Summary. Chapter 14.

Practical Tasks for Mastering the

Mechanics of Writing and Going Just Beyond

The present chapter is based on the abilities and the capacity that learners must develop in
writing since the first very moment they start to learn a particular language, English in this
case. Writing drills must be indicated for learners in their early stage of acquisition. In
doing so, teachers help students to recognize important features within the language and
develop some skills, as of the comprehension (reading and listening) and production
(speaking and writing). Furthermore, through writing, teachers initiate a process that will
help learners to accustom to developing an appropriate orthography.
The medium to communicate our thoughts through writing is the text, which is loaded with
our intentions, so we must consider that our production must be clear, accurate, with no
spelling error, and with no faulty punctuation. It means we must give the chance to the
readers to clearly perceive those underlying ideas or intentions. However, if we want to
accomplish scripts with these qualities, we must write as much as possible to develop the
mechanics of writing.
Writing System and Early Writing in a New Language (English)
EFL learners usually acquire the mechanics of writing in English as an extension of their
abilities to read and write in their first language. Students coming from countries where the
writing system is based on meaning, such as the Chinese (the graphic signs is a unit of
meaning in the real world and the direction of writing can be up and down, that of different
from English) the process is much more slow than those students accustomed to using a
linear system of writing such as those coming from western Europe and Latin America.
The Mechanics of reading and writing
When using the term mechanics of writing we refer to the very early stage of letter
recognition, letter discrimination, sound-to-letter correspondence word recognition, and
basic rules of spelling. After the early stage, we center on expanding the spelling rules,
focus on punctuation and capitalization, and cover the comprehension and production of
sentences and short paragraphs. In the early stage, to learn to discriminate one letter from
another while reading, learners need to practice writing these letters, to facilitate their
perception of words and sentences during the reading process.
Sound-spelling correspondences
It is a difficult process for beginning English learners by means of which a sound or several
sounds (allophones) correspond to a letter or grapheme. Consequently, it is only achieved
via intensive practices.Learners have to dedicate a lot of time to the process of acquiring
and learning the rules of pronunciation (although there are consistent and predictable
(regularities) rules on how to pronounce consonants and vowels, there are many exceptions
to memorize (irregularities).
Classroom application
Before asking students to solve problems related to the mechanics of writing and reading,
as teacher we need to consider the aims of them. Let us see:
They allow enhancing letter recognition in the early learning stage, especially when
learners come from a different writing system. Through practice we learn how to give the
correspondent sound to graphemes (letters).
With this clearly in mind, the next steps are a series of classroom’s activities, such as:
matching tasks, writing tasks, sound-spelling correspondences tasks. Every one of these
tasks has a specific objective.

Reaction
According to the author, I can argue that writing is a useful strategy for learners to develop
the ability and capacity to recognize and get familiar with new word in English as foreign
language and other any language,
I agreed that makings exercise of writing should be indicated to beginners in the
acquisition of a second language. This writing exercise help students to recognize important
characteristic in the language and hep learners to develop some skill as such comprehension
and production. In order to get an appropriate orthography, teachers have to encourage to
write what the read and listen.
According to Elite Olshtain, those who are skillful writers have a special status. Because it
is through writing we can convey hundreds of knowledges and messages for known and
unknown people and that makes us sophisticate and respectful people,
The text is way to communicate our thoughts through writing, so we have to consider that
our production has to be clear, accurate, with no spelling error, and punctuation. So, the
reader has to understand our main ideas and intention clearly. As writers if we want to
accomplish these qualities, we need to write as much as possible in order to develop the
mechanics of writing.
When we talk about the term mechanic of writing we mean to the early stage of letter
recognition, letter discrimination, sound – to letter correspondence word recognition and
basic rule of spelling. Once learners have mastered basic writing, we need to help learners
to expand the spelling rules and focus on punctuation and capitalization and cover the
comprehension and production of sentences and short paragraphs. When learners make
mistake writing or it is difficult to write a letter correctly, it means leaners need to practice
writing these letters over and over to facilitate their perception of word and sentences
during the reading process