ENG515 — Final Term Summary (Lectures 23–32)

📘 Lecture 23 — Assessing Reading II

📖 Overview: This lecture explores various methods for assessing reading skills, focusing on practical diagnostic tools like reading aloud, vocabulary tests, and grammatical knowledge assessments. It also examines comprehensive proficiency tests, particularly the cloze test, and discusses key issues in constructing and using reading comprehension tests effectively.

🗂️ Topics Covered

The lecture covers reading aloud as a diagnostic tool for word recognition and the importance of checking eyesight. It then details vocabulary tests including the Bilingual Levels Test and True/False Vocabulary Test, followed by tests of grammatical knowledge using translation and sentence completion. The major section on measuring reading proficiency explains cloze tests in detail, including scoring methods and interpretation. Finally, the lecture addresses five critical issues in making and using reading comprehension tests: number of texts, time limits, looking back at text, dictionary use, and first language use.

📝 Lecture Summary

Topic-127: Reading Aloud

Reading aloud can be used to check the learner's skill at word recognition. As a very cautious first step, it is worth observing carefully to see if the learner's eyesight is good. This could be done by getting them to look at a picture and then asking them questions about it. Quite a large proportion of males are color-blind to some degree, but that should not affect reading. If the learner seems to have eyesight problems, it is worth getting their eyesight tested by a specialist.

Reading aloud should begin with a very easy short text. If the learner has problems in reading aloud very early in the text, it may be worthwhile pausing and talking about the context of the story with the learner, discussing some of the ideas that will occur in the text and predicting what might happen in the story. It is probably not worth keeping a running record of errors for the first text, but if it becomes clear that word recognition is a major problem, then keeping such a record would be useful. If the learner has some problems with word recognition, these could be checked against the correspondences in Appendix 1 to see if they are irregular items or if there is some pattern to the errors.

A difficulty with reading aloud for second language learners is that their skill in reading may be greater than their skill in speaking, and so their spoken production may be a poor representation of their reading. Talking to the learner before the reading begins is one way of checking this.

Topic-128: Vocabulary Tests

Learners may have difficulty reading because they do not know enough vocabulary. Note that word recognition during reading aloud is affected by vocabulary knowledge, and so very easy texts need to be used at first when testing reading aloud. Similarly, if the vocabulary test is a written test which requires the learners to read the test items, then the measure of vocabulary knowledge will be affected by word recognition skills. Learners may have a large spoken vocabulary but be unable to read the words they know.

The Bilingual Levels Tests: These are tests of the first and second 1,000 words of West's (1953) General Service List. The test is available in many languages including Japanese, Indonesian, Thai, Korean, Chinese, Tagalog, Samoan, Tongan, Russian, and Vietnamese.

🔑 Definition — [Bilingual Levels Test]: A vocabulary test that uses the learner's first language to represent the meanings of words, with each of the two levels having 30 items.

📌 Example: An Indonesian version item shows a list where words like "could," "during," "this," "piece," "of," and "in order to" are paired with their Indonesian meanings (e.g., "dapat, bisa" for "could," "selama" for "during"). The test is easily marked with a marking key, and each level has 30 items for good reliability. The validity is strengthened for low proficiency learners by using the first language instead of complex English definitions.

A major concern is that words are tested out of context, causing problems for words with multiple meanings, such as seal (to close tightly or the marine mammal) or bear (to carry or to put up with). The teacher should sit next to the learner to ensure they take it seriously, follow a sensible strategy, know how to handle the unusual format, and are not experiencing reading problems. 💡 Why this matters: A whole class once got low marks because they did not take the test seriously, and the teacher then set up a programme to teach vocabulary they already knew.

The True/False Vocabulary Test: This is a 40-item test of the first 1,000 words of West's General Service List, available in two versions. The test can be given in written or oral form.

📌 Example: The test includes statements like "When something falls, it goes up" (false), "Most children go to school at night" (false), and "It is easy for children to remain still" (false). Learners must understand the sentence and apply it to their knowledge of the world to decide if it is true or false. As there are factors other than vocabulary knowledge involved, this affects the validity of the test, depending on whether you want to test words alone or words in use.

Topic-129: Tests of Grammatical Knowledge

If the teacher speaks the first language of the learners, the most straightforward test of grammatical knowledge is to get the learners to translate sentences from reading texts, starting with a very simple text. A validity issue with this is that such translation may encourage word-by-word reading and result in mistranslation. This can be discouraged by asking the learner to read the whole sentence first before beginning the translation.

📌 Example: An example of mistranslation is "He made the theory useful" being translated as "He made the theory which was useful."

If the teacher does not speak the learners' first language, sentence completion tests could be used. Examples include "I was very surprised by ____________," "It made me ____________," and "I ____________ waiting for at least an hour." Grammar tests, both translation and completion, involve word recognition skills and vocabulary knowledge as well as grammatical knowledge. It is thus important that the learners' word recognition skills and vocabulary knowledge are tested before grammar knowledge is tested.

Topic-130: Measuring Reading Proficiency

A proficiency test tries to measure a learner's skill not in relation to what has been taught on a particular course but in relation to a wider standard. Tests like the TOEFL test and IELTS test are proficiency measures. New Zealand has reading proficiency tests for school-age native speakers of English in the Progressive Achievement Tests (PAT) series. Typically such tests use multiple-choice questions with several texts.

Cloze Tests: Every fifth word has been taken out of a reading passage that the learners have never seen before. The learners must fill in the missing words by guessing, looking at the words before and after the empty space. The test measures how close the reader's thought is to the writer's thought.

🔑 Definition — [Cloze Test]: A test where words are regularly deleted from a passage (e.g., every fifth word) and learners must fill in the missing words, measuring reading comprehension through prediction.

📐 Formula: Cloze score interpretation:

• Above 53% → Multiple-choice score 90% → Good for reading alone (independent level)
• 44%–53% → Multiple-choice score 75% → Good for learning (instructional level)
• Below 44% → Below 75% → Too difficult (frustration level)

📌 Example: A typical cloze test has 40–50 empty spaces, with the first sentence having no words removed. Words must be taken out regularly (every fifth, sixth, or seventh word). A line is drawn to show each missing word. There are two marking methods: acceptable alternative (any sensible answer) and exact replacement (only the exact word left out). Exact replacement is easiest for the teacher and gives the same rank ordering of learners. According to Anderson (1971), a good score on the cloze test is 53% or above. In exact replacement marking, learners are not expected to get every item correct.

