the students of some of the main ideas. In either case' we thus ensure

that the activity does not become just a test of memorY. We may also write a

framework of linking words and sequencing devices on the board, so that in

effect we give the students a structural 'skeleton' around which the text can be'reproduced'.

At this stage. i t is important that communication activit ies should match the

growing u6itity of the Iearners to express themselves through the written form

6t r ir. t inguag.. They should. therefore, in the f irst instance be on a much

more extensive scale.compared with the modesttasks of sending messagesand notes (see 4.5. Thistype of activity, however,where the students u'r i te toone another in the class canstill be used provided thatthey are asked to Producesomething moresubstantial.). TheY mustalso be more challenging.With this type of writ ingactivity, the students maYof course make mistakes, aswith free oral expression.but the imPortant th ing.from the point of view ofmotivation, is todemonstrate that writing isa purposeful activitY.

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You should also encourage and help the students to find penfriends as a way of

extending communication practice. From time to time you can also conduct all

or part oith. lesson entirely through the medium of writ ing so that the students

."utty appreciate what is involved in giving and receiving instructions. requests,

etc. in this way.

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(a )

DEVELOPING SKILLS

In the activit ies below, more use is now made of roleplay, although not tothe exclusion of other activities where the students write as themselves. The listof suggestions below, which is intended to indicate typical activities rather thanto be exhaustive, frequently involves some form of collaboration in the writinstask.

The Estate Agency

Divide the class into two. Sub-divide one half into three or four groups,depending on the size of the class. Tell each of these groups that theyrepresent an estate agency. They should also find a name for their agency.Their immediate task is to devise a form on which they can recordinformation about the houses or f lats which their 'cl ients' wil l give themwhen they come to see them.

Tell the students in the other half of the class that they are people whowant to sel l their houses and to buy another.

Each of them should write some notes describing the house they wantto sell. It may be the house they actually live in or an imaginary one. Theyshould also have some idea of the house they would like to buy.

The 'clients' then choose which agency they want to go to. They areinterviewed by a member of the agency and fill in the form, on the basis ofwhich a final description of their house is worked out. These descriptionsare then written up and displayed, and can be r'ead by those who want tobuy a house.

The activity may be repeated at a later stage with the roles reversed.Instead of estate agencies, secondhand car firms can be used as analternative setting.

The Magazine Advice ColLtmn

Write the names of a number of magazine 'advice columns'on the board.These should be discussed rvith the class so that they know what kind of'problems' each one deals with.

Then ask al l the students in the class to write to one of the advicecolumns, asking for help with a personal problem. They can do thisanonymously i f they prefer.

Divide the class into small groups, each one representing the staff ofan advice column. Distr ibute the letters among the groups, making surethat no one gets his own letter. and ask them to write replies to theseletters. These replies should then be given to the students who wrote to thecolumn.

Alternatively, both the letters and replies may be written up as rval lsheets. so that the whole class can read them.

The News Desk

Ask each student in the class to write two or three items of news (realorimaginary). Each item should not be more than about 50-60 rvords longand duplicate copies should be made of each item.

Div ide the c lass in to groups, each represent ing a 'News Desk ' .Distr ibute the items of nervs among the various desks (because the-v-are in dupl icate. more thun one'desk 'wi l lget the same i tem) and ask each

(b )

(c)

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TEACHING WHI I INU sK ILL5

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group to edit their i terns so as to produce a ne\\ 's bul let in. which can then

be read a loud to the c lass .

(d) Joh vacaltc ics

Distr ibute a l ist of ' job vacancies' in f ive or six big f irms and ask each

student to write a letter of application for one of these jobs (giving

personal deta i ls . rea l or imaginary) .Divide the class into groups representing each of these firms and ask

them to write their replies. In these, they should suggest a date and time

for an interview or say that the vacancy has already been filled, etc.

Complaints

Select from magazines a variety of ads for well-known products and pastethese on to cards. Ask each student in the class to choose one of these ads

and to write a letter of complaint about either the product or the ad to the

firm concerned.Divide the class into groups. each representing a big f irm responsible

for advert ising a number of these products. Then distr ibute the letters to

the appropriate f irms and ask them to discuss and write their repl ies. These

should be sent to the person u'ho wrote the letter of complaint.

Campaigns

Divide the class into groups and ask each group to decide on some action

they would take to improve their town: for example, by pull ing down a

certain building; by providing a facility of some kind, such as a new

swimming pool, or tennis courts: by widening a street, etc. Each group should

then announce, in the form of a press report, what they propose to do.

Each student in the class is then invited to respond to one or more of

these proposals: for example, by writing to the press; by writing, incollaboration with two or more other students, a public protest or a noticecall ing for a meeting to protest against the proposal. or by writ ing

anonymous letters to the persons concerned with the proposal'

Notices

Divide the class into groups. Ask each to draw up a notice on a given topic:

for example, start ing a pop group or club; start ing a protest against . . ' ,

raising funds for . . .. etc. At least two groups should work on the same task

so that they can compare their notices.

Rules and regulations

Divide the class into groups and ask each group to draw up a list of rulesand regulations to control a certain situation: for example, safetyprecautions (fire, hygiene, etc.) for a holiday camp. After each group hasfinished drawing up its list of rules and regulations, ask them to comparethese with those of other groups.

Market research

Divide the class into groups. Ask each group to draw up a market researchquestionnaire for a certain product. Each student should then use one ofthese questionnaires to interview other students in the class'

(f)

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5.5.2 (a) Our townReport writ ing Divide the class into groups. Give each group the task of describing oneactivit ies feature of their town. Foiexample:

- places of interest - sports facilities- good places to eat at - local industries, etc.- entertainment faci l i t ies

Each group should write their descript ion in such a way that thefeature described sounds attractive to someone visit ing the town. Eachstudent should also make his own copy of the descript ion.

Then form new groups. making sure that they contain at least onerepresentative from each of the original groups, and ask them to write aful l report on their torvn based on these descript ions. The report may beaccompanied by a map shorving the location of various places of interest,e tc .

(b\ Public interviews

Ask a student who is rvilling to be interviewed to come to the front of theclass. Ask the other students to question him about some experience,pleasant or unpleasant which he has had, and to make notes.

Divide the students into groups, ask them to compare notes and tocompile an account of what rvas said by combining various ideas. When thegroups have f inished writ ing their versions. these should be read aloud andcompared.

(c) Private interviews

Ask each student in the class to intervierv another student about someexperience which he has had. and to make notes. Each student should thenwrite a rough version from his notes and show this to the person heinterviewed before writ ing up the f inalversion.

(d) Book reports

Ask each student to write a report on a book he has read. If there is a classl ibrary, he should choose a book from this and place the report he haswritten inside the book for the guidance of prospective readers. I f there isno class l ibrary, the book reports may be circulated among the students inthe class in a folder. Similarly, the students may be asked to report on newrecords or on f i lms thev have seen.

(e) l,/oticeboard

Ask the students to write ads or notices for things rvhich they would l ike tosell or to buy. These should be pinned on the class noticeboard orcirculated round the class in a folder. The noticeboard may also be used asthe location for some of the activit ies suggested in 5.6, e.g. 'problems',

graff i t i . jokes, or simply 'hel lo' messages to other students in the class.

(f) References

Ask each student in the class to request at least two other students to writehim a character reference. The various references should then becclmpared rvith one another.

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5.6Writing for fun

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Ask each student to write a contribution for a class rval lsheet - i tems ofclass neu,s. i tems of general interest. Divide the class into three orfourgroups and ask them to edit the various contributions. They must alsodecide hou,these u' i l lbe arranged on the u'al lsheet. These rval lsheets.when completed. should be displayed for the clther students to read.

We can go on using many of the activit ies suggested for fun writ ing in Chapter4. In fact i t is important to do this because it demonstrates to the students horvmuch more thev can get out of an activity as their proficiency in the languageincreases. Amongst the activit ies suggested. i t is especial ly important to go onusing questionnaires and quizzes, jumbled texts, role descript ions (see also (d)below), imaginarl 'diaries and u'r i t ing about pictures and speech bubbles. Forwrit ing about pictures in part icular we can begin to expect more than just a fewsentences and ideas iotted dou'n.

(a) Posing problems

The students. u'orking in pairs or small groups, think up problem situationssuch as:

What w,ould 1'ou do if . . . . . (the school caught fire I vou becarne PrimeMinister tomorrow' I you had to live without water for a month I . . . .)?

We need (f 1,000) at once.t Can you suggest some wa,rs of gening or ntakingmoney?

They then send these problems to one or more other pairs or groups fortheir sussested solutions.

(b) Writing clues for crosswords

For this the students, workingin pairs or small groups. aregiven a crossword puzzle(perhaps made up b,v another Ogroup) l ike the one here.They then have to write the'clues' (which vou rvouldnormall i 'be given to comPletethe crossu'ord puzzle). Thesecan be l i teral. e.g. for school:You go there to study, oramusing, A place where they tryhard to teach you things.

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Alternatively, the 'clues' can consist of a series of sentenceS, €,9. It's a veryunpleasant place where they try to teach you things. It's like a kind of prison.You go there when t-ou are (six) and you are 'free' when you are (sixteen).After that, it is usuallv difficult to get a job . . . . .

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)EVELOPING SKILLS

Instructions for a game

For the simple board game below, the students, working in groups, canwrite their own instructions for moving round the board. For example:A If you have something to eat in your bag, go back 2 squares.B If you went to bed before 10 o'clock last night, go forward 3 squares.C Unless you know how to ride a bike, go back five squares.To play this game, the students take it in turns to throw a dice, movinsround the board first from left to right, then right to left (etc, followin! thearrows). when they land on a square, they look at the instructions (giienin alphabetical order) to find out about their move. The first plaver toreach 'home' is the winner.

For this activity the students, therefore, have to write instructions for eachletter of the alphabet on the board.

Role descriptions

This is a more advanced version of the activity described in 4.6 (f). Thestudents have to produce descriptions which could be used for simplesimulation situations (based perhaps on characters in the coursebook). Thetext involves more sentence l inking and sequencing than the earl ieractivity, but is still a relatively straightforward piece of writing. onceagain, the role description is intended for a specific person and should aimto be amusing.

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Scenarios

The students, u'orking in groups, rvri te 'scenarios' l ike the one in 5.2.1 (c)or short stories which the1, give to one another to decide how to act out.Notice that the scenario has opportunit ies for talk but does not give any ofthe actual words. Thus we have an activitv which develops as fol lows:

Itnccurate accoLttlts

The students, working in groups, write a descript ion of a well-knownperson, place or thing or an account of an event which contains somedeliberate mistakes of fact. The groups then exchange what they havewritten and try to detect the inaccuracies.

Jumbled stories

This is similar to 4.6 (e), except that the students, working in groups, haveto write two short stories of about four to six sentences each. The storiescan be about the same person or a similar event. The stories are then cutup into separate sentences and given to another group to sort out into thetwo orisinal stories.

TWO TALL STORIES

Make two stories with these sentences:

(a) The woman who u'as sitt ing behind the elephant couldn't see.

(b) "I 'm not surprised." the elephant said. "The coffee's not very good."

(c) "He's read the book." the man said. "Now he wants to see the f i Im."

(d) A man once took his elephant fr iend to the cinema.

(e) The waiter gave one to him and the elephant drank it .

(0 One day an elephant went into a caf6 and asked for a cup of coffee.

(g) "Why have you brought this elephant in here?" she asked.

(h) "We don't see many elephants in here," the waiter said.

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66

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(h) Jigsaw writing

Cut up any suitable picture: i t should have a clear overal l structure andsome, but not too much, detai l . Give one such picture to each group andask the students to work in pairs to work out a descript ion of one or morepieces. They should not look at one another's pieces. When they havewritten out their descript ions, they should put away their pieces and try towork out what the picture as a whole looks like from what they havewritten. When they have described, oral ly or in writ ing, the completepicture, they can check this against the visual.

(i) Instructions for drawing a map or picture

The students. working in groups, have to draw a simple map or picture l ikethe ones below. They then work out the step by step instructions fordrawing these. For example. for the picture:

1 Draw two trees, one on the left of the picture and the other on the right.2 There is a rope between the two trees. It is about four feet from the

ground.

3 Draw a man on the rope. He is walking from left to r ight. He is wearinga hat and he has a st ick in his hand and . . . . . , etc.

They must decide how much detail fhey want to include (they can of coursechange their picture at this stage) but they must make sure that theirinstructions are clear.

The groups then exchange instructions and try to draw one another'spictures. As a f inalstage they check their pictures against the original ones.

U) Headlines

Give each group one or more headlines, l ike those shown on the next page.These can be invented or taken from real newspapers. Ask the students todiscuss and write out the related story. At this level (and for the purpose ofthis activity) the students should not be asked to try to write a newspaperaccount of the story. The important thing is for them to use theirimagination. Ideas itre mr)re important than formally correct languaee. l f ,

67

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Rea lo ractivity.

imaginary book t i t les can also be used to st imulate a similar

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[4Rs cnErJ U ST FRIENDS

(k) GraffitiMost students l ike to write on walls from time to time: this activity may

encourage them to be more creative!

Give the students some examples of imaginative graff i t i . I ike those

below.

JOO-AIVD DIE HEALTHIIRr ltteogrqpn), ry,ififfiffi,f A,,is everyvvhere il[r'ffi)k iurr,rs Atcw

Then ask them (individuallv, in pairs or groups) to try their hand at writing

their own graffiti. It sometimes helps to suggest an event or a location'

Say whether you agree or disagree with the suggestion that:

(a) dialogue writ ing should be continued;

iUi rorn. tormal letter u'r i t ing should be introduced'

Give reasons.

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DEVELOPING SKILLS

In what ways do many of the writ ing tasks proposed in this chapter involve amuch closer integration than at earl ier stages with other language activit ies inthe classroom? Do vou agree with this development?Many of the activit ies proposed in this chapter would involve more class t imebeing spent on writ ing. Do you think that this would necessari ly be a wrongway of using class t ime? Give reasons.Many of the activit ies in 5.5 and 5.6 are l ikely to result in the studentsmaking mistakes. Does this worry you?

Devise other exercises similar to those in 5.2. I for practising dialogue writ ingat the post-elementary level.Devise an exercise similar to the one in 5.2.2 so that the cues are phased outand the students are asked to write the f inal text unaided.write an exercise, similar to the f inal one in 5.3 (d). After you have jumbledup the items, give the exercise to a friend for checking.This is the complete text for 5.3 (a):

Janet West's sister is an air hostess for a famous international airline andJanet wants to become one too. However, she is still too young: theminimum age for an air hostess is twenty and Janet is only just over slrteen.

For the moment she has taken a 16b in an office. But she also attendsevening classes. In particular, she wants to improve her French andSpanish because foreign languages are an important qualification for an airhostess.

Meanwhile Janet is gaining experience through her presentjob. For the office she works in is a travel agency. In this way she is learningnot only how to deal with people but also quite a lot about the places she oneday hopes to visit.

Now complete the exercise at the end of 5.3 (a) to practise grammatical andlexical cohesion.Devise a rewriting activitv. based on the text in 4 above, similar to one in5 .3 ( c ) .From vour own experience of teaching (or learning) a foreign languaee.suggest other activit ies similar to those proposed for 5.5 and 5.6.

On guided writ ing see A Pincas (1982a) pages I0Z-9 and S Holden (ed)(1983) pages 49-57.For the technique of interviewing the class see N coe in S Holden (ed)(1983). Also L Winer on conducting a lesson through writ ing.For writ ten communicative activit ies see J Harmer (1983) pages 132-140.For writ ing activit ies at this level see T Hedge (1983a and 1983b); T Jupp andJ Mi lne (1980) ;A Pincas (1982b and 1982c) and L Woods (1986) .Examples of writ ing activit ies in this chapter have been taken from: D ByrneFunctional Comprehen^slon (Longman 1986 new ed.) 5.2.I(a);5.2.2(b) and(c) ;5 .3(a)- (c) and (e) ;J Harmer i l ter id ian (Longman 1985) 5.2.3(c) :T Hedge Pen to Paper (Nelson 1983) 5.3(d) f irst example; M palmer andD Byrne Track J (Longman 1983)5.6(b), (g) and (i) and A pincas writ ing inEnglish 1 ( ivlacmil lan 1982) 5.3(d) second example.

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6 .1The text ascontext

6.2Comprehensionactivit ies

Contexts for writing:the use of texts

Texts - read or l istened to - of fer a natural context for a wide range of

wri t ing act iv i t ies. We often read or hear something and react by making a note,

for eximple. or wri t ing a let ter. However. our response might equal ly wel l be

oral and itrir t inO of linked reaction. with a variety of skills taking place, will be

dealt with under Integrated skills in Chapter 8. This chapter will be more

narrowly concerned with the important, though often neglected, skills of note-

taking and summarising. First, however, we willlook briefly at various types of

comprehension activity. since this can also be a useful and effective way of

pror id ing wr i t ing prac t ice .

Comprehension eiercises on a text are a weli-established way of providing

writing practice of various kinds, and it is not the purpose of this section to

examini the wide range of possibilities in this area. Many such exercises can be

done oral ly: for example. quest ions on a text, deciding whether statements are

true or false, etc. It ma1' lse conveniertr to ask for these to be done in writing but

this is not intr insic to the task. On the other hand, there are certain si tuat ions in

rvhich it rs appropriate to choose u'riting as the medium of response.

This is particularly the case u'here exercises require the students to

examine the meaning of the text very carefully: for example, if they are asked

to decide u,hether there is sufficient evidence in the text to support certain

statements or whether certain statements are implied by the text. In cases like

this the students cannot be expected to respond quickly because they are

probably having to examine the meaning of several sentences in order to find

the answers.Getting the students to write out answers of this kind is also a way of

encouraging them to use writing for activities which require thought and

precision - precision which perhaps can only be attained after several

attempts. Oral work is not of course precluded: the students can col laborate on

these tasks and there can be some whole class fol low-up'

70

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Some types of comprehension task may also call for the production of twoor more sentences: that is. a short text of some kind. This, for e.xample, , igh,be the type of re-writ ing exercise suggested in 5.3 (c) or drscussron typequestions which call for the learner s' owt't responses to certain ideas expressedin the text. Exercises of the latter kind are especial ly valuable because irr.v

-

al low the written medium to be used for the .*pr.rr ion of personal opinionwithin a context provided by the text.

Another type of rewrit ing exercise frequently used is the guided summary,i l lustrated in 6.2-1 below. This can be a useiul preparation for summary writ ingbased on more extensive texts (see 6.3.Z).

6'2'1 Some types of guided summary rvri t ing are very much more control led than theGuided summary one below' For example, the siudents are given the actual sentences to be usedwrit ing: an in the summary and merely have to l ink thlse with appropriate connectingexample words and phrases, which are also provided. Althougir this gives the students

practice in continuous writ ing, i t does not teach summarising ski l ls, rvhich mustinvolve some form of note-taking. Notice in the example beiow guidance fir

-

the summary is provided through questions on the texi, to which it is suggestedthat the answers should be in note form.

Today, air traver is far safer than driving a car on a busy motorway.But there is a danger that grows every year. Airliners get laiger and laiger.Some can carr.y

-over 300 passengers. And the air itseribecori., nror. uiJmore crowded. If one giant airliner crashed into another in mid_air. 600lives could be lost.

From the moment an airriner takes off to the moment it lands, everymovement is watched on radar screens. Air traffic controllers tell the pil,otexactly when to turn, when to climb and when to come down. The airtraffic controllers around a busv airport like London-Heathrow may handle2500 planes a day. Not al l of them actually land at the airport. Any pranethat flies near the airport comes under the orders of the controllers there.Even a small mistake on their part could cause a disaster.

Recently such a disaster almost happened. Two large jets rvere flyingtowards the airport. one was carrying 69 puss.ngers and had come fromToronto. The.other was carrying 176 passlng..riro* chicago. An airtraffic controller noticed on his radar icreenihut the two planes were tooclose to each other. He ordered one to turn to the right and to cl imb. Buthe made a mistake. He orderecr the wrong prane to Jo this. So, instead ofturning away from the second plane, tne nist plane turnecr torvards it.Fifteen seconds later i t f lew directry in front oi t t . second plane. Theyavoided each other by the smallest part of a second. The distance betweenthem was less than that of a larse swimming pool. This is an example of thedanger that grows everv year.

Describe the disa.ster thut olntost hoppened. write one paragraph of about eightywords.

Answer these questiorts irt note fonn to get yoLtr pomts;1) What were the tu'o planes doinc at the t ime,/2) Where had thev corne from'l3) What did an air traft ic conrrol ler t lo ancl rvhvJ

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TEACHING WRIT ING SK ILLS

6.3Note-taking andsummar i s ing

-1) What was the result ' l-5) What \\'as narro\\'lv avoided'l

This type of act iv i tv is a useful f i rst step in gett ing students to make notes

ivhich they wi l l do something u' i th. l t does not. of course, shou'them how to

make notes. which is a problem rve rvi l l now look at.

The relevance of the ski l ls of note-taking and summarising* to wri t ing tasks at

this level should nou' be apparent: thel ' are a common feature of many wri t ing

act iv i t ies u'hich relate in some wav to what we have read or heard. s ince we

often make a note of certain ideas and then re-present them in some other

form. These. then. are important ski l ls for the learners and i t is essent ial that

thev shoulcl not be lef t rv i th the impression that they are art i f ic ial 'c lassroom'

act iv i t ies. which are of l i t t le pract ical value except for the purpose of passing

examinat ions. and this too only i f they are executed according to certain

formulas. This appl ies part icular lv to summarising. Yet this is how thel 'are

commonlv presented and pract ised: the students are asked to take notes with

no specif ic purpose in mind and to u'r i te summaries in a wav u'hich involves

both distort ion and contort ion. l t is not denied that there is an important

element of control and discipl ine (or at least sel f-discipl ine) in these act iv i t ies,

bur the purpose of this can best be brought home through meaningful act iv i t ies

rather than by procedures mechanical ly appl ied.

I t should also be clear that these are ski l ls that cannot be ful ly developed

until the learners have reached a certain proficiency in the language, although it

wi l l be argued that u 'e can and should f i rst present them on arecept ive basis.

That is. the learner s are shon,n what notes and summaries look l ike in relat ion

to an original text. There are also simple tasks which the learners can be asked

to perform before thev carrv out activities on a more extensive scale.

