ICELT DISTANCE UNIT TEACHING AND RESPONDING TO WRITING The United Kingdom’s international organisation for educational opportunities and cultural relations We are registered in England as a charity ICELT distance unit: teaching and responding to writing Teaching Writing and Responding to Written work Aims In this module, we will explore the issues involved in teaching writing and will look at how to teach writing at various levels In addition, we examine how to mark written work Aims By the end of this unit you should • Have developed awareness of what is involved in the skill of writing • Have a better understanding of the purpose and value of writing in the English language classroom • Be able to prepare effective and meaningful writing activities at the appropriate level for your learners • have developed clearer understanding of how to give effective and appropriate feedback to your learners about their written work Coursework in this unit: Language Task 3: Focus on the Learners’ Written language (page 46) Page of 50 ICELT distance unit: teaching and responding to writing Part 1: Developing writing skills in the EL classroom (teaching writing) Reflection It is very important to consider your own feelings about writing in English This will effect how you teach writing in the English language classroom Do you believe writing is a skill in its own right, which can be taught in the classroom through a range of tasks and activities or is it just a way of practising language structures? Why your students write in their English classes? Make a list of all the reasons why you think that writing is important in English lessons Do your students have to pass examinations in English? writing are required by these examinations? What type of 'texts' students write in their English classes? Make a list of typical writing tasks How much time they spend on: a) writing sentences? b) writing whole 'texts' e.g narratives and descriptions etc Do you think that writing in English is a language problem or writing problem? Do you work with your students when they are writing, encouraging them to revise and edit their work as they go along? Do your students ever collaborate on writing tasks? Do your students ever mark their own or each other's work? Does writing take place in separate 'writing' lessons or is it integrated with other work? Page of 50 What types of ICELT distance unit: teaching and responding to writing The purpose of writing and teaching writing What is writing? Task What is the purpose of writing? Think about how you use writing in your everyday life in your first language Commentary The purpose of most writing is to communicate with one or more readers (a friend, a relative, a colleague, an institution, a teacher etc.) Of course, we sometimes write for ourselves but even then, we read this material at a later date As the main purpose is to communicate, the writer needs to send a clear message This will depend on: • Knowledge of skills and strategies necessary to produce an effective piece of writing, i.e how to start, how to take notes, how to plan • Awareness of how to use language according to situation • Knowledge of how to sequence and organise written language • Ability to use grammar correctly to convey precise meaning • Awareness of the importance of presentation Task a) Think about the last 48 hours Make a list of the things you wrote in your own language? b) Look at the list and answer the following questions: * What was the aim? (i.e to remind, to apologise, to inform) * What was the audience? (the person who reads the text) * What was the genre, or text type? (i.e, shopping list, a telephone message) c) What implications does this list have for the English language classroom? Page of 50 ICELT distance unit: teaching and responding to writing Commentary Nowadays we very little writing in our everyday life Most of it is short, for example, taking telephone messages, writing brief notes to friends or colleagues, writing emails etc But in all cases it is important to know the aim (a purpose), the audience and the text type This should be reflected as far as possible in the classroom However you may ask, as there is not such a great real-life need for formal written work, 'why we need to teach writing?' This leads us to our next point What is the purpose of teaching writing? Task Why your students write in their English classes? Make a list of all the reasons why you think that writing is important in English lessons Page of 50 ICELT distance unit: teaching and responding to writing Some teachers in South America were asked 'What is the purpose of asking students to write? Here is what they said Which views are similar to yours? Writing is a useful follow-up It helps to consolidate what has been learned Guillermo, Venezuela Isabel, Perú I see writing as an end in itself Just as my learners want to be able to speak English, so they need to write too Luz Stella, México The main purpose of writing is accurate use of language - especially grammatical structures I think one of the most important reasons for having students write is to be able to assess their formal knowledge Maria, Ecuador Miguel, Colombia I use writing both to practise language and to encourage my learners to be creative Writing is just another form of communication My learners expect to be given writing practice to improve their all-round English That's why I it Eduardo, Chile Juan José, Colombia I make my students write things down They need it as a reference Blanca, Perú Paola, Bolivia Writing is more reflective that speaking I think it gives