When marking, misspellings do not lose marks, but words must be grammatically correct (correct part of speech, tense, and singular/plural). A cloze test can be marked quickly using a test paper with holes that fits over the test paper, with the correct answer written above each hole. If every fifth word is deleted, two templates need to be used. Just under 50% of the words in a fixed deletion cloze test are likely to be function words. Studies show that less than 10% of a cloze test score is dependent on reading across sentence boundaries (Rye, 1985). The cloze test was originally designed to measure the readability of texts (Taylor, 1953).

Brown (1980) tested four ways of scoring: exact replacement, acceptable alternative, clozentropy, and multiple-choice. All had high validity and reliability. Considering all criteria, acceptable alternative was the best, closely followed by exact replacement.

Selective Cloze: A cloze test can be made by leaving out any word the teacher wants to, instead of every fifth word. This test is more difficult if the empty spaces are not shown.

📌 Example: "The easiest way is always the best way. Often because is difficult to do, we value much more . . ." One word is missing from each line, and learners must find the place and write the missing word (George, 1972). Another example: "Two old men lived near small town. They were friends they were small children. But one man bought a car, his friend bought one too. He was not if his friend was better him."

Topic-131: Issues in Making and Using Reading Comprehension Tests

There are several critical issues in the construction and use of reading comprehension tests.

Should the Test Consist of One Text or Several Shorter Texts? A major reason for using several texts is to reduce the effects of background knowledge. If a learner knows a lot about the topic, they are more likely to do better. Using several texts on different topics reduces this likely effect because any one learner is unlikely to have good background knowledge of all texts. A second reason is to make the test more representative of different genres that learners will read. A third reason is so there can be several questions focusing on the same kind of information (e.g., finding the main idea).

Should the Time Allowed to Sit a Reading Comprehension Test be Limited? Tests cannot go on forever, but in general, if the aim is to measure skill, it is best if learners have plenty of time. A distinction is made between a power test (largely unrestricted time) and a speed test. A power test where many learners do not have enough time to answer every question is not meaningful.

Should Learners be Allowed to Look Back at the Text when they Answer the Questions? If not allowed, the test involves a strong element of skill in remembering. A poor score could result from poor comprehension, poor memory, or both. If a teacher wants to include this skill, there should not be too many questions on each text (probably no more than four or five), and questions should focus on main ideas and main points rather than very detailed parts.

Should Learners be Allowed to Use Dictionaries? Studies show vocabulary knowledge is the major component in reading comprehension. As a general rule, dictionary use should not be allowed. Passages appropriate to the learner's level should be used. However, if the aim is to find out how well learners can read a particular type of difficult text with assistance, dictionaries could be allowed. Studies show dictionary use takes a lot of time away from reading and considering questions.

Should the Questions be in the First Language and should the Learners be Allowed to Answer in the First Language? The idea behind using the first language is that this more directly measures comprehension. When learners read second language questions and write answers in the second language, comprehension of questions and second language writing skill play a part. A poor answer could result from poor reading comprehension, poor question comprehension, poor writing skill, or any combination. If learners feel comfortable with first language questions, they could be worth using.

When Marking Comprehension Questions Requiring Written Answers, should Learners be Penalised for Poor Spelling, Poor Punctuation, and Poor Grammar? Reading comprehension tests are supposed to measure reading comprehension. Other skills, particularly writing skill, should not interfere. If they do, the validity of the test is affected. Learners should not be penalized for poor written production as long as what they write can be understood.

⭐ Key Takeaways

The most critical points from this lecture are the nature and interpretation of cloze tests, including the scoring methods (exact replacement and acceptable alternative) and the levels for independent, instructional, and frustration reading. The five issues in making reading comprehension tests must be understood for test construction: number of texts, time limits, looking back, dictionary use, and L1 use. Additionally, the various diagnostic tools including reading aloud, bilingual vocabulary tests, true/false tests, and grammatical knowledge tests each serve specific purposes and have unique validity concerns. The relationship between word recognition, vocabulary knowledge, and grammatical knowledge is crucial—they must be tested in the correct sequence. Finally, proficiency tests like TOEFL and IELTS differ fundamentally from achievement tests in that they measure against a wider standard rather than specific course content.

🧠 Quick Revision Questions

1. What are the two marking methods for cloze tests, and which one is considered best according to Brown (1980)?
2. What do cloze scores of above 53%, 44%–53%, and below 44% indicate about the difficulty of a passage for a learner?
3. Why is it important to use several shorter texts rather than one long text in a reading comprehension test?
4. What are the three key issues that affect the validity of translation tests for grammatical knowledge?
5. Why should the teacher sit next to the learner during a bilingual levels test, and what problem did this prevent in one classroom?

📘 Lecture 24 — Teaching Writing I

📖 Overview: This lecture introduces the teaching of writing, addressing the common difficulties students face and the complex skills required. It presents key principles for designing writing instruction and outlines a framework of task types—experience, shared, guided, and independent—to help teachers bridge the gap between learners' current abilities and task demands.

🗂️ Topics Covered

The lecture covers an introduction to the challenges and nature of teaching writing, followed by detailed principles for writing instruction organized under meaning-focused input, meaning-focused output, language-focused learning, and fluency development. It then explains how to design writing tasks by categorizing them into four types: experience tasks, shared tasks, guided tasks, and independent tasks. The latter part focuses specifically on experience tasks, including methods to bring tasks within learners' experience and ensure learners have the necessary background knowledge through visits, discussion, and pre-teaching.

📝 Lecture Summary

Topic-132: Introduction to Teaching Writing

Many students struggling with literacy have avoided writing due to negative school experiences. They feel unable to express themselves clearly and are often embarrassed about their handwriting or spelling, fearing they will appear foolish. Some avoid employment, promotion, or further education because writing is involved.

Writing is a complex process requiring a different range of skills from reading. In addition to visual recognition (important in reading), writing demands recall and reproduction. The process ranges from pen and paper to emails, online bookings, and text messages. Students find writing daunting because it requires coordinating many elements: clarifying purpose, planning and sequencing thoughts, and managing technical aspects like handwriting, word processing, spelling, structure, layout, and IT.

💡 Why this matters: Writing should always arise from the student's needs and interests. While early stages are often functional (letters, forms, notes), encouraging expressive or imaginative writing can radically change a student's relationship with the written word. Seeing their own words in print develops a sense of mastery and ownership. Publishing student collections provides ideas, encouragement, and inspiration.

Topic-133: Principles for Teaching Writing

These principles evaluate teaching activities and writing courses to ensure learners get a good range of learning opportunities. Principles are ranked with the most important first within each strand.

Meaning-focused Input

• Learners should bring experience and knowledge to their writing. Writing is most successful when learners are well prepared through topic choice or previous work on the topic.

