Unit 11 Teaching Writing

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Unit 11 Teaching Writing
Welcome
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Teaching Objectives

• 1. The purpose of writing class
• 2.The nature of writing in reality
• 3.A communicative approach to writing
• 4.Problems in writing tasks in existing
  textbooks
• 5. A process approach to writing
• 6. Writing through e-mail.

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I. The purpose of writing class

• 1. By writing, students can learn the language
  and culture
• 2. By writing, students can improve their
  listening, speaking and reading abilities
• 3. By writing, students can improve their
  thinking ability.

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II. The nature of writing in reality

• There is a great variety of things we write in
  reality, for example, letters, journals, notes,
  instructions, posters, essays, reports, menus.
  We write for various reasons, such as to convey
  messages or just to keep a record of what is in
  our mind. As to the way we write, we all have our
  own way.

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II. The nature of writing in reality

• Comparing writing in our English teaching
  classroom with writing in reality
• First, writing in the ELT classroom (also as
  homework) is often seen as a means to consolidate
  language that is recently studied.
• Second, the teacher gives a topic or a selection
  of topics, a set of requirements, and a time
  limit. The students finish the task within the
  time limit and hand in the final product.

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III. A communicative approach to writing

• Communication writing means either writing for
  a specific recipient, e.g. writing a letter to a
  friend or parent, or engaging in an act of
  creative writing where their work is intended to
  be read by other people, in other words, an
  intended audience. Communication writing is
  authentic writing tasks that have some
  communicative elements.

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III. A communicative approach to writing

• Writing activities can be between writing for
  learning and writing for communication
• Activities 1--6

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IV. Problems in writing tasks

• The deficiencies of writing tasks in existing
  English textbooks
• 1.They are mainly accuracy-based.
• 2.They are designed to practise certain target
  structures.
• 3.There is insufficient preparation before the
  writing stage.
• 4.There is no sense of audience.

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IV. Problems in writing tasks

• 5.There is no sense of authenticity.
• 6.Students are given ideas to express rather than
  being invited to invent their own.
• 7.There is no opportunity for creative writing,
  particularly for expressing unusual or original
  ideas.
• 8.The influence from Chinese.

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V. A process approach to writing

• Features of process writing
• Focus on the process of writing that leads to
  the final written product
• Help student writers to understand their own
  composing process
• Help them to build repertoires of strategies
  for prewriting, drafting, and rewriting
• Give students time to write and rewrite
• Place central importance on the process of
  revision

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V. A process approach to writing

• Let.students discover what they want to say as
  they write
• Give students feedback throughout the composing
  process (not just on the final product) to
  consider as they attempt to bring their
  expression closer and closer to intention
• Encourage feedback both from the instructor and
  peers
• Include individual conferences between teacher
  and student during the process of composition.

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VI. Writing through e-mail

• E-mail provides a perfect mechanism for
  students to submit drafts and for teachers to
  look them over at their convenience and send them
  back with comments once, twice, or several
  times. New ideas are shared promptly and can be
  responded to quickly. Another advantage is that
  the teacher can easily store all the drafts of a
  document for later review and analysis of the
  revision process. All these help to promote the
  application of the process approach to writing
  in the ELT classroom.

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VII. Assignments

• 1.Review the text do all the exercises
• 2.Read Chapter 6 of TLEBC
• 3.Write an e-mail of anything you like to me.
• My e-mail address gao_dengliang_at_yaho.com

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Thank you ! Good bye !