To appreciate just hou,di f f icul t these ski l ls are, even for the nat ive user of

the language. u'e would do wel l to consider what is involved in them. With

note-taking. for example. we have to be able to ident i fy key i tems in a text.

which is in itself a searching test of comprehension and clearl.v much more

difficult if u,e are listening rather than reading, when at least we have the

opportunity to scrut inise the text at le isure. We aiso have to be able to reduce

or compress these items in a way that is at least sufficient to allow us to retrieve

their or iginal meanin-q. The task of meaningful abbreviat ion cal ls for a good

knowledge of how the language works. Likewise the abi l i ty to re-present these

key ideas in such a wav that thev const i tute an acceptable text. with

appropriate sentence-l inking and sequencing. is much closer to advanced than

guided wri t ing. Whi le i t mav be true that, when we are summarising' the text

provides us u'ith the 'content' of what we write. in many respects it is more

Oifncult to operate u' i th in the constraints of someone else s thoughts than to

produce our own.

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has been read and of taking notes on a text which has been heard. I t is acknou' ledged that note-

taking is i tsel l a form of suLmarising. Hou'ever, summarising is used here to refer to the activi t l ' of

,e-priseuti , tg n ,ho.t.r version of thC original text. although not according to any set prcscript ion.

such as usine a given numbe r of q'ords.

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CONTEXTS FOR WRITING: THE USE OF TEXTS

I t has been suggested that the init ial phase of note-taking* should consistmainly of showing the learners what notes look l ike and of demonstrating that,although there are no magic formulas. since note-taking is to some extent apersonal activity, there are a number of wavs of reducing a text to notes so thatthe fundamental ideas in i t are not lost. We should start, therefore, by showinghow notes relate to a text. For example, we can present both a text and a set ofnotes and examine horv the writer arnved at his notes.

John Smith, who was born on December 6,1957, is a secondary schoolteacher. His wife's name is Jovce. Thev have three children: one son andtwo daughters.

We may also usefully contrast one set of notes with another. For example:

Ja* frurl4 Btrn : b.l2,t/ .fec. scho4 tqa'ohtrWLJA t)yu I son Z earyh,tuls

By comparing two possible sets of notes we can ask the students to identifyrvhat information has been preserved in both and what other information eachwriter has included or omitted. We can also examine some of the devices whichhave been used. For example. the examination of even short sets of notes l ikethese reveals that we can omit pronouns. auxil iary verbs, art icles andconnectives. and that we can also use numerals and symbols. We can also beginto look at the question of abbreviations. of which there is only one example inthe notes (sec. for secondary) and discuss how this was made (i .e. in this case,by taking the f irst svl lable of the rvord) and whether other ones are possible (forexample. sclz. for school).

I t wil l also help students to be shorvn different ways of sett ing notes out.For example, the modelbelorv does not commit them to anv par t icu lar order .and. perhaps more important. al lou's addit ional related information to beadded in at the r ight point. especial lv i f you are reading a long text. Forexample. where John Smith n 'as born. the name of the school he teaches in andthe subiects . e tc .

' *- fhis can [re hcgtrn at an cltr l ic 'r stagc i lnd prlct isct lc \ l ( ' n \ i \ L ' r r ( ) l c - l i l k i n g : r c t i r i t i c s .

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I L A U H I N U W H I I I N U b K I L L 5

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l n add i t ion to ask ing the s tudents to examine se ts o f no tes a long thesel ines, we ma1, take a number of texts and discuss how we might arr ive at a set ofnotes: for example. \ \ 'e can underl ine kev i tems. bracket words or phrases thatcan be omit ted. and consider possible contract ions. Final ly. we can work outv'ith the students a possible set of notes.

Another useful act i r , i tv. to be carr ied out with fair ly long texts. is to ask

the students to ident i f l ' the main ideas in a text. For example. as a f i rst step. we

can give them a l ist of the main ideas. presented in random order, and ask them

to put these in the order in u'hich the1, 'are dealt with in the text. Subsequent ly,they may be asked to ident i f l , the main ideas for themselves.

At this stage. too. u 'hen * 'e f i rst ask the students to take notes, i t is helpful ,

both in order to focus their at tent ion on specif ic aspects of the text and to

ensure that they keep their notes short . to give them some sort of f rameworku' i thin which to u'ork. in the form of a chart to be completed. The act iv i t ies onpage 75 show how it is possible to focus the attention of the students onpart icular aspects of a text ( in this case. one for reading fol lowed by a relatedone for l istening to). r . rhich are the points they need to make a note of.

Students enjov this kind of act iv i t l , ' because i t is intr insical ly more enjoyable

than simply making a str ing of notes. Equal ly important. however, the use ofcharts obl iges students to be concise.

Mani ' games and gamelike act iv i t ies involve keeping notes, and this isanother way of br ingin-q home to the students their real importance. Oneact iv i ty in part icular u, i l l be found useful : this is a var iat ion on Describe anddraw.

Instead of trying to drau' a picture whichsomeone describes for them withouttheir being able to see i t , the studentsmake notes as they l isten. They can thencompare notes and subsequentl,v. eitherindividually or in coliaboration. carryout one of the following tasks:

- describe the picture orally;- draw the picture;- write a description of the picture

Usually the students feel morecomfortable making notes as a firststage (rather than being asked to try todraw the picture straight off) and, ofcourse, the activitv does give them animmediate use for the notes they havemade.

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fast anddu r i ng t he

a p leasure in i t se l f . The modern , h igh-speed t ra ins a re qu ie t , comfor tab le andair-condit ioned. You can enioy a goodmeal dur ing your journey . Or you cant rave l overn igh t . Take your car on thet ra in w i th you. S tar t your ho l iday f reshand re laxed.

BY AIRThe fastest way to travel. There areseveral f l ights from London every day,and regular services from manyEuropean cit i€s.

CONTEXTS FOR WRITING: THE USE oF TEXTS

1 Use information in the text to complete thistable. If there is no information. put aquest ion mark.

2 How would you travel i f you wanted to dothese things?

ar watch a f i lm on the journey

b) take your car to Scotiand without driving i tc) get to Scotland as quickly as possible

3 Listen and answer:NIr Smith wants to go to Scotland. so he goes to atravel agency. The travel agent tel ls himdifferenLways of travel l ing. Horv does NIr Smithdecide to go to Scotland? Why?

4 Mr Smith wants to know how long i t takesto get to Scotland. What does the travelagent tel l him? Listen to the conversationagain and complete this table:

How long?

t ra ln

p lane

coach

5 Complete this table:

WAYS OF TRAVELLING TO SCOTLAND(for one person)

quickest

cheapest

most comfortable

Scotland isdif ferent.I t 's excit ing.It 's easy toget to. andi t ' s cheapto travela round in .There areplenty oftravelbarga ins .

ML

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mea ls

LAN

coaches run every day f romother b ig c i t ies . They are

You q 'Cn watch f i lmsi r r you can s leep inovernight se

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TEACHING WRITING SKILLS

6 .3 .2Summarising

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Sy'stematic training alonc thcse l ines u' i l l ensure that the students are

adequately preparedfor note-taking' At the same t ime' we can also

demonstrat e the pract ical t 'a lue of note-taki lg: for example. by making sure

that the students exercise this ski l l when rve give them instruct ions for

act iv i t ies. including homeu'ork. which they have to carrv out at a later date' In

this way. i t is hoped. thev u, i l l be able to see that note-taking is a purposeful

ac t i v i t y .

SunmarisinC - producinC a shortened version of a text rvhich has been read or

heard - is best v iewed as a ski l l which is real ised through di f ferent kinds of

\ \ , r i t ing, rather than as a special . fo,77? of wri t in g' Reports on speeches and

ntintttis of meetings are summaries: so are obstracts of articles and svrtopses of

books. At one end of the scale, summaries may be quite lengthy documents: at

the other. no more than a few i ines. One factor rvhich determines the length of

a summary is the actual amount of space rvhich the u'r i ter of the summarised

version has at his disposal. A report on a meeting. to be read and studied bv

those who were not present. ma\I have no prescr ibed length' u 'hi le a report on a

meeting u,hich has been u r i t ten to be publ ished in a ne\\ 'spaper may have to be

f i t ted into half a column or less. Another factor is lhe purpose for which the

summarv has been u,r i t ten: i t may' be intended to provide a record of some

event, in rvhich case brevi tv wi l l not be the main concern' On the other hand.

corrciseness is l ikely to be important i f i t is intended to serve as a guide for

someone who does not have i ime to read the or iginal text or who wishes to f ind

out u'hether i t is worth reading'

Al l this. of course. is a long u'av from summarising as i t is t radi t ional ly

pract ised in the classroom. but there woulcl seem l i t t le point in pract is ing the

i t i t t ut al l unless we can relate i t in some wa,v to real ist ic act iv i t ies l ike those

described above. A more f lexible view of sunmary u'r i t ing wi l l not only make i t

a more purposeful act iy i ty for the students; i t wi l l a lso enable us to work with

di f ferent kinds of mater ial . both spoken and wri t ten. and of very di f ferent

lengths. I t wi i l fu i ther enable us to demonstrate that. al though in a summarised

version we are alwa),s concerned to preserve essent iai information - the main

ideas - how u,e do this is af fected both by the purpose in making the summary

and the amount of space at our disposal '

Through note-taking we have already to a large extent laid the foundations

for summarising; in particular, through activities such as identifying the main

points in a text ir.. 6. : . 1 ) . Because at the start tt is convenient to work rvith

iair l l ,short texts ( l ike the one in 6.2.1). we have to be careful to avoid sett ing

unreal ist ic tasks which r l ould involve the compression of mater ial which is

already succinctly expressed. Hou'et'er, the students maY be asked to give a

."ru*d, oral or wri t ten. in a given number of sentences rather than a set

number of words. This encourages the students to make the best use of the

number of sentences at their disposal '

As with note-taking. we must also sf tow the students what var ious kinds of

summarised versions of a text look l ike. This can be done in a number of ways'

For example. we may reiate this act iv i ty to the intensive study of texts (which is

o.o61*on act iv i ty ai this stage), bv sett ing them a reading goal in the form of a

summarv. which asks them to decide whether the summary accurately ref lects

the main ic leas in the text. we ma1' also compare, as with examples of notes.

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CONTEXTS FOR WRITING: THE USE oF TEXTS

two or three summaries of different lengths, so that the students can decide towhat extent the essential ideas of the original have been retained in each. andhow the length of the summarised versions may affect both what is includedand how it is expressed.

However, the practical value of summarising can only be ful ly broughthome if we work with fair ly ' long texts. How this is done must of course .. lut.to the level and interests of the students. They may be asked to write abstractsof chapters of books they have read. For example. the communication task in5.5.2 (d) mav be reformulated so that they write 'blurbs' for the books rvhichthev have read. In some classes. i t mav be more useful to work with texts rvhichare heard rather than read. For example, some dialogues where the speakersare dealing with a well-defined theme, such as making plans, lend themselveswell to report ing activit ies throu-sh rvhich summarising can be practised. Incjeedthe task of writ ing a notice. based on what the speakers have said, is a form ofsummarv, with a special communicative purpose. If l istening faci l i t ies areavailable, the students, divided into two halves, may be asked to l isten to tworeports on a town or on an accident, broadly the same but differing in detai ls.They may then be asked to write summarised versions of what they have heardand subsequently to compare these so as to identify the similari t ies anddifferences.

But to demonstrate ful lv the practical 'application of summarising rve shallprobably have to relv mainlv on activit ies rvhich invo.lve some form of roleplay.For example. the 'estate agencv 'act iv i tv suggested in 5.5.1 (a) is wel lsu i ted tothis purpose. Each student mav be asked to rvri te a comprehensive descript ionof the property he wishes to sel l . rvhich is then siven to other students.preferably rvorking in pairs or small sroups, to 'edit ' in such a way that thedescript ion f i ts into a given amount of space for the purpose of advert ising.

Similarly the students mavbe given, or asked to write.'art icles' of dif ferent kinds suchas news reports, socialevents,book and f i lm reviews. lettersto the edi tor . e tc . , for which thelength is not specif ied. Aselect ion of these is g iven toeach group of students,together with the layout for thepage of a newspaper as shownin the diagram. Their task is tof i t these p ieces of wr i t ing ontothe page. Thev have, therefore.to consider both where to placetheir art icles, rvithin the l imitslaid down, and to modify themas necessary, which mightinvolve e i ther expansion orreduct ion.

R4@ &e@sprnqNumber

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TEACHING WRIT ING SK ILLS

Discussion

Exercises

References

Through act i i , i t ies along these l ines (and aiso within the broader context of

simulat ions, see 8.4). the ski l l of summarising may be pract ised and developed

in a realistic way. The requirements of examinations may demand that this skill

should be used in a much more l imited way. such as making summaries in the

traditional sense, for rvhich the purpose mav not be at all apparent, but these

need not be al lowed to distort the rvay we teach and pract ise this ski l l in the

classroom.

1 Make a list of the things you use note-taking and summarising for' Arrange

these under two headin gs: frequent and occasional. Compare your list with a

fr iend.2 From your readin g of.6.3.2. do you agree that summary writing is an

important and valuable activitY?

3 How effective do 1'ou think the final activity in 6.3.2 would be for teaching

summary writing?

1 Examine any textbook at an appropriate level to see what attempt is made to

pract ise note-taking and summary wri t ing. Are the act iv i t ies wel lpresented?

2 Do the exercise in 6 .2.1 .

3 Make no tes on the tex t in 6 .2 .1 , us ing the d iagram mode lshown in 6 .3 .1 . Do

you think it is more suitable for this type of text than conventional forms of

note-taking?4 Find a suitable picture and try out the Describe and note in 6.3.1 with some

friends. What difficulties did you have?

1 The texr on pageTlcomes from R o'Neill: Flight (Longman 1973).

2 Onnote-taking see JB Heaton in S Holden (ed) (1977) Keep it short and JB

Heaton (I975) pages 18-28.

3 On summarising see M Donley (1975).

4 The illustrative material on page 75 comes from M Palmer and D Byrne

Tracki (1983).

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7 .1Some genera lconsiderations

7 .T .TTypes of visualmaterial

Lt .2The use ancl abuseof v isua l mater ia l

Contexts for writing:the use of visual material

At f irst glance, visualmateriaioffers an dttractive and stimulating frameworkfor writ ing practice. especial ly i f some form of picture Sequence is used, and forthis reason no doubt the learners general ly respond favourably to tasks whichrelate to some kind of visual context. On the other hand, i f we consider thekind of writing activity which often results from the use of visual material -

narrative and descript ive 'composit ion'with no specif ic goal in mind, exceptthat narrative tasks could be said to take the form of telling a story - it is clearthat visual material can easily lend itself to the practice of writ ing for writ ing's

sake. of a kind that has no communicative value and which wil l not contribute

signif icantly to the development of rvri t ing ski l ls. Part of the problem at least

seems to be the level at which visual material is general ly used: for the mostpart, this is at a fair ly early stage of the course, when'picture composit ion'writ ing in part icular tends to be accorded a special place in the programme. Asrve have seen. visual material canbe appropriately used in the early stages, to

supplement other forms of practice. but what needs part icular consideration is

its use at a more advanced lel 'el, where the Iearners need guidance rather thancontroi and where the contexts i t offers can be more ful ly exploited. The main

concern of this chapter will be to identify the kinds of writing activity which can

be derived from different types of visual material at the post-elementary levei.

We may divide visualmaterial into trvo main categories:

(a) Pictorial: this category includes single pictures and picture sequences.(b) Plans, maps, diagrams: diagrams include material such as graphs and

charts ( i .e. they containTSgltres and perhaps a few items, such as headings,in words).

By its verv nature visual material provides a much more open-endedframelvork for language practice than texts. The visual content does of coursecletermine to some e.\tent the language rvhich can be used. part icularly' in the

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rcspecls. hor l 'eve r. \ \e are frec t t l exploi t the matcr ial as we u' ish. I / ie special

edt,ontuge o.[ this i.s that ve con rtse the sente piecc o.f materiul at different levels

and also for di.fferert t\ pes o.f x'ritirtg.On the other hand. the verv fact that v isual mater ial is open-ended has i ts

dangers. There is the r isk that the learners u, i l l interpret the visual content in a

more sophist icated u'av than their prof ic iencl , ' in the language permits. This

mav involve some forn of mental t ranslat ion. lvhich in turn results in

inappropriate and incorrect expression. Even i f errors are not our main

concern, i t is undesirable that they should result f rom the learners fai l ing to

make ful l and proper use of the language thet ' have acquired: both oral and

u'r i t ten pract ice must. as one of i ts goals. aim to shorv the learners how the,v can

express themselr. 'es * ' i th in the l imits of the ianguage they know. Wri t ing tasks.

therefore. have to be rerv careful l l 'def ined and the learners given appropriate

preparat ion for thenl.I f v isua l mater ia l i s used a t too e lementan 'a leve l . i t a lso tends to

encourage et form of u r i t ten expression u'hich is remote from u'r i t ing in any real

sense. At best. i t might be described as a kind of commentary on rvhat can be

seen in the picture. Thus. for example. the learners are invi ted to produce

sequences using the Present Cont inuous. For example John is at the bus stop.

He is w,aiting.for rhe bus. The bus is cortting and John is gcting to get on it. Now

he is getting on the bns. etc. Although it might be argued that the learners will

get more sat isfact ion from rvr i t ing sequences of this kind rather than producing

single sentences. this tvpe of wri t ing u' i l l not benef i t composit ion ski l ls. On the

contrary, i t might even to some extent be harmfulbecause i t al lows the learners

to bel ieve that thel 'can u'r i te u' i thout the use of appropriate l inking and

sequencing devices. I t is. surelr ' . much better to use al ternat ive forms of

pract ice (as suggested in Chapter 4) rather than to encourage them to wri te in a

u'av which is inappropriate to the rvr i t ten form of the language.

Visual material clearlv has great potential as an 4jd to develgping writing skills

and can provide both contexts and stimulation for a variety of activities but,unless it is properl-u- used, it ma-v create more problems than it solves. It is

essent ial , therefore. to do the fol lowing:

(a) Identify and de_fine an appropriate writing task which relates to the theme of

the visual material.

The students mav of course be given a choice or be asked to work on

dif ferent but perhaps complementary act iv i t ies. I t is unl ikely that thewri t ing task u' i l l cal l for anv form of straight narrat ion or descr ipt ion,which is an aspect u'hich may be explored through oral preparation for

wri t ing. On the contrar! ' , the wri t ing task should have a clear ly def ined

form (a let ter. a report . etc.) , u 'hich wi i ldeal with the theme from a

par t i cu la r ang le o r r ie rvPo in t .

(b) Identify the lenguage which the learners will need in order to carrv out the

task.

As far as possible. language di f f icul t ies should be ant ic ipated at the oral

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Using a map topractise paragraphconstruction

CONTEXTS FoR WRITING: THE USE oF VISUAL MATERIAL

preparation stage and further explored, i f necessary, throughsupplementary exercises. In order to do this, i t wil l general ly be necessaryactually to write out a version of the writ ing task to see what language itentai ls.

(c) Decide how to prepare the learners for the writing task.The classroom preparation stage is a delicate one. As was noted in (b)above, we want to ensure that the learners have the necessary language forthe task they are set. At the same time, the writ ing activity must neve; besimply a replica of the oral preparation, otherwise there is no challenge inthe activitv. I f the writ ing task involves dealing with the theme presentedfrom a different angle or viewpoint, the problem is largely resolved,because the learners have to decide how to restructure and select from thelanguage practised at the oral preparation stage.

This section contains some examples of how visual material may be exploited atthe post-elementary level for different kinds of writing task.

The fol lowing activity is based on a simple map l ike the one shown below,which may be drawn on the board or reproduced on a transparency for use on

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81

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the overhead projector. I t has been founcl ef fect ive in gett ing the students to

explore ways in rvhich a paragraph can be organised. In part iculztr . they have to

consider both the necessar) ' and possible sequencing of certain sentences and

dif ferent ways of l inking these sentences.Each student, or pair of students, i f they are asked to work together, is

given a card which contains a piece of information about three of the places

shown on the map. Trvo examples of such cards are given below.

Thn fu,ul'dim'q '/n

Hwrbourr llcadbeh'v<-e.rt CLryttral t?o-dd. a4uL Ne++'noa"d iS th.e rna/r/2,c,.t.

Tlu Libra,ry t4/c7s bttik i44 1935.

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Th c suaerm,ardesf s e// s a// ki'ryut/ s6f fu,e^,ce7/t _ftth

The information written on the cards is obtained byparagraph describing each of these places. For example,

market runs as fol lows:

breaking down athe descript ion of the

Fred Ca;/t' Ls aLsotf fh.e Palarz Cune.m(z

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CONTEXTS FOR WRITING: THE USE OF VISUAL MATERIAL

The building in Harbour Road between Central Road and New Road is themarket, which was buil t in 1875. It sel ls f ish, vegetables and fruit. I t used tosell meat, but that is now sold in the supermarket. The market is open from8 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays, and from 8 a.m. to 5p.m. on Saturdays.

The information which appears on ten different cards is as follows:

1 The building in Harbour Road between Central Road and New Road is themarket.

2 The market was buil t in 1875.3 The market sells fish.4 The market sel ls vegetables.5 The market sel ls fruit.6 The market used to sel lmeat.7 Meat is now sold in the supermarket.8 The market is open on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays.

9 The market is open from 8 a.m. to 2 p.-. on weekdays'10 The market is open from 8 a.m. unti l5 p.m' on Saturdays.

The students are then invited to identify a building which the teacher points to,

such as the market. Only one student is'able to do this and he therefore informs

the rest of the class. This statement is clearly the opening sentence of the

paragraph. Another piece of information which might relate to this is then

called for. Since the students do not know what is on one another's cards,

several suggestions are likely to be made until it is agreed that the most suitable

piece of informationis: The market was built in 1875 . However, it cannot

foilow on from the first sentence in the form in which it appears on the card and

suggestions are invited as to how it should be linked to the preceding sentence.

This may be either with which, as in the original version, or with lr (that is to

say-. The buitding . . . is the market. It was built in 1875). It should be noted that

most of the statements on the cards have to be modified in some way.And so the construction of the paragraph continues. Notice that we are

not concerned to reconstruct the original text in its exact form. On the

contrary, i t is far more important to get the students to consider acceptable

alternatives. For example. the text might continue: The market sells fsh. It also

sells fruit ancl vegetabies or even: The market sells not only fish but also fruit and

vegetables.The completed description of the first place may be written up on the

board. After that, the students can be asked to make notes while the activity is

in progress and to write up the descriptions afterwards. They will find this

easier to do if they are working in pairs.