Meaning-focused Output

• Learners should do lots of writing and lots of different kinds of writing. Time spent writing provides useful practice for elements peculiar to writing. Different genres use different conventions and language features.
• Learners should write with a message-focused purpose. Most writing should aim to communicate a message, and the writer should have a reader in mind.
• Writing should interest learners and draw on their interests.
• Learners should experience a feeling of success in most of their writing.
• Learners should use writing to increase their language knowledge.
• Learners should develop skill in using computers to increase the quality and speed of their writing. Computers provide useful ways of providing feedback, especially when work is submitted as a computer file.
• Writing instruction should be based on a careful needs analysis considering what learners need to do, what they can do now, and what they want to do.

Language-focused Learning

• Learners should know about the parts of the writing process and discuss them in relation to their own and others' writing.
• Learners should have conscious strategies for dealing with parts of the writing process.
• Where the L1 uses a different script or learners are not literate in their L1, attention should be given to clarity and fluency in producing the written script (e.g., careful writing, copying models, repetitive movements).
• Spelling should be given deliberate attention, largely separated from feedback on writing.
• Teachers should provide and arrange for feedback that encourages and improves writing.
• Learners should be aware of ethical issues involved in writing.

Fluency Development

• Learners should increase their writing speed so they can write simple material at a reasonable speed. Fluency develops through repetitive activities and working with easy, familiar material.

Topic-134: Designing Tasks

A teacher helping learners improve writing will use tasks that take them beyond their present level. To ensure success, she provides help in several ways:

🔑 Definition — Four Task Types: The four kinds of writing tasks are experience tasks, shared tasks, guided tasks, and independent tasks.

• Experience tasks: Choosing a familiar topic (e.g., a recent event), getting learners to talk about it so ideas, organization, and language are clear, then asking them to write. Learners concentrate only on turning ideas into written form.
• Shared tasks: Learners work in groups of three or four to plan and produce one piece of writing. By helping each other, they produce better writing than any individual could alone.
• Guided tasks: The teacher finds or makes a guided composition exercise, such as a series of pictures with questions and useful language items.
• Independent tasks: The teacher chooses a topic and lets learners work independently, asking for help only if needed.

💡 Why this matters: These tasks deal with the gap between learners' present knowledge and task demands. Experience tasks narrow the gap by using previous experience. Shared tasks get learners to help each other cross the gap. Guided tasks bridge the gap with exercises and focused guidance. Independent tasks leave learners to rely on their own resources.

Experience Tasks Making a task easier involves ensuring learners are familiar with as many parts of it as possible. This has three effects: (1) learners are not overloaded thinking about several things at once; (2) learners can concentrate on the part they need to learn; (3) learners perform a normal language activity with a high chance of success.

Topic-135: Bringing Tasks within the Learners' Experience

A common example of an experience task is using graded readers. Learners with a vocabulary of 300 words can read Stage 1 graded readers because they use familiar vocabulary, sentence patterns, and simple stories. The task is made easier because the writer brought many parts within the learners' experience.

Another method used in New Zealand primary schools involves the teacher sitting with a learner who has drawn a picture. The learner tells the story, and the teacher writes it down in the learner's words. This becomes the learner's reading text. It is easy to read because the language, ideas, and sequence are all within the learner's experience. The unfamiliar part—and learning goal—is decoding the written words.

📌 Example: Learners are given a task involving reading and a problem-solving activity to write up. After reading, they discuss the reading and activity in their first language groups. When they understand what needs to be done, they individually do the activity and write it up in English. The L1 discussion ensures they truly understand the knowledge and nature of the task.

Topic-136: Making Sure Learners Have the Experience to Do a Task

If learners lack experience, the task can be changed to fit their experience, or learners can be provided with the necessary experience.

A common way is a visit or field trip. For example, a teacher takes the class to a fire station. They find out as much as possible, perhaps answering questions. After the visit, the writing task is easier because learners have experienced the ideas, used/heard the needed language, and can choose how to organize the writing. Their only difficulty is putting ideas into written form—the learning goal.

Learners may already have relevant experience but are unaware of it or it is unorganized. Discussing and sharing experience can prepare them for tasks.

A more formal method is pre-teaching. Before reading a text, the teacher teaches needed vocabulary, gives practice finding the main idea, or has learners study ideas that will occur in the text.

Table 7.1 shows three main ways to ensure learners have needed experience:

1. Make the task familiar by using existing knowledge.
2. Provide experience through visits, discussion, or pre-teaching.
3. Use experience tasks where learners already have much of the needed knowledge.

Experience Tasks for Writing:

• Draw and write: Learners draw a picture about something that happened or was imagined, then write about it. The picture recalls past experience and acts as a memory cue.
• Linked skills tasks: Common fluency tasks where writing is the final activity after speaking, listening, and reading about the topic. Learners have extensive content and language experience to draw on.
• Partial writing: Working together, learners list useful words needed for the following writing task.
• Ten perfect sentences: The teacher shows a picture or suggests an easy subject (e.g., my family, cars). Learners write ten separate sentences about it, receiving one mark for each correct sentence.
• Issue log: Each learner chooses a topic to research and update weekly. At intervals, they give talks and prepare written reports.
• Setting your own questions: Each student produces the question they want to write about. It is translated into good English and made into an examination question, which students answer under exam conditions.

⭐ Key Takeaways

For the exam, you must remember that writing is a complex process requiring recall and reproduction of multiple elements, and instruction must be based on the principles of meaning-focused input/output, language-focused learning, and fluency development. The four task types—experience, shared, guided, and independent—are defined by how they bridge the gap between learners' current knowledge and task demands. Experience tasks are particularly important: they narrow the gap by ensuring familiarity through topic choice, discussion, or prior activities like visits and pre-teaching. Finally, specific experience task activities (draw and write, linked skills, partial writing, ten perfect sentences, issue log, and setting your own questions) illustrate how to implement these principles in practice.

🧠 Quick Revision Questions

1. List the four strands of principles for teaching writing and state the most important principle within each strand.
2. Explain the difference between an experience task and a guided task in terms of how each deals with the "gap" between learners' knowledge and task demands.
3. What are the three effects of making a writing task easier by ensuring learners are familiar with its parts?
4. Describe the three main ways to ensure learners have the experience needed to do a writing task, as summarized in Table 7.1.
5. Give two specific examples of experience tasks for writing and explain how each one provides learners with the necessary experience.

📘 Lecture 25 — Teaching Writing II

📖 Overview: This lecture explores the spectrum of writing tasks educators can use to support second language learners, ranging from heavily collaborative shared tasks to fully independent writing. It explains how teachers can scaffold learning by carefully choosing between experience, shared, guided, and independent tasks to bridge the gap between learners' current abilities and task demands, ultimately helping students gain mastery over language, ideas, and discourse types.

