Approaches to teach writing

Approaches to teach writing

1. The challenge of writing

   • Challenge to produce: a coherent, fluent, extended piece of writing” in one’s second language.
   • Education systems emphasize writing for taking tests
   • It reduces writing to producing a product and receiving a grade from the teacher.

2. The product approach

   • Teachers focus on what a final piece of writing will look like.
   • Criteria of vocabulary use, grammatical use, and mechanical considerations such as spelling and punctuation,
   • This approach requires constant error correction, and that affects students’ motivation and self-esteem

3. The process approach

   • The process approach identifies four stages in writing:
     • 1) Prewriting
     • 2) Drafting
     • 4) Editing
     • 3) Revising
   • An important element of the process ap- proach is the meaningfulness
     • This starts with prewriting and brainstorming to generate ideas and activate the schemata

4. The genre approach

   • By investigating different genres, students can perceive the differences in structure and form and apply what they learn to their own writing.
     • According to Cope and Kalantzis (1993), the genre approach to writing consists of three phases:
       • 1.- The target genre is modeled for the students
       • 2.- A text is jointly constructed by the teacher and students
       • 3.- A text is inde- pendently constructed by each student

5. A process genre model for teaching writing

   • This approach allows students to study the relationship between purpose and form for a particular genre.
     • The teaching procedure for the process genre approach is divided into the fol- lowing six steps:
       • 1. Preparation
         • 2. Modeling and reinforcing
           • 3. Planning
             • 4. Joint constructing
               • 5. Independent constructing
                 • 6. Revising
                   • Students may check, discuss, and evaluate their work with fellow students, as the teacher again guides and facilitates
                 • Students have examined model texts and have jointly constructed a text in the genre. They now undertake the task of composing their own texts on a related topic.
               • The teacher and stu- dents work together to begin writing a text.
             • Many meaningful activities ac- tivate the students’ schemata about the topic, including brainstorming, discussing, and read- ing associated material
           • Teacher introduces a model of the genre and lets students consider the social purpose of the text.
         • Defining a situation that will require a written text and placing it within a specific genre.