learners more time and they can be more accurate in what they write I think they expect to quite a lot of writing The purpose of writing is simply to practise writing Richard, Colombia If you really think you know English, then you really need to be able to write fluently in English I believe you can only get that through constant practice My aim is to increase their confidence when writing and to improve their written fluency Page of 50 ICELT distance unit: teaching and responding to writing Commentary There are a number of very good reasons why it is useful to include work on writing in English language classroom: To consolidate and reinforce language work done in class: - most students find it useful to see language written down and to practice a new structure at sentence level after they have studied it Writing is often used to help students remember new items of language To develop writing skills - like reading, speaking and listening, writing is a basic language skill Students need to know some of writing's special conventions (punctuation, paragraph construction etc) just as they need to know how to pronounce spoken English appropriately To prepare them for exams - Many students have specific needs which require them to develop their writing skills, for example examination preparation, expectation in schools of essay writing, project writing, poems etc To assess - writing allows students to see how they are progressing and to get feedback from the teacher As teachers we often use writing as a way to monitor and diagnose problems To develop accuracy - using writing to develop ability in producing grammatically correct sentences as well as following writing conventions of different text types (for example writing a formal letter compared to a postcard to a close friend), correct spelling, punctuation etc To encourage the development of fluency - developing the students' ability to communicate ideas and experiences creatively and confidently in a written form For classroom management and to change the pace of the lesson - writing can give the teacher a break It can quieten down a noisy class Although with collaborative writing it may even liven up the class To encourage students to work together and share their ideas and experiences - writing requires a different type of mental process - unlike speaking there is more time to think, reflect, prepare, make mistakes, find alternative and better ways of expression an idea or opinion Writing in class allows students to work together in the process of writing, through a process of generating and sharing ideas, making decisions on what to include in the writing, how to express ideas and revising what has been written For enjoyment – there are many students who, with the proper support and guidance, can grow to enjoy the process of writing Page of 50 ICELT distance unit: teaching and responding to writing Writing in the English language classroom Attitudes to writing Task ♦ How you feel about teaching writing? ♦ How your students feel about writing? Commentary Writing often receives less attention by teachers because it is at the bottom of the list of teachers' priorities: classroom time is limited and writing is time-consuming In addition, it is one of the most difficult things to tackle on the syllabus and students often not respond in the way that teachers want them to Some feel that writing 'takes care of itself', a less important issue that is best taken care of in the form of an occasional homework task The situation is not helped by the negative feeling students often have about writing Do your recognise these: Finished! (When they have only written lines.) Oh no not writing…can't we just talk? Why we have to writing, it's so boring! I don't know what to write about… Many see it as hard work, boring, unrewarding and, perhaps because writing is often associated with homework and/or exams, not a lot of fun Motivation can be a huge problem for the teacher This is not helped by teacher over-reliance on writing in the classroom for ‘speaking’ practice activities, which is generally not appropriate practise, and also connects writing to boring activities Writing can be one of the most enjoyable and satisfying activities for teachers and students to together But how can we encourage our learners to write and enjoy writing? Page of 50 ICELT distance unit: teaching and responding to writing First we need to consider a number of factors: – to motivate our students to write we need to provide a reason, especially a fun reason or a personally important reason If I asked you to write about your holidays, the probability is that you might give me a quick summary If I asked you more specific questions and gave you a reason for writing (for a wall display, for a short book recommending different holiday activities), you would probably produce a much more interesting piece of work Having a clear sense of 'audience' (who is going to read this) is also motivating This doesn't have to be the teacher, it could be the rest of the class for instance – students respond better if they are given guidance Learners need more guidance than just a title to write successfully They may need help in how to approach their writing, in generating ideas, how to make notes, how to organise ideas etc – allow your students to work together on writing As a group they can generate lots of ideas, select the content and organise their ideas The teacher can move around from group to group monitoring the work and helping with the process of writing Encourage your learners to ask you for advice By