🗂️ Topics Covered

The lecture begins by detailing shared writing tasks, including group composition, dicto-comp/dicto-gloss, blackboard composition, and writing with a secretary. It then transitions to guided tasks, explaining the effects of support and detailing specific techniques like identification, understanding explanations, answering questions, correction, completion, ordering, substitution, and transformation. Finally, it covers independent tasks and concludes with a practical framework for selecting among the four kinds of tasks for teaching writing.

📝 Lecture Summary

Topic-137: Shared Tasks

A shared task is one that is too difficult for an individual to do alone but can be done successfully by a pair or group. A classic example is group composition, where learners produce writing superior to what any one could do alone. This works because learners have different knowledge of the language and can prompt each other to access items they know but struggle to retrieve. In mixed-proficiency groups, more personalized teaching can occur. Shared tasks require little teacher preparation, reduce supervision and marking load, and encourage learners to see each other as a learning resource.

A reproduction exercise (also called a dicto-comp) has learners read or listen to a story several times, then retell it in writing without looking at the original. The teacher can instruct them to write it similarly to the original or to add extra details. This exercise bridges dictation and composition. The teacher reads a story to the class, and learners must write it from memory. Because they cannot remember every word, they must compose parts themselves, gaining practice in composition. Marking is easy.

📌 Example: Three ways to increase difficulty for dicto-comp:

1. Teacher reads a short passage several times.
2. Teacher reads a long passage once or twice; learners can take notes.
3. Learners listen once and must try to copy the original style.

If this activity is done as group work with note-taking during two listening sessions, it is called a dicto-gloss.

For a blackboard composition, the whole class works together. The teacher or learners suggest a subject and plan. Learners raise their hands to suggest sentences, which are written on the board if correct or corrected by the class. Once finished, learners read the composition, it is erased, and they rewrite it from memory (often as homework). The teacher only prepares a subject, and marking is easy since learners make few mistakes when rewriting.

🔑 Definition — Blackboard Composition: A collaborative writing activity where the whole class builds a composition sentence-by-sentence on the blackboard, corrects it collectively, then rewrites it from memory.

For group-class composition, learners are divided into groups. The teacher gives a subject, groups discuss and list main ideas, then the class compiles a master list on the board. After discussion, groups write a composition together. Each member makes a copy, but only one is handed in for marking. Learners correct their copies using the marked one, ideally discussing corrections in their groups.

In group composition, pairs or groups write one composition together, suggesting and correcting sentences. When finished, each learner makes a copy, but only one is submitted for marking. Learners correct their own copies from the marked one. The teacher only suggests a subject, and marking is easy because learners correct most mistakes themselves beforehand.

When writing with a secretary, learners work in pairs. One member takes primary responsibility for the content, and the other produces the written form.

Topic-138: Guided Tasks

Guided tasks narrow the task by carefully supporting the learner. For example, guided composition exercises like picture composition provide the ideas, vocabulary, structures, and organization. The learner's job is only to compose the sentences. This support has three effects:

1. The task is narrowed — learners only do part of the work. This is good if that part is a useful learning focus, but bad if it bears little relation to the normal task.
2. It allows grading and sequencing — guidance is built into the activity, so it doesn't have to come from the teacher. Most course books contain many guided tasks for this reason.
3. A high degree of success is expected — errors in guided tasks are seen as a failure of sufficient guidance.

Several types of guided tasks exist:

Identification: Learners repeat, translate, or change an item's form to show understanding. Techniques include dictation, copying, writing from information transfer diagrams, and translation. With look and write, the teacher performs an action or shows a picture, and learners write a sentence describing what they see. For picture composition, a picture has questions underneath; learners answer the questions to write a composition. The delayed copying technique helps learners become fluent in forming letters and words by looking at a phrase, trying to remember it, looking away, and then writing it. They should break the work into the longest phrases they can manage. Copying letter-by-letter or word-by-word has little value.

Understanding Explanations: Learners follow and act on explanations. For example, the teacher explains a grammar rule like "going to is followed by the stem form of the verb," and learners apply the rule to make sentences. Writing with grammar help involves guided compositions on specific grammar problems. Rules are studied first, then applied.

📌 Example (Writing with grammar help — Countable nouns): Rules: (1) Singular countable nouns need a, the, this, my, each, every, etc. (2) Many, several, both, a few, these, those are only for plural countable nouns. (3) Each, every, a, another, one are only for singular countable nouns. Learners fill in a story with words like: language, country, word, kind, world, people, dictionary, following the rules.

Answering Questions: The guidance comes through questions or true/false statements. In answer the questions, the teacher writes questions on the board based on a story. The answers give the main ideas. Learners answer the questions and add extra details if able. The more questions, the easier the composition.

📌 Example (Answer the questions — "Good and Bad Guests"): Questions include: Do people sometimes visit your house? What sorts of people do you like as guests? What makes a person a good or bad guest? (From Hill, 1966, p. 35).

Correction: Learners find mistakes (in ideas or form) and correct them. They may underline/circle mistakes or write the corrected item. Examples include finding grammar mistakes, unnecessary words, wrong facts, or inappropriate items in pictures.

Completion: Learners are given words, sentences, or passages with missing parts. They fill in the missing parts. Complete the sentences can practice articles (a, the), quantifiers (some, any), or prepositions. Missing words may be given at the beginning.

📌 Example (Completion — prepositions): Put at, on, or in in the empty spaces:

1. He arrived ___ ten o'clock. (at)
2. The meeting begins ___ Friday. (on)

📌 Example (Completion — verb forms): Fill in with the correct form:

1. One of the ___ was there. (boy → boys)
2. Every ___ tried to get as many as possible. (person → person)

In backwriting, learners read a passage, copy key words (in base form), then put the text away and write what they remember, filling in around the key words.

Ordering: Learners rearrange items (letters, words, sentences, pictures) into the correct order. Put the words in order has learners rewrite jumbled sentences. Follow the model gives a pattern and words; learners make sentences following the pattern. Some ordering techniques include extra clues, like listening to the teacher read words in a specific order and then numbering them accordingly.

📌 Example (Ordering — Follow the model): Model: He made them cry. Words: saw, I, laugh, let, she, go, her, fight, heard, him Expected response: I saw her laugh. She let him go. I heard them fight.

Substitution: Learners replace part of a word, sentence, or passage. A substitution table allows practice of different words in the same sentence position.

Transformation: Learners rewrite by changing the grammar or organization. This includes change the sentence (e.g., rewrite in the past tense, make passive), join the sentences (sentence combining), and writing by steps (adding to or changing a passage step-by-step).