Visual sequences of the kind depicted on page 84, where the dialogue is

implicit inthe situations, have to be interpreted rather than described. There

are two main ways in which the dialogue element may be'extracted':

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T E A C H I N G W R I T I N G S K I L L S

(a ) 1 -he s tL ldents l t l i t r be l i r s t askec l to sa \ uh i t l thcV th i l l k the p ic tu rcs r t rc

about . For e ranrp le . in P ic tu re A . the \ \onx ln . u 'hom u 'e u ' i l l ca l l Mrs B l r l l .

wanrs some susar. ( lVlry ' does she need i t?) She asks her husband to go and

get i t . (What v 'ords does she r.rse?) Perhaps at the start her husband is

reluctant to go. ( l l ' f t r '? Vlhat is he doing? ) So she has to persuade him'

(What does .sl . te sa1,?) The students are then invi ted to suggest var ious

poss ib i l i t i es fo r e ach l ine o f d ia logue.

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(b) Alternatively, the dialogue may be cued by providing the f irst l ine of the

exchange. In the exampie belorv, which relates to Pictures A and B, the

teacher takes the part of Mrs Ball . and the students give her husband's

responses.

r: Wil l you go to the grocer's and get some sugar, please?

s: (But I 'm watching a football match on TV')

r : Wel l , i f you don ' t go, I can ' t make a cake '

s : (Oh, in that case ' I ' l l go l )

r : Now. Ineedsomeo th ; r th ingsaswe l l . . . sa l t , co f fee . . ' He re ' sa l i s t '

s : ( I don ' t need a l is t ! )

The students may be asked to suggest several alternatives for both

speakers. For examPle:

MRS B: I need some sugar. Can you go and get me some?

MR B: Now? I was iust reading the paper'

Or :

MRS B: Would,vou mind going to the grocer's for me?

IuR B: What do You want?MRS B: Wel l , l ' ve run out o f sugar ' ' '

NtR B: I ' l l go this afternoon. I 've got to go into town'

IVIRS B: Yes, but . . .

Thus, when the students come to write up their dialogues, they can select

from the different suggestions that have been given or produce similar ones

for themselves'The next three pictures may be similarly exploited to produce, for

example, a short conversation about gardening and the weather (c) ' Mr

Ball ordering the things he rvants from the grocer - but forgetting the

sugar (D) and a conversation about the news (E). Picture F involves

asling'for and giving directions and is therefore an important picture which

should be explJitedln depth (see below). Finally, in G and H. we have the

conversation betrveen N{is Ball. rvho is angry because her husband has

taken such a long t ime. and her husband, who tr ies to make excuses -

only to f ind that he has forgotten the sugarl

For Picture F, i t is suggested that one or more model dialogues should

first be buil t up with the help of the class, to practise language relevant to

asking for and giving directions. For example, we might start with a very

simple dialogue:

NIAN: Excuse me. Can you tel lme the way to the station?

rvrR s: Yes. Cross ou.r th. road. go as far as the nervsagent's and then turn

left.MAN: Is i t a long wa,v?.rrcx: Oh, about half a mile'

The purpose of producing these dialogues, i t should be emphasised, is to

rehearse the tariguage rvhich the students wil lneed for their rvri t ing task'

When they comJ to o'r i te up their dialogues, they should be encouraged to

produce verv d i f ferent vers ions 'The dialogues $'r i t ten about incl ividual pictures in the sequence maY

85

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I L A U H I N ( J W I { I I I I \ b S K I L L J

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be further elaborated to form a short play, div ided into scenes and with

appropriate 'stage direct ions' . This is best done as group work. The

example belou'shows that this can be done in fair ly s imple language:

Scene I Mrs Ball is cooking in the kitchen. She.finds that she does not have

any sugar.

rrrns n (calilng her husband): Jackt.There is no artsv'er.M R S B : J A C K I

MRB (coming into the ki tchen): Yes. What is i t?MRS B: Oh ! I ' r 'e run out of sucar. Could ) 'ou go to the shop and get me

some?MR B: But I u an ted to (e tc . )

Whatever the f inal outcome in rvr i t ing, you can use visual sequences l ike the

one in I .3.2 and the shorter one below for a range of oral act iv i t ies both to

prepare for u,r i t ten u'ork and to involve the students in the mater ial (u 'hich we

must never assume tobe intrinsically motivating, however attractive it may

appear to be). For example:

- speculat ion: Get the students to give their own ideas about the people and

the se t t ing (who they are ;where they are , e tc . ) . See 4 .6 ( i ) .

- roleplal, and dramatisation'. Get the students to work out how they would

present people shown in the pictures and how they would act out some or

all of the sequence . (See below for related writing activities. )- discussion: N{ost picture sets will stimulate some kind of discussion. For

example. husband-wife relationships for 7 .3.2 and monsters for the set

below.

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Some key wri t ing act iv i t ies wi l l be:

- notes: The students should make a note of anv important ideas which come

up during oralu'ork.

- diarl, enuies: The students write up an account of what happened from the

viewpoint of one of the people in the sequence. Not ice that this involves

select ive report ing. For the sequence above, don' t forget the diary of the

monster l- role descriptions: The students write rolecards for one another if they are

going to act out the sequence. See 4.6 ( t) and 5.6 (d). They can also wri te

scenar ios (see 5 .6 (e ) ) .

- letter wriring: Similar to the previous activity. Again the activity will involve

select ive report ing - and. i f you do not wish to bore the person you arewri t ing to - real ist ic summarising!

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- reports (art icles, etc. ):This wil l depend on the content of the sequence. Thestudents could write one for the one above. For example: rur,I,ToNSTERlHAr cAME ro LUNCHI Report writ ing is discussed in detai l in 7.3.5.

None of this precludes more basic oral work (question and answer, true-falsestatements, etc.) and more basic writ ten work (sentence l inking, paragraphcompletion), which may be necessary with certain classes.

Much wil l depend on the form in which this is available (book, display chart,transparency), and also how much you want the students themselves tocontribute ideas. Wherever possible, unless you want to give them the task ofexact description (which can be a challenging activity if it is presented in theright way), you should welcome rhe opportunity of gett ing the students tocontribute ideas. They are certainly l ikely to enjoy i t more than if they areallowed to describe only what they can see.

Here are some ways of presenting a four-picture sequence so as tostimulate the students' imaginations:

7 . 3 .4Techniques forpresenting visualsequences

7 . 3 .5Using visualmaterial for reportwriting

(a) Show the first and last picture.The students fill in whathappened in between.

(b) Show the middle two picrures.The students supply thebeginning and the end.

(c) Show the last picture only. ThestLtdents decide what happenedbefore.

(d) Show the first picrure on[y. Thestudents decide what happenedafter that.

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I f for any reason you cannot use incomplete sequences, you can ask thestudents lo contintte the story.

For the use of jumbled sequences. see 7.3.8 (h) .

The picture on page 88 could of course be used for a variety of writingactivit ies. I t could be exploited for the production of dialogues, such as onebetween the two cycl ists or betrveen the lorry-driver and the motor-cycl ist i f anaccident is narrowly averted, or for letter-writ ing. For example, an,r ' of thoseinvolved in the incident might rvri te a letter about i t at some subsequent date.Report writ ing has been chosen to demonstrate that, i f visual material is usedat the post-elementary level, i t has _ereat potentialfor formalrvri t ing tasks.

A single picture has been chosen for this purpose to shorv that, properlyexploited. i t can be just as effective in providing a context for this type ofrvri t ing activity as picture sequences. In fact, there is even some advantage inus ing a s ing le p ic ture. because i t is more open-ended: the outcome. an acc ident

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I T A U H I N U W H I I I N ( l 5 I \ I L L S

or [ I near aCcident . is not ac lual lvr / l r t l l t and \ \ 'c can thcref( ) re c lcc idc l i r r

ourselves u 'hat form i t nr icht take.

On the assumption that an accident did take place, u'e might set as a

u'r i t ing task a newspaper report of some kind. Other possibi l i t ies are reports

made by the lorry-driver (for example, in connection with an insurance claim)

or by a policeman investigating the accident. For this, the events we can actually

see in the picture - a lorry approaching a sharp bend in the road, two cyclists

talking as the-V overtake the lorry and two men on a motor-cycle. whose

attent ion is distracted bv a plane that is landing. coming in the opposite

direct ion - are l ikelv to be referred to in some way in the report but not

necessari ly in their chronological order. At the oral preparat ion stage.

therefore. we can get the students to descr ibe these events without any r isk of

prejudicing the wri t ing task.Our classroom presentat ion should also aim to arouse the interest of the

students in the theme and at the same t ime to help them with some of the

language they wi i l need in the report . We might begin. for example, rv i thout

necessari ly referr ing to the picture at al l . b ir discussing some of the things that

cause accidents. These can be l isted on the board:

Causes of accidents- fast driving- careless dr iv ing ( for example: . . . .- mechanical defects- weather condit ions- pedestr ians

Examples of the language used to descr ibe road accidents can be given or

el ic i ted.Features of accidents- vehicles col l ide/get damaged/run people over/knock people down- people get ki l lcd/ injured,/ taken to hospital . etc.

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CONTEXTS FOR WRITING: THE USE OF VISUAL MATERIAL

Wecan then re la te these i tems towha t i sshown in thep ic tu reanddec idewh ichones apply, or might apply clepending.on the outcome of these events' I t is at

this point that we .un i. , i t . . to.t to decide, after considering several

suggestions, what actually happened'

If the studen,, n."o iurtt t .r help with writ ing reports of this kind, then we

canworkou ton theboardw i th themoneacco ln to f theacc iden tandask themtoused i f f e ren t fac ts in the i r ve rs ion .Fo rexamp le ,wemigh tbeg inbydec id ingonasu i tab lehead l i neandshow ing tha t th i s i s fo l l owedbyan impor tan tp ieceof information.

CYCLIST KILLED ON AIRPORT ROAD

onecycl is twaski l ledandanotherbadly in juredw.hentheycol l idedwi thamotor cycle on the road to Winton Airport yesterday afternoon'

We can then show that at this point we would probably use information

provided by the picture' For example:

. . . The collision occurred near a sharp bend in the road about two

mi lesf romtheai rpor t .Accord ingtothedr iverof the lorry ,whichwastravelling towards the airport at the time' the two cyclists ' ' '

I n theve rs ionwh ich thes tuden tsa reasked towr i t e , theou tcomeo f thepicture might be that the driver of the lotry hits the tree, and is ki i led or badly

injured. through trying to avoid the motoi-cycl ists. This wil l st i l l al low the

students to use some of the language of the rehearsed version, but at the same

time they will have io make quite slgnificant changes. In this way' none of the

challenge of the writ ing activity is lost '

we have already seen how maps can be used for control led and guided writ ing

( seea .3 (b )and5 .3 (d ) ) . r vh i l eea r l i e r i n t h i schap te r (7 .3 .1 )amapwasused togu 'o .pu rag ruphorgan isa t i on . .TheSamemate r ia l canbeuseda ta la te rs tagefor freer writ ing actlvit ies. such as rvri t ing a letter to advise someone how to get

to your house o, *tr".. to meet,vou in town. These, together with graphs l ike

theonebe low(seeExerc i ses ,Pageg ;1 )p lanso f roomsandbu i l d ingsandbusand train timetables can be ur.d fo. a variety of activities which will encourage

students to write preciselt, . For example, there may be more than one rvay of

desc r ib inga roomoradv i s inga rou te -bu ta t l eas t i tw i l l bec lea r i f t hestudents have got the information across'

the stuclents rvi l l ncccl for certain formal npes of -involve in part iculrtr t tre use of functions n'pical of

89

N,luch of the languaee n hich

rv r i t ing . such as rePt l r ts ' u i l l

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the u'r i t tert language. such as deltni l tg. cort ' lpar ing and contrast inq.exempli fy ing (etc.) . The pract ice of these (see 9.2) can help to give a new slant

to the programme and enable us to cover old ground in a new way. Visual

mater ial in the form of plans and diagran-rs can be very useful for this purpose.

The example belou' shows how the diagrammatic representat ion of a town

can be used to introduce some of the language needed for wri t ing a text which

involves the systematic classi f icat ion of data and also to structure a paral lel

wri t ing task for the students to carry out. *

The diasram below shows the structure of a town cal led Brunton.

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With the help of the diagram we can el icit from thestudents the three main areas into which the town is dividedand u'here they l ie in relation to one another. This mai'bedone bv asking questions. For example: How many parts doesthe tov,n fall into? What are they? Where are they? With thehelp of this information $'e can give a general descript ion ofBrunton in our opening paragraph. Some key language isindicated in i tal ics.

Brunton/al ls into three main parts: the industrial estate.the residen ttal area . and the commercial sector . Theresidential area lies betw,een the industrial estate on the northside of. the town and the commercial sector on the south.

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As a next step. \\ 'e might show the students how one part of the town maybe systematicail,v described. For exampie, the residential area. This is partlystructured through the diagram, but the students are also invited to make somesuggestions for themselves. Again using appropriate questions, we can buiid upa description as follows:

The residential area consists of. ahousing estate and a park. The former ismade up of two main t,vpes of buildings:detached houses and biocks of.flats. Thelatter has some excellent facilities.These include a footbali ground, aswimming pool. a tennis court and achildren's playground.

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*This does not cover al l the language needed for * 'r i t ing texts u,here the main function is one ofclassif icat ion. Some items can be more effect ively presented and practised through textual models.

For a more comple te un i t . see 9 .2 .1 .

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The students now have the key language needed to describe the trvoremaining parts of the town along the same l ines. Again they can contribute tothe text by suggesting, for example, the main types of industries. shops and

offices to be found in these two areas.For their paral lel writ ing task. the students are given a diagram of a town

with a different structure as shown in the second diagram on page 90.The students may also be given an outline for the beginning of their

report, together with a reminder of the key language items which may be used,along the fol lowing l ines:

Title

Para ITown + relative positions

Relevant languagefallsiis divided into, lies between. on the (west) side of

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: facilitiesPark E-------t:

Relevant languageconsists of, includes, the former/latter

(a) Ads: These must occupy a special place for a number of reasons:

- there is a wide variety of them;- they are widely (and freely) available:

- students respond to them.

If you are collecting or making ads, cover key areas such as jobs,

accommodation, things for sale. hol idays, language schools. food, cars and

clothes - but also include in your col lection any ads that are part icularly

str iking and memorable.Wiiting activities rvill normally involve some roleplay such as writing

for more information (e.-e. in connection with holiday accommodation)

making an application (e.g. for a job or for a place in a school); writ ing

letters of complaint (e .g about food ads) , etc.

(b) Programmes.. For example. for cinemaS, theatres, festivals, TV and radio

(see +.0 (d), where the students made their own). These can be used for

planning activit ies rvhich involve making notes or writ ing short reports' or

for rvri t ing letters (e.g. suggesting the programme for a dav out) '

9 I

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TEACHING WNITING SKILLS

/ . J . 6

Writ ing for fun

(c) X4enus: These are nra in lv usefu l for ora l in teract ion i - ru t can bc used tostimulate a u'r i t ing activitr . such as describing a verv good n-real vou havehad. which has a natura lbu i l t - in sequence.

Visual material has been used for a number of ' fun' writ ing activit ies in earl ierchapters. See, for example. 4.6 (d) TV/radio programmes: 4.6 (f) rolecardpictures: 4.6 ( i) pictures for interpretation and speculation (an activity which isespecial ly valuable as students make progress with their writ ing); 5.6 (h) j igsaw

writ ing and 5.5 ( i) instructions for drawine a picture or a map.Some other activit ies are suggested be lorv. The f irst three invoive the use

of small picture cuecards (usually showing a single object such as a piece offurn i ture, an i tem of c lo th ing. an animai . e tc . ) .

(a) Picture linking

The students. u'orking in eroups. are given (or are al lowed to choose froma larger number) three to four pictures. around u'hich they have to makeup a story. The objects should not have any obvious connection. so thestudents are encouraeed to be imaeinali l 'g - and even absurdl

(b) Losr and foundEach student is given trvo cards(e.g. a dog and a pai r o f shoes)and uses one of these to rvri te anotice about something he haslost and the other to \\ ' r i te anotice about somethin-e he hasfound. The cards are thenredistr ibuted and the noticesread out. The students respondby say ing 'That 's mine! ' or ' I 'vegot i t ! '

(c) Desert Island messoges

After the students have playedthe Desert Island game (that is.when they imagine they aremarooned on an island and haveto decide hou ther u i l t use (3)objects such as a hammer. clock.mirror), they can be asked towr i te messages to put in to abott le and throw into the sea.They can also be asked to writetheir diary for part of the t imethey are on the island.

(d) How much can yoLt remember?

Each group of students is given a picture, which they look at for about aminute. They then turn the picture over and. working individually, writedown as manv things as they can remember about the picture. They then

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(e )

( f)

use these notes to work together to build up a complete description of the

fi.tur" (orally or in writing;, *iti.t they compare with the actual picture'

Who is it?

Eachgroup isg i venap ic tu reo fa famousperson (o rp lace )andhas towr i t ea prec;se description of it. ttr. descriptions are then passed round the

other groups. who try to identify the people (or places)'

Life story

Each group is given a picture of a face (not anyone known) and has to

make"up the liie story;f the person (e'g' who (he) is; what.(he) does for a

living; tt lng, that have happened to (him)) ' The students should of course

aim io be as imaginative as possible'

(g) Cartoons

The students work in pairs or gloups to write captions or speech bubbles

for cartoons or other suitable pictures'

(h) Jigsaw stories

G iveeachgroupacu tupp ic tu recompos i t i onsequence(see7 .3 .4 ) , so tha teach student or pair of ,iuo.nt, in thegroup has one.picture. Each student

or pair then wriies down what their picture shows. The students then put

away their pictures and use their noies to try to work out what the

complete sequence is about by exchanging information'

( i) Ads

G iveeachgroupo fs tuden tsap ic tu reshow ing , fo rexamp le 'aca ro rahote landaskthemtowr i teanexaggeratedadver t isement for i t .

( i ) Postcards ^-+ ^ ^^. i^^ .A (aqAr r cut f rom a

Give each student a postcard (made by pasting a plctur(

magazine or travel biochure onto a piece of card) and ask them to send a

message ro someone else in the clasi (this may include you!). They may do

this aslhemselves or in the role of a famous person (e.g. singer, actor,

poli t ician . . .).

I What are some of the advantages and disadvantages of using visual material

as a framework for writing practice?

2 Doyou agree that. on the"wtrote, it is better to use visual material at the post-

elementarY level? Give reasons'

1 Most ,picture composition' material available in published form is intended

for use at a fairly .i.,n.nr"ry level. Examine any set of material of your own

choosingandseewhether i tcouldbesuccessfu l lyexplo i tedatamoreadvanced level.

2 With reference to the activity described inl.3'1, write a description, similar

to the one of the market. of another place (for example, the supermarket or

the Palace cinema) and then divide up the text into statements which can be

sited on the students'cards (as shown on page 82)'

93

Discussion

Exercises

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TEACHING WRITING SKILLS

References

Identify some rvrit ing tasks u'hich could be set on the fol lowing ptcture

composit i t-rn sequence. These should be in the form of dialogues. letters or

reports. Suggest the kind of preparation that might be needed for any one of

these tasks.

56

Select any piece of visual material and show how it could be used for a report

writ ing activity along the l ines suggested in 7.3.5.Suggest some uses for the graph in7.3.6'Work with a friend and try out one or more of the activities in 7.3.8. Can you

suggest other activities along these lines?

For examples of visual material for writing activities, see JB Heaton (i966);

D Byrne (I967);JB Heaton (1975); C Fleming (1975); R Ridout (1975);

D Byrne (1976); LA Hil l (1978); L Markstein and D Grunbaum (1981);

JB Heaton (1986) ;D Byrne ( i988) .Other composition books that contain useful visual material are: T Hedge(1983a, 1983b and 1985); R Knight (1986); A Pincas (1982b and 1982c)L Woods (1986).For techniques for exploiting picture composition material imaginatively see

D Byrne (1987) Picture Composition: A Fresh Look.The picture in7.3.5 is from JB Heaton Beginning Composition throughPictures (Longman I975); the picture sequence in 7.3'3 is from M Palmerand D Byrne Track3 (Longman 1983) and in Exercise 3 from G FlemingGuided Composition (Hodder and Stoughton 1975).

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8 .1The importanceof integratingsk i l ls

lntegrated skills

The need to integrate skills in language learning has alreadv been stressed andin many respects this is not a new feature of the writing programme. In fact,many of the communication activities and 'fun' writing activities in Chapters 4and 5 integrated talking and writing (and sometimes reading) in a natural way.See , for example, questionnaires and quizzes in 4 .6 (a) and (b) , roleplayact iv i t ies in 5.5.1;scenar io wr i t ing in 5.6 (e) ; jumbled s tor ies in 5.6 (g) andwriting instructions for pictures and maps in 5.6 (i). The key factor with manyactivities is how you get the students to work: pair and group work offer manymore opportunit ies for integrating ski l ls, as the simple analysis below shows.The activity is drawing a picture or a map.

INDIV IDUAL WORK

Ss c t r t t tpare p ic tu rcs ( : t l l k )

PAIR/GROUP WORK

Ss compare p ic ture s

I f , therefore, you want to increase the amount of ski l l integrat ion in vour dai lyteaching - and this is worthrvhi le because i t al lows the learners to ase languagerratural l ,v. not just prac' t ise i t (not ice horv in manv of the r ict iv i t ies laneuage is

S I c lrarvs and rv 'r i tes

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Ss exchanqe ins t ruc t ions rv i thanc l ther g roup

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95

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TEACHING WRIT ING SK ILLS

8.2Project work

8 .2 .1Organising aproject

used to get sornctl t ing drnte) -- Inake sure You use pair and group work forr cad ing and u r i t i r t s ac t i \ i t i es .

For manv classes this mav be enough. At the intermediate level. however,vou rvi l l probablv \\ 'ant to increase the amount of f lue r-rcy rvork you do withyour students and three rval 's in which you can do this through integrated ski l lsactivit ies are discussed belou'.