giving them the right to choose when they want your help, you are helping to develop their sense of responsibility in their own learning – The key to motivation is the choice and variety of activities Give learners plenty of opportunities to try out different kinds of writing (letters, reports, articles, posters, and public notices for example) as well as 'the composition' Remember that form can be interesting as well as content Similarly give them activities that you know they will find fund – As a teacher, be positive about writing, be supportive and flexible, and allow them to be creative with their ideas Let's look at the types of writing activities done in the classroom Types of writing activities Task What types of writing you ask your students to do? How often to you writing activities: In the classroom? As homework? Page of 50 ICELT distance unit: teaching and responding to writing Commentary Q1 Most writing in the classroom falls on a continuum from copying to free writing: Focus A - types of writing B - definitions and example activities Controll ed Copying Students copy from the board or from books They generally copy grammatical structures, grammatical rules and items of vocabulary This provides the students with a written record of the language presented and practised in class These exercises practise grammatical structures For example, writing sentences from prompts following a particular structural pattern, answering questions using a particular structural pattern, completing sentences, matching halves of sentences and writing out a complete sentences, gap-filling using the correct tense or word Students are involved in a process of writing and the teacher gives help during this process (thinking through ideas, ordering them, cooperatively preparing notes, writing draft copies, editing and writing final versions) Students come up with a topic and title for a composition themselves and not receive any help from the teacher (accuracy focus) Written Exercises Freer Guided writing (fluency focus) Free writing Writing should be practised in the classroom everyday Even very short pieces of writing, with drawings to illustrate points should be encouraged and discussed If your learners are only writing at home, this means that they are always writing without support Of course writing tasks as homework are often essential because of pressures of time and curriculum, but make sure you prepare for them in class (See more discussion on guided writing) What kinds of writing should students do? Of course it will depend on the age, interests and level of the students but there are some very important factors to consider: Students need time in the classroom for writing It is the teacher's task to select or design activities which support them through the process of producing a piece of writing (guided writing) Students need to be given a context for writing In order to know exactly what to write they need to know why they are writing (THE AIM), who the reader is (THE AUDIENCE this needs to vary and should not just be the teacher) They also need to be aware of the Page 10 of 50 ICELT distance unit: teaching and responding to writing Section Language Task 3: Focus on the learners' written language Read the guidance below on the language task and underline any key words Length :750 –1,000 words Task outline You are required to identify and correct the errors in a sample of written work from two learners who are at different levels and provide appropriate feedback for the learners Guidelines Make two copies of each piece of work On one copy identify and correct all the errors (the corrected version) Correct and annotate the other for the learner: include a brief summarising comment written to the learner (the annotated version) Write a brief rationale for the choices made in the annotated version explaining why some errors have been corrected and some not You MUST complete a language task front cover and attach this to the front of your assignment Page 46 of 50 ICELT distance unit: teaching and responding to writing Read the assessment criteria for this task on the following page very carefully so that you are very clear what is expected from you PASS level tasks will fulfil all the following criteria Language accuracy and Language Awareness Task specific criteria General criteria Use accurate language in summarising comments to learners Demonstrate understanding and use of terminology to describe learner language Good control of lexis and grammar There may be some errors of language but these not greatly impair meaning or understanding Shows a satisfactory understanding of concepts and knowledge used to describe language Can convey information and ideas with reasonable precision, though clarity may be reduced when attempting to convey more complex ideas Adequate though limited repertoire of vocabulary and a restricted range of more complex structures Has a fairly good range of simple language but lacks flexibility and displays lexical limitations The writing is adequately organised and coherent Task requirements are adequately fulfilled although there may be some difficulty in expressing more complex points A reasonable range of reading sources that inform the writing has been adequately understood Some of the writing might require greater concentration from the intended reader but overall it achieves its intended purpose for the specified audience Range and Employ appropriate professional discourse in describing the rationale Flexibility for correction Organisation Identify and correct all errors in the and content