📌 Example (Transformation — Sentence combining): This coffee is hot. I can't drink it. → This coffee is too hot to drink. Your friend is waiting near the shop. The shop is next to the cinema. → Your friend is waiting near the shop which is next to the cinema.

💡 Why this matters: Research on sentence combining for first language learners shows positive effects (Hillocks, 1984, 1991). The most reliable measure of first language writing development is related to the number of complex sentences (the T-unit), making sentence combining a direct focus for writing development.

With marking guided writing, guided compositions can be marked by groups of learners using model answers before being handed to the teacher. The teacher only checks that the marking was done correctly.

Topic-139: Independent Tasks

Independent tasks require learners to work alone without planned help. Learners succeed when they have developed proficiency and command of helpful strategies, which develop from experience, shared, or guided tasks. When faced with a difficult independent writing task (e.g., writing an assignment), learners can use:

1. An experience approach — writing several drafts, gaining experience from each.
2. A shared approach — asking the teacher or classmates for help when needed.
3. A guided approach — guiding their writing by asking questions, using notes or an information transfer diagram, or finding a good example.

A good independent task: (1) provides a reasonable challenge (difficult but achievable with effort), and (2) is a task learners are likely to face outside the classroom.

The key difference between an experience task and an independent task is control and preparation. Experience tasks are planned so learners face only one aspect outside their previous experience. Independent tasks do not involve this degree of control, and learners may face multiple difficulties simultaneously.

Topic-140: Using the Four Kinds of Tasks for Teaching Writing

The goal of describing these four task types is to make teachers aware of approaches to bridging the gap between learners' knowledge and task demands. Teachers can choose the best approach for their class.

📌 Example (Learners need to write about land use in the Amazon basin — new concepts, vocabulary, and an academic style are required):

• Step 1 – Experience task: Can the teacher bring the language, ideas, skills, or text organization within learners' experience (e.g., pre-teach vocabulary, collect pictures, read short articles, outline text organization)?
• Step 2 – Shared task: If more help is needed, can the class do a blackboard composition or work in groups on different aspects?
• Step 3 – Guided task: If further help is needed, use answering detailed questions, completing statements, adding detail to a text, writing picture descriptions, or turning an information transfer diagram into text.

The distinctions between experience, shared, and guided tasks are for ease of description. They can be combined (e.g., guided tasks done in groups as shared tasks). The overall purpose is to make teachers aware of the variety of ways to support learners and the major task types available to close the gap between learner proficiency and task demands.

⭐ Key Takeaways

The lecture presents a comprehensive framework for teaching writing, moving from collaborative to independent tasks. Teachers must first assess the gap between learners' proficiency and task demands, then choose the appropriate support: experience tasks build familiarity, shared tasks leverage peer collaboration, guided tasks narrow and scaffold the work, and independent tasks develop self-reliance. A single activity type can be adapted across multiple categories. Crucially, the design of tasks (from dicto-comp to sentence combining to writing by steps) directly impacts how much creative composition versus mechanical manipulation learners perform.

🧠 Quick Revision Questions

1. What are the three effects of support given during guided tasks, and why might narrowing the task be either beneficial or harmful?
2. Explain the difference between a dicto-comp and a dicto-gloss, including the key variations in procedure.
3. How does the delayed copying technique differ from simple word-by-word copying, and what specific skill does it aim to develop?
4. Describe the backwriting technique step-by-step, and explain why only the base form of key words should be copied.
5. A teacher's learners need to write a persuasive essay on climate change. Following the framework in Topic-140, describe one possible experience, one shared, and one guided task to prepare them for an independent version of this assignment.

📘 Lecture 26 — TEACHING WRITING IN AN L2 CLASSROOM I

📖 Overview: This lecture introduces the distinction between two fundamental approaches to teaching writing in a second language classroom: writing for learning and writing for writing. It explains how writing can be used as a tool to reinforce grammar and vocabulary learning, as preparation for other activities, or as part of larger communicative tasks, while also clarifying when writing instruction actually aims to improve writing skills themselves.

🗂️ Topics Covered

This lecture covers the introduction to teaching writing in an L2 classroom, distinguishing between writing for learning and writing for writing. It then explores three specific types of writing-for-learning activities: reinforcement writing (using writing to practice recently taught grammar and vocabulary), preparation writing (using writing as a preamble to discussion or speaking activities), and activity writing (using writing as an integral part of larger tasks such as dialogues or questionnaires). The lecture concludes by clarifying that these activities do not necessarily teach students to write more effectively; that is the domain of writing for writing.

📝 Lecture Summary

Topic-141: Introduction to Teaching Writing in an L2 classroom

Writing has always formed part of the syllabus in teaching English, but it can serve different purposes. It can be merely a 'backup' for grammar teaching or a major syllabus strand where mastering writing is a key objective. The importance given to writing differs from teaching situation to teaching situation. In some curricula, writing shares equal billing with other skills; in others, it is only used in its 'writing-for-learning' role, where students write predominantly to augment their learning of grammar and vocabulary.

Because of the nature of the writing process and the need for accuracy, the mental processes a student goes through when writing differ significantly from spoken communication. Writing is often not time-bound like conversation — students have more time to think, consult dictionaries, and focus on accurate language use. This provokes language development as students resolve problems the writing puts into their minds. However, this is separate from issues of writing process and genre, since here students are not writing to become better writers — they are writing to help them learn better.

💡 Why this matters: Understanding this distinction helps teachers decide whether a writing activity is meant to improve language knowledge or to improve writing skills themselves.

Topic-142: Writing For Learning

Writing for learning refers to using writing as a means to reinforce or prepare for other language learning objectives. In this approach, writing is not the main goal; rather, it supports the learning of grammar, vocabulary, or other skills. The lecture identifies three main types of writing-for-learning activities: reinforcement writing, preparation writing, and activity writing.

Topic-143: Reinforcement Writing

Reinforcement writing has always been used as a means of reinforcing language that has been taught. In its simplest form, teachers ask students to write sentences using recently learnt grammar.

🔑 Definition — Reinforcement writing: Writing activities designed to help students practice and consolidate recently taught grammar or vocabulary by producing sentences, paragraphs, or longer texts.

📌 Example: After practicing the third conditional (If + had (not) done + would (not) have done), students are asked: "Write two sentences about things you wish had turned out differently, and two sentences about things you are pleased about." Students produce sentences such as:

• If I hadn't failed my exams, I would have gone to university.
• If I hadn't gone to that party, I wouldn't have met my boyfriend.

📌 Example (vocabulary): "Write a sentence about a friend or a member of your family using at least two of these character adjectives: proud, kind, friendly, helpful, impatient..."

