1 Teaching writing: Issues from a British perspective Clare Furneaux The University of Reading, UK Oficinas de Escrita no Ensino de Línguas, Universidade de Aveiro, Portugal 29 October 2004

2 Why teach writing? 1. to use writing for teaching English? (the language: its grammar and vocabulary)? 2. to teach English for writing? (vs English for speaking – registers and appropriacy)? 3. to teach English writing? (vs writing in the learners mother tongue – cross-cultural issues)? 4. to teach composing (i.e. how to write)?

3 A history of FL writing teaching A focus on product: Grammar translation method: accuracy Controlled-to-free: habit formation Paragraph pattern approach: organisation Grammar – Syntax- Organisation: organisation + grammar Communicative approach: purpose + audience

4 Focus on process purpose + audience + the writers process. A process model (White & Arndt 1991): drafting structuring re-viewingfocusing generating ideas evaluating

5 Focus on the reader English for Academic Purposes: content & audience The genre approach: rhetorical structure

6 Teaching mother tongue English The National Curriculum (revised 2000) Attempting to standardise education and to address…

7 Popular concerns Literacy skills of school leavers: Accuracy (inflnc of txtng? too much emphasis on communication alone?) Style ( /chat appearing in other writing contexts) Poor readers of print (prevalence of hypertext in on-screen reading?)

8 Primary School The National Literacy Framework: word, sentence, text strands for each year group The daily Literacy Hour: 15 mins whole class shared text work 15 mins whole class focused word work 20 mins group & independent work 10 mins whole class review/reflection

9 Secondary School Framework for teaching English Literacy across the Curriculum Word, sentence, text levels defined by year Text level – writing: Year 7 (age 11): Plan, draft and present Write to imagine, explore, entertain Write to inform, explain, describe Write to persuade, argue, advise Write to analyse, review, comment

10 English as a foreign/second/additional language Contexts: Language schools Schools Colleges Universities

11 What writers need to know content knowledge: of subject area concepts context knowledge: of the social context in which the text will be read, including the readers expectations... language system knowledge writing process knowledge Tribble 1996

12 University-level issues Native speakers need help with academic writing & study skills too. Critical thinking skills need to be taught. Plagiarism – from books, articles, websites, other students. Intended and unintended

13 Writing teachers need to remember Students need help: with language with composing to see writing as discourse with a reader to read texts as apprentice writers to become evaluators of their own writing to become independent writers.

14 Websites Department for Education and Skills (DFES) National Literacy Strategy (online) Available from: Department for Education and Skills (DFES) The National Languages Strategy uages_activity.cfm National Association for the Teaching of English National Centre for Languages

15 References Tribble, C Writing. Oxford: OUP. White, R. & Arndt, V Process Writing London: Longman