SECTION 13

Asl alt balk stilini dzenlemek iin tklatn

TEACHIG WRITING

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INTRODUCTION
In this section, we will try to answer these questions: Which theoretical strands are we going to adopt? Are we going to use the process approach or the genrebased approach? Or an eclectic approach? What will be the focus of our course? What activities are likely to help students develop their writing skills?

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 There

is no doubt that writing is the most difficult skill for L2 learners. The difficulty becomes even more pronounced if students language proficiency is weak. There are some researchers who have extensive exprience in teaching writing.

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 Raimes

outlines a set of guidelines which can make the planning of a writing course a less intimidating task.These guidelines are based on what we have long known to be the key principles of course design. Seow describes the process approach to teaching writing, which comprises four basic stages- planing, drafting, revising and editing.

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 Reppen

discusses the genre-based approach which provides students with ample opportunities to become aware of the different purposes of written communication and the different ways of information is organized in written texts.

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 Ferris

observes that process skills are important, we have to be aware of the fact that grammatical inaccuracies can have negative effects on the writing quality. She then describes a-three-stage approach to teaching editing skills that can help students become independent editors of their own writing.

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CHAPTER 29
TEN STEPS IN PLANNING A WRITING COURSE AND TRAINING TEACHERS OF WRITING by Ann Raimes

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Step 1: Ascertaining Goals and Institutional Constraints Answering these questions is a necessary first
step in designing a course.
Do

your students have to pass an exam that values writing to a formula and rewards above all accuracy of grammar,spelling and punctuation? Do they even have to compose at all, or just write sentences, judge grammatically, or pick from multiple-choice responses? Do you want your students to write to demonstrate mastery of form or to 3/18/12 experiment with language, record expriences

If there are limitations to pursue our goals as teachers, a few courses of action are open to us:
We

can work politically to change the constraints. We can make only a part of our course address the test ot the assigned curriculum. We can avoid seeing ends as means. The ends dictate only the destinations, not how we get there.

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Step 2: Deciding on Theoretical Principles

Teachers first need to confront their ideological position and recognize their preceptions of the relationship between the type of writing they teach and the roles theyre preparing for students.

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Then, closely allied to ideology comes theory and our views of language, the nature of language learning, writing and the name of the learning composition. As teachers, we have the choice of presenting a text structure as given as one kind of standard as a form of to be learned.

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 Another

example of a writing-class decision that has clear links to theory is the choice of focus on content or form. A commitment to content, fluency, personal voice and revising is often called process approach to teaching writing. It can be used with personal and academic content, literature and nonfiction.

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Step 3: Planning Content

It

is valuable tool for learning not only about subject matter but also about language. Writing is for discovery for learning not just demonstration of learning. The content will actively encourage students to use writing as a tooll for learning and for communication and to become engaged enough with their writing.

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Step 4: Weighing the Elements

It

is helpful to do a needs analysis, balancing institutional goals with what students say they need and what they need to use writing for. Then we can weigh the elements so that the chaos of composing is somewhat reduced for the students. Giving instruction in writing is not like giving instructions for assembling a toy or a mailorder computer.
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Step 5: Drawing Up a Syllabus

In

The language Teaching Matrix, Richards (1990) lists the kinds of syllabi commonly found in speaking and listening courses in ESL. 1. Structural: Writing courses, particulary at begining levels, can be organized around grammar and sentence patterns. 2. Functional: Writing courses can be organized aroung rhetorical activities: describing, telling a story, writing autobiography etc.
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3. Topical: A writing course can be organized around themes, such as health, education, or abstractions such as success or courage. 4. Situational: Writing courses can be organized around situational transactions, such as applying for a job, wiriting a business memo. 5. Skills and processes:Writing courses can be organized around skills and processes such as generating ideas, organizing ideas and revising etc.
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6. Tasks: Writing courses can be organized aroung problem-solving activities such as producing a class magazine of accounts of student trips.

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Step 6: Selecting Materials

To

open up the classroom to shared experiences, teachers turn to other materials such as videos, sofware and books. The materials have to fit as far as possible with the goals, principles, content and weighting that we have already decided on.

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If you decide to use an ESL writing textbook, the following features are important: Topics Types of writing Opportunities for and instruction in methods of generating ideas Instruction on principles of rhetorical organization Opportunities for collaboration Opportunities for revision Instruction in editing and proofreading

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Step 7: Preparing Activities and Roles

In

planning a lesson or a course, the tendency is for teachers to think about what they will be doing: presenting a lesson on paragraph organization Leading a class discussion on editing a student paper

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are a lot of theoretical talk about student-centered classrooms. Teachers can find out what that means when they analyze their own classes and their own experience as students. Teachers shouldnt bank too much on students brains.

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Step 8: Choosing Types and Methods or Feedback

First,

in the case of large classes, every piece of writing has to be corrected or even seen by the teacher. In this condition, teacher is general reader, helper, copy editor or examiner. Second, whoever respond to the writing has a variety of physical methods of responds: a written or oral response.

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 Third,

you have to choose the type of the response you prefer to give. Time and class size is important while selecting the response. Fourth, you and your students need to agree on the purpose of the response.

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Step 9: Evaluating the Course

One

form of evaluation that is becoming popular in writing courses, actually helps student evaluation and course evaluation: the use of potfolio. Portfolios lead students to want to revise, to present their best work.

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Step 10: Reflecting the Teachers Experience

Goals,

theories, content, focus, syllabus, materials, activities, feedback and course evaluation are substantive matters of designing a corse but one thing besides these is the most important: teachers and their experiences. Teachers need to have confidence in what is called variously the wisdom of practice (Shulman, 1987, p 11) or a teachers sense of plausibility about teaching (Prabhu, 1990. p.172).
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Thank you for your attention

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