Reinforcement writing need not be confined to sentence writing. Students can also be asked to write paragraphs or longer compositions to practice recently focused-on aspects of language or text construction. For example, students might write a story about something that happened to them to practice past tenses, or write a description of someone they know to use character and physical description vocabulary.

Topic-144: Preparation Writing

Preparation writing is frequently useful as preparation for some other activity, particularly when students write sentences as a preamble to discussion activities. This gives students time to think up ideas rather than having to come up with instant fluent opinions, something many find difficult.

🔑 Definition — Preparation writing: Writing used as a preparatory step before a speaking or discussion activity, allowing students to organize their thoughts and ideas in advance.

📌 Example: Students may be asked to complete sentences such as: I like/don't like going to parties because... When the class discusses going to parties, students can read out what they have written or use their written thoughts to make their points.

Another technique involves students talking in groups to prepare arguments for a discussion topic. They make written notes which they may use later during the discussion phase. In these cases, writing is used as preparation for something else — it is an immensely enabling skill even though it is not the main focus of an activity.

Topic-145: Activity Writing

Activity writing refers to writing used as an integral part of a larger activity where the focus is on something else such as language practice, acting out, or speaking.

🔑 Definition — Activity writing: Writing that is integrated into a larger communicative task, such as writing dialogues to be acted out or designing questionnaires for surveys.

📌 Example (dialogues): Teachers ask students to write short dialogues which they will then act out. The dialogues are most useful if planned to practice particular functional areas, such as inviting or suggesting. Students work in pairs to make the dialogue, and the teacher helps them as they write. They now have something they can read out or act out in class.

📌 Example (questionnaires): Groups of students design a questionnaire about a topic (e.g., what kind of music people like). They circulate around the class asking colleagues their prepared questions, write down the answers, and then report back on what they found out. Writing is used to help students perform a different kind of activity (speaking and listening).

The lecture emphasizes that not all writing activities necessarily help students to write more effectively. If they do, that is a by-product of the activity, not its main purpose. The writing-for-learning activities discussed depend on students' ability to write already — there is no attempt to teach a new writing skill or show students how to work in unfamiliar genres.

Teaching 'writing for writing' is entirely different. Here the objective is to help students become better writers and learn how to write in various genres using different registers. General language improvement may occur, but that is a by-product of a writing-for-writing activity, not its main purpose. Teaching writing is more than just dealing with handwriting, orthography (the spelling system), and punctuation — it is about helping students to communicate real messages in an appropriate manner.

⭐ Key Takeaways

The most critical distinction in this lecture is between writing for learning (using writing to reinforce grammar, vocabulary, or prepare for other activities) and writing for writing (explicitly teaching students to become better writers). Three specific types of writing-for-learning activities are reinforcement writing, preparation writing, and activity writing. Reinforcement writing involves students writing sentences, paragraphs, or stories to practice recently taught language points. Preparation writing gives students time to think and formulate ideas before discussion or speaking activities. Activity writing integrates writing into larger tasks like dialogues or questionnaires. Crucially, these writing-for-learning activities do not actually teach students to write more effectively — they depend on existing writing ability and focus on language learning, whereas writing for writing aims to develop writing skills in various genres and registers.

🧠 Quick Revision Questions

1. What is the fundamental difference between writing for learning and writing for writing?
2. Give one example of reinforcement writing for grammar and one example for vocabulary.
3. How does preparation writing help lower-level students during discussion activities?
4. In activity writing, what is the main focus of the lesson — writing itself, or another skill like speaking?
5. According to the lecture, what does teaching writing for writing aim to help students do, beyond just dealing with handwriting, spelling, and punctuation?

📘 Lecture 27 — Teaching Writing in an L2 Classroom II

📖 Overview: This lecture explores the purposes and approaches to teaching writing in a second language classroom, emphasizing the importance of aligning writing tasks with student needs. It covers different categories of English learners, the spectrum from real to invented writing purposes, the value of creative writing, and the essential tasks teachers must perform to support student writers.

🗂️ Topics Covered

This lecture covers writing purposes categorized by learner type (ESL, ESP, EFL), the cline between real and invented purpose writing tasks including exam writing, the role and benefits of creative writing in the L2 classroom, and the five key tasks of a writing teacher: demonstrating, motivating and provoking, supporting, responding, and evaluating.

📝 Lecture Summary

Writing Purposes (I)

When teaching 'writing for writing,' it is crucial to ensure students have a clear writing aim, as effective writers construct their work with a purpose in mind. The most effective learning occurs when students write real messages for real audiences, or perform tasks relevant to their out-of-class life. The choice of writing tasks depends on why students are studying English, which falls into three main categories.

🔑 Definition — English as a Second Language (ESL): Students living in the target language community who need English for daily functioning, such as recent immigrants and refugees with specific writing needs like filling in forms or writing particular letters.

🔑 Definition — English for Specific Purposes (ESP): Students studying English for a particular purpose, such as medical English for nurses or English for Academic Purposes (EAP) for university students. The choice of topics should be relevant to their reason for study, for example, business students writing letters and documents they will use professionally.

🔑 Definition — English as a Foreign Language (EFL): Students studying general English at schools in their own country or as transitory visitors, whose needs are often less easy to define compared to ESL or ESP students. For these students, it may be difficult to find directly relevant tasks, but a useful compromise can often be reached.

💡 Why this matters: Understanding these three categories helps teachers select writing tasks that are both motivating and directly applicable to students' real-world goals, increasing engagement and the effectiveness of learning.

Writing Purposes (II)

The best approach is to concentrate on a repertoire of writing tasks that most English speakers may need at some stage. These fall on a cline between real purpose and invented purpose tasks. Real purpose tasks are those students will likely need to perform, such as writing formal letters, emails, or reports. Invented purposes, while engaging, are unlikely to be directly relevant to future needs but are valuable for developing skills. For example, writing letters to imaginary magazine problem pages or analyzing 'lonely hearts' advertisements helps students develop genre-analyzing habits and a positive attitude toward writing.

Another crucial skill is exam writing. Many tests include a writing component designed to discover a candidate's integrative language abilities—their ability to write texts with correct grammar, appropriate lexis, and coherent organization. This is different from discrete test items that test only one thing, like a grammar point. Whereas the former tests 'writing for writing', the latter uses writing only as a medium for language testing.

📐 Formula: Integrative test items ≠ Discrete test items → Integrative items test multiple skills (grammar, lexis, organization) simultaneously, while discrete items test a single skill in isolation.

