What
kind of writing are we talking about?
It
is certainly the case that writing is changing. Text messages
on mobile phones have their own code, and the language of
emails is markedly different from the more luxurious prose
of novels and newspapers. Perhaps it is useful, therefore,
to see language on some kind of a scale which has 'speaking-like'
at one end and 'writing-like' at the other. We
can then make decisions about what to teach to whom –
and what we can say about the language we are offering students.
This makes sense because since we now have to expose students
to the language of e-mails and text messages, we do have
to place such writing in some context.
A decision has to be taken about what kind of writing we
should ask students to do. There is clearly a place for
more creative tasks such as writing stories and poems, but
students should also learn about more utilitarian writing
such as letters, reports and brochures.
Finally we have to decide how we want students to write;
in a process approach we will allow them time to draft,
re-draft and revise. In a more product-centred approach
it is the instant writing task that is of greatest interest,
and we may well want students to write together, making
the act of writing something of a game, or at the least,
a challenge.
These issues are explored further in the downloadable Writing
development pack that accompanies this topic. Read the
transcript
from the live online discussion from August 2001.
Jeremy
Ed. note: How do you get your students to write? Leave your
ideas on the Message Board
– we'll send a copy of the new edition of The
Practice of English Language Teaching to the most creative
ideas posted before the end of August!