Project work cannot be neatlv defined because it takes so many forms. Itusually involves some research (through interviewing and reading) I i t ofteninvolves going out of the classroom (although this is not essential) and it almosta lways involves d iscuss ion.

The process - carrying out the project - is clearlv important because ofthe activit ies the students have to undertake; but equallv the producl - somekind of document - u' i l l qive them a great deal of satisfaction. Writ ing maytake place at both stages: along the u,a.v (f i l l ing in questionnaires, makingnotes) and at the f inal stage \\ 'hen writ ing up the prolect. (For our purpose wewould avoid one that resulted. for example. in drawing plans or maps, thoughthis could be a legit imate project in i tself.)

In the language classroom it is important that project work should give thestudents opportunit ies for language use and development. At the same time itwil l help them on a broader educationalfront to develop:- communication ski l ls: when interviewing and report ing back;- research ski l ls: when readingl- social ski l ls: u'hen discussing, col laborating.

Sometimes for project u'ork the students wil l have to use the mother tongue(e.g. when talking and reading), but the outcome in writ ing wil l always be inEng l i sh .

Although this is largely a matter of common sense (since there are no 'rules' forsomething that does not have a set form), projects have to be carefully planrredand sustained. The teacher's role is crucial especially in presenting the projectand involving the students in it, and in ensuring that it does not break down.You mav l ike to fol iow these stages:

PRES ENTATION AS. D DISCUSSION

PRELI }1 ] \ , , \RY AC' i l \ ' IT IES AND DISCUSSION

PROCESSiNG OF MATER]ALS

ACTIVI I IES

PRODUCTION

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one of the things you may have to do with the students at the start is to show

thes tuden tshow to .op "nup 'a top i c 'Oneway i s toge t t hemtomakeacha r tsimlar to the on. ur.d for note-taking in 6.3.1, which wil l involve talking and

*riting. For example, if the topic for ihe project is Food, a chart might look

l ike this:

tlleats and tiws- Ot0rt C01,1,/trry

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At the presentation stage, it should be enough to establish some main aspects

and then divide the students into groups to discuss and develop them' The

grorrp, may work on all aspects simultaneously or on one particular aspect

only . Ine i thercasenote- tut lngwi l lbe involved(perhapstogetherwi thsomeinitial reading). At this point the Scope of the project should be agreed: for

example, it could ue decided to limit or extend its scope. This may depend on

research opportunities (opportunities for going.out of the classroom, available

readingn1ut.riul, etc.) oriimply the interests of the students.

when this has been agreed and the work distributed among the groups'.

the student, .un U.gin *oit on the main activities. If this involves interviewing'

(for example, about eating habits, attitudes, social behaviour), questionnaires

will have to be devised, arid this involves precise writing' If these involve

reading (as some .*^i"fy wil l , whether in English or the mother tongue)' the

students must be prepared to summarlse and re-present what they have read'

;";il also tranilating from the mother tongue into English'

At some point thelroups will have to report back o-n their research to date

and also to agree what tieir frnal product wililook like. It is assumed that this

wil l be a brochure or booklet of some kind, consist ing of text and i l lustration'

which will be attractive enough for someone to want to read.(e.g :Td.":::",.another class). The studentt *ltt then have to do a good deal of writing up and

editing of their material. If they are asked to work *ltttln the constraints of a

certain length (sixteen pages), ihey rvi l l probably have to do a certain amount

of summarising. They *ititraue to do some thinking about the actual

Oncilt. /,aca/l'/nlortad, ftralu,/aofi//r"

97

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TEACHING WRITING SKILLS

8.2 .2Suggestions forprojects

presentation of their material. so that the end-product does look attractive. Al l

inir - apart from providing a framework for integrating ski l ls - wil l nrake

u' r i t ing a mot ivat ine act i \ i t \ .Your involvement throughout u,i l l be important but mainly as a

consultant, as for other forms of group activity. The students should be

encouraged to ask for your advice (for example, where they can find relevant

referencL material. In some class situations you may actually have to provide

it) and for your help with their English (depending on their level and the extent

to which you *unt ih.. to rely on themselves). The responsibility for the final

product must of course be their own.

The suggestions for projects below have been roughly grouped under headings

but inevitably thel ' overlaP.

(a) 'Newsmag'

This is a long term project. perhaps extending over the whole of the school

year, which involves researching (e.g. visits to ne\\ 'spaper off ices, reading

about the history of nervspapers and magazines) and writing material for a

hybrid product - a combination of a class newspaper and magazine' I tems

to be included are art icles, creative writ ing, reviews, fun features

(crosswords. puzzles. jokes), ads, special topic areas (e'g' sport) and

il lustrations. Even if 1'ou omit the outside visits, which would be primari ly

of educational interest unless you have access to English medium

newspapers, the advantage of this project in the English language

classioom is that it has something to offer everyone in the class.

(b) Projects that could be done mainly through reading (in and out of class) and

sharing of knowledge

Food. anal1,sed in the previous section, could be done mainly in this way'

Some other topics are:- time- money- transport- uses of materials (e.g. plastic, paper' etc')

- clothes

(c) Projects that could be done mainly through intervievving family and friends- eating habits- leisure (perhaps subdivided into sport and hobbies)

- TV viewing habits- shopping habits

(d) Projects int,olving real or imaginary planning

- developing faci l i t ies in one's town (see 5'5'2 (a))

- developing an imaginarY island- planning an imaginary tr ip to the moon, down the Amazon. across the

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INTEGRATED SKILLS

- planning an ideal town, shopping centre, house, school, club,recreation ground, etc.

In real l i fe we do not use language ski l ls in any set order - certainly not in theorder that they often appear in textbooks: listen --+ Speak --+ read --+ write. Weuse Skills aS and when we require them. For example, we See an ad in the paper(for a job or a holiday); we may talk about i t to someone or r ing up or write aletter about it. (We may of course simply forget about it!) This 'chain' ofactivities could go on - and onl Importantly, however, it can provide a modelfor integrating skills in a realistic way at a post-elementary level and,incidentally, provide natural contexts for writing. Once the mechanism for thisis understood, it is not difficult to set up a chain of activities in this way.

In this example, a conversation provides the sett ing for a note-taking task,which the students perform simultaneously with the 'characters'. They are thenshown how these notes were used to write a notice, which was the reason whythe notes were made, and are subsequently asked to write a second notice

themselves. Thus all four skills are practised in a fully integrated way'

I Bitt Hatlida;'- and Jane Stokes, his girlfriend, are planning to go on holidaytogether. They want to travel round Br,itain together because Bill, who is anAustralian, has not seen much of the country. They are in Jane's flat and they

are talking about their plans.

JANE: . . . Well, I don't want to go by train. But why don't we hire a car?

BILL: Hm, i t 's very expensive, vou know. Andyou can't drive! . ' ' Butyou've given me an ideal Perhaps we could get a van.

:eNs: You mean buy one?BrLL: Yes, a secondhand one. One of those big ones.rrNr: But, Bi l l , they cost a lot . . . and besides, there are only two of us.BILL: Look, we only need about six people. You, me, and four more. We

can share expenses. It 's a marvellous way to see the country -

camping, staying in hostels . . .:eNe: Mm, but how do we ltnd four people? Put an ad in the paper?BILL: No, too expensive. L is ten. I ' l lput a not ice up on the board at co l lege.

There's one near the bookshop. * And what about that newsagent'Snear the record shop? They have ads in the window.

:eNe: OK. then. Well. I suppose rve ought to make some notes . ' ' .

l,t, Bitt ttnd June continue to talk.** Jane makes notes. Listen, and make a note

of tlte irnportant poirtts.

:eNE: Right , here 's some paper . . . and a pen. I ' l lmake the notes 'BrLL: CK. Well. f irst . . . must be able to drive. After a]r l , ,vott can't and I

don ' t want to dr ive a l l the t imelrANE: . . . has to be abie to drive. And we want people who l ike a simple

l i fe. After al l . rve're going to camp and stay in hostels.BrLL: Yes. definitelv no luxuries! Have you got that down?

' 'B i l l works in a co l l cgc 'bookshop anc l Jane r ro rks in a record shop.'* 'Thc stt tr . lcnts hr ' l tr thc convcrsati t ln l hich i t l l lorvs.

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T E A C H I N G W R I T I N G S K I L L S

8.3 .2Reading leading tofree writing

2 This is the notice w,l'tich Billpur upon the college noticeboard Ille

follov,ing day.

2a l,low write the notice v'hich JaneStokes took to the nen'sagert's.Her telephone nuntber at therecord shop is 874 9192 and hernumber at honte is 675 3245.

Y)u! Y,u! Y?u! ew Y,u!ARE rou /SEnqEEP /8 AND 25?

cA// yoq DR.VE ?

cAN YOU cooKT

/ AM TRrING To oScAN/sEA FOUK W'EFK TR|P ROUN?BR|TAIAI IN A YAN

PLACES FOR rcUR lNOBF PEOPLE

,T ANY NATIONALITY lELCOME !

x No LuxUR/Esf

X 'HARE ALL FYPE^/'E,/* TMALL cHABcE'- flseao*-

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too . I 'm no t go ing to do i t a l l !tsrLL: Should be able to cook. then. Right. What else?.rnNE: Shal l u 'e tel l them about the cost of the tr ip?BrLL: Mm. ves. Let 's sar ' . . . about f2*5 each. Plus expenses.JANE: . . . f25 and share al l expenses. What about age?BILL: Good point. Hou,about . . . e ighteen to twenty-f ive? And not al l

Eng l ish l:eNr: Or Austral ian ! So . . . e ighteen to twenty-f ive . . . any nat ional i ty.

That should encourase people.BrLL: . . . Do vou th ink tha t ' s a l l?:eNs: Can't think of anl , thing else. We've got qui te a few notes.

BrLL: OK. then. i '11 u'r i te out the not ice for the board at col lege.

JANE: . . . And I '11 do the one for the neu'sagent 's . . .

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In this example, the sequence opens with a reading activitv. It includes guided

as well as free speaking and u'riting tasks. It should be noted that, at the end of

the sequence, the students themselves decide what happens.

1a Terry Barnes, a teenager*, is getting tired of hisjob at Holford Natural Products, so he decidesto lookfor a new one. He sees fhese ads inlheHol fo rd News,

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Personnel Manager, HNP, Hol ford.

LAB . ASST . 16 -21 . P rev . exp . des i r ab le . Gd . p rospec t s

for r ight person. Trafalgar Tobacco Co.Ho l f o rd 7997 Ex t . 5 .

JUNIOR ACCOUNTS CLERK to work for EasternBus Co. 5 day wk. 9-5.30. Prev. exp. not essential.Typing an advantage. Apply in writ ing.

SI IORTHAND TYPIST

*The students have background information about Terrv from another part of the stor) '

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1 a Terry first rings up the Trafalgar TobaccoCompany. Listen to his conversation with the

secretarY.SECRETARY: Ex tens ion 5 . . . Mr P la t t ' , s

secretarY. Who's sPeaking, Please?TERRY: Oh, my name's Barnes . I 'm r ing ing

about that vacancY You advert isedi n T h e H o l f o r d N e w s . . 'Wh ich one was tha t , now? Was i tfo r a lab ass is tan t?Y e s , t h a t ' s r i g h t . , .Wel l , l 'm a f ra id we 've a l readY f i l l edthat vacancy. I 'm very sorry 'Oh, we l l , thanks very much.GoodbYe.

sECRETARY: GoodbYe.

1c Terry next rings up the Eastern Bus.C.ompany'He is totd bv the secretary that the iob is stil l

available, but that he must applY in writing'

Suggest what they actually said to each other'

2t, Complete this letter which Terry writes to the

Eastern Bus ComPanY.

This is the letter which Terry got f rom Mr

Davis, the manager of the Eastern Bus Company'

S E C R E T A R Y :

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SECRETARY:

T E R R Y :

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li lov sau: - ho, old You are

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exPe l ience o f accc 'J :s

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thank you for your let ter of iu ly lO' I should } lke

you to cone for sn intery ier on Fr iday JuLy 21 at lO' lO'

Cou ) ,d you o l ease t e l ephone r y 9ec !e ta r y and con f i r n t h i s '

You rs s i nce reLY '

S. Dazn'sS . D a v i s .

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Terry is being interviewed by Mr Davis.Suggest what Terry said.

MR DAVrs : R igh t , Ter ry " S i t down. Te l l mesometh ing about Yourse l f .

T E R R Y :M F D A V I S :

T E R R Y :MR DAVIS:

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M R D A V I S :

W e l l , t h a n k s v e r v m u c h f o r c o m i n ga l o n g . \ { e ' l l l e t Y o u k n o w s o m e t i m enext week.

A n d h o w l o n g h a v e Y o u b e e n i n Y o u rpresent job?

Oh ! l 'm surp i ' i sed you want to leave,t h e n . t-

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TERRY:

M R D A V I S :

TERRY:

3e Mr Davis finatly decides to offerTerry the iob'This is the letter he wrcte.

July J0

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I am pleased to be able to of fer you the job of

Jr :n ior Accounts Cferk at a. s tar t ing salary of t100 a veek '

Would. you p lease conf i rn that th is is acceptable '

Can you a lso }et us know vhen you would be f ree to s tar t?

Yours s incerely ,

S. Da,<n aSam lav is .

Write Terry's replY, accepting or declining thejob.

The fottowing week, Terry meets Carol Davis,a girl he was at school with. She is thedaughter of Sam Davis. Terry tells Carol whathe has been doing recently. Suggest what hesaid.

4a Afterwards, Terry realises that he'quite likes'Carol. He decides to write to her. Write theletter which he sends her.

4c Write Carol's reply.

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8 .4 .1Devising asimulation

INTEGRATED SKILLS

Many of the writ ing activit ies proposed and discussed so far have involved an

element of roleplay. That is to say, the students are asked to assume the parts

of different characters. (See, for example' -5'-5' l and 8'3) ' The use of

simulations enables us to take this kind of rvork a stage further both by

providing a framework for integrated language work in.which the learners

itr"*r"tu-"s provide a larger 'input' of the data from which the writing activities

are derived and by allowing them, where this is appropriate to the situation' to

be themselves within a defined setting. This latter feature has an obvious

advantage when we are working with groups of learners who share certain

professi6nal ski l ls and interests and who are learning a foreign language with

ihe.e p.i*ari ly in view. since motivation rvi l l be increased through the

uti l isation of their special ist knowledge. with non-special ist groups, however'

whether adults or aiolescents, we shall probably have to continue to rely

largely on roleplay, although we may be able to introduce a certain amount of

rol"e simulation, where the learners react to the task as themselves' For

examp le , i n thes imu la t i ondesc r ibed in8 . . l . 2be low ,somes tuden ts ina,..ondury school class can play the part of teenagers, while others wil l be asked

to take on adult roles. For our present purpose' what is more important is the

extent to which the activities which they are asked to carry out generate

meaningful and relevant opportunities.for-rvriting' At this level' simulations

would siem to be ideal, p.&laing guidanie, in the form of a well-defined

setting. which gets as neir to reai life as \\'e can hope to in the classroom' as

well ai motivationfor executing the writ ing tasks'

While care must be taken with the construction of a simulation' especial ly i f we

want to ensure that i t leads natural ly to certain writ ing tasks, this need not be

viewed as a complex task. By definit ion. the simulation wil l involve the

discussion of a specific problem or set of problemt: uld the context within

which this takes place must be clearly defined for the learners' To do this in a

natural way and, no less important, to activate all the language skills' we must

provide the learners with an adequate amount of background information'

Thus, in the simulation desciibed in 8.4.2, the problem to be discussed

relates to the Holford Arts centre, which has been crit icised for fai l ing to

p,""io. the public with the right kind of cultural programme' In addit ion, to

add an element of spicy interJst to the situation, ih. C.ntt" is also accused of

allowing certain ,undeiirable happenings' to take place on the premis"t. T:

settingis a public meeting, at whl;h invited speakers as well as members of the

public discuss trr.r. proUiems. tt is left to the participants' through what they

say within the l imits of their roles, to decide on these issues' Thus the speakers

thlmselves provide the raw substance for the writ ing activir ies.

Toes tab l i sh these t t i ng , the re i sace r ta inamoun to fbackg roundinfor:marion, devised by thJteacher, which consists of material both to be

listened to and read. The other component contrived by the teacher is the

specification of the roles of the participants. This is done, through role cards '

which either define or suggest, i"p"nding on the role to be plaved, the l ine to

be fol lowed by each part lJpant. We ma1:also. either on the role cards or

through a prel iminary oral tr iel ing, hetp trre learners with certain i tems of

langrrigewhich they can use in the discussion'

The simulation described in 8.4.2 is perhaps a l i t t le different from most

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TEACHING WRITING SKILLS

8 .4 .2An example of asimulation: theHolford ArtsCentre

because it has been deliberatelr, structured to create a i 'ariety of writ ing tasks.

At the start, u,hen the public discussion opens, q'e have tx'o kirtds o.f

performers. There are those u'ho q.reck at the meeting. Some of these have

clearly defined roles. to give the discussion a certain direction. while others

have a more open-ended involvement, thus ensuring that the outcome is by no

means predict;ble. There are also those rvho /lsrerr rvith a view to reporting the

p.o.""i ings from various angles. For example, they represent the press, the

iadio and iertain pressure groups. However. those who speak in the discussion

are subsequently ;recvcled' in various ways So that they too have a writ ing task

to perform. This. to some extent, is a question of expediency' since the purpose

of itre simulation is to inr,olv e ever))one in the class, for which an average size of

thirty has been assumed, in some form of writ ins activity'

(a) Background informarion

(i) This is a street maP of Holford.

(ii) This is an entr\) in theEast Anglia Guides'

H o l f o r d P o p u l a t i o n : 6 0 , 0 9 0 C a m b r i d g e 6 2London 1 03A p leasant marke t town s i tua ted on the R iverH o l t . M a i n l y a g r i c u l t u r a l . G o o d w a l k i n g c o u n l r yP laces o f h is to r tc in te res t : Ho l ton Abbey (1122)and St . John 's Church (1237) Other p laces tosee are the new Shopp ing Cent re (1 969) and theHol fo rd Ar ts Cent re ( . founded in 1975) lndus-t r i e s i n c l u d e : c o s m e t i c s , t o b a c c o a n d l i g h teng i neer i ng .Hote ls Ho l fo rd Arms, Marden Hote l and Penr idge Inn .Restaurants Holford Arms and The Country Krtchen.

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$D fhis is an extract from an article on Holford which appeared inTheCambridse Gazette.

Some even say that there i i roomuch money around in Holfordand not enough culture.

This last cr i t ic ism is s t ranrein v iew of the fact that Hol lo idhas a flourishing Arts Centre.Set up in 1975. largely on theinit iative of a few dedicatedindiv iduals, i t has a l ready s ivenHolford several f ine oro-duc-t ions, inc luding Pinte i 's TheCaretaker. It has also made adocumentary on the theme ofrac ia l in tegrat ion which waswell received at a national f i lmfest iva l . . . .

(iv) This is a conversation between Dan Graves, senior reporter onTheHolford News, and Ted Raines, a young localfarmer.

TED: Are you sorry you came back to live in Holford, then, lvlrGraves? After al l those years in London, I mean.

neN: Sorry? No, not for a moment. I was glad to escape from theplace !

rED: Sti l l , you must f ind i t al lchanged . . .orN: Well, yes, it certainly has changed . . . all these industries for a

start. But at least people have plenty of work these days. Andthe facilities are so much better. After all, there aren't so manytowns that have a shopping centre like ours.

TED: But there's not much going on, is there? Don't you f ind i t ratherdull?

DAN: But there's a lot going on! Just take the Arts Centre, forexample.

rED: Yes. that has attracted quite a lot of attention lately!oeN: Mm, I don't think people understand what they're trving to do

there.rED: Well, personally, I don't see the point of i t . After al l . rve have a

perfectly good dramatic society already.oex: That's exactly what I mean! It 's not just a bigger and better

d rama t i csoc ie t y . . .rED: Some people say it isn't better!DAN: . . . they do lots of other things down there . . .TED: Hm, so I 've heard!orr: I suppose vou're coming to this meeting on Friday night. aren't

you?rED: Oh yes, I ' l l be coming along to that al l r ight. I l ike l istening to a

good argument! Besides, I can take a look at the place at theSame time.

D.lN: Yes, you certainly should try to f ind out more about the placewhile you're there . . . just what they do and don't do. As for al lth is ta lk about . . . . rve l l . I iust th ink i t 's a lo t o f . . .

. . . L i ke many o the r t owns i nth is par t of the country.Hol ford is 'on the move' .There are new factories andoffices as well as a fine shoppingcentre. which was bui l t in 1969.And, with the laree new hous-ing estate on the iorth side ofthe town, Holtbrd has begun tospread out into the surroundingcountrys ide.

Industry has brought pros-per i ty to Hol ford. a l thoughmany people argue that i t hasalready begun to spoil the es-sential character of the town.

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(v) Tltis is rlte rtotir:e invitittg people to a public tneeting at the Holford ArtsCentre.

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I IOI -F-ORD AR' I 'S CE\ I -RE- \ pu [ - . l rc r l cc t ing r r i l l l r c hc l r i l i t l l t c ccn t r .e

t r t t F r i d a r . f u n c l 6 6 - i ( ) p n t

t l r o s c i n t c r c s t c t l i n t l i s c r r s s r r r g t h c u c t i r i t i e s o l ' l h cC C n t r c l t r c c 0 r t i i l r l l - r i r t r i t c t i t ( ) i l t l c l t ( l

S . f ) l r r i s ( C ' h l r i r n t u n )

(b) BriefitrgAfter the presentation of the backsround information. involving bothl is ten ing and readins and perhaps a lso inc lud ins some re lated ora lwork.the students are readv to be briefed about the problem to be discussed andthe various roles thev have to play.

The public meeting is intended in the f irst instance to give Tony Cross.the director of the Arts Centre. a chance to explain u'hat their work isabout. At the same time. a lot of public cri t icism is expected. It isanticipated that this wil l centre on t\\ o main issues:

(i) that the Centre does not give Holford the right sort of 'cultural '

programme.

(i i) that the Centre is frequented bv teenagers. u'ho go there to misbehavein various \\'avs.