corrected version Make appropriate choices of errors to correct in the annotated version Make appropriate use of language reference materials such as dictionaries and grammars Audience Awareness Provide appropriate and helpful feedback and summarising comments to the learner Inform a professional reader of the rationale for correction Page 47 of 50 ICELT distance unit: teaching and responding to writing Task 7.3 Read the following task that was submitted by a candidate on ICELT and grade it according to the assessment criteria Language Task - Focus on the learners' written language Introduction To help students understand and correct their errors, they will be underlined and a code will be used to clarify the nature of the error CODE Sp = spelling √ = something missing P = punctuation WO = word order WW = wrong word C = capitalization // = new paragraph needed Agr = agreement ? = meaning is not clear NA = usage is not appropriate ( ) = not necessary T = wrong tense Sample (see appendix A) Sample A comes from a first grade student who had to research about a favourite animal His writing shows fluency, coherence and nice use of new vocabulary (hatch, exposed to pollution as well as logical sequence For these reasons, the following errors were corrected: Word order -… small birds and brown (Should have written small and brown birds) Students have been practising sentence construction for the last few weeks Spelling - tree (instead of three), countrys (instead of countries) Students have been taught how to form plurals recently Spelling - twenti (instead of twenty Students have been taught how to write numbers in letters Punctuation - … brown, (should have a full-stop not a comma) Students have been taught that sentences end with a full-stop Page 48 of 50 ICELT distance unit: teaching and responding to writing Capitalisation - they… (need a captial T) Students have been taught that after a full-stop they should use a capital Spelling - Becaus (instead of because) This is a high-frequency word that students should write corretly The following errors were not corrected because the students' writing is fluent and coherent enough for he reader to understand: fruts (instead of fruits) polushon (instead of pollution) canser (instead of cancer) egs (instead of eggs)\ getting (instead of getting) These words were spelled phonetically and not hinder understanding of the text live (instead of leave) - students are learning phonetics and are still confused by long / short e sounds … and … (instead of which) students are still learning to use connectors Alejandro's text show good command of new vocabulary and he manages to get his message across Although his errors not hinder the readers' understanding, they were marked because he has had instruction in these topics Appendix A: Writing Sample - Annotated Version WO / P / C SP SP SP Sparrows are small birds and brown, they live in the citys and countrys they lay two Or tree egs and hatch after twenti days They live the nest after tree weeks They like to eat bugs, fruts and seeds SP Becaus they are exposed to polushon they Page 49 of 50 ICELT distance unit: teaching and responding to writing are getting sick with canser Very nice writing, Alejandro, You used new words correctly and your sentences are getting quite good I especially liked your last sentence about pollution and cancer You need to work on your spelling and remember to use capitals and full-stops to begin and end sentences Congratulations! Appendix B Writing Sample - Corrected Version Sparrows are small birds and brown, they small an brown birds They live in the citys and countrys they lay two cities and the countries They or tree egs and hatch after twenti days three eggs twenty They live the nest after tree weeks They like leave three to eat bugs, fruts and seeds Becaus they fruits because are exposed to polushon they are getting sick pollution with canser cancer Page 50 of 50 ICELT distance unit: teaching and responding to writing Commentary on Task 7.3 Read the marker's comments in BOLD Language accuracy and Language Awareness Task specific criteria General criteria Use accurate language in summarising comments to learners Error free Demonstrate understanding and use of terminology to describe learner language Uses some terminology successfully Good control of lexis and grammar There may be some errors of language but these not greatly impair meaning or understanding Good control / error free Shows a satisfactory understanding of concepts and knowledge used to describe language Rather short so not much evidence but no misunderstandings Can convey information and ideas with reasonable precision, though clarity may be reduced when attempting to convey more complex ideas Adequate though limited repertoire of vocabulary and a restricted range of more complex structures Has a fairly good range of simple language but lacks flexibility and displays lexical limitations Range seems fine and although this lacks complex structure it is appropriate The writing is adequately organised and coherent Task requirements are adequately fulfilled although there may be some difficulty in expressing more complex points NO - has included only ONE writing sample instead of two A reasonable range of reading sources that inform the writing has been adequately understood Little evidence of background reading Some of the writing might require greater concentration from the intended reader but overall it achieves its intended purpose for the specified audience Rationale could be more detailed and explicit appropriate professional Range and