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Making Students to be Able to Make a Good Writing
By admin | December 2, 2008
Lenneberg (1967) once noted that writing are culturally specific, learned behavior. It means that writing is not like talk that is learned universally and naturally, but it used to be learned by members of a literate society. In other words, writing skills cannot be built by human nature but it is skills that people should build it in themselves by learn it.
Nowadays, almost every society in this world has literate culture. Besides, people now make a lot of written media for communication. We see that there are newspapers, magazines, bulletins etc. Because of that, skills of reading and writing have become very important skills for human’s life.
Writing ability therefore takes on great importance. It influences us in making a good writing composition that we are going to use in written communication. Because of that, we have to realize that people’s writing ability must always be improved in order to make people able to write.
Brown (1994) has explained about how to teach writing by performing topic of research on second language writing. In the earlier chapter that as communicative language teaching gathered momentum in the 1980s, teachers learned more and more about how to teach fluency, not just accuracy how to use authentic texts and contexts in the classroom, how to focus on the purposes of linguistic communication and how to capitalize on learners’ intrinsic motives to learn. And all principles that have been developed to fulfill those needs are also applied to advances in the teaching of writing in second language and foreign language contexts.
Brown highlighted three issues in teaching writing history for our consideration as we prepare to teach writing skills. There are process and product, Contrastive rhetoric and Authenticity.
Looking at this issue is to distinguish between real writing and display writing. As explained by Raimes (1991), real writing is writing when the reader doesn’t know the “answer” and genuinely wants information. But writing could be primarily for the display of student knowledge if in a class; the instructor is the sole reader.
Brown (1994) also listed some characteristic of written language. There are permanence, production time, distance, orthography, complexity, vocabulary, and formality. Besides, there are some micro-skills that we have to acquire in writing activity such as produce graphemes and orthographic pattern to English, produce writing at an efficient rate of speed to suit the purpose etc.
There are some types of classroom writing performance that we can use in teaching writing such imitative, or, writing down. Others are intensive, or, controlled, Self-writing, display writing, real writing
From a few related literatures, I found many things that are related with teaching writing. For next, I will try to write down a few points in teaching writing which Brown didn’t write in his Teaching By Principles.
We all know that according to Lenneberg (1967), writing is culturally specific, learned behavior; it means that writing is not like talk that is learned universally and naturally. It used to be learned by members of a literate society. In other words, writing skills cannot be built by human nature but it is skills that people should build it in themselves by learn it.
Byrne (1988), in his Teaching Writing Skill noted some problems in writing are Psychological Problems, Linguistic Problems, and Cognitive Problems.
Teachers and learners have specific kinds of writing that they want to do. They also may have some specific skills that need to be developed. Next below are writing activities that can be engaging and challenging and can add variety to writing instruction. Besides, they could develop important literacy skills. The writing that emerges from an activity may be an end in itself or may lead to more extensive writing, employing one of the approaches discussed above.
Assessing Needs: This activity tries to have learners write about what they want to learn and why is an excellent way for the teacher to conduct a class needs assessment. Beginning level learners can write just a few words in English, or in their native language if need be. At higher levels, learners can write a simple letter, an entry in a dialog journal, or even an essay. They can be asked to respond to questions such as “Where do you use English?” “Where do you want to use English?” “What language skills (reading, writing, speaking, listening, use of vocabulary, use of grammar) are you interested in developing?” and “Where and how do you practice reading?” (e.g., at home, reading books to my child) (Weddel & Van Duzer, 1997).
Reacting to a Text or Stimulus: By doing this activity, learners can be able to record their reactions to various stimuli. They might do a free writing or an LEA piece in response to a piece of music; a photograph or drawing; a sound, such as water being poured; or even smells, such as the aroma of different spices or flowers. They can also respond to a field trip, movies, or written texts such as stories, poetry, and narratives. Reactions can be in single words, sentences, paragraphs, an essay, or a poem (Kazemak & Rigg, 1995.)
Writing Letters: this activity is containing letters of complaint (while studying consumerism), cover letters (while preparing for employment), or letters of advice (while studying newspaper features) allow learners to practice some of the types of writing that are useful in their daily lives. At beginning levels, learners can fill in the blanks with content words such as, “The ____ is broken.” At more advanced levels, learners can compose letters on their own or be guided by questions.
Analyzing and Synthesizing Information: Adults frequently need to interpret information that appears in graphic form such as charts, drawings, and maps, or interpret and synthesize information from several sources. To prepare for this kind of writing, learners can complete grids based on information they gather from class or community surveys. For example, at the beginning level, a simple grid can ask for the names of the learners in the class and their native countries or languages. Groups of learners can work together to fill in parts of the grid and then share their information with the entire class to complete the grid. They can then use this information to write simple sentences describing their class, such as “There are nine Spanish speakers and four Russian speakers in our class.” At higher levels, learners can gather more extensive data and then write a descriptive paragraph or composition. Using maps, learners can write directions for getting from one location to another. After reading articles on a topic such as immigration, learners can write a letter to the editor or a summary of the information presented.
Making Lists: We will see that lists can help learners generate vocabulary and provide the basis for larger pieces. For example, when studying banking, learners might enjoy listing how they would spend a million dollars. Other lists might be about favorite foods, places, or activities; wishes; things missed about one’s country; or things liked in the United States. For a beginning learner, a few words might suffice. More proficient learners may write several sentences or more.
We see that many EFL or ESL teachers cannot make their students to be able to make a good writing because certain steps they use are not appropriate with their student’s need. Sometimes, teacher’s way in teaching writing limits students’ ideas and ability in writing. In this chapter, Brown tells us about that. He also tells about ways that we can use in teaching writing in second or foreign language.
So the most important thing in teaching writing is to train and increase student’s ability in making good writing. It is because writing is a learned behavior and the most important task for a teacher who teaches writing is to do that.
Topics: Family & Education >< Pendidikan & Keluarga | 2 Comments »
July 15th, 2009 at 6:41 pm
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March 8th, 2010 at 6:20 pm
kcAtf0 Excellent article, I will take note. Many thanks for the story!