How to teach writing to your students in class

ELT Methods and Practices
Unit 8: Dealing with Writing Skills
Evdokia Karavas
School of Philosophy
Faculty of English Language and Literature

2
Dealing with Writing Skills
Differences in written and oral
language (1/2)
Speaking:
• Impermanent.
• Immediate (unplanned).
• Variation / Casual.
• Low lexical density.
• High Paralinguistics.
• Communal activity.
• Universal.
Writing:
• Permanent.
• Delayed (planned).
• Conventional / Stylized.
• High lexical density.
• Low Paralinguistics.
• Solitary Activity.
• Learned.

3
Differences in written and oral
language (2/2)
Speaking:
• Simple sentences.
• Voiced.
• Pronounce.
• Feedback .
• Pause / Intonation.
Writing:
• Complex sentences.
• Thought / Read.
• Spell.
• No feedback.
• Punctuation.

4
Writing: The Neglected Skill in EFL
• “My classes are too large.”
• “I don’t have enough time for writing.”
• “What can beginners write about?”
• “I’m not a good writer. How can I teach
writing?”

5
Why is writing important?
Writing is a:
• form of output; thinking
made evident; “thinking
with a pencil”.
• means of building
fluency.
• way of developing
accuracy (in grammar,
vocabulary, etc.).
• premier way in which
children think and
express their ideas.
• way children express
creativity, uniqueness,
and indicate what they
want.
• critical skill for
academic or
professional success.

6
What knowledge does a writer need in
order to write
• A teacher in a language classroom asks her
students to write an article on the effects of
toxic waste on our environment. What kinds
of knowledge would the students need to
have/employ in order to perform this task
successfully?

7
Four kinds of knowledge that we need
in order to write (1/2)
• Knowledge of language:
– Spelling, Punctuation. Grammatical structures,
Lexis, Cohesion and coherence (how to connect
clauses within and between sentences and how to
order information in our sentences and texts),
Discourse types (each discourse type e.g.
narrative, argument etc. has its own special
features)
• Knowledge of topic, i.e. knowing what we are
writing about.

8
Four kinds of knowledge that we need
in order to write (2/2)
• Knowledge of audience i.e. knowledge of who we
are writing to. The more one knows about one’s
audience the easier the writing is; both the topic and
the intended readers will influence the kind of
writing we do.
• Stored writing plans: Background knowledge
(schemata) e.g. formal schemata: formal,
organisational structures of different types of text
and content schemata: background knowledge of
the content being written about.

9
The importance of audience
“Students mature as writers by understanding
how to write for different audiences, contexts,
and purposes.” (NWP & Nagin, 2003, p. 26)

10
The writing prompt
• The writing prompt should clearly state the
topic, genre, communicative purpose, target
audience of the writing task, as well as the
features of the output expected of the
students.

11
Activity B1.1
[1]

12
Activity 1
[2]

13
Example: KPG B2 May 2008
• Imagine you are a member of a team
preparing a tourist leaflet for English-speaking
visitors to Arachova. Write the text (150 words
in addition to the short introductory
paragraph below), mentioning things worth
seeing and doing in your town such as
monuments, entertainment, eating, shopping,
walking tours, museums, around the town,
etc.

14
The product approach to writing (1/4)
• The product approach dominated the teaching of
writing in ELT until the 1980s.
• It involves working on writing at sentence level, filling
in missing connectors (nevertheless, however), for
example, or using ‘model’ texts which the students
copy.
• Normally each model text contains lots of examples
of a specific type of language the teacher wants the
students to focus on, e.g. the past simple.

15
• The students read the model text, and do
exercises which focus on the language in the
model text (e.g. the past simple).
• Finally, the students might be asked to
transform a text which is in the present simple
into the past simple. The model text will help
them do this.

16
• Writing is viewed as a means for consolidating
grammar and vocabulary and for assessing
student progress. Writing to learn the
language.

17
• It is regulated at the end of a coursebook unit and
is usually assigned for homework. The main
emphasis is on the end product (i.e. student’s
written work) which is assessed in terms of
grammatical accuracy and correct use of
vocabulary. Whether ideas have been
communicated clearly, coherently, and effectively
and whether the final product reflect the
characteristics of the genre was not normally a
concern.

18
The product approach
• The focus is obviously on grammatical
accuracy. This reflects the preoccupation of
ELT methodology at the time—the
Audiolingual Method was in fashion

19
Introducing the process approach
• The cognitivist Process Approach researchers
(e.g. Flower & Hayes, 1981; Hairston, 1982;
Zamel, 1983) tried to find out how real writers
composed in real situations
• The Product Approach had given students the
impression that the composing process was
linear. Students planned first, then wrote
• However, the cognitivists found out that real
writers didn’t write like this at all.

20
What do real writers do? (1/2)
• ‘[Writing] is messy, recursive, convoluted, and
uneven. Writers write, plan, revise, anticipate,
and review throughout the writing process,
moving back and forth among the different
operations involved in writing without any
apparent plan.’ (Hairston, 1982: 85)
• Good writers plan throughout the writing
process, changing things many times if
necessary, and writing multiple drafts.

