Topic 6: Referring to the literature as well as (if applicable) to your own

experience as a language teacher and/or learner, discuss the key principles that
you feel are important for developing writing skills. Explain how these key
principles could be applied in your classroom.

There is no doubt that, with some L2 learners, writing can be seen as the most difficult
skill to master. Teachers in the 1970s did not see writing as a language skill to be
taught to learners. At this time, teaching L2 program focused on grammar course, so
students just copied some sentences. This means that these actions serve on grammar
exercise. Ur (2012) stated that “writing is used in language teaching as a vehicle for
language practice and testing, rather than for the sake of the writing skill itself” (p.3).
In the early 1980s, although teachers became aware of the important of writing, they
let students follow guided writing. These exercises were limited in structuring
sentence or answering question. Nevertheless in recent years, the teaching of writing
was paid more attention. It can be said that “the recognition of the importance of L2
writing in school setting internationally has been demonstrated” (Nunan,D.
&Carter,R., 2001, p.29).

There are two kinds of writing, including writing in real life and in the classroom. On
one hand, the aim of writing in everyday life is for communication. What they do
write is quite short brief notes, postcards or diary entries… or we can say that people
tend to write quickly by using abbreviation form. In addition, before writing, people
commonly have ideas and then might be following these steps: planning, drafting and
rewriting. On the other hand, in ELT classroom, writing is often seen as a means to
improve learner’s language. Teachers usually give a topic for students with some
requirements and time limited. Scrivener, J. (2011) stated that “much writing work in
the classroom falls on a continuum of how much restriction, help and control is
offered, from copying to unguided writing” (p.235).

What teachers should do before learning writing is that making students understand
the important of writing in their own life. For example, if you are college students,

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you will be required to write a variety of essays through your collegiate career. In
addition, scholarships are often rewarded based on the writing ability of applicants.
For these reasons, any student who wants to further his/her career in academia needs
to know how to write well. In working place, most of the jobs require some form of
writing. For example, doctors and nurses write medical reports on patients;
businessman writes emails or other forms of written communication for customers and
co-workers. Therefore, if people want to enhance their writing skills, they should
follow some key principles whether they are writing in the classroom or in the real
life.

To enhance writing skills, there are some principles that we need to take care. First of
all, practice should be considered. The ability of writing belongs to each person. Some
are born with a gift for words, which give them an advantage, while some are not. But
no matter how talented students are, every writer can improve through practice.
Practice makes perfect. Wasko, B. (2013) state that “it’s just common sense: the more
practice you get putting words on a page, the greater facility you will develop”. If
learner still gets poor mark in writing, it means that he/she has not written enough.
Therefore, teacher as an instructor should explain why student need to practice.
Thanks to practice writing every day, learners know how to express their own thought
and feelings that will improve their communication skills. Additionally, a brief writing
assignment at the end of class is a great way for students to review and remember
recently learned material. So, to improve writing skill, I think that writing every day is
a good way. If students cannot, teacher should ask them to submit one to three draft of
a paper per week. Beside, at the first time, students should have an opportunity to
choose their favorite topic so that they will have less pressure and enjoy writing more.

Another principle is response. To get the most out of writing experiment, students
need helpful feedbacks from someone who know writing. If a student writes every day
without seeing any responses, he/she will tend to reinforce bad habits. But by seeking
feedback from others, especially from his/her teacher, he/she is taking positive,
constructive steps to improve his/her own writing. For example, as a teacher, if you
want to teach a child to play piano, you cannot just put him in his room with the
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instrument and tell him to practice until it sound well. He needs a teacher who has
skills. Someone will watch and listen, correct, encourage, and instruct him by
responding weekly to his work. Writing is the same, too. The Writing Center of
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (2004) found that to get the feedback from
their own writing, students can get it from their classmate who know the course
materials and can help you to understand the content of it or their TA/professor who is
an expert reader that can give you more information and may be your best guide in
developing into a strong academic writer. Beside, some students avoid asking for
feedback because they worry that the feedback will be negative. Harmer, J. (2007)
stated that when teachers give feedback, they should respond positively and
encouragingly to the content of what the students have written.

Last but not least, process is another key principle to improve writing skills. Everyone
knows that it takes time to write well because the first draft is just a beginning.
Rothbauer-Wanish, H. (2012) said that the writing should have three processes. The
first one is pre-writing or research stage. Learner is making notes and sketching out
his/her information. The next step is the actual writing stage which can be seen as a
shortest stage. Learner writes the information and gets it in ‘written’. The last stage is
revising and proofreading which take the most of time. Students should read and
revise more times before done it. The tip here is that learners should spend more time
on the first and the last stage. Richards, J.C. & Renandya, W.A. (2002) found that
there are four main stages for students - planning, drafting, revising and editing - and
three stages for teacher, namely, responding, evaluating and post-writing in the
writing process. Beside student’s responsibility, teacher also plays an important role
to help student better. As I remember, when I studied in high school, I got a small
assignment. I had gotten it back after some days with a lower mark and a lot of red ink
in the margins. Like most students, I just saw the mark and threw it in somewhere
without seeing any comments. I knew that if the teacher does not respond to the
comments directly then those comments does nothing more than remind me of failure.
Teacher’s responsibility not only guides students how to write but also gives them

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feedback including explaining typical mistakes, suggesting some solutions and finally
giving some modal essays.

As a teacher, when I teach writing, I have to focus on variety of things. My first class
stays on pre-intermediate level, but they are not good at writing. Therefore, I have to
teach them from the beginning, starting with writing a paragraph. In class, I teach
them how to write a paragraph and some notes that need to take care. Then, I give
them a free topic in the first stage because students might be more confident to write
what they know. This action can be seen as another change for students to review and
practice more. Besides, I think instead of giving them topic for every day, three topics
per week will be better. It is just because students need time to digest what they had
learned and see what they wrong. Checking their homework for the next class is
necessary. I have to find out some typical mistakes before making comment, express
the errors, and suggest some solutions. Then, I let them correct one more time based
on some of my solutions and sent it back to me again. I will see it one more time
whether they correct the mistakes well or not. If not, I will let them write again. A
topic is normally completed in three drafts. That means students get two opportunities to
make changes to their work using the comments. Each topic, when I give it back to

them, I will add some modal essays of other students so that they can get more ideas
and know how to write better.

References:

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Ur, P. (2012). A Course in English Language Teaching (2nd ed.): Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
Carter, R. & Nunan, D. (Eds.). (2001). The Cambridge guide to teaching English to
speakers of other languages. Cambridge: CUP.
Wasko, B. (2013). How to teach writing: 3 key principles. Retrieved data from
Source: http://blog.writeathome.com/index.php/2013/05/how-to-teach-writing-3-key-
principles/
Scrivener, J. (2011). Learning Teaching: The Essential Guide to English Language
Teaching (3rd ed.): MacMillan.
Harmer, J. (2007). The practice of English language teaching. (4th ed.). Harlow:
Longman.
The Writing Center of University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (2004). Getting
Feedback. Retrieved data from Source:http://writingcenter.unc.edu/handouts/getting-
feedback/
Richards, J.C. & Renandya, W.A. (Eds.). (2002). Methodology in Language
Teaching. Cambridge: CUP.

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