As explained in 8.4. i . this simulation has been structured so as to include'speakers' and'reporters'. The speakers (see'Role cards'below) are asfol lows:

couNCrLLoR sAI{ DAvrs: Chairman of the meetingT cRoss: Director of the Arts CentreK RIXoN: Principal, Holford Comprehensivec s porrERToN: Secretary, Holford Amateur Dramatic SocietyJ TAYLoR: Youth Welfare OfficerM plArr: student at Holford PolytechnicK FosrER: student at Holford Polytechnic

All of these have well defined roles. In addition, there are five adultroles and f ive teenage roles, representing the public present at the meeting.The number can be increased or reduced according to the size of the class.These roles are more open-ended.

The provision for reporters (that is, those who will listen during thediscussion and rnake notes) is as follows. Two students share each role andcollaborate afteru'ards on the writing task. This is also a way of ensuringmaximum class involvement.

L BARoN: reporter on The Holford Newsr JENKS: reporter on The Cambridge GazetteJ WISEMAN: reporter for East Anglia Radiow TRAILL: representing Holford Comprehensive School magaziner sMIrH: representing Holford Amateur Dramatic SocietyJ srorr: Youth Freedom MovementP BLAKE: Secretarv to the meet ins

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INTEGRATED SKILLS

(c) Role cards

Assigning the various roles to the students also forms part of the brief ing

session. The role descript ions below i l lustrate only a cross section of the

parts played by the students, except for the reporters, which are given in

ful l .

Main speakers

Members of the public

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main task is to exp la in i t s work and to re fe r to

some o f i t s ach ievements s ince i t was se t up '

Do th is conc ise ly . You shou ld s t ress tha tputt ing on plays is only part of the Centre's

work Jnd that you are not in competi t ion with

the Amateur Dramatic Society. Refer to

accusat ions wh ich have been made aga ins tthe Cent re ( fo r example , you may read an

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K FOSTERYou are a member o f the Ar ts Cent re and one

of i ts strongest supporters ' Like many other

students ai t f ," eotytechnic, you have-been

iOt " to do a lo t o f th ings th rough the Cent re

wh ich o therw ise wou ld no t have been

poss ib le . G ive some examples ' l f you w ish '

uou *uy a lso d issoc ia te yourse l f f rom some

of the th ings wh ich have been done there '

S JAMESYou are a teenager who recent ly le f t Ho l fo rdComorehens ive . You be l ieve tha t the Cent redoes l i t t le to he lp peop le o f your age and youwou ld l i ke to see more money spent onimprov ing the fac i l i t i es o f the Youth C lub .

M B R I D G E SOn the who le you approve o f the Ar ts Cent reand th ink tha t i t does good work ' However ,you do no t l i ke the way the d i rec to r runs theCent re : he is too au tocra t ic ' \ "ou th ink tha tthere shou ld be a commi t tee , w i th memberso f the pub l ic on i t , to dec ide po l i cy . You a lsobe l ieve some o f the s to r ies about what goeson in the Cent re : your teenage ch i ld ren ta lkabout i t a l l the t ime.

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TEACHING WRIT ING SK ILLS

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W TRAILLYour ma in task is to repor t the meet ing fo rH o l f o r d C o m p r e h e n s i v e S c h o o l m a g a z i n e . I nyour account , you shou ld focus in par t i cu la ron mat te rs wh ich concern teenagers . You area lso very ambi t ious , and you wou ld l i ke to bea repor te r when you leave schoo l . You hopetha t the account you wr i te w i l l ca tch theattent ion of the editor of The Holford News,to whom a copy o f the schoo l magaz ine isse nt.

J W I S E M A NAs a reporter f or East Angl ia Radio, your maintask is to p roduce a shor t account o f themeet ing wh ich w i l l appea l to l i s teners o f EasrAng l ia a t One, a l i ve ly lunch- t ime programmeof news and v iews. In th is connect ion lvoumay a lso w ish to in te rv iew, fo r example , tneDi rec tor o f the Cent re a f te r the meet ino .

T J E N K SAs a report er f or The Cambridge Gazette,your ma in task is to wr i te an account o f themeet ing fo r nex t week 's ed i t ion . Make suret h a t y o u i n c l u d e t h e m a i n p o i n t s . P e r s o n a l l y ,you wou ld l i ke to see an Ar ts Cent re , s im i la ri o t h e o n e i n H o l f o r d , i n C a m b r i d g e a n d y o u

shou ld there fore draw a t ten t ion to i t sach ievements and p lay down or ignore someof the c r i t i c isms o f the Cent re .

P BLAKEYour task , as secre tary to the meet ing , i s towri te.a concise but accu rate report on themeeting, to serve as a record for future

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8 .4 .3E.xploit ing thesimulation forwrit ing tasks

Discuss ion

INTEGRATED SKILLS

The main purpose in describing the construction of this simulation in detai l andin part icular showing the ' input' required from the teacher was to demonstratethat i t provides a powerful framework for a variet i ' of writ ing tasks' For

example, before the meeting. those who have been invited to speak wil lwant

to make Some notes on what they propose to Say. At this Stage, to ensure theinvolvement of the whole class. i t is suggested that the reporters should look atvarious kinds of writ ing relevant to their tasks. For example, news reports,

le t ters to the edi tor , not ices. e tc .While the simulation is actuall ,v taking place. everyone is ful ly occupied,

either in speaking or in l istening and taking notes. After the simulation. the

reporters are engaged in writ ing up their various accounts.At the same time. however. we have to provide writ ing activit ies for those

who spoke at the meeting. Clearly this rvi l l depend to some extent on the actual

outcome of the meeting, which is by no means predictable, but, as a general

guide, activities along these lines are suggested:

(a) The chairman of the meeting may be asked to work with the secretary on

the task of edit ing and writ ing up the formal account of the meeting.

(b) The Director of the Arts Centre (depending on the outcome of the

meeting) may either write his letter of resignation or work out a new styleprogramme of activit ies for the Centre. This may be done in col laboration

rvith, for example, one adult and one teenage member of the public and

with one of the students from the Polytechnic.

(c) The Youth Welfare Off icer, together with the Principal of Holford

Comprehensive and two or three members of the public, including

teenagers, may be asked to drarv up a proposal to improve the faci l i t ies of

the Youth Club.

(d) The Secretary of Holford Amateur Dramatic Society mav work rvith his

representative at the meettng on the letter to The Holford Neves or on the

circular letter. depending on rvhich task is taken up.

(e) One student from the Polytechnic. together rvith two or more members of

the public. mav draw up their proposalfor a revised Arts Centreproqramme. to be submitted to the Director for consideration.

(f) Other members of the public. adults and teenagers, mav be asked to lvri te

e i ther le t ters to the press or 'anonvmous' le t ters to var ious people, such as

the Director of the Arts Centre or the Secretarv of the Amateur Dramatic

Society . makinq accusat ions against them.

It shor-r ld be clear that there is no diff iculty in devising interesting rvri t ing tasks

for et,err-otte in the class. All of these tasks derive quite natural lv from the

simulation. The result of this is that rve end up with a considerable body of

material. produced by the stuclents themselves, which can be read aloud or

circulated round the class and rvhich is of real interest tt l evervone.

1 Do -,-ou agree with the importance attachecl to ski l l integrzrt ion at this level ' /

I f i ,ou cl isagree. can vou ri qg.tt other wavs of ensuring that rvri t ing activit ies

are purposeful '?I Exan-rine any textbook of vour ou'n choosing to see rvhat attempt is ntacle to

i l tesrate sk i l ls a t th is levc l . Consi t lc r in par t icu lar rvhether rvr i t ins fo l lorvs ot l

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Exercises

References

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natural ly from the other activit ies. especiai ly oral work. or whether i t te ndsto be presented as a homeu'ork task.Can you see anv problems arising from the suggestions for project work in8.2? Do ),ou think the advantages outweigh these?Do you think the simulation outlined in 8.4 provides sufficient guidance forthe writ ing activit ies involved? If you wanted to give the students moreguidance, how would you do it?Which of the different types of activity suggested for integrating ski l ls do youfind most attractive? Why'

Examine any textbook to see what provision is made for proiect work. Couldsome of the activit ies suggested be developed into small projects?Draw a chart similar to the one on page 97 for any of the topics suggested in8 .2 .2 ( a ) .Show how you would present and develop for classwork any of thesuggest ions in 8.2.2 (a) .Analyse the sequence of activit ies in 8.3.2. foi lowing this model. This wil lhelp you to understand the underlying mechanism.

TEXT OUTLINE OF CONTENT

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TB reads ad in Holford NewsTB rings up Trafalgar Tobacco Co

ReadingListening

56

Now construct a similar sequence of your own. This may be much shorterthan the one in 8.3.2.Write role descriptions for other speakers in the simulation in 8.4.Suggest some alternative roles for the 'reporters' in the simulation in 8.4.together with related writing activities.

On integrated ski l is see D Byrne (1986) Ch. 11 and A Matthews et al (eds.)(1985) pages 32-4 and126-40.For project work see D Byrne (1986) pages 733-7 . This section also containsmore information about'Newsmag'. Suggestions for developing animaginary island are given in A Matthews et al (1985) pages 726-3I. Auseful book on proiect work generally is D Waters (1982), from which thechart for Food on page97 has been adapted.For ski l l sequencing see D Byrne in K Johnson and K Morrow (1981). Thefirst sequence in 8.3.1 is based on D Byrne and S Holden Going Places(1980); the second sequence on D Byrne and S Holden Insighr (Longman1976). For materialbased on this modelsee D Byrne and S Holden Follow ItThrough (Longman 1978) and Going Places (Longman 1980). Also R WhiteWrite Away (Nelson Filmscan 1987).On simulations see K Jones (1982). For a simple introduction see D Byrne(1986) pages 725-8. The simulation in 8.4 is based on D Byrne and S HoldenInsight (1976). Comparison with the original material will show howtextbook material can be adapted for this purpose.

S K I L L

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9 .1Problem

Writing at the Post-intermediatelevel

It is often assumed that, once the learne* have acquired a reasonable

profrciency in written expression, further practice in this skill can be given

mainly thiough tasks in the form of some kind of 'composition' or 'essay'' The

students ur" giu.n a topic or a theme and are expected to express themselves at

some length on it in order to demonstrate their abi l i ty to write. I t might seem

that, having avoided this type of activity at earlier stages of the programme' we

are obligeJto fall back on it at this level in order to give the learners extensive

practice in their hard won skill.Since compositions and essays are still a feature of many public

examinations, clearly we should not deny the students some preparation for

this type of task. This aspect is considered in 9.3. We must also attempt to see

rvhat skills are practisecl through this kind of writing and whether the same

skills can be more effectively practised in alternative ways' At the same time, it

rvould be wrong to accept this kind of writing activity as one of the main

outcomes of the writing programme. For one thing, it is a form of writing which

is rarely practised outside the classroom or examination hall ' One needs only to

ask: when did I last write an essay? Besides, for most of uS, i t presents an

extremely diff icult task, even in our mother tongue' and even more So if we are

asked to do it against the clock. There would seem l i t t le point ' therefore, in

inf l ict ing this type of writ ing activity on the foreign language learner, whose

proficiency in writ ing is unlikely to match the task'

It rvai noted above that we would need to consider alternative lvays of

developing ski l ls practised through composit ion and essay writ ing. These we

*oy "rru*e

to be part icularly those ski l ls involving the abil i ty to organise ideas

in a sustained pieci of writ ing. But organisational ski l ls, which certainly need

further practice at this level, can be equally well developed through activit ies

rvhich involve some realist ic form of expression, such as letter and report

writ ing. Reacting to a situation through writ ing. for example. a letter of

protes"t. rvi l l require argument. u'hi lc the marshall ing of relevant facts to

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TEACHING WRI I ' ING SKILLS

suppor t th is argument \ \ ' i l l invo l r ,e organisat ional sk i l ls . Unl ike composi t ior - lwrit ing in the tradit ional sense. hou'ever. the learners can be more ful lyinvolved in th is type of ur i t ing task. rhrough sorne k ind of ro lep lay. and canappreciate i ts relevance to real l i fe. In terms of developing rvri t ing ski i ls.therefore. the learners'needs can be ful lv met through further practice in letterand report writ ing.

Composit ion and essay u'r i t ing also provide opportunit ies for u'hat is oftencalled'free expression': the learners are al lorved to sav what thev l ike on agiven topic or theme. \\ /hi le i t is true that at this level control of what thelearners write (except for remedial purposes, see 9.2) would be inappropriate.we still have the responsibilitv for providin_e them with an adequate context forwrit ing activit ies. Ideallr, , this kind of framework should be provided throughactivit ies such as the simulation described in 8.4. rvhich have the furtheradvantage of ful l i , inteeratinq al l the laneuage ski l ls. In practice, beciiuse of theshortage of class t ime. ue mav have to be satisf ied r. i ' i th much less. I t is stressed.hou'ever. that writ ing tasks should not. simpll, for the sake of convenience. bedivorced from other classroom activit ies u'hich involve l istening, speaking anclreading. The l ink u' i th reading is the most easily established. and of coursecommonly practised at this level, i f only in the form of asking the students tou'r i te about something thev have read. but the close association of speakingand l istening with u'r i t ing is less common. Yet a class discussion, for example,can provide an excellent sprineboard for writ ing activit ies: ideas have beendiscussed. points of view expressed and. u'hat is especial lv important, interestin the topic has been aroused. All this. especial ly i f the learners have beenasked to make notes during the class discussion. can lead on quite natural lv to avariety of writ ing activit ies in the form of letters, reports, newspaper art iclesand so on. Similarlv. project-tvpe work, carried out in small groups over aperiod of t ime. provides excelient opportunit ies for ski l l integration. Thelearners have to discuss the content of the project and invariably have to do aconsiderable amount of reading for i t . while the writ ing up of the project is initself a purposeful activit \ ' .

The possibi l i ty of individualising writ ing practice was noted in i .6. At thisIevel, as the learners become increasingly aware of how writing may relate totheir future needs (for example. for occupational purposes, for academic studyor perhaps only for personal communication), motivation can be increased bypaying particular attention to these. If, for example, a group of students in theclass express a particular interest in learning commercial correspondence,because they feel that this is the type of writing which will be, or is most likelyto be, of relevance to them. even the setting of fairl,v formal tasks becomesmore acceptable. Needs for individualised writing practice can to a large extentbe met through the use of self-instructional material, with the students workingtogether in pairs or groups.

A final point to keep in mind is that, as we allow the learners increasingiymore opportunities for self-expression through writing, we must view whatthey write as attempts to communicate something.We owe it to the students, ofcourse, to correct and evaluate their work to the extent that this will improvetheir performance especial ly in examinations, since these are often weighted infavour of written skills. but it u'ould be wrong to destroy both their interest andconfidence in writing through excessive correction. One thing we can do is to

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9.2Remedia lwork:the value of afunctionalapproach

WRITING ATTHE POST.INTERMEDIATE LEVEL

separate tasks which are designed to improve their examination performance,

and which therefore can be viewed more critically, from those intended to

develop communication ski l ls on a broader basis, such as the activit ies which

fo.med part of the simulation in 8.4. For these in particular it is important that

the teacirer should not be the only consumer and, in the classroom situation,

this means that the students should be writ ing/o r one another' This element of

having something to communicate to somebody is naturally-present in activities

like simulations and projects: because there is a diversity of task, the students

are genuinely interesiedin knowing what others in the class have written' And,

because of their involvement in the activity, they are likely to be as critical of

what has been written aS we rvould ourselves. The difference' however, is that

they react as readers rather than as ittdges '

(a\ Provision should be made for remedial work'

It is suggested in g.2thatone way of doing this is using a functional

upp.ou.tr to writing skills. This component of the writing programme will

also ensure that th; learners are givin further help with the problem of

organising their written expression at the level of content'

(b) Opportunities for free expression should be increased'

This does not imply, horvever. that the learners should simply be set tasks

for writing, in thi iorm of topics or themes' It is suggested that a

framework for writing activiiies should be established through the use of

activities like those in Chapter 8'

(c) Writing activities shottld be in the form of realistic tasks such as report and

letter writing.

Most of these formats for writing practice have been only superficially

explored at previous stages and ihere are therefore opportunities for

aeating wittr these in depth at the post-intermediate level, instead of

resorting to some typ. ot..ruy *iiting to give extended practice in writing'

proficiency in ,p".id. varieties of writing may also be developed to take

individual n".d, into account. It should be kept in mind that this aspect of

the writing programme must be supported by exposure to appropriate

models through the reading programme'

(d) Examination requirements shottld not be neglected'

Other components of the programme will ensure that the learners continue

to extend their range of *.iting skills but, to the extent that mastery of

specific forms of wiiting, such as essays' is a feature of public

examinat ions, theseneedsmustbetakenintoaccount '

It is inevitable that some remedial rvork will become necessary at this stage ' ^

While it is possible to select and repeat certain activities from earlier stages of

the programme, the adoption of a iunctional approach to writing skills has

certain advantages. In general, i t can be used to give a new slant to the :

programme, ,olhut fa, i i l iar ground can be explored in a new way' The same ls

no less true of oral ski l ls, rvhere a similar needis l ikely to be felt. Thus. rvhereas

at previous stages, reinforcement actiVit ies may have focused mainly on

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9.2 . rExpressingcomparison andcontrast: aspecimen unit

structural i tems. \\ 'e can norv. forthe purpose of rcnlecl ial u't lrk. review theseitems under the umbrella of part icular language functions, such as exprrcssit l i lrequests, suggestions. invitat ions, etc. I t is not suggested that al l t l t is wil l betotal ly new to the learners; i t is t l le s-r 's/enzaric treatment of these functions.bringing together language rvhich the students have already mastered. rvhich isl ikely to be different. In part icular, howet'er. i t wil l enable us to explore ingreater depth other functions. rvhich occur tvpical lyr in longer stretches oflanguage, such as comparing and contrasting, general ising, exemplifying'defining See the Appendix. Section A for a comprehensive l ist of these.Mastery of these functions u' i l l be especial lv valuable in helping the students toorganise their writ ten expression.

An example of a unit of u'ork. dealing rvith comparison and contrast. isgiven in9.2.1. \ [ /hi le i t is not suggested that the content is suitable for al l typesof learners, the procedures are l ikely to be of general val idity. Thus. thestudents are f irst exposed to a text $,hich exemplif ies the various items oflanguage needed to express comparison and contrast. Their attention is drawnto the key items. u'hich include some alternative forms. although it is notsuggested that the students are being Qiven an-v more than a 'basic kit ' . As asecond stage, they are eiven opportunit ies for usins these items oral ly,. So thatthey can explore their use in a fair ly f lexible way. At this stage. certaindiff icult ies shorv up which were not perhaps anticipated through the readingtext. Finally. the students are given an appropriate writ ing task. which shou'show the function of comparison and contrast relates to a specificcommunicative purpose.

(a) Study the language of comparison and contrast in the report below:

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in many woy,slinsome respects/tosome extent. alikelsimilar, both, each,like, similarlyll ikewiseiin thesame way, bal,dissimilarldifferentlunlike, comparedwithlin comparisonwith, while, on theother hand, unlike,difference between,howeverlinconstrast/on thecontrary

Exhead and Portsea are two towns on the

south coast which are in manl,wrzys very

much alike. Thev are both old towns and

eachhas a l a rge ha rbou r .Llke Portsea, Exhead has a population of

approximately 120,000. It also has a growing

number of local industries. Similarly , Portseais expanding on the industrial front, too.

Bul in other respects the two towns are qui te

dissimilar. For one thing, contpared u'ith

Portsea. Exhead is a much more attractiveplace. For this reason it is a popular holidayresort in summer, while Portsea, on the otherhand. attracts very few visitors.

Unlike Portsea. Exhead has extended its

hotel facil i t ies because of the tourist trade.

One striking difference between the two

towns is that Exhead has located its new

industries on an estate outside the town. InPortsea, however, there are even factoriesnear the harbour,

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WRITING AT THE POST-INTERMEDIATE LEVEL

(b) For the next stage, the students are given a bio-data cue-Sheet and work inpairs, contrasting and comparing any two of the people described. For

example, they make statements l ike: In many wavs, J H Smith and A PWheeler are very mL4ch alike. They were both born in 1939, they are both

married, etc. Or: Compared with Michael Webb, Andrew Wheeler is a richman!

Notice that, at this stage, the students have to identify the points ofcomparison and contrast, as well as use the appropriate Ianguage.

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115

Page 122: Byrne Teaching Writing Skills

TEACHING WRITING SKILLS

9.3Free writ ing:some suggestedprocedures

(c) For their f inal task. the students are siven data in tabular form. They areasked to rvri te a report on one of the cars in each of the two groups,recommending this car as the'best bu1". The.v have to compare andcontrast this car u' i th other ones in the same group. rvhere this isappropriate.

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The main concern of this last section is to suggest some procedures whichstudents can use when they have to cope with the task, which very few of usfind easy, of producing a text in the form of a 'composition' or an 'essay' on agiven topic, either in an examination or in a similar situation. That is, i t isassumed that the students have no special motivation for writing about thetopic and that they have not been given any special preparation for it through,for exampie, a class discussion, as suggested in 9.1. It should be noted, however,that we are not concerned rvith 'recipes' or ' formulas' for writ ing modelcompositions or essavs but rvith procedures such as outlining, drafting andimproving drafts. fhese form part of any writing task for which the studentshave not been helped u'ith the actual structuring of the text they have toproduce. For example. for the u'riting activities derived from the simulation in8.3, the students are given both the 'content' and the format (art icle, letter,report, etc.) which thev have to use, but they have to organise the data forthemselves. Man.v students in fact write less well than they are able to simplybecause these or similar procedures have not been sufficiently stressed.

It is not claimed that there is any one way of going about the writing of atext (this was acknorvledged in 1 . 1 ) . What is important, however, is thatstudents should appreciate the importance. for example, of making notes anddrafting. They must accept that this is a normal part of writing. The fact thatthey cannot alwavs do this u'hen they are asked to write against the clock in anexamination does not invalidate the Drocedures.

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For the purpose of i l lustrating these procedures, a part icularly uninspir ingcomposit ion topic has been chosen: Describe a place which seems much moreneglected and sad than when it was new.

