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Conference
Second draft
Self-evaluation / editing / proof-reading
Finished draft
Final responding to draft
As teachers of English, we should aim at creating an
environment in which our students are engaged in and
enthused by it, and feel that credit is given for every aspect of
their effort which goes into the writing process. Our goal is to
present writing as lively, stimulating process, which Lu Chi
cited in White & Arndt 1991 puts the matching of matter and
manner, such that it becomes the ferry between the writer
and the reader.
4. Problems and difficulties learners face in the development
of their writing skills
Drawing upon the relevant literature and my personal experience in the
Greek EFL context, Greek adult learners are still in a difficult position
of developing and producing a proper piece of writing, since they do
not only have to deal with word choice, grammar, syntax and
punctuation, but, also they also have to expound their views and
argument ate them by dividing them into their respective paragraphs
and linking them to their appropriate cohesive devices, so that it looks
like a brief, concise and comprehensible piece of writing.
According to Sharwood-Smith (1972), writing is essentially
communication the way a given message is expressed should always
be determined in the context of the whole communicative situation;
this is sometimes overlooked both when dealing with the grammar side
of writing and when dealing with writing as the free expression of
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and pieces only (Sommers 1980, Beach 1976) and the topics of the
essays ought to be motivating and interesting, as well so that our
students will put effort into their work.
Finally, two sources of error in L2 writing ought to be taken into
consideration the cognitive and the social one, which interrelates four
aspects of learning: the social and cultural milieu (which determines beliefs
about language and culture), individual learner differences (related to
motivation and language aptitude), the setting (formal and informal
learning contexts), and learning outcomes. Instrumental motivation,
though, acknowledges the role that external influences and incentives play
in strengthening the learners desire to achieve students who are
instrumentally motivated are interested in learning the language for a
particular purpose, i.e. writing.
The other source of error is a cognitive one, which has to do with
various types of knowledge, including discourse knowledge,
understanding of audience, and sociolinguistic rules (O`Malley &
Chamot, 1990); organization at both the sentence and the text level is
also important for effective communication of meaning, and for the
quality of the written product (Scardamalia & Bereiter ,1987), i.e.
coherence problems have to do with not knowing how to organize the
text and to store relevant information.
Revision is also a cognitively demanding task for L2 learners
because it not only involves task definition, evaluation, strategy
selection and modification of text in the writing plan (Grabe &
Kaplan, 1996), but also the ability of students to analyze and evaluate
the feedback they receive on their writing.
Emotional influences and language transfer, positive and
negative result from similarities and differences between the
previously acquired language and the target one (Odlin 1989) and
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assess how students react to their feedback, and how their comments
help students revise their writing (Shin 2003).
Moreover, a collection of readings and exercises on which
students are asked to write a reflection essay, that will enhance peersharing, give reveal their strengths and weaknesses in basic writing
skills; it provides details and experiences that enrich and clarify
cognitive information and gives practice in knowledge application, as
well as the opportunity to interact with competent writing in the genres
being studied (Taylor 2003).
Furthermore, there is scaffolding which involves prewriting
discussion, group drafting of the text, individual speaking and writing
activity, feedback in which time is devoted to learners` discussing,
composing and responding to each other`s draft texts; it helps learners
establish links between their beliefs, attitudes and prior knowledge and
the topic they are writing about out of this sense of ownership
develops a clear sense of why they are writing, who they are writing
for and what information they need to include in their texts (Cotterall
& Cohen 2003).
All the aforementioned belongs to process writing approach, since
it is a process of several steps, beginning with generating ideas,
writing to discover what one wants to say, revising, getting feedback
from various readers (between revisions) and writing again; only at the
later stages is editing done for grammatical and mechanical accuracy
(Keh 1990).
6. Conclusion
Even adults need to be taught how to work independently to balance
the demands of those competing interests which affect the quality of
their writing (Taylor 2003); rather than being expected to turn in a
finished product right away, they are asked for invention heuristics and
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List of References
Arndt V. & White R., 1991 Process Writing Longman Group
UK Limited 1991
Brender A., {The Language Teacher Online 22_07}
Conferencing: An Interactive Way to Teach Writing. Retrieved
on World Wide Web on 23/08/2007
Charles M., Responding to problems in written English using a
student self-monitoring technique ELT Journal Volume 44/4
October 1990 Oxford University Press 1990
Chenoweth N. A., The need to teach rewriting ELT Journal
Volume 41/1 January 1987 Oxford University Press 1987
Cotterall S. and Cohen R. Scaffolding for second language
writers: producing an academic essay ELT Journal Volume
57/2 April 2003 Oxford University Press
Ghaith Dr.Ghazi Cycles I, II & III of Basic EducationWriting; www document file://A:\Writing- Dr Ghazi.
Files\Managing the Writing Process.htm
Retrieved on 22/08/2007
Hedge T., Writing 1988 Oxford University Press
Holmes N.,The use of process-oriented approach to facilitate
the planning and production stages of writing for adult students
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