Employ discourse in describing the rationale for Flexibility correction Rationale is somewhat perfunctory Organisation and content Identify and correct all errors in the corrected version NO - has corrected "small birds and brown" wrongly to 'small and brown birds' - should be small, brown birds Make appropriate choices of errors to correct in the annotated version - Yes Make appropriate use of language reference materials such as dictionaries and grammars - Audience Awareness Provide appropriate and helpful feedback and summarising comments to the learner Encouraging comments Inform a professional reader of the rationale for correction No not enough detail here Grade: Resubmit You need to provide two samples of students' writing for analysis and provide a more detailed rationale We hope this is helpful when writing your task - Good luck Page 51 of 50 ICELT distance unit: teaching and responding to writing POSTSCRIPT A lesson where no error correction led to a feeling of achievement on the part of the learners I recently did the following lesson: I showed the class a video of a news report They answered comprehension questions and then did a gap fill with the transcript of the broadcast I then asked them to underline all the phrases where the present perfect was used and where the passive voice was used as these two grammar aspects are very common in news reports and I wanted the students to notice how they were used I divided the class into groups and ask each group to prepare a short news bulletin and prepare to broadcast it I told them to give each member of the group a role; newscaster, reporter, witness etc While the groups were preparing their broadcasts I did go around correcting mistakes, giving them useful language and responding to their questions Each group acted out their broadcast while I filmed them with a video camera A lot of errors were made but each group managed to deliver a reasonably comprehensible news bulletin I played back the news broadcasts on the video This would be a very good time to focus on error correction because I could stop the video after significant errors and ask the class to correct them and that is a technique I have used in the past On this occasion, however, I didn’t that, I simply played the video without a pause and at the end encouraged the students to give each other a round of applause In this way students had the satisfaction of having achieved quite a difficult creative and linguistic task without having the sense of achievement lessened by dwelling on their mistakes I think there is a place, on occasion, for doing this as the sense of unmitigated satisfaction felt by the students can only contribute positively to their learning in the future Page 52 of 50 ICELT distance unit: teaching and responding to writing Now test yourself…… What kind of skill is writing? Productive or receptive? What things we need to make our students aware of when they write - are important when giving a writing activity (three important element to include - aim, audience and text type What are the three important stages of teaching writing? Name 'task focuses' Why are guided writing activities useful? Should teachers always correct students' work? What the following corrections symbols mean: Sp WO P U [ ] What are the benefits of learners correcting their own and their classmates' work? Key: Productive Purpose/aim, Audience and Genre Pre-, While-, Post- Imagination and vocabulary expansion, register of language, use of formulaic phrases, text organisation, presentation & layout, grammatical features of writing Students take on responsibility for their own learning Students will learn to develop writing Active learning, learner-centred Increases confidence Students use their knowledge of English to help others 6, No, it is important to vary activity types and writing aims Page 53 of 50 ICELT distance unit: teaching and responding to writing Sp WO P U [ ] spelling Word order Punctuation error Join ideas – no space, no new sentence This needs to be reworded or rearranged Students think about the topic before they write Sts brainstorm ideas and approaches Sts discuss the topic with other sts, getting new ideas and clarifying their own thoughts Sts see models of similar types of writing The class works on a similar piece of writing together Sts preliminary writing exercises - making notes, answering questions, ordering ideas, linking sentences, etc Sts language exercises with language relevant to the text they’ll write Sts prepare a draft for discussion and editing Sts the writing task with an audience in mind Page 54 of 50 ICELT distance unit: teaching and responding to writing APPENDIX – EFFECTIVE WRITING Task (Adapted from Parrott, 1993) What is involved in effective writing? Note down your ideas here Commentary on task Effective writing involves conveying a message in such a way as to affect the audience as the writer intends Depending on the precise purpose in writing, this may, for example, involve seizing and maintaining interest of the intended reader, conveying information clearly, delighting or amusing the reader or persuading the reader of a particular point of view The writer needs to be able to imagine the reader and to assess their knowledge of the topic, their assumptions about the topic and their attitudes towards it and interests in it In achieving the purpose for writing, the writer makes choices about a number of factors Look at the list of some of those factors below grammar handwriting vocabulary paragraphing cohesion formulaic phrases coherence spelling organisation capitalisation layout punctuation underlining Can you add more factors to the listt? 