Teaching Writing

Ihsan Ibadurrahman

What do ‘Writing’ and ‘Swimming’

have in common?

How is Writing like swimming

Psychologuist Eric Lenneberg (1967) said that:0 All humans universally can walk and talk, but writing and swimming are learned behavior.0 We have non-swimmers, poor swimmers, and excellent

swimmers – same as writers.0 We learn to swim only if there’s a swimming pool or

under guidance of a teacher – same thing when we write.0 Why isn’t everyone an excellent writer? What makes

writing difficult? Why can’t we write naturally like we talk?

Research on ESL Writing

Composing vs. writing

Process vs. product

Contrastive rhetoric

L1 and L2 writing

Authenticity The role of the teacher

Studies into ESL writing coincided with the teaching of listening and speaking. With the birth of CLT in 1980, the teaching of writing has

since developed until today. However, a number of issues have appeared over the past decades.

What are they?

Composing vs. writing

0 As discussed earlier writing is fundamentally different from speaking just as how different swimming is to walking. For instance, writing has the permanence and distance of writing, while speaking doesn’t.

0 However, a growing interest in the study of ESL writing has been much expressed in composing as a process of writing. Written products are often the result of thinking, drafting, and revising – skills that cannot be developed naturally.

0 This resulted in a writing pedagogy that focuses students to generate ideas, write coherently / cohesively, revise text for clearer meanings, and how to produce a final product.

Process vs. ProductOther approaches of writing include:- Process: where an new text is built

through a series of planning and re-drafting stages.

- Product: where a text is analyzed and imitated.

The general trend has now shifted to focus on the balance between process and product. The latter is used as the ultimate goal of writing while the former is used as a means to that end, rather than the end itself. We do not want students to be drowned in a sea of revisions.

Differences between L1 and L2 writingIt was initially believed that the composing process in both L1 and L2 was similar. However, recent research suggests that L2 writers:

- do less planning- are less fluent- less effective in stating goals

Pedagogical implications:0 It’s important to determine appropriate approaches to writing

instruction for L2 writers in different contexts.0 Writing teachers need to be equipped to deal effectively with

the sociocultural and linguistic differences of L2 ss.0 The assessment of L2 writing should take into account the

fundamental differences between L1 and L2 writing.

Authenticity

0 Authentic writing is those that reflects writing activities that are performed in real life outside the class such as: writing telephone messages, texting on the phone, writing facebook messages, etc.

0 Another way of looking at authenticity issue is to distinguish between real writing and display writing.

0 Real writing: aims to get genuine communication with the reader: letters, emails, diaries, messages.

0 Display writing: aims to display one’s knowledge: Short answer, grammar exercises, essays, reports display writing skills and techniques.

The role of the teacher

0Writing as a process of thinking and composing was mainly developed due to the emergence of CLT. In guiding the students towards the cumbersome process of writing, teachers need to adapt the role as facilitator and coach, and not as an authoritative director.

0As a facilitator, we may want to guide students in the thinking process of writing. However, we have to be careful as not to impose our own thought. We need to respect their ideas too!