Creative Writing

Creative writing allows the imagination to run free, and an approach like that in Ron White and Valerie Arndt's Process Writing views all writing, even routine tasks, as creative. This lecture focuses on tasks that provoke students to go beyond the everyday, to spread their linguistic wings, and express more personal or complex thoughts, such as writing stories, poems, journals, or dramatic scenarios. While challenging due to L2 limitations, creative writing tasks are motivating as they provide opportunities for students to display their work to a wider audience, for example by pinning it on notice-boards or publishing it on a class website. These tasks are nearer the 'invented purpose' end of the cline but can open up new avenues for expression.

📌 Example: Students write a short story about a strange encounter. They then publish it on a class blog, receiving comments from classmates and the teacher. This provides a genuine audience and motivates them to improve their writing, even though they may never need to write such a story in their professional lives.

The Tasks of Teacher in Writing (I)

When helping students become better writers, teachers have crucial tasks to perform before, during, and after writing. The first two tasks are Demonstrating and Motivating and provoking. Demonstrating involves drawing students' attention to writing conventions and genre constraints, such as layout issues or language for specific functions. Motivating and provoking is essential when students are 'lost for words', especially in creative tasks. Teachers can help by having prepared suggestions, using activities like reassembling jumbled texts, or giving students the words they need to start.

📌 Example: Before a persuasive essay task, the teacher shows a model text and highlights its use of rhetorical questions and strong adjectives (Demonstrating). If a student says, "I don't know what to write," the teacher asks, "What is the strongest reason you can think of for banning plastic bags?" (Motivating and provoking).

The Tasks of Teacher in Writing (II)

The remaining three tasks are Supporting, Responding, and Evaluating. Supporting involves providing help and reassurance with ideas and means during the writing process, being always available (except during exams). Responding is a supportive reaction to the content and construction of a piece at various draft stages, without grading it, for example, by making comments on a journal entry about its content. Evaluating, in contrast, is judging a finished product for test purposes, indicating where students did well and made mistakes, and awarding grades. Even test-marking can be used as a learning opportunity by having students review and correct their highlighted errors.

🔑 Definition — Responding: Reacting to the content and construction of a student's written work supportively during the draft stage, making suggestions for improvement without grading or judging it as a finished product.

🔑 Definition — Evaluating: Judging a student's completed written work for test purposes, indicating strengths and mistakes, and awarding grades to show the standard reached.

📌 Example: For a draft of a report, a teacher writes: "Your introduction is very clear! Could you add a chart here to show the data?" (Responding). For the final exam, the same teacher writes: "Excellent structure and data, but check past tense consistency." and assigns a grade of 85% (Evaluating).

⭐ Key Takeaways

For the exam, remember that writing tasks should be aligned with the students' learning context (ESL, ESP, or EFL) to maximize relevance and motivation. Writing purposes fall on a cline from real to invented, and both are valuable: real tasks for direct applicability and invented tasks for developing genre analysis and positive attitudes. Creative writing, though an invented purpose, is highly motivating and allows students to display their work to a wider audience. The teacher's role is multifaceted, involving demonstrating conventions, motivating and provoking ideas, supporting students during writing, responding supportively to drafts, and evaluating final products for grading and learning. Finally, distinguish between integrative test items (testing multiple skills) and discrete test items (testing one skill at a time).

🧠 Quick Revision Questions

1. What are the three main categories of English learners discussed in relation to writing purposes, and how does the choice of writing tasks differ for each?
2. Explain the difference between "real purpose" and "invented purpose" writing tasks, providing one example of each.
3. What is the distinction between an "integrative test item" and a "discrete test item" in writing assessment?
4. List the five key tasks a teacher must perform when helping students become better writers, as outlined in the lecture.
5. How does a teacher's "responding" to a student's draft differ from "evaluating" a student's final work?

📘 Lecture 28 — The Writing Process I

📖 Overview: This lecture introduces the writing process as a framework for teaching and improving writing skills. It emphasizes that writing is more than just the final product; understanding the subprocesses involved in creating a text is crucial for teaching and learning. The lecture covers the parts of a writing programme, the seven subprocesses of writing, and detailed techniques for considering the writer's goals and audience, as well as gathering and organizing ideas.

🗂️ Topics Covered

This lecture begins by introducing the parts of a writing programme, emphasizing meaning-focused, language-focused, and fluency development. It then breaks down the writing process into seven subprocesses: considering goals, having a model of the reader, gathering ideas, organizing ideas, turning ideas into text, reviewing, and editing. The lecture provides detailed techniques for the first three subprocesses, including how to consider the writer's purpose and audience, and specific methods for gathering and organizing ideas like brainstorming, quickwriting, and using topic type grids. The final topic covers methods for organizing ideas to add uniqueness to a piece of writing.

📝 Lecture Summary

Topic-151: Introduction to the Writing Process

A successful writing programme should involve meaning-focused use, language-focused learning, and fluency development. It's also vital that the writing covers a range of practical uses such as filling forms, making lists, writing letters, note-taking, and academic writing, each with its own organizational requirements.

Meaning-focused Writing is an activity that can be prepared for by work in listening, speaking, and reading. This preparation helps words used receptively come into productive use. For example, in an English for academic purposes programme, learners can keep issue logs — a kind of project work. Each learner chooses a topic (e.g., terrorism, rugby) to follow throughout the programme, becoming a local expert. They seek information weekly from various sources, give oral reports, and make written summaries. Writing is easier when learners write from a strong knowledge base.

Topic-152: The Parts of Writing Process

One way to focus on different aspects of writing is to view it as a process, which can be divided into the following seven subprocesses:

1. considering the goals of the writer
2. having a model of the reader
3. gathering ideas
4. organizing ideas
5. turning ideas into written text
6. reviewing what has been written
7. editing.

There are several important points about these subprocesses:

1. They do not necessarily occur in a set order; for many writers, there is a continuous cycle of movement between stages.
2. The effects of these subprocesses can be observed in learners' writing and spoken comments.
3. Help and training can be provided for any subprocess, with the main goal of a process approach being to improve skills at all stages.
4. Awareness of the subprocesses helps teachers locate sources of difficulty for learners.
5. From a teaching perspective, the best division of the process is one that relates most closely to differences between teaching techniques.

The main idea behind a process approach is that it is not enough to look only at what learners have produced; to improve their production, it is useful to understand how it was produced.

💡 Why this matters: This process view shifts the focus from simply correcting a final draft to teaching the skills and strategies that lead to a better final product.

Topic-153: Considering the Goals of the Writer and Model of the Reader

Written work is usually done for a purpose and for a particular audience. For example, a friendly letter is written to inform a friend or relative. The writer must keep the goal in mind and suit the information and expression to the person who will receive it.

An important way to encourage writers to keep their goals and audience in mind is to provide feedback about the effectiveness of their writing. This feedback can be direct comment on the writing or a response to the message. For instance, Rinvolucri (1983) suggests that the teacher and learners should write letters to each other, with the teacher responding to the ideas rather than the form of the letter.