In attempting to write about a topic l ike this, we are immediately facedwith two problems: who we are writ ing for, which, aS we have Seen, natural lyinf luences how we write. and what to write about. In normal circumstances thefirst problem would never arise at al l , since, outside the classroom, we do notwrite unless there is some reason for doing so. For this type of writ ing, studentsare often exhorted to' imagine' a reader. This may to some extent be helpful i fthe students also think of the task init ial ly as forming part of , let us say, a letter

or a report. This at least gives them some purpose for writing about the topic inthe f irst place and can serve to st imulate some ideas on it . And if the students

are to' imagine a reader', i t had best be 'other students in the class'. who are atleast real for them. Students do tend to rvrite better if they know that otherpeople in the class are going to read what they have written. Hence the

importance of having a display board of some kind in the classroom.In terms of procedures, then, our start ing point is really the problem of

what to write about: that is, gett ing some ideas on the topic. Understandablystudents often feel that they have nothing to say at al l , although, i f the task

were preceded by a short class or group discussion, a number of ideas would -

certainly be thrown up. In the absence of tttis. the students need to stimulatethemselves and this can be quite effectively done by asking oneself clttestions

about the topic and noting down anv ideas that occur. As a first step, then, it is

suggested that the students should:

(a) List possible ideas.

One idea very often sparks off another. In any case, most people f ind i t

helpful to get something down on paper. It is better than staring at blankpaper! Making an ' ideas'chart (see 6.3.1 and 8.3.1) is one way of gett ing

started, and it has the added advantage of being f lexible. You can expand'l ink, number ideas in a rvay that is diff icult i f you are making notes in a

conventionalwav. Here, for example, are the results of trying to decidewhich place to rvri te about.

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Page 124: Byrne Teaching Writing Skills

TEACHING WRITING SKILLS

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The wri ter play'ed around with several ideas. House did not leadanywhere; farnt did. but he decided that he \ \ 'as soing in the wrongdirection. Both theatre and factorl' had some potential, but in the end thervr i ter decided that he could do more u, i th hotel . Horvever. he can easi ly goback and develop them later i f he gets nowhere with hotel (and i t is mucheasier to transfer ideas from one place to another by means of arrows).

(b) Select and expand one idea.

The wri ter has decided that he can do something with hotelon the basis ofpersonal experience. Again, i t helps to do this in chart form - perhapsmerely expanding the f i rst one i f t ime is short .

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(c) Make an outline.

Not everyone f inds it necessary or even helpful to make a plan or outl ine.For some it is inhibit ing and prevents ideas from flowing. In any case, insome situations (such as the examination room) there may not be t ime. Inthat case. you can number the ideas in the chart in the order you think youwould l ike to incorporate them in the text. This also ensures that nothingimportant is left out.

118

Page 125: Byrne Teaching Writing Skills

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(d)Write a draft.

Writing a draft is akey stage in theproduction of a textand the studentsshould normally berequired to do this asa matter of course.The purpose of theoutline in (c) is toprovide a scaffoldingfor the draft version.However, studentsshould not fee l thatthey must necessarilYkeep to their outl ine:a piece of writingsometimes'takes off 'and goes in acompletely differentdirection, and theymay find it moreproductive to followthis new line ofdevelopment. Generallydrafts should be writtenquite quickly -

because they wil l bereworked andcorrected afterwards.

WRITING AT THE POST.INTERMEDIATE LEVEL

t . re fcr 20 years - user i to gc ,^ . l th. Darents

)ra"A Slam€I1

i r : , r c 2 i l c n t e c l " t o s e e S e a , l i e u i t o t e l . l t s e C : a b e

bes: , )n t :c tn (nea) I aTaays bookee up. luLL c i

1. i . fe: nar i t l ' -cus resl :aurant and Ccr.ces. l t : : : r ;

c . r rcrgei enl ter t . innents in garden for chi lCrer. .

Pata 4 Ary iuei .1.r . h 'o l .Jdny seasor. P1-ece aLno::

erv ly ! ! i los l ;Ly oLi ccupLes. Fcsldurcnt i - ' ' i :e

cere:o-r , l ! Tctei ieserted by iC.

?att 4 !,-;er!thinE vun cToum: rccns t-eeied.

re ieccrc l : . ; , rg / outs iCe too. Gar ien cotp" 'ete i ' i

neg"- .caeC. l ' " ike ;ungle !

?arc S (Cor,c iuslon) Fet t pLace hai grcum o1-. i

( ! : , '<e cn' ,ers/guests) ' M' is tcke ;o go back.

' Esccaei ' nert norning.

) .a la r " i :Eo l , iea i ied ta ga on a u is i t :o 9ox le '1 . !u t ' : c t 'e r :e

c l tays Lse i t : c tcke us tc : :h i ' ; se 'as i te tc ' 'n i c t a l i? . 'L1m4r

h .o l ! i c i ; , b ,L . t i hoc to : been back xh 'e re fc r c t ;e r r [e \ t t !eq !s -

- pc : : : . cu ld rL i l ucn te t i to see the Seet :eu io t ;e 'L uh ' : : ' : te

c" :xcys : :a - , ted . ln :bse dcys i t Das te ! ' r tex qnd cer :c i ' t ' : ! i :h 'e

best rr. !cur,. :t ucs alaa1s crcuCed iur:r 'g lali iaT aet:cr'.

ikere xere 7ar:--e; tni Car.ces at the uee!:er"d cnd the c'-zers

tsed to a r ra tge sgec tc ! en ter tc in ren ts l c r : i :e ch i ld re ' t

t . ' \ e : c r : : r .

, t t : . ) le ; ) . e ;a iu r ia i ! bu t - ;he iw te i ta ; c i r :ca ; e rc - '1 . ;

jex to re :ec21,e , rcs t l ' 1 c l i : c ' tp ies , o t ' t ' i ' : e : i c=er " ' t t l z ' -a ! '

: t t e : :e : : . x ' r ,e :e tas sc t iea i ! -ecp le c le ! ' -e ' : r j cc i i ' : : : " : "ce

:n i b i , : ; t : o 'c loc l ' - the p l -ace xcs can?Le,eLr ieser ie ' j

) l ! ! ' aaa iepres- "o- i re : i t h 'a i r - ' t beer : :e ' : c t ' c te4 . fo l r : : : r ' s '

l l ' .e c ; t : s ' -ce c j + 'ke ho ta ! tas jus t ae buc . | 'as qsv i ' : ' : : ' : z : ' :

cc r t | ' e : : " 1 teg ' :ee te i : to o re bo t i ' "eve i tc ' - : t r i ' L - c lcss c r ;1 : t :

I :::e:'e :r., rct ';.

I f e , : : i ; t t : i ' . a c l a c e h - a d i i r c L l t c : ' i , ' " l i ' ' ' : t L e : e : : " ' ^ | :

' :e , : : : i :e : : ! :e r ' t c t :e :hey : i " i i to t rc : i . : ta ' :a . -c r : I i : : i ' : t

uas c rle:,:. 'r-e to gc bt:!- tr-C i dectJei:c::c'<; ty e:: ' ' : :e !h'e

ic : ' .cuit": rotr",ro.

119

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T E A C H I N G W R I T I N G S K I L L S

(e) Corre ct at t t l intpr r t t e t l te t l rut l .

In par t i cu la r the s tudents shou ld check fo r mis takes th rough a care fu l

reacl ing of q,hat thev have wri t ten. Thev should also revie rv the text f rom

the po in t o f v ieu o f express i t ln and organ isa t ion .

? A th*t t;"*: ;ot Long/ago I d"ecid"ed" to ,go on a u'Lsit to BorLey. )ur parents

,? ln',d4claays used to take us tc ihis f';easid.e toum f.or ouT su/mneT

2OquftJ aat ^

f- sit't'we ry Ii .c!;/al. tsl Aitt t hoC ro! b:an back therelfor ouer taentA aearS

,l//76 < U//r147/5

i fpart ieuLarlyfuanted .o see the Seauieu HoteL uhere ue

?";bf ;t 'r-*"11'--"-' r btune*',c'*ta&oLcLuaus stau6d.. In 1:hose ieys tt ao"lun"y ne}.,a| ' td. certainLy the

ttuott"eqn/r;*hot L l,crY l.thebet: l :h totm. It tscs aLu:Vsfgr-ouded CuringfhoLiaay season.

ft"; uere parti,es and. dcrces at the ueekend" and the oLmers

tro a,t.L othrf,^sed to orrong$p;; i l i

?";;ertainmer!)for the chiLaren

-( " "n the qaTaen. )

I arciued on a saturi,av but the hoteL uas aLmost ernptyf A

'- ?e'Asfufeu more people, most ly l r -_ i

" i "p{nt , ary , iued Later in the day.

/rnrsa 6.*-o'"oL9'2ry1o"4! -

tW lW:u t eueryuhe' re Das sc iec: ! TeopTe cte the i r l food in fs i lenee

'te'tfu*r*nltand by ten o 'e lock the'&- ias co*pLetely deserted'

/ ,w./t ba/* ("ry ry b^4.-'L.l (a "oo"7deP7es,s.ed

ne: -- t hadn' t been d"ecorated" 1o, YnorrQ

, I ierrt {.i a. wa,l'k/ri ',n'-oit'side of the 7"ote1' ':as just as

conpLeteLy negLected : no one bo thered

fl,ouers any moYe.

/t seunrcL btnz-'+4+* tnai t fr pLace i" 'ad grotnt old, Like the peopLe uho

uent thereQ Perhaps they di'd not not'Lce i't *tmiJirifu

/'raaL bze.n . :'. )

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bad. The gardenrf,Won

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WRITING AT THE POST.INTERMEDIATE LEVEL

(0 Write the final version.

The text below is a modif ied version of the draft in (d). I t incorporates

many of the changes made in (e), but i t is not just a ' fair copy' because

Some new ideas occurred while the f inalversion was being written.

A short uhiLe ago, I decided to go on a uisi t to BorLey, uhere

our paTents used to take us euerA year for. ouIl sulrner hoLidnys.

But that uas tuenta aears ago - and I had not been back since

then.

I rmtst admLt I uas particuLarLy curious to see the Seauieu

HoteL, uhere ue aLuays stayed. In those dnys i t uas the neDest

and. by far the most popuLaT VtoteL in toum., aluays uerA cTouded

during the holidau season and fuLL of Life. There uez'e parties

and" dnnces at the ueekend, and the odltey,s used to apange tea

anC other, tentextainments' in the garden for. the children. For

us, of course, this was the speciaL attr iet ion!

I aTriued. on a saturday and although it uas the niddLe of

the hoLidaa season, the hoteL uas aLmost compLeteLy ernpty. I t

uas a bad. sign! Later in the fua, o ieu more guests arTi.ued.

They uere mostLy eLderly couples. At dinner, peopLe ate in

siLence and. by ten o,clock the hoteL uas cornpLeteLy desev' ted.

Conpared. utth the oLd d.ays on a Saturd-a.y night, tk"e pLace

seemed Like a graueYard!

I uent back to mA room - but t lnt depressed me eDen more: i t

h-ad not been d.ecorated foz, years. I decided to take a uaLk

round" the gard.er,, but this aas no better. It uas not iust the

ou_tside of the hotel , uhich aLso needec paint ing. Tk'e gaTdens

- those LoueLy gardens! - uere cornpLetely neglected: no one

bothered. to pLant any flouers; no one bothered euen to cut the

grass !

It seemeiL to me tlnt the pLace Ltad sir,rpllJ gI,oLn oLd - aLong

aith the orineTE and the people uho uent there. Perhaps theu

did. not notice uhat had happened, but I_ did. It had been a

great nistake to go back, of course, anC I dccided to mo,ke ny

esca?e as soon as I could in the morr" ing'

t21

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TEACHING WRIT ING SK ILLS

I i \ l r l ( ) \ \

Discussion

Exercises

References

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I To sum up. i t is suggested that the students should be taught a set ofprocedures (summarised in the diagram), u'hich u' i l l help them notonly when they are u'r i t ing about topics l ike the one dealt withabove but also rvith an1' kind of ' free' u'r i t ing. In part icular. theseprocedures should take into account the importance of makingnotes, writ ing outl ines. draft ing and correcting drafts before thefinal version is writ ten up. As they become more experienced, thestudents wil l no doubt want to modify these. In part icular, duringexaminations, thev may not have t ime to take a piece of writ ingthrough al l these stages. However. the experience of having learnedto make notes. to write drafts and to correct them will stand them ingood stead. And they wil l appreciate. i t is hoped. that, because it isa thinking process. u'r i t ing is not just a question of inspiration': i talso general ly involves a great deal of hard work and organisation.

In what sense is most ofthe writ ing we do in 'real

l i fe' ever really free? Howuseful a preparation for itis classroom composit ion?Do you agree that thereare many effectivealternatives to theconventional' composition' u'ritingactivity? What are they?What is your view of thefunctionally-orientedwriting activiti6s suggestedin9.2?

O 1986 unded Feature Syndrcate. lnc

Examine any coursebook to see what provision is made for remedial writingactivit ies.Make a l ist of the things you do (e.g. making notes, draft ing, etc.) when youhave to write, for example, a report or any complex piece of writing.Compare your procedures ri'ith a friend.In the light of what you have read. make a list of what you consider to be thebest twenty controlled, guided and free writing activities. Compare your'Top Twenty'with a fr iend.

On what students do when they have to write (in the mother tongue) seeS Krashen (1984) pages 12-19.For writing activities at the intermediate level and beyond, see J Arnold andJ Harmer Advanced Wrtting Skills (1978); N Coe et alWriting Skills (1983);

M Carrier Writing (1981); E Glendinning and H Mantell Write ldeas (i983);J O'Driscoll Penguin Advanced Wriring Skll/s (i984); D Jolly Writing Tasks(1984) and A Pincas Wriring in English J (1982).

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10.2Teacher andstudentcorrection

10Correcting written work

When we see something wrong with a pie'ce of written work, we must first try todecide whether it is an error or a mistake. Broadly, learners make errors whenthey try to do something with the language which they are not yet able to do.For example, they often make false generalisations (they use a regular insteadof an irregular form, such as throwed instead of. threw) or they transfer from themother tongue (they write: The people is angry instead of The people areangry). These are two major sources of error. Mistakes, on the other hand, areslips of some kind. The students have learned something, but perhaps theyhave temporarily forgotten it or are tired . . . or, we feel, are just beingcareless.

Although in practice it is sometimes difficult to decide if something is amistake or an error (after all, we may think we have taught the studentssomething but perhaps they did not learn it) , it is important to try to decide.Clearly, for example, if students have not learned something, we cannot expectthem to correct i t for themselves. On the other hand, i t is perfectly reasonableand pedagogicaily sound to get them to correct their own mistakes. And it iscertainly no use getting cross with the students if they keep on making certainerrors. The lesson we can learn from these is that the students need to learnsomething, whether or not the syllabus or the coursebook has provided for it atthis stage, and the best way we can help them is by giving them the opportunityto learn i t . Learners'errors, in short, can help shape our teaching (andcertainly our remedial teaching).

It has already been suggested that we should not be unduly preoccupied withthe detection and correction of mistakes in written work. Effective expression isnot the same as accurate expression. Accuracy is normally measured in terms ofcorrect grammar, spell ing, etc., since these are the areas which tend to get themost attention when a piece of writ ten work is being 'corrected'. But a piece ofwritten work which has a number of mistakes in i t mav nevertheless convey the

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T E A C H I N G W R I T I N G S K I L L S

10.3Correctionprocedures

u'r i ter 's communicative purpose perfectl .v adequately, u'hi le another piece.superf icial ly free from mistakes. does not. The same is true of oral expression.But, as we have noted. there is a tendency to scrutinise r i ' r i t ten expresslonmore closely because it is readily accessible to careful inspection. It is there forus to read and reread and consequently we tend to see mistakes.

Clearly, however. \ \ 'e cannot ignore mistakes al l the t ime. Students expectto be informed of their progress and the correction of mistakes. by whateverprocedures are used. rs one u'ay of doing this. Equally, however. i f we indicatethe ways in which a piece of rvri t ing is defective, we should also point out inwhat wavs we think i t is successful. For exampie, we should inform the students(not leave it to be assumed by an absence of comment) that they have madegood use of connecti\ /es or punctuation devices. etc. This posit ive form offeedback need not add much to your work: the students can be given achecklist of i tems and thel ' can see at a glance if they are making progress fromthe ones that have been t icked off.

Before u'e look at various correction procedures. rve need to stress onceagain the importance of gett ing the learners themselves to identify and correctmistakes. Ult imateiy thev u' i l lhave to examine. evaluate and improve theirown work: this is part of the process of draft ing. correcting and writ ing f inalversions, which was described in 9.3. But this important cri t ical abi l i ty wil l notdevelop unless the learners are given the opportunitv to exercise i t from a muchearlier level. There willbe occasions when you wiliwant to correct all the mistakesin a piece of written work (see 10.3 for ways of doing this). Equally, however,there will be occasions when you can leave it to the students themselves.For a start, to get them into the habit of looking critically at a piece of writtenwork which has not been corrected by the teacher, they can work in pairs orsmall groups to try to identify any mistakes and only then to consult with you.This procedure will not work perfectly on all occasions, but it will at least getthe students into the habit of checking a piece of written work for themselves.

Various correction Drocedures are examined below.

(a) Correct all the mistakes.

This is of course the traditionai approach to the correction of written work.It is time-consuming for the teacher and discouraging for the students - atleast i f the.v get their u'ork back covered with red ink. Apart from that'there must be some doubt about how effective this form of correction is.Some students learn nothing from it: others are more interested in whysomething is u'rong rather than the correction i tself . I f .vou can correctsomething in class. u'hi le the students are st i l l engaged in writ ing andeverything is fresh in their minds, this is l ikely to be more effective thanlooking at a mass of corrections several days after the event.

Overal l , unless the educational system obliges you to carry out thiskind of correction. vou should consider alternative approaches.

(b) Correct mistakes selectiv e[1'.

That is, you do not attempt to correct al1 the mistakes in a piece of writ ing,but only those in certain areas. such as tenses or art icles, either becausethis is where the students part icularly need help or because you have

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CORRECTING WRITTEN WORK

decided to focus attention on these for a while. Certainly this approach is

more positive than total correction - in practice, of course, most teachers

exerci ie some form of selection - but i t probably needs to be backed up

by some form of remedial teaching (see below).

Inclicate mistakes so that the students can correct them'

This is normally done by underl ining the mistakes and using some kind of

symbol to focus the attention of the students on the kind of mistake they

have made. For a possible l ist of these, see below'

SYMBOL MEANING EXAMPLE

S I nco r rec t spe l l i ngss

I rec ieued jour Le t te r .

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TEACHING WRITING SKILLS

Using a l ist of this kind, vou can get the students. individually. in pairs or in

small groups. to identify at le ast most of the mistakes for themselves' I f

they cannot. then they sirould consult you. This approach certainly makes

them more aware of the kind of mistakes they are making and is therefore

l ikely to result in something being learned. You do not need of course to

indiCate al l the mistakes. In practice. however, i t does not solve al l the

problems. For exampie, i f students are left to identify mistakes for

ihemselves, the1, ma-V not bother. Even if they work in groups, some form

of confirmation may, be needed and this could take up a lot of class t ime in

a large class.If your teaching situation permits. you could try to implement a staged

approach for gett ing the students to correct their own work'

Stage 1 Underl ine the mistake and diagnose it b,v u'r i t ing the appropriate

symbol in the margin.

Stage 2 Underl ine the mistake but do not diagnose it '

Stage 3 Diagnose the mistake by u'r i t ing the symbol in the margin but do

not shou'g 'here i t is in the l ine.

Stage 4 Put a cross in the margin (for each mistake)'

Stage 5 Put a cross against each l ine with a mistake but do not indicate how

many mistakes there are.

(d) Let the students identifl'and correct their own mistakes'

This is not a procedure that you are likely to be able to follow all the time.

occasiona] l1 , .hou 'ever ,Voushouldbepreparedtohandover thewholebusiness of correction to the students - which their will generally do

scrupulously and u' i th enloyment.

Other things you can do to help students when they make mistakes are:

(a) Explain a mistake.

For example. you can write a comment in the margin or at the end of a

piece of wlritten tr,ork. This procedure is especially useful for drawing

attention to recurrent mistakes in a particular area and when you are able

to look at students'work in class.

(b) Indicate to the students that the,v ,should consult vou about a mistake'

This may be used as an aiternative to (b) and (c) above. Very often the

students themselves can suggest the correction when their attention has

been drawn to a mistake.

(c) lJse the mistake as a basis for remedial teaching.

This procedure should be followed if a sufficient number of students in the

class have made a mistake to warrant general correction. Alternatively,

you can set individual remedial work. Remedial teaching may take the

iorm of an explanation, where this is felt to be sufficient, or exercises, oral

or writ ten. whichever Seems to be appropriate, designed to correct the

mistake.

Teachers tend to place their faith in one type of correction procedure rather

than another. In part icular. manv do not accept (or only accept with some

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Discussion

Exercises

CORRECTING WRITTEN WORK

misgiving) self-correction procedures. In general, however, although it is

important to give the students opportunities to correct written work so that

they develop a self-cri t ical att i tude, i t does not seem that one approach is so

intiinsically superior that it can be used all the time and you should therefore

draw on the various approaches to suit the needs of your students'

1 Do you think that the distinction made between errors and mistakes is

important?2 From your own experience of teaching (or learning)' d:

Io" think that

detailed teacher correction of written work is effective? Give your reasons'

3 Inmed iumto la rges i zedc lasses ( i . e .ove r30s tuden ts ) ,wha tp rob lemsdo- you see in getting-students to correct their own work?

lDev iseyourownse to fco r rec t i onp rocedures .Youcanmod i f y the l i s tonpage 125.

2Useyourcorrect ionsymbolsto ind icatethemistakesinthefo l lowingpieceof writing, which is in the form of a letter'

fu/A dea l'tott/ a/rcyow. / a'rtr'vh'/ qord b4tuf oivc'rry "ru'o/t'hir;L in rhese d,ags, Pe'r+w7sI as/e ftw,t fhe 6{orrffl4'ti'Cyne aw,ckh (b^'t Irw [,tlec.q:o+h ar

-d4;do'rsl)'

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'qs"fo worte 'int'

b,zn te . I nni r"*t'ctt', 3x'c^t,r19{or rhis ! I hoPe to gain

"more a't barn/?.L of rne fo fuaue a/'L You'rTtE ts. / arrn, cn@1y to,kruowthem. EoLipue rVL( , IT,4/L'A/4/L,

Youn'' fi'e;"rt'c/ ,"pa,rl.o-

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TEACHING WRITING SKILLS

References

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For use fu lqenera l cu idance on cor rec t ion s r -e RJ Wingf ie ld (197- l ) . For

student correct ion see CJ Brumfi t in S Holden (1983) Corrcct i rrq Y'r i t t ( l lwork. The ideas in this chapter owe a good deal to these trvo articles. See also

R Whi te (1980) pages 106-9 and. l Harmer (1983) pages 1 ,10-1 .For correct ion symbols see J Wil l is (1981) pages 112-3 and L Dangerf ield in

A Matthews et al (eds) (1985) pages 195-8.

