Taken from http://www.bridgetinspires.com/writinginspired/
Teaching Writing Its Importance, its Reasons, How to Teach it By Kiersten Ellis Pre-Service Teacher, School of English Faculty of Social Sciences Universidad Latina de Costa Rica Friday, April 29, 2016 Post 259
Why is writing so important? What are the reasons for writing? How important is it to focus on teaching writing specifically? How should writing be taught? What kind of writing should be taught? These are just some questions that many teachers, scholars, curriculum writers, and others may grapple with during their career. In Chapter 8 of “How to Teach English,� Jeremy Harmer (2007) directs the teacher to several aspects and concerns about teaching writing. Harmer briefly describes two main reasons for writing - writing-for-learning, or using writing as a practice tool for other topics or subjects being focused on, and writing-for-writing, or in other words writing in order to improve writing skills specifically. Some issues regarding writing that teachers often face are deciding what genre or type of writing to have the students write, how to teach or reinforce the correct English writing process, and how to engage students in writing and motivate them to make it a habit. The order in which writing activities take place should be considered carefully as well. One way to go about it , for example, is to have intermediate students make corrections in a piece of writing as simple as a post card or email. Then have the students create their own pretend post card to a friend or family member telling about their trip. Some writing sequences can be more connected, as in a process, such as creating a written interview, giving it, and then producing the final product of the interview questions and answers. Other writing activities that can be used in a
sequence manner is essay or report writing, which also can teach the students about the writing process. Other useful writing dynamics that do not necessarily involve sequences are ones that involve instant writing. This is writing a response immediately after a question or statement is posed to the students. Journal writing in class is a good example of this. Also using music and pictures as writing prompts is a fun way of getting the students to write. Or other written material can be used as a tool or compliment for writing activities. Such texts as newspapers, magazines, brochures, guides, or poetry can be used for this. Or to make things a little more interactive the teacher can have students write interactively or to each other. Something teachers need to take into account is how much correction in written works to give and what color pen to use. Depending on the student, too much can be discouraging and deter them from writing. Strategies must be found in order to correct students in constructive or positive ways. Lastly, depending on the students, the teacher may need to work with them on writing neatly and legibly. This is pertinent to improve for other aspects of life, but specifically in the classroom because if the teacher can’t understand what’s written then he or she can’t correct or grade the work. The biggest advantage of writing in an English class, in my opinion, is that it is a form of producing creative, natural communication with less stress and more thinking time than when practicing speaking. Added thinking time is beneficial to allow the students to get their thoughts together as well as to allow them time to think through the structure, punctuation, and spelling of the things they want to say. They can go back and edit as well. With this extra time and opportunity to edit and improve mistakes one feels more calm and confident through this type of communication. They know that their mistakes will be less or can be corrected. Whereas when one is speaking and makes a mistake, the mistake is made. You can correct yourself afterward, but it’s is still embarrassing and nerve wracking for many. Many kinds of tasks can be performed involving writing in order to practice or analyze all kinds of things, whether it be grammar, a writing style or genre, grammar structures, or to discuss different topics. This provides for variety in activities.
Some negative aspects of teaching writing are that it’s very possible for the teacher to not vary the tasks enough, or to branch out from the ordinary. If the teacher doesn’t change things up some at least once in a while then the students will get bored of the same routine or the same old activities. Also, depending on the task, many writing assignments aren’t very interactive. Though writing is a useful way to communicate, there should be a balance between the amount of writing and speaking that the students are required to do. A foreign language student’s education is incomplete if they can write very well but cannot carry or understand a conversation. Another thing to watch out for that the book specifically pointed out is that students can get very discouraged by written corrections, especially in red pen. Teachers should watch out for this and be careful of how they word feedback and suggestions or corrections. Teaching writing is very important to me. It is an essential tool for improving handwriting and spelling, especially for language learners whose first language uses
different characters or a different alphabet. It’s also necessary for practicing grammar skills. It’s a skill that can and should be practiced at all levels from beginner to high or advanced students. It should be used in many different ways and through a variety of activities. This is so important to keep students engaged and growing. I also support teaching the writing process for paragraphs, essays, and even reports or research papers. This type of formal writing is pertinent to know how to produce for any other academic or business setting the students may find themselves in at some point in the future. Not all teacher or student has strong points involving writing and every group of students will be different. As teachers grow and learn through experience we must find our groove and what teaching style fits us best. Though we may not enjoy writing or teaching writing it’s important to find a balance and fit it in to the curriculum to some degree.