21
The nature of writing (1/2)
• Research has shown that “writing is recursive, that it
does not proceed linearly but instead cycles and
recycles through subprocesses that can be described
this way:
– Planning (generating ideas, setting goals, and
organizing)
– Translating (turning plans into written language)
– Reviewing (evaluating, revising, editing) ”
(NWP & Nagin, 2003, p. 25)

22
The nature of writing (2/2)
• “Even for an experienced writer, the cycling
occurs in no fixed order. Writers may create
and change their goals as they move through
these phases, depending on their topic,
rhetorical purpose, and audience.” (NWP &
Nagin, 2003, p. 25)

23
What do real writers do? (2/2)
• Good writers may rehearse or discuss what
they want to write before they actually do it
• Good writers read their writing carefully,
trying to imagine how clear their ideas are to a
reader. If something isn’t clear, they change it
• The motto of the process approach is: Writing
is rewriting.

24
The process approach emphasizes:
• The importance of writing multiple drafts.
• The importance of revision.
• The importance of planning throughout.
• The importance of making your writing reader-
friendly.
• The importance of writing in different styles for
different audiences.
The cognitivists tried to get students to go through all
of these stages when they wrote.

25
Stages in the process of writing (1/2)
• Gathering information.
• Generating ideas (making notes of the ideas you feel are
relevant to the topic; the ideas you generate will be
limited by the audience you have in mind).
• Goal setting (deciding what you want to do with all the
material you have generated, deciding on the main
messages you want to send).
• Organising (grouping the ideas you have generated and
deciding on the order you want to present them, it will
also involve thinking about the links between different
sets of ideas).

26
Stages in the process of writing (2/2)
• Making a first draft.
• Reading you work and redrafting.
• Editing (this may occur in brief episodes interrupting
other parts of the process; there are four kinds of
editing we do: editing for standard language
conventions, editing for accuracy of meaning, editing
for reader understanding, editing for reader
acceptance).
• Final version.

27
Flowchart of the Writing Process (1/2)
(Hyland, 2008, p. 100)
[3]

28
Flowchart of the Writing Process (2/2)
• Writers have goals and plan extensively.
• Writing is constantly revised, often even
before any text has been produced.
• Planning, drafting, revising, and editing are
recursive and potentially simultaneous.
• Plans and text are constantly evaluated by the
writer in a feedback loop (Hyland, 2008, p.
100).

29
Why process writing? (1/2)
• Process writing makes students aware that
writing is often a process of discovery in which
ideas are generated and not just transcribed.
• Students become aware that writing by its
nature is a process, so that even simple
messages are the result of a writing process
that includes choosing vocabulary considering
audience, and judging format.

30
Why process writing? (2/2)
• Writing seen as a communicative and
purposeful activity.
• Teaches students to plan and research.
• Student collaboration is developed.
• Feedback given.

31
Some drawbacks (1/2)
• Takes too much time.
• Loss of student focus/interest.
• Not suited to some personalities.
• Students need to be taught (peer-
editing/planning /stages).
• Restricts spontaneity and range of writing
activities.

32
Some drawbacks (2/2)
One of the disadvantages of getting students to
concentrate on the process of writing is that it takes
time, using the process approach needs a considerable
amount of interaction between teacher and students
and between students themselves. Teacher needs time
to help students brainstorm ideas, draft a piece of
writing, review, edit, perhaps changing the focus,
generating more ideas, re-drafting, re-editing and so
on. When process approach is handled appropriately it
stretches across the whole curriculum.

33
Genre approach to writing (1/2)
What is a genre?
• ‘Genre is a term for grouping texts together,
representing how writers typically use language
to respond to recurring situations’. (Hyland, 2004:
4).
• According to Swales (1990), genres are
characterized by their 'communicative purposes'
as well as by their patterns of 'structure, style,
content and intended audience' (p.58).

34
Genre approach to writing (2/2)
• In the arena of English for Academic Purposes
(EAP), then, genre 'refers to a class of
communicative events, such as, for example, a
seminar presentation, a university lecture, or an
academic essay' (Paltridge, 2001: 2).

35
Teaching writing using the genre
approach (1/2)
Ivanič (2004) summarizes the genre approach as
follows:
“The key point in this theoretical tradition is that
texts vary linguistically according to their purpose
and context. As a result, it is possible to specify
linguistic features of particular text-types…. […]
Good writing is not just correct writing, but writing
which is linguistically appropriate to the purpose it
is serving.” (pp.232-3).

36
Teaching writing using the genre
approach (2/2)
So teachers need to systematically analyze what
the genre of writing they’re trying to teach looks
like. This analysis may consist of looking at how
writers typically use organization, grammar, or
vocabulary when writing in the genre, as well as
getting learners to understand the writers’
purposes.

