Hi! Nice to be here with you again.

Hi! Nice to be here again

with you.

“The fish trap exists because of the fish.

Once you've got the fish you can forget the

trap. The rabbit snare exists because of the

rabbit. Once you've got the rabbit, you can

forget the snare. Words exist because of

meaning. Once you've got the meaning, you

can forget the words. Where can I find a man

who has forgotten words so I can talk with

him ?” Zhuangzi : philosopher

« Progress is impossible

without change, and those

who cannot change their

minds cannot change

anything. »

by George Bernard Shaw : playwriter

« Try not to become a man of

success, but rather a man of

value. »by Albert Einstein:

‘The teacher’s rolesteaching writing

« It’s not our job to cram the pupils heads full of new facts but

to take what he/she knows and help them expand it.»

We can say, is that the pupils will certainly/unavoidably need to

talk or to write in the future about themselves when the

opportunities occur. This is why we should provide our pupils

with the best conditions of learning.

We have specific roles to play at different stages. We must vary

and adjust our techniques to suit the various stages of learning

process. In each lesson, the pupils are expected to listen, speak,

read and write.

As we all know listening and reading are receptive skills. Whereas

speaking and writing are productive skills.

My purpose today is to focus on teaching writing. What is writing ?

Writing is tranformation of our thoughts into language. It is a very complex

skill that requires both physical and mental effort on the part of the writer.

Writing is the last and perhaps the most difficult skill students learn if they

ever do.

Problems that make writing difficult are :

1- psychological. (caused by lack of interaction and feedback between

the reader and the writer.

2- Linguistic problems : in speech, grammar mistakes can be tolerated

because of the spontaneous nature of the medium which prevents us from

fully monitoring what we are saying in particular our sentence constraction

and the inter connection of our sentences.

In writing, we have to express ourselves in a clear and more

grammatical manner in order to compensate for the absence of certain

features of spoken language, such as :

- Body langauge

- Prosodic features (stress, intonation….)

- Immediate feedback between the interlocutors.

3- Cognitive problems.

Unlike speech, writing has to be taught through formal instruction.

The organisation of framework for our ideas in written communication has

to be mastered.

All these difficulties make learning to write a sophistacated process,

that combines many interrelated components :

- Purpose ( The reason for writing.)

- Audience ( The readers.)

- The writer’s process ( planning, drafting, revising)

- Content (Relevance, clarity, originality, logic…)

- Word choice (vocabulary, idioms, tone )

- Organisation (paragraphs, topic and support, cohesion and unity )

- Syntax (sentence structure, stylystic choices…)

- Grammar (rules of verbs, agreement, articles, pronouns…)

- Mechanics (handwriting, spelling, punctuation…..)

We cannot learn to write well simply by following general prescriptions.

The best way to develop skill in writing is to develop skill in observing how

others write. Reading is an integral part of the process of learning to write.

Before we ask our learners to write something, we have to ask

ourselves these questions :

1- Do learner’s have a good handwriting ?

2- Do they know how to use capitalization, punctuation, linking words,

sequencers and others.. ?

3- Do they know what is coherence, cohesion…?

There are many types of exercises to practise writing ranging from the

habit of note-taking to write summaries and guided or free compositions.

a) Simple copying tasks : matching pairs, putting words/sentences in

order, games ‘anagrams’ decoding messages…..

b) Meaningful copying task : Matching words to pictures, putting words

into categories. …..

C- Other copying activities : Writing a similar paragraph, dictation,

crosswords, use of punctuation and capitalisation while copying a

paragraph, dialogue writing, writing jumbled texts, sentences, essays…..

Paragraph types and purposes

1- The descriptive paragraph (of a place, person, physical

appearance.)

2- The narrative paragraph (present and past narration.)

3- The expository paragraph ( Aim is to

inform/explain/clarify something about any subject.

writer appeals to our emotion + moral sense.)

4- The comparison and contrast paragraph.

5- The classification paragraph.

6- The process analysis paragraph.

7- The cause and effect paragraph.

8- The argumentative paragraph.

Clear, fluent and effective communication of ideas.

Introduction :

The main idea that helps the reader

to know (predict ) what is coming up.

Content/ Development :

This is the main part of a paragraph.

The writer develops his ideas and

adds some details

Conclusion :

The writer sums up what he has

already discussed in the content and

finishes the presentation of his idea.

Teacher shouldtake into

consideration:

Planning a lesson

Setting clearobjectives

Selecting a context according

to the PP’sinterests

Usingappropriate & explicit visual

aids

Usingappropriate

activities

Develop the four skills

Organising of the class

The teacher should provide his learners with the best

conditions of learning. At the right beginning of the

lesson, Teacher should find things that can motivate his

pupils. It’s is the most important role. He serves as a

motivator. Here are some of the motivating factors :

a) Personality of the teacher (sensitive,sympthic,open-

minded, flexible)

b) Competence and confidence of the teacher.

c) T’s ability to interest his/her pupils.

d) Pupils’ needs.