1.The definition of writing and its significance in education
When we learn a second language, we learn to communicate with other people, tounderstand them, to talk to them, read what they have written and write to them;an integral part of participating fully in a new cultural setting with other peoplethat are not present the moment we communicate to them is the form of writing.But the fact that people frequently have to communicate with each other inwriting is not the only reason to include writing as a part of our second-languagesyllabus; we also need to teach them how to learn to write because writing firstreinforces the grammatical structures, vocabulary and idioms that we have beenteaching our students.Secondly, when our students write, they also have to be adventurous with thelanguage, to go beyond what they have just learned to say, to take risks. Thirdly,when they write, they necessarily become very involved with the new language;the effort to express ideas and the constant use of their hands, eyes and brain is aunique way of reinforcing learning (A. Raimes 1983).There have been numerous approaches to the teaching of writing in thehistory of language teaching; traditionally, writing was viewed as a tool for the practice and reinforcement of specific grammatical and lexical patterns, in whichaccuracy was all important but content, and self-expression virtual non-priorities.Learners were purely “writing to learn” as opposed to “learning to write” (Tribble1996, p.118).However, with the increase in attention to students` practical needs, born outof functional/notional approaches and further developed in the various areas of ESP, the importance of certain text types as skill learners might need has come tothe tore. This gradual increase in the status of writing as a skill, alongside with thedevelopment of discoursal based approach and the general moves toward learned-cent red syllabuses, has totally changed the view of writing( N. Holmes 2000-2004) – but, still writing continues to be one of the most difficult areas for studentsand teachers to tackle.
2.Approaches to Writing
Over the years a number of writing approaches have presented to make their placein history by Raimes cited in Ghaith 2002:
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The Controlled-to-Free Approach
in which speech and writing are servedto achieve mastery of grammatical, syntactic forms and mechanics bycopying and transforming paragraphs and sentences; with this approacherrors are avoided and students attempt free composition after they have
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