37
Genre based approach
One of the strengths of the genre approach,
then, is that it ‘tells’ students what different
genres in English look like.

38
Genre based approach to writing
• In a genre approach to writing students study texts in
the genre they are going to be writing before they
embark on their own writing. If we want students to
write business letters of various kinds we let them
look at typical models of such letters before starting
to compose their own. A genre approach for writing
is very appropriate for students who study English for
specific purposes.
• Asking students to imitate a given style could be seen
as extremely prescriptive.

39
Teaching activities using the genre
approach: Suggestions (1/2)
• Comparing texts with omissions, changes, or
different structures.
• Identifying different and similar sample texts
as particular genres.
• Reorganizing or rewriting scrambled or
unfinished paragraphs.
• Completing gapped sentences or an entire
cloze from formatting clues.

40
Teaching activities using the genre
approach: Suggestions (2/2)
• Substituting a feature (e.g., tense, modality,
voice, topic sentence).
• Using skeletal texts to predict language forms and
meaning.
• Collecting examples of a language feature,
perhaps with a concordancer.
• Working in groups to correct errors, circle
particular features, match one feature with
another, etc.

41
Problems with writing tasks in
textbooks (1/2)
• They are mainly accuracy-based.
• They are designed to practise a certain target
structures.
• There is insufficient preparation before the
writing stage.
• There is no sense of audience.
• There is no sense of authenticity.

42
Problems with writing tasks in
textbooks (2/2)
• Students are given ideas to express rather
than being invited to invent their own .
• There is no opportunity for creative writing,
particular for expressing unusual or original
ideas.
• Many of them are test-oriented.

43
Writing activities should:
• Allow learners experience success in writing.
• Help develop learners' writing skills.
• Help them understand that writing has a
purpose - to communicate thoughts and ideas.
• Stimulate and encourage ‘creative’ writing.

44
Motivating students to write (1/3)
• Provide a clear purpose or a reason to write.
• The topic for writing should be:
–Familiar,
–Meaningful,
–Relevant to students, life and interests.

45
• Leave students enough room for creativity and
imagination.
• Prepare students well before writing.
• Encourage collaborative group writing as well
as individual writing.
• Provide opportunities for students to share
their writings.

46
• Provide constructive and positive feedback.
• Treat students’ errors strategically.
• Give students a sense of achievement from
time to time.

47
References (1/2)
Flower, L., & Hayes, J. R. (1981). A cognitive process theory of
writing.College composition and communication, 365-387.
Hairston, M. (1982). The winds of change: Thomas Kuhn and the
revolution in the teaching of writing. College composition
and communication, 76-88.
Hyland, K. (2004). Disciplinary discourses: Social interactions in
academic writing. University of Michigan Press.
Hyland, K. (2008). Writing theories and writing pedagogies.
Indonesian Journal of English Language Teaching, 4(2), 91-
110.

48
References (2/2)
Ivanič, R. (2004). Discourses of writing and learning to
write. Language and education, 18(3), 220-245.
National Writing Project & Nagin, C. (2003). Because Writing
Matters: Improving Student Writing in Our Schools. San
Francisco, CA: Jossey Bass.
Paltridge, B. (2001). Genre and the language learning classroom.
Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
Swales, J. (1990). Genre analysis: English in academic and
research settings. Cambridge University Press.
Zamel, V. (1983). The composing processes of advanced ESL
students: Six case studies. TESOL quarterly, 17(2), 165-188.

50
Financing
• The present educational material has been developed as part of the
educational work of the instructor.
• The project “Open Academic Courses of the University of Athens” has only
financed the reform of the educational material.
• The project is implemented under the operational program “Education
and Lifelong Learning” and funded by the European Union (European
Social Fund) and National Resources.

52
Note on History of Published Version
The present work is the edition 1.0.

53
Reference Note
Copyright National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Evdokia Karavas.
Evdokia Karavas. “ELT Methods and Practices. Dealing with Writing Skills”.
Edition: 1.0. Athens 2015. Available at the ELT Methods and Practices Open
Online Course.

54
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individual works of third parties are excluded, e.g. photographs, diagrams etc. They are
contained therein and covered under their conditions of use in the section «Use of Third
Parties Work Note».
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As Non-Commercial is defined the use that:
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The copyright holder may give to the license holder a separate license to use the work for
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55
Preservation Notices
Any reproduction or adaptation of the material should include:
 the Reference Note,
 the Licensing Note,
 the declaration of Notices Preservation,
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together with the accompanied URLs.

56
Note of use of third parties work
This work makes use of the following works:
Image 1: Writing Activity, B Level KPG Exams May 2015, Copyright KPG &
RCeL, KPG Website.
Image 2: Writing Activity, C Level KPG Exams May 2015, Copyright KPG &
RCeL, KPG Website.
Image 3: Flowchart of the Writing Process based on Hyland, K. (2008). Writing
theories and writing pedagogies. Indonesian Journal of English Language
Teaching, 4(2), p. 100.

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