Aboywrotea poem

NICHOI.AS CTIAPIVTAN

A boy u ' rote a poem.I t was f rom honrework f rom c lass,LIe wrotc about c l i f f ' tops,And how t l r c u i nds l r i r ssHe just lc t i t I to* 'f rom his head to h is pen,But h is spcl l ing * 'as bad,"C , do th i s aga in l "

A boy wrote a poem,And tho r rgh t o f h i s n ra rk .And th i s t ime he chccke r l i tAnd wrote of the d: r rk .He changed and correcter l .Gave i t in the next day,He got "B+ Good effort"and threw i t away.

Nicholas Chapman is 12 and attendsQueen Katherine School, Kendal,Cumbria.Published in the Times EducationalSupplement 16.8.85.

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11.1Reasons forteaching writ ing

11Writing activities for children

The age group we have in mind here is that of gupils i9.".trt 7-8 years old' who

have ,Jnly reclntly started elementary school. Since children at this age are

good at learning orally and are still learning to write in their mother tongue, we

i""d to explain and perhaps justify why we should want to teach them to write

in another language at this stage, apart from perhaps just giving them a few

routine copying exercises. Won't ii just be yet another learning burden for

them? If i iweri, then it might be better to keep writ ing to an absolute

minimum. But it does not liave to be a burden, as we shall see when we look at

the various types of activity proposed, especially if we k-eep in mind the many

good reasoni it .r. are for teaching writing at this age ' Some of these apply to

l-.u.n.r, of al l ages. A number, however, are peculiar to chi ldren'

(a )Ch i l d renusua l l yen jo l ,w r i t i ng .Th is i spa r t l ybecause theyhaveon ly lus tstarted to write in their mother tongue. Even activities like copying still

have a certain noveltY value.

(b) Most children expect to be taught to write (and read of course) ' This is one ̂

of the things youhave to do rvhen you go to school and they see it as part of

learning a language'

(c) chi ldren, l ike older students - but even more so, need a break from oral

work .Theyen joy ta l k ing .o fcou rse .bu t theysoonge t t i r ed ,even i f youkeep changing'ttLe activiiies. Writing activities provide a very important

quiet (or relatively quietl) period-foi them in the lesson, after which they

usual lyreturntoora l rvorkref reshedandlessrest less.

(d) writ ing gives children an opportunity to work at their ownpace. which is' '

u.ru ,. iJ*ing for them. Remember that there can be very big differences

betrveen learners at this age because their motor ski l ls are st i l l developing'

(e) Access to the rvritten language sometimes clears up difficttlties rvhich

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T E A C H I N G W R I T I N G S K I L L S

11 .1 . 1Some guidelinesfor teachingwriting to children

children have u'hen learning oral l .v. Sometimes they cannot tel l you aboutthese diff icult ies because they are not even aware of them themselves.

(f) Writing activities provide an opportunity for personal contacr. This again isvery important for learners of this age, who are Sti l l gett ing used to theclassroom environment. When they are writ ing, you can go and work with

them individually (at least with those who need and want this attention),sort out difficulties and encourage them. This is sometimes more importantthan the writing activity itself.

(g) Childre n like and need to have a record of many of the things they do in the

classroom - of dialogues they have practised and songs they have sung.Again this is important because, although they learn quickly, they forgetquickly too. You should not forget that they lead very busy l ives - in and

out ofschool !

(h) Children need the extro language contact that writing can provide.especial ly through some sort of homework activity. This is essential i f there

is a long gap betu'een one lesson and the next. Homework, of course. need

not be a burden. For example, i f chi ldren are asked to i l lustrate a song (see

1I .2.1( i ) be low). th is u ' i l lhe lp to keep them in touch wi th the language(they are very l ikel,v to be heard singing it to themselves as they draw!) as

well as being enjovable.

(i) Children need somethirtg to show their parents. Parents are usually pleasedwhen they hear their children utter a few words in a foreign language but

they are usually more convinced that they are making progress (evenperhaps if they are not) if they have tangible evidence in the form ofwritten work. They usually expect homework to be in the form of writing

too.

The main purpose for going into the reasons for teaching children of this age to

write is that they lvill help us to see how we should go about it. Two things

especially should be kept in mind. First, rvriting must not impair oral fluency.

There is no reason why this should happen provided the pupils get plenty of

opportunities for hearing and using English and if writing is treated as an

extension of oral work. Secondly, we should not try to teach aspects of the

written language which learners at this age cannot be expected to understandand cope with. For example, they are too young to do sentence linkingactivities (except in the few instances that these can be turned into a kind of

game) and the kind of texts they write are more l ikely to be imaginative than

coherent. Remember that the pupils are still learning how to organise their

ideas in their mother tongue.

(a) Give the pupils plent;' of opportunities for copying.

This willhelp them feel at ease with the written language and should alsoprovide them with records of things they may need, e.g. l ists of words,

copies of songs, poems and dialogues.

(b) Give the pupils adequate opportunities to use orally learned language inwriting.

In short, they wil l need a fair amount of control led practice. part icularly to

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71 .1 .2The organisationof writ ten work

11.2Writ ing activit ies

WRITING ACTIVITIES FOR CHILDREN

reinforce key structures and vocabulary. This need not and should not beboring. (In fact, most workbooks for chi ldren try to make this type ofactivity interesting and enjoyable.)

(c) Provide activities which the pupils can do at their own speed.

Some pupils wil l f inish an activity very quickly (and call out for attention!).You should be prepared to extend the activity (by some form of parallelwriting) or have an extra activity ready (which need not be a written one).Slower pupils should as far as possible always be given the opportunity tofinish an activity in some form (that is, they must not be left feeling thatthey have fai led, otherwise they may begin to get discouraged).

(d) Work with the pupils wherever possible.

Writing activities provide a break for the pupils - but not, as a rule, forthe teacher! Some pupils will actually need your help. With all of themwriting will provide an opportunity to get to know them a little betterpersonally.

(e) Make sure that the pupils begin to see writing as a means of communication.

This can be done mainly by getting the pupils to write to one another inclass (see 17.2.3 and 11.2.4), which is an activity the learners part icularlyenjoy at this age.

(f) Encourage the pupils to be creative.

This should balance controlled and language-focused activities suggestedin (b). At this age they have plenty of imagination and they should beencouraged to use it .

(g) Make writing activities enjoyable.

This is the most important provision. Remember that many pupils are juststarting on a programme which may last for years. It would be a pity if theywere turned off at this early age through boredom or failure. You must try,therefore, to ensure that they get as much fun out of writ ing as they dofrom other act iv i t ies.

See also 4.7.3 . At this age the pupils wil l normally be making use ofworkbooks or activity books. This in i tself wil l help to keep together a gooddeal of their writ ten work. Sometimes, however, material has to be cut out anda folder will be useful for keeping together this and other looseleaf material.

As a rule at this age it is better to ask pupils to work with exercise books(rather than a folder for everything). The kind of exercise book they use (i .e.the distance between the l ines) may also be important for writ ing. Pupils wil lneed at least two exercise books: one for vocabulary lists and related activities(e.g. Word Bingo) and the other for copies of dialogues, songs and poems,which they should be encouraged to i i lustrate. They may also need one forproject work such as makinq an i l lustrated dict ionary.

These have been divided into four groups - copying. practice with words,practice with sentences and creative rvri t ing - but there is inevitably someoverlap between these groups.

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TEACHING WRITING SKILLS

11.2.1Copf ing

(a) Joirting up dors to form v'ords

This very basic activity can beuseful in the early stages.partly to give the PuPilspractice in forming the letters'More than that, however, i tgives the pupils the illusionthat they are Producing thewords for themselves. It is ofcourse an activity they arefamiliar with through Puzzlebooks that contain hiddenobjects in pictures.

Finding rhe word that is different

The pupils are given sets of 4-5words like those in the diagramand are asked to find and write

out the word that is different.This combines reading withwriting. Children enjoY theproblem-solving asPect of this

(d) Completing crossh)ord puzzles

The pupils use or select wordsfrom a list to comPlete simPlecrossword puzzles like these.The puzzles can be moreextensive as the PuPils Progress.

Jo in t i re dots ond c i rc le

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(c) Labelling items

For this the pupils use words listed for them in a box to identify and label,

for example, individual objects, peopie in a group, objects in a Scene' etc.

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(e) Finding words

The pupils have to find and write out words which have been 'hidden' in

boxes l ike the one below. The words may belong to a set (e.g. animals,

clothes, etc.) and at a later stage may form a sentence, such as an

instruction. The pupils can also make their own wordboxes, working

individually or in groups, using words which they have been given.

(f) Filling in speech bubbles

The pupils have to fill in speech bubbles by matching the sentences with the

situation. The activity is more interesting if the pictures form a sequence.

(g) Forming dialogues or stories from ittmbled sentences

See 4.3.1 (c) for this activity. This makes a good pairwork or group activity

and can be based on something the pupils have already heard.

l , ft J ond circle the words. Then write them.

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TEACHING WFITING SKILLS

1r.2.2Word activities

(h) Playing v,ord bingo

See 4.2.3 (e) for this activit i ' . This is a l ie-v activitv for learners at this level

because vocabularv sets need to be kept fresh in their minds throughconstant revision. It helps with pronunciation as well as spell ing, becausethe pupils can tel l 1'ou which words to write on the board and then hear you

read them out. You can also play'phrase bingo'with the pupils, but be

careful that this does not present problems for slow copiers.

Making copies of songs, etc.

The pupils make their own copies of dialogues. songs and poems (i .e. anykey reference material) in a book set aside for this purpose and providdtheir own i l lustrations. This again is a very important activity. Most pupilsexhibit a good deal of imagination when i l lustrating material of this kind.

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For the activities in this section the pupilsspell) the words they need.

(a) Completing crosswords

This is s imi lar to 11.2.1 (d)except that the pupils are notgiven any of the words. Theymay, however, be given pictureclues (perhaps placed next to orl inked to the relevant souares tobe f i l led in).

have to provide (i .e. think of and

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134

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(b) Labelling items

This is similar to 11.2. 1 (c), except that the pupils have to provide the

words. They can also be asked to draw or complete the pictures needed.

For example, they may be asked to label i tems in a zoo or fr idge which they

have drawn.

(c) Making lists

For example, the pupils maY beasked to compile lists of:- things they would l ike to eat;

- countries thev would l ike tov is i t ;

- animals they would like to see(or have as pets) (etc.)

They can then comPare theirchoices with a friend.

(d) Classifying items

The pupils have to identifY andthen arrange in categories (theheadings wiil normallY have tobe provided or at least workedout with the class beforehand)things that they can see in a

I twtld ti,ke ,o h'atrc

plcture.

(e) Completing texts

That is, the pupils put in the missing words. The texts can be dialogues they

have practised, stories accompanied by a picture sequence or songs' poems

and riddles which they have heard (etc.).

S a l l y g o e s r o u n d t h e . . ' . . ,S a l l y g o e s r o u n d t h e . . . . . ,S a l l y g o e s r o u n d t h e " . ' .o n a S a t u r d a Y . . , . . l

Correcting sentences or texts

These should be accompanied bv a picture so that the

mistakes of fact (not grammar). For example:pupils are correcting

There is a boat in the Picture.Tl,urrv a/re frlrd b{at;

A gi r l is go ing home. She's got abott le in her hand.

( t) n t?na/l d"g

(z) t*o elzpl,wnts(s)a l t qsnake(1) n pa,rrot

(0

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135

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T E A C H I N G W R I T I N G S K I L L S

1r.2.3Sentence activities

(g) Making u'ords

The pupils are given one longword and. working in pairs orsmall groups, see how manv ne\\ 'words they can make from it.They sometimes l ike to lookthrough books to try to findwords (and this is a good u'av ofgett ing them interested in classreaders).

(h) Making notes

This is part icularly important during a game when they may need to keep arecord of what objects thel ' have won or which animals they have seen (i fthe game takes them to a zoo or a safaripark). Usually the items to benoted are words. but sometimes phrases have to be written down. If muchwrit ing is involved, pupils should work in pairs ( i .e. one actuall ,v- 'pla-ving.the other nraking notes) so as not to slot l ' the game down.

The purpose of these activities is to reinforce key items of structure (oftentogether with a good deal of vocabulary). There is no reason why this kind ofmanipulative pradtice need be boring (in an-v case most children enjoyrepetit ion). Most workbooks provide good activit ies for this kind of practice.but you may need to supplement this. In any case the suggestions below willhelp you to see if the workbook has left out any useful areas of activity.

(a) Writing parallel texts

That is, the pupils have a model and have to write one or more parallelversions. This is particularly useful if the pupils write dialogues which theycan then practise with one another. Later on, they can be asked to writeshort narrative sequences (5-6 sentences) which will give them somepractice in basic sentence linking (and, but, so) and sequencing ffirst, then,after that).

(b) Completing speech bubbles

This is l ike 11.2.1 (f), except that the pupils now have to supply thesentences for thernselves.

(c) Wriling sentence sequences

This is a device for gett ing the pupils to write sentences using the samestructure. For examDle. thev use the davs of the week to write about

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themselves or perhaps a character from their coursebook. Although thisinvolves repetit ion, there is always room for imagination!

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/t's Ttn'sd*Y./U t *z 6g" to kGnal'- !

It3 W"n44r%d&,4. / '/ /ike-to qo ro Wq-"mazYt!

I t 's rq in ing. I ' rn gotngfogo swlmmtng .

lf's w i .ndg . l 'n loing fogo +t 3in9 .

(d) Compiling information

For this activity the pupils have to write some sentences which provide

information, for example, about one of the characters in the coursebook orabout a topic. It often involves repetition of a structure (and can be usedjust for that purpose) and may be done with reference to a picture.

Notice that in the examples below the pupils also practise incidentallypronominal reference.

?ro{esso, ?afenl's got a f{6eope-He's 1of a cdf and a dog.He's also gof d monstecl Pr-ofessor Patenl's qof a qfamoPhonz

He's also gof ,afdevis' ionHe's 7of

-a big pier.

(e) Completing qttestionnaires

For this the pupils work with questionnaires that have been prepared for

them. It can be a useful way of disguising some very basic question

practice. The pupils can of course use such questionnaires to question one

another.

(0 Making notes

This is similar to keeping records while playing a game. NIany activit ies

involve keeping some kind of recorcl in the form of a l ist. For example, the

pupils can be asked to write down. in sentence form. the differences

tetween trvo pictures or the number of mistakes they can f ind in a pictLrre.

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TEACHING WRITING SKILLS

( s \\,\./ W ritin g questio nn ai res

This is similar to (e) above except that the pupils have to rvri te thequestionnaires as u'el l . See a.6 (a) and (b) for detai ls. Young learnersenjoy testing one another! You must, however. check that they can answerthe questions themselves. Also, when interviewing, because thel 'areslower at writ ing than adolescents and adults. they need t ime to recordanswers and preferably should sit down to do this so that they write neatly.

Re c o r din g p e r s o nal inf o rmatiort

Young learners l ike talking and u'r i t ing about themselves and they rvi l lvery happily write down personal data (names, age, address. familydetai ls. etc.) or make l ists of their possessions or l ikes and disl ikes. Theactivity can be used for some elementary sentence l inking practice-

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(i) Writing notes

See 4.5, wheie this activitv is described in detai l . That is, the pupils writeto one another (and to you) in class. This is a key activity for younglearners because it gets them to write quickly. Thus in five minutes theycan get a lot of writing practice sending and answering notes. For sentencepractice (see,11 .2.a @) for more creative writ ing) the pupils can:

- ask for something (e.g. one of a number of picture cards which anotherpupil has in front of him) I

-- ask for some personal information;- ask about a character in the coursebook. etc.

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138

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WRITING ACTIVITIES FOR CHILDREN

Pupils at this age need plenty of opportunities to use language imaginatively.Unlike many older learners, they are always wil l ing to show you their work andto ask'Can I say this?', so that fewer mistakes occur than might be expected.Let pupils work together in pairs or small groups wherever possible.

(a) Writing notes

See 11.2.3 (i). For this activity, however, give them tasks that will requirelonger sequences. For example:

FeidoYDear Eleno,Please olrsw W a picfure o?a ry\ontfer. ft hos b;g eyesG^ ol la nq leefh stn4-lhsre tshtz i,t i\ t vno$h. lt hqsa vef v lon qlai f .Thonkyo,- , ,

/ ., )or.g<

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H*Ffy l'rr-o.r, '

r lW

(b) Writing about pictures

See 4.6 (i) for the basic idea behind this activity. Choose pictures that willencourage the pupils to use fantasy and rehearse the idea orally first so thatthey understand the kind of thing you want. Pupils can also draw picturesfor one another to write about.

(c) Writing rolecards

See 4.6 (f) for a description of this activity. The pupils can ask someone tobe a character from the coursebook or an animal!

Yor+Cu&

- t \ ll-of DOtd, !

Yoq ere q caf.Yo, €qf q lo( qna

*yo,n qr? verS {aL.

?o,A 66annof "furt

anol

lot | .cqn\of cl- i , b .

You ( i ke, 5l <.,?ta 3.

(d) Making up stories

See for example 4.6 (e). You can start by asking the pupils to write shortdialogues, rvith two speakers, which they should then cut up and give toanother group to piece together. Then let them try their hand at verysimple stories (5-6 sentences), which they should also cut up for anothergroup to p iece together .

For Gca,o (Yor, a*<,fr^l"y7bln./n" wrz arle'1\ta rto^,

t6al YtuvT%'

139

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TEACHING WRITING SKILLS

1

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See 7.3.8 (b). You can give the pupils small picture cards for this activity or

let them use their own ideas (i .e. they may prefer to write about things they

would actually l ike or things they have). chi ldren very often l ike to

exchange things so the activit)'can be authentic. The pupils can also write

rules and regulations for their classroom, for example, or for a club or

recreation park.

I l@fte te/h' qlA

AsCon'x bcrk s.Wlwvnfi\ftt f)(:t/m ?. I

fArqmt a- bolJ.k RULE5 FoR ouR PLAYPARKdoavt, qw,+r*'Fwsgloa,lr-lI

6e happy!Mqke I l6rof noiset

I23 Do nof brinq your

moartter o?-'fAther !

(0 Writing book reports

See 5.5.2 (d). When the pupils have reached the stage of using class

readers - or even looking through them - they can be asked to write 2-3

sentence 'reports' on them. The reports should be pasted at the back of the

book for other puPils to read.

lf's a very qcrodbook. I tike'if.BvI it ls sqd.

lf- fs qbouf o. r l

9t( I anq

(g) Writing messages

See 7.3.8 (c) for the basic idea. The pupils will happily enter into writing

messages from other Strange places: the moon, the bottom of the sea, a

balloon, the middle of the desert, etc.

Dgatr M unu a'fi'e Da'd',

I VJre- t*rn- pirfitn<'s't/rL

fh^ts ba*, AlL

t*rz stottl th r1,Gt

verl tn[orc*fing.

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140

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Page 147: Byrne Teaching Writing Skills

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Writ ing messages can also be done in postcard form (see 7.3'8 ( j)) and theycan also be written in code.

Write out the complete code.A :V C=X E=ZB:W D:YThen write messages like this.

Mony Hoppy Returns of the DoYl

AVerv HoppV BtrthdoY!

HJ IYVT

YZVM IDX F,DO'N HT WDMOCYI/T J I

NVO PMYVT KGZVNZ XJHZOJ HT KVMOT

TJ PM N,vl l t /

Hoppy Brrthdoy to You !

Very BestWrshes f or your Birthdoy!

Don't forget to get your pupils to send birthday messages when it is

someone's birthday. The preparation of the card can be done as

homework.

Make a birthday card for a friend. Draw a picture and write a message.

(h) Project work

One useful and enjoyable project for learners at this age is to get them to

make their own picture dictionaries. The pupils can work on their own or

in groups (even if they work in groups, so as to help one another, they may

like to make their own copy). For the dictionary, they will need an exercise

book. They can draw their own pictures or cut suitable ones out of

magazines. The intention is not to get them to keep a record of al l or even

-on1' of the words they have learnt but only to write about i tems that

interest them. They should write sentences about their words (not

1 , l 1t t l

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TEACHING WRITING SKILLS

Discussion

Exercises

References

definit ions) andrvritten.

f rom t ime to t ime eo back and add to what they have

aAffit io*rrs Ronng.tle-l n r t l 5 & l t * v v t v ' n ' : t Y " t t r f v L ' ' r r r v ' ; : u . ' '

is'a vsrA old' robh it , Ror"tty liu-e'sirr, rn5 €a"fd'In,

Most pupils also enjo,v making a class wallsheet (see 5'5'2 (g)) ' which

will provide u fo.ut for a number of writing activities, e.g' little stories,

captions and balloons for pictures. jokes and riddles (etc.). Both the

picture dictionary and the $'allsheet should be spread over a school year

iunless the pupils are working intensively, e'g' on a summer course)'

Many of the projects suggested in8.2.2 can easily be adapted for

younger learners.

Do you think it is either necessary or desirable to teach young lealners to

write in a foreign language?Would you give children opportunities for creative writing early on in the

course or would you restrict them (for example) to copying and

reinforcement activities?What are the things 1'ou would do to make sure that children really enjoy

writing?How ilportant do,vou think it is to ensure that children's written work is

neat and t idy?

Examine any children'S course to see what provision is made for writing

activities. Is there a workbook? If so, are the u'riting activities (a) interesting

(b) useful?Suggest other activit ies for each of the four section s I7 .2.1.-11 .2.4 .

Make a list of the projects in 8.2.2 which could be adapted for children and

work out how you u'ould develop one of them.

on teaching young learners to write see o Dunn (1934) and S Holden (ed)

(1e80).io. u .ung. of writing activities, see D Byrne Roundabout Resource Book

and related Workbooks (Modern English Publications); M Iggulden et al

sam on Rqdio 321 (Longman); K Johnson Now for English (Nelson)l

Kaleidoscope (MacMillan) and Snap ! (Heinemann).

