Sookmyung Women`s University

Graduate School of Education

Teaching Writing

Spring 2007

Some Approaches to Writing

Here are some of the approaches that Raimes (1983) supplies. I think they provide a simple but solid overview of many of the most prevalent approaches to teaching second language writing. It is, however, important to bear in mind that no teacher really uses just one of these approaches. In this class we will be doing and discussing each of these at one point or another either as a theoretical review, real practice or both. It should already be clear that the journals you are doing are part of the free-writing approach. Much the homework-based writing assignments will be in the process approach tradition and we will be touching on the others in different exercises in class and maybe at home. The idea is that no single approach is to be taken as optimal and many should be used, obviously depending on the situation.

The Controlled-To-Free Approach

This approach is marked by a gradual, but very slow movement from controlled to more free types of writing (We be looking at controlled writing is great depth later in the course). The main purpose of this approach has traditionally been to use writing as a way to enhance the students` knowledge of grammar and structure so the control part focusses on these elements. In this approach there has traditionally been very little opportunity for the students to write creatively, at least initially when we work from the more controlled side of the spectrum. Its main focus is on accuracy. The creative side of language is very much downplayed or out right ignored in this approach.

The beauty of this approach is that it allows the teacher to decide what the students need to practice and then create controlled activities which focus on only one thing. This makes feedback a non-issue on the more focussed type of activities. It also allows the teacher to flexibly and simply create activities based on students performance on previous other kinds of writing tasks. Once the teacher has identified weak areas which the students could use further practice she can develop controlled activities which focus on those weak areas. The trick here, though, is to make these activities, no matter how controlled they might be , to be meaning focussed and not merely form focussed. Once the meaning focus is lost these just spiral down into grammar activities.

The Free-Writing Approach

Students in this approach are assigned large amounts of free writing for which they get little or no correction. Often the teacher will assign topics or topic areas, but she may also let the students pick their won topic. The purpose of this approach is to achieve fluency in writing. Students are also encouraged to practice tailoring their writing to the needs of an audience. The underlying belief teachers have in using this type of approach is that once a certain degree of fluency is established and all fear of writing is eradicated, accuracy and organization will come.

While this approach is seen as being effective in that students are able to self-discover their own set of skilful practices and techniques as writers it is also marked with certain limitations. It is not an approach which works well in students with low proficiency in the language. In this respect it is much more amenable to the ESL than the EFL situation for the simple reason that ESL student have daily opportunities to speak and use the language and this type of practice which develops fluency in speaking might be need to develop fluency in writing in this `hands off` type of approach.

The Paragraph-Pattern Approach

The focus in this approach is on organization on the paragraph level. The students do exercises which are directly or indirectly linked to how larger chunks of writing are organized into paragraph units. The teacher, for example, might have the students do an exercise in which they have to put the sentences of a paragraph in their correct order. Things like topic sentences and linking devices as well as ordering are taught overtly and practised in many different ways.

The underlying belief of this approach is that organization differs from culture to culture and must be learned overtly and that paragraphs, being the basic units of larger pierces of writing, are a necessary first step in any type of developing writing proficiency. A person cannot write an essay if they cannot write a paragraph and the underlying principles of the two are similar. Student may often be drilled in accurately putting together all the necessary parts of a paragraph.

The Grammar-Syntax-Organization Approach

The is a purpose-based approach to writing. Students are given a specific writing task and must find out what vocabulary items and structures are necessary to complete the task successfully. The idea is that necessity, the task, will force the students to focus on many of the different aspects of writing at the same time and bring about a good result.

The main focus in this approach is using forms, often at the sentence level to achieve the clearest and most appropriate meaning possible. Students practice by linking specific vocabulary words, structural elements, and organizational features to specific writing tasks. Trying to get students to internalize the necessary forms for writing is an important aspect of this approach.

The Communicative Approach

In this approach the purpose and the audience are stressed. Students should act like writers in real-life situations. As a result real-world types of writing tasks are devised. The writing exercises in this approach are created so that the teacher, other students, or people from out of the class can be the audience. Context has a central role in communicative writing exercises. These exercises give the students the chance to level the formality and content appropriately according to whom they are writing for and what type of writing they are doing.

The basic idea here is the same which underlies the communicative approach in general and that is that language and writing of course is used for communication so students benefit from doing activities and practice which has as a its goal a communicative event.

The Process Approach

This approach focusses on the how writing is to be done based on research on the habits/techniques of successful writers. In this approach teachers lead students, in a wide variety of ways, through the steps one must follow in creating a good piece of writing. Some of the most important elements of this approach include the ideas of planning and rewriting. Students are given time explore a topic on different levels. They are also given constant and guiding rather than merely evaluative feedback from both the teacher and other students. The steps of writing are supposed to act as a process of discovery by which the students not only learn how to write, but how to learn about a topic. The ultimate goal is to make them successful and autonomous writers.