According to Spratt, Pulverness, & Williams (2011), writing
is one of the major English skills. It is a productive skill since learners are producing the
language instead of receiving it. When people are writing they are
communicating a message through the written way and making use of the correct
grammar and vocabulary. In writing, there are different text types and each of them has a set of
characteristics such as length, degrees of formality, layouts, levels of complexity,
register, etc. These characteristics are important when producing a
text type. Moreover, as each skill, writing has subskills that are related to accuracy and communication. The
subskills associated with accuracy are correct spelling, forming letters
correctly, joining letters, using layouts, vocabulary, and grammar rightly, and
joining sentences in a correct way, and using paragraphs correctly. On the other hand, the subskills
related to communication are using appropriate style and register, organizing
ideas, using appropriate functions to
express meaning, and using the features of
text types. Besides applied the subskills it must also follow the stages of
writing. The stages are getting ideas, planning ideas, drafting, editing, proofreading, and re-drafting.
We have learned several things such as we need to know the writing subskills and also the stages in order to produce effective writing. Also, we have to take into account the features of text types to know how to vary them depending on who are we writing to. Writing requires a lot of work from the learner as well as the teacher. To improve writing skills learners have to be hardworking and be practicing constantly. There are several writing exercises that help writers to discover their style, generate ideas, and also how to write better.
How to apply knowledge related to Writing Skill in the English classroom:
According to Platt (2017) using newspapers is a valuable aid to teaching writing. There is an activity in which students must read an article of their personal choice and write a response to the editor, “Letter to the editor”. In the writing, students have to write if they agree or disagree with the writers’ point of view. Moreover, the teacher could ask students to identify unknown words and try to figure out their meaning according to the context. This activity is good because engages students to pay full attention to details.
Another activity is a whole-class story. This activity is good to
work with small groups. The teacher asks students to write on a piece of paper
any topic or vocabulary word they had reviewed. The pieces of paper are put into
a bag and each student has to pick only one. Then, the teacher writes a
sentence on the board, and students have to generate sentences subsequently. In
the end, the teacher asks any students to read a paragraph while the whole
class tries to correct any mistake and also to find out which topic or word has
been taken from the pieces of paper. This is an interactive and engaging
activity since students are active in the learning process.
Furthermore, Boser (2020) suggested that process
writing improves learners’ outcomes. This process includes pre-writing,
organizing, drafting, revising, re-drafting, and editing their papers and
feedback is a key part of the process of writing. Effective feedback is when
students are motivated to use feedback in order to improve their writings. Keh
(1990) stated that feedback is the impulse that guides the writer through the
writing process on the product.
Spratt, M., Pulverness, A., Williams, M., & University of Cambridge. (2011). The TKT course: Modules 1,2 and 3. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
No hay comentarios:
Publicar un comentario