The illustrations in IL}.I (a) and (e) are ftom Sam on Radio 321;the

illustration in71.2.7 (f) has been adapted from Kaleidoscope;I'he

i l lust rat ions in 11 .2 .1(c) and (d) ;77.2.2 (a) and ( f ) ; 11.2.3 ( i ) and 11 '2 .4 @)

are from the Roundabout Workbooks.

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12.1The needs of thelearners

12Teaching the English script

All students whose native language doei not use the Latin script will have to betaught the symbols needed for writing English. In some circumstances you mayalso want to improve the handwriting of those who already use the Latin script.

In order to be able to do this effectively and, no less important,sympathetically, you will need to inform yourself of the learners' areas ofdiff iculty. Four possible 'problem areas' are noted below.

(a) The students have to learn the shapes of the new symbols. This is not just aquestion of teaching the letters of the English alphabet, the order of whichis mainly irrelevant for teaching purposes. Instead, some decision has to betaken how to group the symbols together for effective practice, taking intoaccount features which al low comparison and contrast. For example, thebtter A. may be derived from the letter C ; the letters A- and O. on theother hand, need to be contrasted.

(b) The students have to learn two sets of symbols: lower and upper case (that

is, small letters and capitals). Again, a decision has to be made whether to

teach both sets of symbols together or whether to teach f irst the smallletters and then the capitals.

(c) The students may have to learn to write in a new direction: that is, fromleft to r ight instead of from right to left. This wil l only apply to certaingroups of learners (for example. to Arab students but not to those whose

native language employs one of the Devanagari scripts of the North Indian

languages). This physical aspect of mastering the new script is not to be

underestimated.

(d) The students may have to learn the posit ion of the symbols of the script in

relation to the ruled l ines. Essential ly the English script may be viewed as

sitt ing on the l ine and extending upwards and downwards, while the

s-vmbols in the Devanagariscripts, for example, 'hang'from the l ine above'

I + J

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t-/-d

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TEACHING WRITING SKILLS

12.2Letter shaPes

12.3Procedures forteaching script

1 the e group: e, i , u , t 52 the c group: c. a, d 63 the o group: o, w 74 the n group: n, m, x , v 8

the r group: r. sthe / group: l . h , k , f . bthe 7 group: j , p , ythe z group: z , E, p

7 l , J8 S ,G9 Y ,Z

Another key factor u,i l l . of course. be the age of the learners. Adult learners

rvi l l want (and wil l probablv need) to learn more quicklv and wil l therefore

require concentrated practice. u'hich to a large extent, given the rightguidance, the1, can provide for themselves out of class. For chi ldren, theprogramme should be spread over a much longer period. While i t is assumed

that they wil l already have mastered their native language script, they wil l

probably still have some handwriting difficulties and not all their motor skilis

will be equally well developed. Hence the need for copying activities as

suggested in i 1.2.1. Young learners wil l also benefit a good deal from

handwrit ing activit ies that give them the opportunity to play, and they wil l

almost certainly need some kind of workbook.

For the purpose of teaching the shapes of the new symbols, we need to identify

groups of letters u'hich can be effectively and conveniently taught together.

Various groupings have been proposed (see notes on sources). One, for

example, proposes ten groups. as shown below. Upper and lower case letters

are taught together, integrated with punctuation practice.

1 i . l , t 6 f . s . r2 v ,w ,b 7 c ,e ,o3 u , y (+?and ! ) 8 a ,d .g4 n ,m ,h 9 j , q , "5 k , p (+ . and , ) 10 z (+ numerals)

Another approach has eight groups, each identified by a letter, for the lower

case symbols.

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Capitals are taught separately and are divided into the following nine groups:

1 C,O,Q,A ,E2 N,M,K,H3 U,V ,W,X

4 P ,R,B5 D,L6 T ,F numerals

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Awareness of groupings such as these is useful if you want to do remedial work

in certain areas (for example. you may find that some students are consistentlymiswriting or confusing some symbols).

At the start, most students will need to be made aware of some of theimportant differences between writing the English script and writing in theirnative language. For this purpose, if they are asked to write something in theirown language and to note some of the essential movements, a broadcomparison can be made between this and writing in English. You will also

need to draw attention to the positioning of the right forearm on the desk, atsomething like 80", and the flexible movements of the wrist to produce anti-clockwise motions, which sometimes give students a lot of difficulty. You mustbe prepared to demonstrate these points. Two'warm up' activit ies should alsobe noted:

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TEACHING THE ENGLISH SCRIPT

(a) Rhythmic patterns

To get the students used to some of the characteristic shapes of the Englishscript and the movements needed for making them, you can ask them todraw rhythmic patterns like those shown below. They are particularlyimportant for students who are having to learn to write from left to right(for whom even drawing horizontal lines across the page is a usefulactivity). Rhythmic patterns can relate to some of the basic shapes of theletters, as in the examPle below:

f f i vwxz

ffi hlam.n"bpW LLtU,yw cLcd,eqog o1.

Many teachers prefer to get their students to draw these patterns on blankpaper. For children the activity can be presented as a game, such asclimbing up and down mountains.

(b) Writing in air

It generally helps, whatever the age of the students, to practise tracing theshape of the letters in the air. This helps them to concentrate on the way aletter is formed and enables them to go on practising as long as they like.

For this activity draw a large version of the letter on the board, witharrows indicating the directions to be followed, and then demonstrate themovements yourself . The students can make large movements first of all,gradually making smaller ones. Students who are accustomed to writingfrom left to right can be helped by being asked to make a series of strokesor circles which start on the left and move towards the right.

The example below shows how letter formation in the air can bepresented in a fun-like way for children:

(a) Give the students clear and carefully made models to follow.

Draw these on the board if a workbook is not available. In any case' a

modelon the board, drawn by you, wil l help to concentrate attention. You

must always be prepared to demonstrate script.

f j s

72.3.1Some basicprocedures forteaching script

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TEACHING WRITING SKILLS

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(b) Sftow the students n'here to begin the strokes from u,hich each letter is made(tlrcre may be more than one stroke).

For examole:

(c) Get the students to practise several specimens of each letter.

Get the students to practise the new letters in combinatiort tvith previously

Iearned ones.

These may be simply patterns of let ters or words, phrases and short

sentences.

A matter which rpquires careful attention is the actual positioning of thesymbols on the lower horizontal l ine. At the start i t wil lprobably help thestudents to practise within the l imits of an addit ional ruled or dotted l ine, asshown below.

L-a-Lg.Some teachers, however, argue that any ruled lines at the start make it moredifficult for the students to write well because it restricts the size of their script,and they therefore prefer blank paper.

On the whole, it would seem better to separate the teaching of capitalsfrom lower case s1'mbols. This permits the kind of grouping according to shapeas shown in the second example on page t44.It also takes into account themany differences between a lower case letter and its upper case counterpart(for example, r and R,g and G).

In addit ion. there are some other factors which need to be considered. Inthe first place, we shall need to decide how early in the course to introducewriting practice. Should we get the students to practise making the shapes ofthe letters very early on, even before they can read, perhaps as a break fromoral work, or should u'e u'ait unti l they are famil iar with the symbols through

146

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Discussion

Exercises

References

TEACHING THE ENGLISH SCRIPT

some form of reading recognit ion practice? Although there is clearly no oneanswer to this question, on the whole, i f there is t ime for this activity, which isessential ly a kind of drawing exercise, i t would seem a good idea to introducethe students to the mechanical problems of actually making the symbols assoon as possible. Younger learners enjoy this kind of activity, while adultstudents may actually need to have accelerated instruction in both reading andwriting in order to become literate in the foreign language as quickly aspossible.

^fhe pace of that part of the writing programme where the students arebeing taught the symbols will relate to the age level of the learners. The workof younger learners, for example, should be carefully supervised in class,although this does not rule out a certain amount of practice as homework.Adult students, on the other hand, might well be given cyclostyled sheetscontaining appropriate copying material, so that, after an introduction to theitems to be practised, they continue to work on their own out of class.

We must also decide what kind of script we are going to teach. Do we

teach them some form of cursive writing from the Start or do we delay theintroduction of this until they have learned to print? Again, the age factor is

relevant: younger learners are probably best taught the printed form first. On

the other hand, there is no great harm in introducing from the start a kind ofmodified cursive, of a kind rvhich is easy to write and easy to read and which

stands very close to the printed form. In making a decision, we have to take the

needs of the learners into account: adult students, for example, would probably

be intolerant of anything less than cursive, since this is the only form they can

envisage themselves using.

1 Which would you prefer?(a) to teach capitals and lower case letters together or separately;(b) to teach a print script first or a modified cursive.Give your reasons.

2 How important is the teacher's own handwriting as a model? Would you be

prepared to change yours to help your students?

1 lvtake a list of any difficulties that your students have (or might have) with

the English scriPt.2 Choose some of the letters of the English alphabet (capitals and lower case)

and work out the strokes needed to form them.

Two useful art icles on teaching the English script are GK Pullum (1971) and

BH Seward (1972).The first group of symbols on page 144 is from J Bright and R Piggott

Handwriting (CUP 1976);the second is from BH Seward (1972).

Some useful materials for teaching English script are J Bright and R Piggott

Handwriting (CUP I976); D Cobb It's Fun to Write (Longman 1984)

R Philpot Engtish Handwriting (Collins 1983) and P Smith and A Inglis New

Nelson Handwrit ing (Nelson 1981). The f irst and last books mentionedprovide detai led guidance in the form of teachers' books.The illustrative material in i2.3 (a) comes from ly'ew Nelson Handwriting..

Other i l lustrations in 12.3 (b) and 12.3.1are from It 's Fttn to Write.

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Appendix: Cohesive devlces

The purpose of this appendix is to provide a more extensive reference list of therhetorical features discussed in2.2.2.It is intended to serve as a checklist ofitems which should gradually be learned in the course of a writing programmegoing up to the intermediate level. For more complete treatments, see Quirk etal (1972) and Halliday and Hasan (1976).

A Logical devices For ease of reference. the logical connectors listed below are given inalphabetical order. Some examples are also provided.

(a) Addition

again equally in factalso further (more) moreoverand in addit ion (to . . .) tooand then indeed what is morebesides

Examples:

The house faces north, so it never gets the sun. .A/so, it is rather damp.

The children do not like one another. Moreover, they often quarrel andstart to fight.

She hardly ever goes to the theatre. In fact, she has not been for months.

(b) Comparison

compared witfr in the same way similarlyin comparison rvith likewise

Examples:

I used to work fifteen hours a day. In comparison with that, my present jobis more like a holiday!

The doctor advised him to give up smoking. Similarly,he recommendedhim to eat much less and take plenty of exercise.

(.) Contrast and concession*

besides naturally stillbut nevertheless whereashowever of course whilein contrast on the contrary yetinstead on the other hand

* Some oi these items imply both contrast and concession (for exampl e: however) , while others,such as on the contrary, on lhe other hand, are more clearly concerned with contrastiverelationships between sentences. On the whole, however, it seemed more convenient to subsumethese items under one headins.

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Examples:

He did not show anyone the papers. Instead, as soon as he got a chance. hcburnt them.

She is not as pretty as she used to be. Nevert l teless, she is st i l la vervattractive gir l .

His f irst novel took him onlv a fe*' n'ecks to u r i tc. * ' / l i lc his nc\t onc to.kover a year.

(d) Enumeratiott

f i rs t ( ly ) (second( lv) . e tc . )finallyin the (f irst) place

Examples:

(e) Exemplifi.cation

as (evidence of . . .)for examplefor instance

l as t ( )n t ( ) [ r t r t ' ( t l r r r t )n e x t t o ( [ r g { i 1 1 1 1 i 1 h ;morc in rpr l r t ln t thc r r

such asthusto show what (I mean)

His job involves a number of things. Firsr, he is responsiblc for sencraladministration in the off ice. Secondly, he has to look after the hnancial sideof the business . . . Finally, he has been asked to build up outside contacts.There were several good reasons for changing the plan. To begin with, itinvolved a lot of money. On top of that, i t needed too many people.

let us (take the case of . . .)

Examples:

Most countries do not grow enough food for their needs . Let us take thecase of the United Kingdom.

Most people are superstitious in some way. Thus, a lot of people believethat the number 13 is unluckv . . .

(0 Inference

i fno t , . . . o the rw ise thenin (that) case that implies

Examples:

He left the country the same day. In that case, he must have had hispassport with him.

You must get some more petrol. Otherwise, we will not have enough to getus to the next town.

(g) Summary

in all in short on the wholein brief in conclusion to sum up

Examples:

She spends a lot of money on clothes. She is also fond of buying expensivejewellery. In short, she is extremely extravagant.

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The car is not new but i t is in good condit ion. The price too is very

reasonable . On the v,hole,I think i t is quite a good bargain.

The f i lm has a very unusualplot, with plenty of action. Both the acting and

photography are excellent. To swn up, this is a film you should not miss.

Time"

after (a while) before (that t ime) since (then)

afterwards finally so farat first in the end thenat last meanwhile (uP to) (then)at (the same time) next

Examples:

He tried to open one of the small windows. At first it remained firmly

closed but. in the end, after a great deal of effort, he managed to open it a

few inches.

. . . and the f ire has f inal ly been brought under control. Several men are

sti l l missing . Meanv,hi le the causes of the explosion are st i l l being

investigated.

Result

accordingly for that reason then

as a result hence thereforeconsequentl.v the (consequence) of that is . ' . thus

Examples:

Most people were opposed to the scheme on the grounds that it was too

expensive. Accordingllt, it is now being re-examined to see if costs can be

reduced.

Seven inches of snow fell during the night. blocking most main roads. ,4s a

result, traffic conditions have been chaotic.

In the past, no one has taken his advice very seriously . Hence, it is veryprobable that he will not be inclined to help on this occasion'

(j) Reformulation

in other words that is (to saY)rather to put it more (simPlY)

Examples:

Towards the end of the party he got up and danced on the table. In other

words, he made a complete fool of himself .

Most people felt that the project was not worthwhile in proportion to the

amount of time it would take to complete it and equally the financial

expenditure involved. To put it more simply, it was a waste of time and

monev.

*That is, indicating temporal relationships. This is a very open-ended group of devices, as thenumber of bracketed items shows. For example, instead of. at the same time, we may have'. at thattimelat that moment.

( i )

150

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APPENDIX: COHESIVE DEVICES

(k) Replacement

again (better) st i l lalternatively on the other handExamples:

I t is very l ike ly that we shal lgo bv car . er .cn thoush i t is a lor rg dr i rc .because we shal l need some means of t ranspor t r r h i lc \ \ 'c l r rc rhcrc.Alternatively, we might f ly out and hirc a car tvhcn rrc urrivc.I f th ings get any worse, we might have to arranse a publ ic nrccr ins r ( )discuss the matter. Better s/ i / / , we could even organisc a dcnronstri t t ion.

(l) Transition

as far as . . . is concerned nowas fo r . . . t o t u rn to . . .incidental ly with (reference) to . . .

Examples:

We can leave most of the detai ls of the proposal unti l the next mectinc.Now, as far ds money is concerned, this needs careful consideration.

In the end, he decided to sell his car. Thrs, incidentally, proved to be a

mistake.

In this section there are further examples of the devices referred to in2.2.2(b)

and2.2.2(c).

(a) Use of pronominal forms to replace noun phrases

Napoleon was a great soldier. He was also a great administrator.

John bough t a new car. I t cost a lot of money, but i t goes a lot better than

his old one.

John and Marlt are,eoing on holiday to Brazil. Their friends are very

envious.

He decided to take some heavy shoes with him. He thought that these

would be useful in case he went walking.

(b) Use of pronominal forms to replace adverbials (noun phrases of time and

place)

He left the following day. He knew then that he was not coming back.

We called on them soon after breakfast. We should have realised that rhls

was a bad t ime for a visit .*

I decided to take my books back to the l ibrary.When I got there.l found it

was closed.

*Noun phrases are also used as replacives. For example: John was born jr tsr before the war. AI t l tat

t l rne h is Darents l i ved in London,

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TEACHING WRITING SKILLS

(c) {Jse of pronominal forms to replace clauses or selttetlces

Some students work all night iust before an exan"L. Iftis is a sreat mistake.

John has just resigned. 1l u'as quite unexpected.

Notice that in the examples above the pronominal forms al l refer back to

something previously mentioned. They may also refer forward. Forexample:

This is what you should do. You should be very frank.

My advice is as follows. Be very frank.

(d) Use of determiners (the, this, that, etc.) to refer back to a previous nounphrase

Thieves broke into a jeweller's shop in North Street last night. The thievesentered the shop through a small back window.

I bought a pocket calatlator last }'ear. That calculatorhas proved veryuseful.

Former and latter are used to refer back to one of two previous nounphrases.

John and Tombothtook part in the play. Only the former has had any realexperience of acting. The latter had never even been on the stage before.

(e) Repetition of key words

These particular train services are not used very much by commuters. As arule, commuters rend to travelmuch earlier.

(f) (lse of synonyms to avoid repetition

These cars were first made in 1972. When they were first produced , theywere not verv popular.

If you have any thoughts on the subject. please let me know. I shall beinterested to hear your ideas.

(g) Use of a construction implying whole-part or part-whole relationship

You will need to take some rools with you. You can get a hammer, a sawand a screwdriver from most big department stores.

Large cars and lorries are not advised to use this route. These vehiclesshould take the other road.

(h) Use of related word formsSeven people have been arrested so far. The arrests were made late lastnight.

(i) Use of parallel structures

It is possible that the plan will succeed. 1r ls equally possible that it will fail.

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ABBorr, .r and wrNGanD, e TheTeaching of English as anI nternational Language (Collins1e81)

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and sveRwrr, t A Grammar ofContemporary English (Longmant972)

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sMrrH, F Writing and the Writer(Heinemann 1982)

sMrrH, P and rNcr-ls, e, New NelsonH andw riting (Nelson 198.1)

wArERS, o Primary School Projects(Heinemann 1982)

wHIrE, R Teaching Written English(Heinemann 1980)

wrLLrs, t Teaching English throughEnglish (Longman 1981)

WTNGFTELD. R J 'F ive Ways of

Dealing with Errors in WrittenComposition' (E nglis h LanguageTeaching Journai XXIX:1 i975)

wooDs, t Writing 1 (Cassell 1986)zAMEL, v 'Writing: The Process of

Discovering Meaning' (TESO LQuarterly 16 1981)

zAilrEL, v 'The Composing Processof Advanced ESL Students: SixCase Histories' (TESO L Quarterly17 1983)

The Art of TESOL Selected Articlesfrom English Teaching Forum (1982)

Page 160: Byrne Teaching Writing Skills

Index

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. )H

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- l. -z>.a- l- - 1v- )-J

. )H

2,-4

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I

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a-

P

ts

-

vt-

-F1

P--1

F-1

-I

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-1

-r-

4

-

FIr<

Approaches to teachingwriting 21-3

Children, teaching \A'rit ing to- activities l3I-12- guidelines 130-1- reasons 129 -30

Coherence 1-2. 10-14. 27

Cohesion 17 -19 .27

Cohesive devices 17-19.148-1-s2

- grammatical 17-18- lex ical 19- logical 17- pract ice of 38-40. 55-9

Communication- activit ies in earlv stages

40-2- activit ies at post-

elementary level 60-4- non-personal 12-14- personal 10-12

Communicative purpose 9-14

Comprehension 70-2

Controlled writ ing 21-2Copying 34- activities 34 - 6. 132- 4- evaluation of 34Correction 123-7- procedures 124-7

Dialogue writ ing- reasons f.or 32,48- reinforcement activit ies

36-7. 50-1- visual cues for 83-6Dictation 38- dicto-comp 60Drafting 1,716-22

Errors and mistakes 123Essay writ ing 1 11-13, 116-22- alternatives to 1 1 1-13

Fun writ ing activit ies 43-6.6 J - R q 7 - ?

Functional writ ing. forremedia l work 113-6

Guidance. role of defined25-6

Guided wr i t ing, examples of36 -40 . 50 -9 , 71 -2 , 83 -6 .89-91, 99-102

154

Guidel ines for teachingwriting2T -29

Handwr i t ing 143-7

Integrated skil ls 9-5-109

Learners. needs of 27-29Letter \\ 'r i t ing- in early stages 40-2- at post-elementarv level

51 -3 .60 -1 .99 -102 . 109

Mistakes 21-2. 29. 12-I - 6N{other tongue. learning to

u'rite 5

Note- tak ing 73-6Note-writ ing 40-2. 5 1- 3

Orthography see Spell ing

Paragraph urit ing 55-9. 81-3Parallel *'r it ing 37 - 8Project work 96-9Punctuation 16

Reading. importance for u'rit ing 9Reinforcement activit ies- in earll ' stages 36-,10- at post-elementary level 49-55Kemed la l wo rx l l J - 0

Report writ ing 54,63-4- visual cues for 87-9Reproduction exercises 60Role-playing activit ies (see also

Simulations) 61-2, 99 -109

Script, teaching of 143-7- procedures 111- jSentence l ink ing and sequencing- in ear ly s tages 38-40- at post-elemen'rary level 5-5-9

Simulat ions 103-9Skil l sequencin g activit ies 99 -102

Speech. compared u i th u r i t ing 2-3

Spel l ing 15-16Summary writ ing 71-8

Texts- as practice format 25, 32- a n a l v c i s n f 1 0 - 1 4

Visual mater ia lT9-93- d iagrams 89- 91 . 113-16- fun writ ing 92-3- maps 81-3- paragraph organisation 81-3- picture sequences 83-7- report u'rit ing 87-9- ro le of teacher 80-1- scqucnces for d ia logue wr i t ing

83 -6- techniques for presenting 87- use and abuse of 79-80

Wri t ing- communicalive teaching 23-4- compared with speech 2- 3- controlled 21-2-correction of.123-7- foreign language compared with

mother tongue 5-6- for fun .13-6, 61-8, 92-3- guided, examples of 36-40, 49 -59,

7 1-2. 83 - 6, 89-91, 99 *r02- guidelines for teaching 27-9- nature of 1-2- problems in 4-5- programme for

- in early stages 32- at post-elementarv level 48-9- at intermediate level 113

- reasons for teaching 6-7- recent irends in teaching 21-3- rhetorical features of 17-19.

148-52- use of role-play for teaching 61-2,

99-109- use of simulations for teaching

i03 -9- use of visual material for teaching

19-93- uses of 2Written language- communicative purpose 9-14- graphological resources 15 -17- rhetorical resources 17-19