ELC688 Methods I Survey of Best Practices in TESOL. Lecture by Carol Haddaway

Transcription

1 ELC688 Methods I Survey of Best Practices in TESOL Lecture by Carol Haddaway 1

2 Psycholinguist Eric Lennenberg (1967) noted that human beings universally learn to walk and to talk, but that swimming and writing are culturally specific, learned behaviors. We learn to swim if there is a body of water available and usually only if someone teaches us. We learn to write if we are members of a literate society, and usually only if someone teaches us. (as cited in Brown, 2002) 2

3 How is Writing Like Swimming? Brainstorming Revising Editing Organizing 3

4 How? Let s look at the next visual slides to see what writers have to deal with as they produce a piece of writing. 4

5 Content Word Choice Syntax Mechanics Grammar 5

6 Producing a Piece of Writing Content relevance, clarity, originality, logic Word Choice vocabulary, idioms, tone Syntax sentence structure, sentence boundaries, stylistic choices Mechanics handwriting, spelling, punctuation Grammar verb rules, agreement, articles, pronouns 6

7 Audience Purpose Clear, fluent, and effective communication of ideas Organization The Writer s Process 7

8 Producing Clear, Fluent, and Effective Communication of Ideas Audience the readers Purpose the reason for writing Organization paragraphs, topic and support, cohesion and unity The Writer s Process getting ideas, getting started, writing drafts, revising 8

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10 Read Read Read ESL/EFL teachers are well advised to include a reading component in their writing classes. Why? Many ESL/EFL students are not highly skilled readers, having had limited opportunities to read extensively in English; it is highly unlikely that anyone who is a nonproficient reader can develop into a highly proficient writer. (Kroll, 2001) 10

11 Goal for Writers To become informed and autonomous readers/writers of their own texts with the ability to create, revise, and reshape papers to meet the needs of whatever writing tasks they are assigned. 11

12 Low-Level Basic Writing Skills handwriting or typing spelling constructing grammatical sentences punctuation writing from personal experience concrete topics, e.g. my favorite vacation 12

13 Higher-Level Cognitive Writing Skills gathering information and ideas relevant to the topic organizing the information and ideas into a logical sequence structuring the sequence into sections and paragraphs expressing the information and ideas in a written draft editing the draft and writing out a final text 13

14 Writing Approaches Controlled-to-Free stresses mastery of grammatical and syntactic forms emphasis on accuracy rather than fluency or originality sequential: sentences, paragraphs, free-compositions Free Writing stresses quantity of writing rather than quality emphasis on content and fluency first and not form Communicative stresses purpose and audience (why and who) 14

15 Process Writing Focuses on purpose and audience The process considers: How do I say what I want to say? How do I write this? How do I get started? How do I organize my writing? Pre-writing activities explore the topic fully Peer feedback Talking about writing through peer collaboration Teachers provide crucial support for students Time to try out ideas through multiple drafts Feedback on the content in their drafts 15

16 Product vs. Process Product emphasis on grammar, sentence structure, spelling, punctuation, and vocabulary content less important than mechanics Process consider audience and purpose writing process A principled process approach pays attention to the product but at the appropriate stage in the process. (Raimes, 2002) 16

17 (Raimes, 2002) Let s look at some approaches 17

18 A Process Approach to Teaching Writing Planning brainstorm, list, cluster, free-write, discuss, read, debate drafting composing/writing focus on fluency, audience, purpose Feedback teacher, peers, self Revising/Redrafting Editing focus on accuracy, grammar, structure Feedback /Evaluate (Raimes, 2002) 18

19 Language Experience Approach originated from the teaching of L1 reading skills based on students personal experiences (e.g. a field trip, TV program, project, etc.) students discuss the experience, compose, and dictate the story and the teacher writes it on the whiteboard students can copy, edit, and illustrate/draw what the teacher wrote it can be done with the whole class if they had a shared experience, e.g. field trip, or individually connects the spoken word to the written word integrates reading and writing writing to read (Brown, 2002) 19

20 The Reading - Writing Connection Practice Example My Name, by Sandra Cisneros Read the short story Express your ideas by completing the sentences Write your own story Teaching Writing Handout 1: Reading - Writing Connection 20

21 Classifying Writing Activities 21

22 Writing as a Means for language development as a support skill or skill-getting activity to practice a particular language point new vocabulary grammar exercise reading or listening comprehension a method of testing (adapted from Ur, 1991) 22

23 Writing as an End focus on writing itself a recursive skill-using activity micro level word/sentence handwriting, spelling, punctuation macro level content and organization APT -- Audience --- Purpose ---- Topic Teaching Writing Handout 2: Writing Genres 23

24 Writing as a Means and End purposeful and original writing with the learning or practice of some other skill or content combines reading and writing examples: LEA (Language Experience Approach) My Name (Reading - Writing Connection) 24

25 Classify Writing Activities Writing as an end in itself Writing as a means and end Writing as a means Teaching Writing Handout 3: Teaching Procedures 25

26 Responding to students writing is very much a part of the process of teaching writing. But how can we do this without perishing under the paper load? Teaching Writing Handouts 4: Basic Rubric 2 26

27 Giving Feedback What should feedback be mainly on? Language? Content? Organization? Should all mistakes be corrected? Should learners rewrite, incorporating corrections? Should we let students correct or give feedback on each other s written work? 27

28 Feedback & Error Correction provide advice and encourage rather then discourage respond to the content and organization respond to language errors limit to a manageable number of major errors only encourage learners to self correct avoid turning a writing course into a grammar course better not to edit or correct grammar errors on first drafts Teaching Writing Handout 5: Codes for Correcting Grammar Errors 28

29 6 Key Traits of Quality Writing Identified by Classroom Teachers ideas organization voice word choice sentence fluency conventions Teaching Writing Handout 6: Six Traits 29

30 If teachers view themselves as language teachers rather than as writing teachers, the nature of their comments and their feedback style will not promote growth in writing. (Zamel as cited in Kroll, 2001) Writing is a process of discovery. (Raimes, 1983) 30

31 References Brown, H. D. (2002). English language teaching in the post-methods era: Toward better diagnosis, treatment, and assessment. In J.C. Richards & W. A. Renanyda (Eds.) Methods in language Teaching. (pp. 9-18). New York, NY: Cambridge Kroll, B. (2001). Considerations for teaching an ESL/EFL writing course. In Celce- Murcia, M. (Ed.) Teaching English as a second or foreign language. Heinle. Raimes, A. (1983). Techniques in teaching writing. New York: Oxford University Press. Raimes, A. (2002). Ten steps in planning a writing course and training teachers of writing. In Richards, J.C & Renandya, W. A. (Eds.) Methodology in language teaching. Cambridge. Seow, A. (2002). The writing process and process writing. In Richards, J.C & Renandya, W. A. (Eds.) Methodology in Language Teaching. Cambridge. Ur. P. (1991). A course in language teaching. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 31