5.1 Cohesion and Coherence These are vital to communication of any kind However, it is when writing that learners of a foreign language find that if they have problems in these areas, they become highlighted Task From Parrott, 1993 Page 55 of 50 ICELT distance unit: teaching and responding to writing Look at the following extracts from compositions written by learners of English Both students have problems with cohesion, which is why the texts seem odd even though mistakes of grammar and vocabulary have been corrected a My landlady is an old woman My landlady is very kind to me She does not give me rice to eat My landlady does not know I am used to eating a lot of rice In my country people of my country need to eat a lot of rice b My landlady is called Mrs Jones She lives on a ground floor of house It is a very old house Sometimes it rains Water comes through a roof My room is not at top of a house My room is dry Rewrite the texts so that they ‘read’ naturally Define cohesion and make a list of words which commonly act as ‘cohesive devices’ Martin Parrott: Tasks for Language Teachers © Cambridge University Press1993 a My landlady is an old woman, who is very kind to me However, she does not know that people in my country need to eat a lot of rice and so I am used to this Consequently, she does not give me rice to eat b My landlady, Mrs Jones, lives on the ground floor of a very old house Although water comes through the roof when it rains, my room is dry because it is not at the top Cohesion refers to the explicit linguistic signalling of relationships that are within a text These relationships are commonly signalled by: Proforms/pronouns My dad is a teacher and he lives … I haven’t been to Japan but my sister went there last year Conjunctions although, as well as, so, because etc Substituted nouns I like cats but my sister can’t stand felines Comparatives I have just seen a bad accident but the one I saw last year was even worse Determiners the, this, that, some of the Page 56 of 50 ICELT distance unit: teaching and responding to writing Task Parrott, 1993 Look at the two sentences Both are cohesive but one of them has a problem with coherence Which one? a Yesterday I got up late and had a quick breakfast b Yesterday I got up late and bought a car Commentary ‘Coherence’ describes the logical relations between the ideas and information embodied in discourse In coherent text it is clear how sentences relate to sentences, and paragraphs to paragraphs (exemplifying a point made, countering a point made, extending a point made, etc) Coherence is helped by cohesion, but often a writer assumes that the reader will use particular aspects of general knowledge and knowledge of the specific conventions of certain kinds of text to supply the necessary logical connections In sentence (a) above, it is clear that the relationship between getting up late and having a quick breakfast is one of cause and effect In sentence (b), the two parts of the sentence appear to be unrelated and it is difficult to infer any connection In this sentence there is a problem of coherence c I had a wonderful weekend Yesterday I got up late and had a leisurely breakfast The second of the sentences in (c) is grammatically similar to sentence (a) above Again it is perfectly coherent However, in this case the relationship between the two parts of the sentence is not one of cause and effect but of equivalence – both parts of the sentence illustrate and expand the information contained in the first sentence In both sentences (a) and (c) ‘and’ provides the cohesion However, the relationship it implies can be derived only through the context and knowledge (in these cases of conventional human behaviour) which the reader brings to bear in the act of interpreting In writing English, which presents more problems for your students, cohesion or coherence? Is the same true when they are reading English? © Cambridge University Press1993Martin Parrott: Tasks for Language Teachers Task Now look at the materials you use with your learners Find an activity that aims to develop writing Which of the sub-skills mentioned here does it develop or practise? How effectively does it develop the skills? Task Note down all the reasons you think of for writing in the classroom Page 57 of 50 ICELT distance unit: teaching and responding to writing Bibliography Hadfield C & Hadfield J (1990) Harmer J (1998) Hedge T (1988) Scrivener J (1994) Tanner R & Green C (1998) Vince M (1996) Richards J Oxenden C & Seligson P Susan Kay The Lake School of English Writing Games How to Teach English Writing Learning English Tasks for teacher education: a reflective approach (course book and trainer's book) Jackpot & Interchange English File 1& Reward Pre-Intermediate Resource Pack Page 58 of 50 Nelson Longman OUP Heinemann Addison Wesley Longman Heinemann CUP OUP Heinemann ICELT distance unit: teaching and responding to writing FEEDBACK on responding to learners unit How long did it take you to work through this unit? Less than hours About hours More than hours In general, how did you find the unit? Good OK Poor Was the level of the material? Too challenging About right Too easy Please assess the overall presentation of the unit Good OK Poor Please assess the clarity of the writing in the unit Good OK Poor Please write any other comments you have here Thank you for taking time to complete this form We appreciate your comments Page 59 of 50 ICELT distance unit: teaching and responding to writing Page 60 of 50