You are on page 1of 14

Contents

1. The definition of writing and its significance in education .......3


2. Approaches to writing .3
2.1The Controlled-to-free Approach..3
2.2The Free Writing Approach..4
2.3 The Paragraph-Pattern Approach...4
2.3The Grammar-Syntax Organisation Approach ....4
2.4The Communicative Approach.4
2.5The Free Writing Approach .4
3. The nature of writing process and its effectiveness in the EFL
classroom..............5
4. Problems and difficulties learners face in the development of
their writing skills ................................................6
5. Remedies and solutions are provided for the enhancement of
writing skills in the
Greek EFL classroom ......7
6. Conclusion...8
7. List of References..9
1. The definition of writing and its significance in education
When we learn a second language, we learn to communicate with
other people, to understand them, to talk to them, read what they have
written and write to them; an integral part of participating fully in a
new cultural setting with other people that are not present the moment
we communicate to them is the form of writing.

[Type text]

Page 1

But the fact that people frequently have to communicate with


each other in writing is not the only reason to include writing as a part
of our second-language syllabus; we also need to teach them how to
learn to write because writing first reinforces the grammatical
structures, vocabulary and idioms that we have been teaching our
students.
Secondly, when our students write, they also have to be
adventurous with the language, to go beyond what they have just
learned to say, to take risks. Thirdly, when they write, they necessarily
become very involved with the new language; the effort to express
ideas and the constant use of their hands, eyes and brain is a unique
way of reinforcing learning (A. Raimes 1983).
There have been numerous approaches to the teaching of writing
in the history of language teaching; traditionally, writing was viewed
as a tool for the practice and reinforcement of specific grammatical
and lexical patterns, in which accuracy was all important but content,
and self-expression virtual non-priorities. Learners were purely
writing to learn as opposed to learning to write (Tribble 1996,
p.118).
However, with the increase in attention to students` practical
needs, born out of functional/notional approaches and further
developed in the various areas of ESP, the importance of certain text
types as skill learners might need has come to the tore. This gradual
increase in the status of writing as a skill, alongside with the
development of discoursal based approach and the general moves
toward learned-cent red syllabuses, has totally changed the view of
writing( N. Holmes 2000-2004) but, still writing continues to be one
of the most difficult areas for students and teachers to tackle.
2. Approaches to Writing
[Type text]

Page 2

Over the years a number of writing approaches have presented to make


their place in history by Raimes cited in Ghaith 2002:
The Controlled-to-Free Approach in which speech and writing
are served to achieve mastery of grammatical, syntactic forms
and mechanics by copying and transforming paragraphs and
sentences; with this approach errors are avoided and students
attempt free composition after they have reached an
intermediate level of proficiency-it emphasizes accuracy rather
than fluency.
The Free-Writing Approach in which quantity rather than
quality is stressed vast amounts of free writing on given topics
with minimal correction are assigned to learners with emphasis
on content and fluency rather than accuracy and form. Once the
ideas are down on the page, grammatical accuracy and
organization follow. The teachers do not correct pieces of free
writing, but, they comment on the ideas expressed; concern for
audience and content are also mentioned.
The Paragraph-Pattern Approach in which organization is
stressed students copy paragraphs and imitate model passages,
they identify general and specific statements and choose to
invent an appropriate topic sentence or insert, delete sentences.
It is based on the principle that in different cultures people
construct and organize communication with each other in
different ways.
The Grammar-Syntax-Organisation Approach in which writing
cannot be seen as composed of separate skills which are learned
sequentially. Therefore, students should be trained to pay
attention to organization while they also work on the necessary
[Type text]

Page 3

grammar and syntax. This approach links the purpose of writing


to the forms that are needed to convey message.
The Communicative Approach in which the purpose of writing
and the audience for it are stressed. The learners are encouraged
to behave like writers in real life and ask themselves the why
(purpose) and who (audience) crucial questions. Some people
feel it is better when writing is truly a communicative act, with a
writer writing for a real reader.
The Process Writing Approach in which the teaching of writing
has moved away from a concentration on written product to an
emphasis on the process of writing; the learners generate ideas,
think of the purpose and audience, write multiple drafts in order
to present written products that communicate their own ideas
the students are also given time to tray ideas and feedback on
the content of what they write their in their drafts. As such,
writing becomes a process of discovery for the students as they
discover new language ideas and forms to express them.
Furthermore, learning to write is seen as a developmental
process that helps students write as professional authors do,
choosing their own topics and genres, and writing from their
own experiences or observations. A writing process approach
requires that teachers give students greater responsibility for
and ownership their own learning.
3. The nature of writing process and its effectiveness in EFL
classroom
It is widely known that adult learners of English are not
accustomed to collaborating to produce a piece of writing, to work out
their own solutions to the problems they set themselves (White and
Arndt 1991).
[Type text]

