Professional Documents
Culture Documents
The point is: If english speakers write straight to the point, and
chinese ones write spiral around the point, then a chinese
speaker who is learning english will have some difficulties in
learning to write english. There was some serious issues with
Kaplan’s thesis, though: it was simplistic (he based his
conclusions on style manual rather than using data from writing in
English) and overgeneralized (one cannot assume that all english
speakers write straight to the point). Nevertheless, there was
some truth on Kaplan’s theory: one's culture can have impact on
our writing style.
● Differences between L1 and L2 writing: it is important to
remember that L1 and L2 writing are different. Silvia (1993) have
found that L2 writers did less planning, were less fluent, less
accurate and less effective in stating goals and organizing material.
● Authenticity: one issue in teaching writing is the question of how
authentic are classroom writings. In school writing is a way of life.
One cannot pass the course without some ability to express
yourself in writing. English for academic purpose is the major
consumer of writing techniques (developing ideas, argument,
logics, etc). Another issue is the difference between real writing
(when the reader doesn’t know the answer and wants information
from the writing) and display writing (when the instructor is the only
reader, and writing is simply a display of a student’s knowledge)
both real and display writings should be included on our lessons.
● The role of the teacher: a teacher offers guidance in helping
students to engage in the thinking process of composing, but must
not impose his/her own thoughts on the student writing.
Types of written
language
Types of classroom ● Imitative: students will simply write down in order to learn
writing performance conventions of the orthographic code. Some forms of dictation fall
into this category:
○ Teachers reads a short paragraph once or twice at normal
speed
○ Teacher reads short units followed by a pause
○ During the pause, students write what they hear
○ Teacher reads the whole paragraph again at normal speed so
students can check their writings
○ Scoring of students’ work. Usually spelling and punctuation
errors are not considered as severe as grammatical errors
● Intensive: the intensive writing usually appears in controlled,
written grammar exercises (not much creativity is allowed). A
common form of controlled writing is to present a paragraph to
students in which they have to alter a given structure (changing all
present verbs into the past). Guided w riting loosens the teachers’
control but it still offers a series of stimulators (describing a story
they watched by asking questions). Another controlled writing is the
Dicto-comp: teacher reads a paragraph two or three times, then
asks students to rewrite the paragraph to their best of recollection
of the previous reading. The teacher might write key words on the
board to help students.
● Self writing: writing for oneself. The most salient self writing in
classrooms is the note-taking. Diary or journal writing also falls into
this category. Many dialogue journals has two audiences (in
which the student records feeling, thoughts and reaction, and the
instructor responds to them)
● Display writing: writing is a classroom way of life in which students
must show their writing competence.
● Real writing
○ Academic: the Language Experience Approach gives a group
of students opportunities to convey genuine information to
each other. Content-based instruction encourages the
exchange of information. Group solving-problem task may
have a writing component in which information is genuinely
sought and conveyed. Peer-editing work provide real writing
opportunities. In certain ESP and EAP courses, students may
exchange information with each other or with the instructor.
○ Vocational/technical: a variety of real writing can take place if
students are studying english for advancement on their
occupation. The possibilities are greater is “english in the
workplace”, where ESL is offered in companies.
○ Personal: it can take place in an interactive classroom (diaries,
letters, postcards, notes, etc)