Teaching Writing


Yangın-Ersanlı (2020)
 
 This chapter is about the development of writing
skills among young learners in state and private
scchools.
 The Importance of Writing in Everyday
Life

 Writing is a communicative activity.

 The aim of written texts and the motivation for writing them vary.

 It provides us with a tool to make sense of experiences and clarify

our thoughts.

 There are two types of writing activities:

- Writing as a language activitiy (reinforces grammatical structures)
- Writing as a communicative activity (aims to inform, relate,
persuade) (it is missing in language classes)
 When to teach L2 literacy to young
learners?

 Have children already acquired L1 literacy skills?
 Does the L1 use a different writing script from L2?
 Does the child show willingness to read/write in L2?
 What is the role of L2 in society and what is the
purpose of teaching L2 writing?
 Development of Writing in
Young Learners

 In kindergarten, children recognize labels on packages without
difficulty.

 However, writing presents significant challenges. Development of

motor skills is one of them.

 In elementary school (7-8), children are still learning to write in their

mother tongue.

 So in that period, it is better to keep writing in a foreign language at

minimum (e.g. Copying exercises, simple/fun writing tasks)

 A thorough knowledge of phonics and a strong vocabulary is

necessary before children can produce longer texts
 Some Activities for
Young 
Learners
 Joining the dots
 Labeling items
 Filling in speech bubbles
 Making copies of songs
 Completing crosswords
 
 When children acquire writing skills, they start
communicating more effectively and appropriately
considering the audience.

 Children who have already acquired literacy skills in

their native language can do relatively more
elaborative tasks when they are provided with a
model.
 Activities

 Writing a recipe
 Reading and writing a postcard
 Writing and drawing
Approaches to the Teaching of Writing

1. The Product Approach
2. The Process Approach
3. The Genre Approach
 1. The Product
Approach

- Sees writing as the knowledge of structure of
language, writing development as the result of the
imitation of input.
- Copying words, simple words.. etc.
2. The Process Approach

 Offers a variety of purposes and audiences to write.
 Involves planning, drafting, less emphasis on
linguistic knowledge.
 Writing is broken into stages
Pre-writing, composing/drafting, revising, editing,
presenting (to an audience)

These stages are rather recursive.

 3. The Genre Approach

Genre = a class of communicative events, the members of
which share some set of communicative purposes.
Example: articles, comics, letters, advertisements, poems,
reports etc.
- Different written texts vary both in terms of the conceptual
demands and in terms of formal structuring of the
discourse.
Three stages of genre-approach:
- Introducing the genre
- Exercising stage/ joint construction
- Producing/independent construction
The Use of Graphic Organizers to
Develop Writing Skills of Children

 Graphic organizers = visual planners on which ss
record information in a logical way.
 An awareness in the use of graphic organizers will
help them locate the main ideas and distinguish
them from less important information.
 It is effective to teach how to use graphic organizers.
They can be used in the drafting stage.
 Graphic Organizers

 Let your voice shine through
 Feelings
 Charts