Page 4

It views all writing as creative since the writer is responsible for


producing the text that evolves from the raw material, which is
generated almost entirely from the writer`s imagination. What is
important for us as teachers of English is to engage our learners in the
creative process; to excite them about how their texts are coming into
being; to give them insights into how they operate as they create their
work; to alter their concepts of what writing involves; and above all,
that evaluation is not just the province of the teacher alone at the final
stage of the process, but it is equally the concern and responsibility of
the writer at every stage.
What differentiates a process-focused approach from a productcent red one is the divergent outcome of writing with as many different
outcomes as there are writers. What counts in this approach is how the
writer composes the model text, or from the activities based on it; by
contrast, process-focused lessons may introduce texts written by other
people, but only after the students have written something of their
own, so that the text is now a resource for further ideas rather than a
model for mimicry. A typical sequence of writing-process activities
would look like this (: ibid):
Discussion (class, small group & pair)
Brainstorming / making notes / asking questions
Fast writing / selecting ideas / establishing a viewpoint
Rough draft
Preliminary self-evaluation
Arranging information / structuring the text
First draft
Group / peer evaluation and responding
[Type text]

Page 5

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
[Type text]

Page 6

thoughts and feelings; more specifically, writing should be seen in two


lights- first, as a language problem of assembling words to form
grammatical sentences and as a rhetorical problem of teaching students
to organize words and patterns so as to fulfill a rhetorical aim ,such as
persuading a friend to take a course of action.
Indeed, with native speakers a writing course can lay greater
stress on rhetorical problems, though it must necessarily include
producing the proper language. On the other hand, with L2 learners
language problems should definitely play a major role, especially at
the earliest stages. R. J. Owens` belief cited in Sherwood- Smith (ibid)
is the language problems are grossly underestimated and that we
shift emphasis to rhetorical ones much too soon. He thinks that model
sentences and contextualized practice in abundance are vital to
satisfactory achievement.
According to Flower (1981) cited in Chenoweth (1987),
unskilled writers fail to consider the problems that readers might
experience in understanding their text, because they assume what they
have written makes sense and there is no need to add more explanation
and detail, or rearrange ideas to make their paper better (Perl 1980,
Beach 1976); they just assume that all they need to do is polish it.
As for more proficient writers, they edit their papers, but they
also spend considerable time and effort working on their overall
content to see that what they want to say is said and is said in a way
their readers can understand (Faigley & White, 1981) cited in
Chenoweth (1987). As Raimes (1985) urges us not to forget, our
students, as L2 writers, both skilled and unskilled ones do face the
common problem of getting their meaning across effectively and
they cannot be understood by their readership; they lack strategies
for handling the content of their essays as a whole they work on bits
[Type text]

Page 7

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
[Type text]

Page 8

they also have their say in the production of a piece of writing.


(Myles, 2002).
5. Remedies and solutions for the enhancement of
Writing skills in the EFL classroom
Our role as teachers in responding to student writing is facilitation in
the form of positive intervention during the process of writing for
formative feedback which will help them improve it; a dialogue over
the text to which both parties contribute and by discussion together
they solve any problems that might arise. To be more specific, selfmonitoring (Charles 1990) involves:
1. Students draft and monitor their texts
2. Teacher / editor respond in writing to monitored documents
3. Students respond to editorial comment and rewrite their drafts
Teacher / editor responds to student comment and second draft, taking
into account of the extent to which the writer has been able to deal
with the problems identified during the self-monitoring phase.
In this way, our students learn to take more responsibility for
what they write, for getting their meaning across to their readership
and for their own improvement in their skill of writing.
Another remedy for improving student performance in
writing is a short meeting between the students and teachers
(conferencing), in which the meaning of composition is addressed first
and then form, according to Marshall (1986); in the initial conference
learners discuss their ideas for papers, in the next one, they bring their
first drafts and discuss them with their teachers- this sort of groups
dynamics helps learners speak up and discuss their writing problems
(Brender 2004).
They are valuable because they allow students to control the
interaction, clarify responses, negotiate meaning and enable teachers to
[Type text]

Page 9

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
[Type text]

Page 10

pre-writing exercises (Myers 1997). In other words, creative writing


encourages students to venture along the path of self-expression since
it involves them personally, taking time to explore the language and
experiment freely with it (Mohamed 2004). Consequently, learners
become more involved in their own learning process and remain
motivated (Hedge 1998).

[Type text]

Page 11

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
[Type text]

Page 12

of English as a Foreign or Second Language; www document


file//A:\Scott`s listening article 1.files\processw1_nicola.htm
Retrieved on 23/08/2007
Keh C. L. A Design for a Process-Approach Writing Course
English Teaching Forum January 1990
Mohamed N., Free Expression English Teaching Professional
Issue 30 January 2004
Myers S., Teaching Writing as a Process and Teaching
Sentence-Level Syntax: Reformulating as ESL Composition
Feedback; TESL-EJ ISSN 1072-4303 Vol.2 No.4 A-2 June
1997 www. Document- Teaching Writing as a Process and
Teaching Sentence-Level Syntax.ht
Retrieved on 23/08/2007
Myles J., Second Language Writing and Research: The Writing
Process and Error Analysis in Student Texts TESL-EJ ISSN
1072-4303 A-1 September 2002 Vol.6 No.2; www document
A:\ALONSO~1.FIL\SECOND~1.HTM retrieved on
23/08/2007
Raimes A., Techniques in Teaching Writing 1983 Oxford
University Press
Sharwood-Smith M. A., Teaching Written English: Problems
and Principles TESOL Quarterly March 1972

[Type text]

Page 13

Shin Sarah J. The reflective L2 writing teacher ELT Journal


Volume 57/1 January 2003 Oxford University Press
Taylor M. E., Using collateral material to improve writing
performance ELT Journal Volume 57/2 April 2003 Oxford
University Press

[Type text]

Page 14

You might also like