A Discussion on How to Help Students to Practice Writing Skills

陳 丹

【摘要】With the developments of society， English as a foreign language becomes more and more popular. Writing， one of the basic skills in English learning， make many students feel frustrated. In this paper， the author introduces relevant background of English writing. Some activities and tasks for students practicing writing skills are provided， and the author explains some tips about how to keep the balance between composing and communicating in English writing.

【關鍵詞】 compose communicate writing skills process approach product approach

【中圖分類號】G64【文獻標識碼】A 【文章編號】2095-3089（2012）12-0122-02

1.Introduction

Listening， reading， writing and speaking are four basic skills in English learning and teaching. Many teachers and students find that writing is a messy business， which can be a process involving selecting topics， generating ideas， writing drafts， re?鄄write and editing. For English teachers， there are some basic issues that needed to be aware of when they help students practice writing skills， such as grammar， lexis， coherence and cohesion. Whether a piece of writing is successful depends on the overall organization of the writing and communication between the write and readers. The communication between writers and readers is very important， and it decides whether the writing could be successful. When teachers teach students how to write a paper， they should try to grasp the two features: composing and communicating. This paper can be divided to three parts. Firstly， the author introduces relevant background of writings skills. Secondly， the author defines three roles of teachers in teaching. At last， the author analyzes some small activities which can help students to keep balance between composing and communicating， including generating students?蒺 ideas before writing and developing a sense of audience.

2.Relevant research background

Writhing is complex process， which is an important part in different kinds or English tests In China. There are a number of different approaches to practice writing skills. Teachers need to choose right approaches to teach students. According to different aims or different learning motivations， we can choose a process approach or a product approach. Harmer (2007， p 325) states that in the teaching of writing teachers can either focus on the product of that writing or on the writing process. When concentrating on the product， students are interested in the aim of a task and the end of the task. In another words， a product approach focus on producing a text reproduces the model (Thornbury， 2006， p249). Another approach is called a process approach. Many teachers advocate of a process approach. This pay attention to a more original sequence of classroom activities: brainstorming， pre?鄄writing， writing drafts， revising and producing a final vision. It is clearly that a process approach asks students to consider the procedure of making sentences or paragraphs into a piece of work. For practicing writing skills， a process approach was thought to be appropriate. It added a valuable new dimension to language classrooms. However， it brought some criticisms. Nunan (1995， p 87) thinks that one such criticism is that the process approach confines students largely to narrative forms and that leads to a serious limitation on their ability to master different text types for specific purposes and academic writing. Rodrigues (1985: 26-7) claims that students need models to practice， they need to improve even mechanical skills， and they still need time to think through their ideas and write for real purposes. A successful writer should have some common characteristics either he/she uses a process approach or a product approach. In Thornbury?蒺s(2006， p 248) opinion， writers need to be able to produce grammatically accurate sentences， content， punctuate these sentences properly， select and maintain an appropriate style. Hedge (2000， p 305) points out some characteristics of successful writers. Firstly， good writers pay more attention to the overall meaning and organization of a text， and engage in a lot planning activities. Secondly， a successful writer will re?鄄write and revise before he/she finishes the writing. Another characteristic of successful writers is that they have high awareness of audience. They think about what the audience want to know， how to make writing clearly and more understandable. The audience is an essential concept for all writers. Writers choose different topics and different methods of presenting their ideas according to different audience (Reid， 1988， p 2). In order to make the writing communicative， the writer should know who will read the work and why they read the work.

2.Three roles of teachers in teaching writing skills

No matter teachers choose a process approach or a product approach， teachers play three important roles in teaching as follows:

Firstly， teachers will be leaders and organizer in writing tasks. Usually， teachers give the topic and create the right condition for generating ideas. Teachers set a series of activities， such as brainstorming.

Secondly， teachers are resource in writing tasks. Teachers are always ready to supply help and information. When students do a writing task， teachers need to offer advice and suggestions in a constructive and tactful way.

At last but not least， teachers are feedback providers after students have finished writing.

3.Helping students to practice writing skills

Composing and communicating are the two important aims of writing. Students are asked to make a composition， which should have the right format and proper theme. The writing format or style asks students to consider well composing a piece of work. The theme means that students should know how to communicate with readers by writing a piece of work. In another word， the process of writing is keeping the balance between composing and communicating.

3.1 Generating ideas in the process of composing

A process of writing can be a number of activities， which involve selecting topics， brainstorming and so on. These activities are aim to help students to generate ideas before start writing.

As we all know that getting started is one of the hardest steps in the process of writing. Different people have different strategies of getting into writing. For instance， I like writing some notes or a list of key points， which are useful for my writing. While some writers do not write anything until they start the writing. Before writing， we need to generate our ideas， consequently， we can make a planning for writing. In the classroom， brainstorming is a very common technique， which can help students to think about topics， and decide the purposes of writing. There are some classroom activities， which can help students do brainstorming. For example， if the teacher wants students to write a small composition with the title “My Favorite English Song”， he/she can prepare the following activity to help students get some ideas.

Activity: The teacher needs to bring a tape recorder and play some English songs for students. Asking students to listen to these songs and think about what sort of scene they image. Then ask them to discuss in pairs and tell partners about their feelings， whether they like the songs or not， and tell the reasons.

