УДК 372.881.111.1
Зорина Я.И.,
студентка 5 курса,
специальность «Иностранный язык»,
гуманитарного института филиала САФУ
имени М.В. Ломоносова
г. Северодвинска Архангельской области,
Российская Федерация
TEACHING WRITING IN THE THEORY AND METHODOLOGY
OF TEACHING FOREIGN LANGUAGES
Earlier teaching written English was decided as not such a necessary thing as teaching the other aspects of the language for a long time. And E.I. Passov commented that fact as a «strategy failure» [2; p. 15]. This very article is to underline the importance of writing in teaching English.
Before choosing the ways and methods how to teach children to write in English, we need to discuss the similarities and differences between writing and speaking forms of the English language in view of the process the students go through to produce the language.
First of all let us distinguish the time and space of these types of speech work: spoken communication appears in immediate interaction, writing demands time and space. But we can see the product of writing permanent in contrast to the speaking one. However, some kinds of speech are rather similar to written forms. Lectures, articles are spoken works, yet they are often sight-read and they have permanence which spontaneous speaking lacks.
In spoken communication, participants can see each other. They choose words according to the age, social state, personality, gender of each other (even in the case of a telephone talk). Moreover, they can change the topic, vocabulary, etc. and modify their speech on the basis of the verbal or non-verbal reaction during the communication.
In final productions of these types of speech work, the border is much more obvious. In speaking, there is a lag between its production and reception. A speaker can use a great amount of hesitation pauses to modify his or her speech. In writing a student has much more opportunities to plan and correct. Nevertheless not all writing products are like that. It can be seen in post-cards and in chats of social-nets, where planning and drafting is not so frequently used. On the other hand, careful speakers plan their speech properly before they start to speak. Thus, the process of writing is more complex than the process of speaking, but, as it was said, not always.
Let us view possible tasks for teaching speaking. First of all, speaking includes lexical, phonetic and grammatical levels of speech. From point of view of phonetics, it is important to pay great attention to English articulation and correct pronunciation. Thus, they can teach with the help of such tasks as: pronounce the communicative sentence in a low speed, then in a high one; Name the vowels in their oppositions: opened/ closed; labial/ non-labial; Spell the word. Name the items on the picture, being attentive with the pronunciation of the definite sound.
In the case of lexical level, the tasks are connected with vocabulary and word-formation. For example to introduce the students new lexical material it is possible to use the following exercises: Make up a plan of listened text, connect the new word with the textual context.
Grammatical material is presented with different tenses, voices, articles, etc. The tasks can be worded as: fill in the prepositions where it is necessary; put the verb into the right form.
Moreover there is a great importance of perception (listening) in teaching grammar, and such exercise as guess the definition of the word-combinations through the listening can be used.[1; p. 34]
Thus, the teaching tasks in speaking may be based on writing or listening.
All types of speech work are preserved by three levels: introduction (either in speech or in text), practice (imitations) and usage (in monologues, dialogues).
The teaching writing can include the tasks on speaking; speaking and writing; writing. The examples of the first ones are: define the possible addressee, plan the reason of the message; think over the possible form of gratitude. The exercises connected with speaking and writing are: title the passages of the text; make up thesis to the each part of the text; make up a retelling of the text in writing. The third type of the tasks is: in the analogy to the text make up your own article; make up a report to the topic of the text [5].
In the case of communicative approach, these tasks can be preserved in pairs. For example: discuss the possible plan and consequence of ideas in the text; comment on the topic of the order of sentences of your neighbor work.
Therefore, we can say that teaching writing and speaking are interchangeable. Despite the fact that the differences between these forms are often very noticeable, there are also occasions when speaking and writing look very similar, and are trained in much the same way. Thus, we can teach writing through speaking and speaking through writing. [4; p. 122 ]
Jeremy Harmer considers that the whole process of writing consists of three parts: planning, drafting, editing (reflecting and revising) and then the final version is preserved. Consequently, to each part you need special didactical devices. He decides that product approaches expected the student to analyze texts in terms of how the text is constructed and what language is used in it.
The parts of teaching writing are look like strategies. Before making student write we are to encourage them to think over what they are going to write- content and sequence of the possible text. Thus, this level is so-called: planning. One of the devices, that could be used there is brainstorming ( in this case students work in pairs and groups and get as many ideas as they can through discussion) and guided tasks (where the teacher or the textbook preserves a raw of activities which lead students to plan). Moreover, one of the important feature is as following: in the process of planning students are encouraged to overthink not just the matter of what they would like to say, but also what the reason of their writing is and for what audience they are writing for.
How can we make them draft, reflect and revise? Students who are not used to writing will need to be encouraged to reflect on the contents of written text, understanding of how to work with drafts not as final vision but as for it is a first step. One way of encouraging this is to get students involved in collaborative writing. It is preserved in following way: a pair of students work together on a product of writing. They respond to each other’ ideas (about used language and content), make prompts to changes. Thus they contribute to the successful final version [3; p. 11-12].
Process writing is a way of analyzing what people do when the make written text. As we can see it may involve many changes of direction while the author chops and differences btw these levels of process. There are some disadvantages also. Such as over-planning takes too much time, thus you are to decide, what students are able to do, what text to analyze and to write in the period of 45 minutes. And, as we can see, writing process trains not only writing, but also speaking and reading and phonological abilities (while listening). Thus the writing process is like a conclusion of the others training.
Список использованной литературы
1. Маслыко Е.А., Бабинская П.К. Настольная книга преподавателя иностранного языка: справ. Пособие/Е.А.Маслыко, П.К.Бабинская, А.Ф.Будько, С.И. Петрова. – 5-е издание., стереотип. – Мн.: Высш.шк., 1999. – 522 с.
2. Пассов Е.И. Беседы об уроке иностранного языка. – СПб, 1991.
3. Harmer J. How to teach writing/ J. Harmer. – Edinburgh: Pearson Education Limited, 2004. – 170 p.
4. Larsen-Freeman D. Techniques and principles in Language Teaching. – Oxford University Press, 2000. – 190 p.
5. Teaching writing [Электронный ресурс]. URL: http://nadabs.tripod.com/writing/: (дата обращения: 10.11.2013)
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