By doing this activity， students could decide a perspective in the early stage writing. And this activity also involves pair work， which might promote students?蒺 interaction and help students gather more ideas. During the process of brainstorming， the teacher performs as a guider who leading students to think about topic.

In another activity of generating ideas， the teacher plays a different role. Usually， before students start writing， the teacher will provide students some background knowledge. The teacher should think more about the learners themselves， for instance， their ages， their knowledge background， their English levels and their purposes of writing. If a teacher gives students a writing task about the topic of “taking Vitamins”， the teacher should provide students some background knowledge according to learners?蒺 language levels and the knowledge background of learners. If they are advanced learners， the teacher might just list some advantages and disadvantages of taking Vitamins for helping students generate ideas. If they are intermediate students， the teacher should do some pre?鄄teaching where necessary. For example， the teacher should pre?鄄teach some special words related to the topic if students are not familiar with the topic. For instance， the teacher can give a list of vocabulary about Vitamins. The following words might be needed during students?蒺 writing:

Vegetarians (vegans)

Vitamin B/C/E

Iron， Zinc， Calcium

3.2 Developing a sense of audience in order to get communicating products

Usually， we do different writings with different purposes. We write an advertisement to persuade consumers to buy our products. We write an application for apply for a post or a university. We write an English composition for English tests. We write an argumentation to express ideas about controversial issues. We write different types writing to different readers. Hedge (2000， p 307) thinks that good writers are quite sensitive to the audience of their writing， because the selection of content and style may be influenced by different readerships. For instance， a letter will differ in content and language style according to whom you will write to. A letter writing to friends usually is very informal. There is not any particular demanding about the language and the style of writing. However， a business letter is writing to someone who you don?蒺t know， so the language of a business letter should be formal， and usually， a business letter has the particular writing format. Students should have strong awareness of audience before starting a piece of writing. In order to “communicate” successfully， students must decide who the audience is: Classmates? Parents? Teachers or officials? Different writing styles and different words are used according different audience.

Awareness of audience is particularly important in some writings with specific purposes. A graduate will write a CV for job?鄄hunting. An international student will write an application letter to apply accommodation. These are all very practical in our real life， and usually these writing are for different readers. So teachers can help students develop their awareness of audience by giving them some realistic writing tasks.

Task: A travel magazine is going to set a section called “An Interesting City I Will Never Forgot”. Please write a contribution for the magazine.

Firstly， the teacher can bring a magazine to the classroom and show a sample to students followed by analyzing the typical type of articles in the magazine. Therefore， students can make a sense of what writing format and style they should choose. Secondly， the teacher should ask students to think about why they write and who will read their writings. It is clearly that the readers will be the group people who are interested in travelling because we need to write for a travel magazine. It is possible that readers want to get some suggestions about their travel planning， they want to choose best city for travelling. With this writing purpose， students should write some descriptions of cities， express feelings and emotions about these cities in order to give readers some useful information， making sure that readers are interested in it.

Another typical realistic task is writing a complaining letter. Whether a complaining letter is successful depends on the clarity of the letter to readers. If students want to write a successful complaining letter， they should basically master the structure of complaining letters. Generally speaking， a complaining letter should be brief and easy to understand. The fundamental purpose of a complaining letter is to ask some solutions， so writers should use simple and brief language to explain their problems. It is very important for writing a communicating complaining letter in daily life. Writers should make sure that readers could communicate smoothly with writers by reading complaining letters.

As students work on writing tasks， it is important that they should ask themselves who they are writing for， why the audience want to read the writing and what the audience want to know from the writing. After students have worked out these questions， they will decide what they should write with choosing appropriate vocabulary， language choices and language style. Then， they will make a plan for the whole writing. In this way， students can get composing and communicating well balanced. The writing will be well?鄄organized and it will communicate successfully.

Apart from generating ideas， developing a sense of audience， there are some other factors， which could affect communicating during the process of writing.

Handwriting is a personal writing habit. Students usually do writings by using a word processor with the development of computer science， but in a test or exam， students usually still are asked to write with pens or pencils. So， teachers probably can?蒺t understand what the student wrote because of the student?蒺s poor handwriting. Therefore， beautiful handwriting， layout and proper punctuation could affect a piece of writing.

4.Conclusion

From above analysis we can see that writing is a really messy business. A successful writing should be both well organized and communicating. In another words， good writers should pay more attention to both composing and communicating during the process of writing. Teachers need to help students balance these two features. Generating ideas before writing is one basic step of composing. In order to organize the whole writing， students should generate ideas very well firstly. The awareness of the audience is another issue that teachers should consider about. With a sense of the audience， students will use appropriate grammar， lexis and types of writing， which can make the writing communicating much easier. In a word， teachers can combine different approach to make suitable teaching planning for students?蒺 which based on keeping the balance between composing and communicating.

References

Harmer， J. 2007. The Practice of English Language Teaching. Harlow: Longman.

Hedge， T. 2000. Teaching and Learning in the Language Classroom. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Nunan， D. 1995. Language Teaching Methodology. London: Prentice Hall.

Reid， J. M. 1988. The Process of Composition. London: Prentice Hall.

Thornbury， S. 2006. An A Z of ELT. Oxford: Macmillan.

Rodrigues， R. J. 1985. Moving away from writing process workshop. English Journal， 74: 24-7.