Teachers should also ensure learners practice writing for a wide range of purposes and readers. This range includes purposes like to learn, inform, persuade, entertain, and maintain friendly contact. The role can be writing as yourself or as some other person. The audience can be self, a specified individual, a group, classmates, or the general public. The type of writing can include notes, formal letters, narratives, descriptions, arguments, and journal writing.

🔑 Definition — Process Approach: An approach to teaching writing that focuses on understanding and improving the steps (subprocesses) a writer goes through to produce a text, rather than just evaluating the final product.

Topic-154: Gathering Ideas

Techniques for gathering ideas can be classified into three groups. The first group consists of open-ended, free-ranging activities like brainstorming and quickwriting. The second group consists of systematic searching procedures like questioning (who, why, where, when) or filling in an information transfer diagram. Research by Franken (1988) shows that when learners are in command of the ideas in a topic, grammatical errors are significantly reduced. The third group consists of techniques that help learners gather and organize ideas at the same time, such as using tree diagrams and concept maps.

Specific techniques include:

• Group brainstorming: Learners in small groups suggest as many ideas as possible about the topic without rejection or criticism.
• List making: Each learner makes a list of ideas to include, then attempts to organize it.
• Looping: Learners write quickly on a topic for 4-5 minutes, then stop to read and write one sentence summarizing it, then repeat the procedure.
• Cubing: Learners consider a topic from six angles: describe it, compare it, associate it, analyse it, apply it, and argue for and against it.
• Using topic type grids: Information transfer diagrams are useful for gathering information before writing.
• Reading like a writer: A learner reads a text like the one they want to write, noting the general questions the writer seemed to be answering, then writes a text by answering those questions.
• Add details: The teacher gives sentences with main ideas; learners add description and detail to form paragraphs.
• Quick writing (speed writing): Learners concentrate on content, do not worry about errors, and write without stopping to produce ideas.
• Expanding writing: Learners write on every second line, count words, then add more detail in a different coloured pen on the blank lines, counting words again.

🔑 Definition — Cubing: A pre-writing technique where a writer examines a topic from six distinct perspectives (describe, compare, associate, analyze, apply, argue for/against) to generate a wide range of ideas.

📌 Example: For the topic “Should parents hit their children?”, learners work in groups using the cubing technique: (1) describe what hitting involves, (2) compare it with other punishments, (3) associate it with other uses of physical force, (4) analyze cause-effect sequences, (5) apply the idea to various age levels, and (6) make a table of pluses and minuses. This generates many ideas to organize and write about.

Topic-155: Organizing Ideas

The way learners organize ideas gives them a chance to put their own point of view and thought into their writing. Often, the ideas included in an assignment do not differ greatly from one writer to another, but the organization can add uniqueness. Two possible approaches to organizing academic writing are to rank ideas according to a useful criterion or to classify ideas into groups. The use of sub-headings in academic writing is a useful check on organization.

A technique for this is projection into dialogue. Learners look at a model letter and list the questions that the writer seemed to be answering. They then use these questions to guide their own writing. After they can do this with model texts, they can apply the same procedure to their own writing to check if it is well organized (Robinson, 1987).

💡 Why this matters: Teaching organization empowers learners to structure their unique thoughts effectively, making their writing more coherent and persuasive, especially in academic contexts.

⭐ Key Takeaways

A student must remember that the writing process is a set of seven subprocesses (goals, audience, gathering ideas, organizing, turning into text, reviewing, editing) that are not linear but cyclical. The process approach emphasizes improving how a text is produced, not just the final product. Effective writing requires a clear purpose and audience, and teachers should provide feedback on the message as well as the form. Generating ideas is a critical first step, and techniques like brainstorming, cubing, and looping can help overcome "writer's block" and significantly reduce grammatical errors. Finally, organizing ideas uniquely—through ranking, classification, or projection into dialogue—adds a writer's own point of view and structure to the content.

🧠 Quick Revision Questions

1. What are the seven subprocesses of the writing process as described in the lecture?
2. Explain the concept of "meaning-focused writing" and how it can be supported by work in other skills.
3. Describe the technique of "cubing" for gathering ideas, including the six angles from which a topic is considered.
4. According to the lecture, what is the main idea behind a "process approach" to writing, and why is it important?
5. How can the technique of "projection into dialogue" help a learner organize ideas in their writing?

📘 Lecture 29 — THE WRITING PROCESS II

📖 Overview: This lecture delves deeper into the writing process, focusing on the crucial stages of transforming ideas into text, reviewing, and editing. It emphasizes the importance of diagnosing a writer's control over each part of the process by analyzing the written product, enabling teachers to provide targeted feedback and strategy training for improvement.

🗂️ Topics Covered

This lecture covers the challenges learners face in turning ideas into text and techniques to address them. It then explains the reviewing process, including the use of checklists and peer feedback. The editing stage is defined, with a focus on its scope and the importance of comprehensive feedback. Finally, it details how to diagnose a writer's control over each part of the process by closely examining the written product, with specific diagnostic questions for goals, reader model, idea generation, organization, ideas-to-text, reviewing, and editing.

📝 Lecture Summary

Topic-156: Ideas to Text and Reviewing

Some learners struggle to translate their ideas into written form, while others lack fluency in doing so. A key cause can be the difference between the writing systems of the learner's first and second language, such as for Arab learners of English. For such learners, practicing letter formation, linking letters, and spelling is valuable. A lack of practice in writing in any language can also cause problems. Each cause requires different teaching techniques.

Reviewing involves looking back over what has been written. Its purposes are to check ideas already included, maintain coherence and flow, stimulate further ideas, and look for errors. Poor writers often do not review or only review for errors. One method to encourage reviewing is to provide learners with checklists or scales containing points to look for in their writing. Research shows such scales significantly improve writing quality. Peer feedback is another technique where learners read incomplete work to each other for comments and suggestions. Learners can be trained to give helpful comments using a checklist.

🔑 Definition — Checklist: A list of points to look for in one's own writing, used as a tool to encourage and guide the reviewing process. 🔑 Definition — Peer Feedback: A process where learners read their incomplete work to each other to receive comments and suggestions on how to improve and continue it.

Topic-157: Editing I

Editing involves going back over writing to make changes to its organization, style, grammatical and lexical correctness, and appropriateness. Editing is not a fixed final step; writers can periodically review and edit their work as they proceed. Learners can be encouraged to edit through feedback from classmates, teachers, and other readers. This feedback is most useful when it occurs several times during the writing process and is expressed in a way the writer finds acceptable and easy to act on. Feedback focusing only on grammatical errors will not help with editing content. Using a marking sheet divided into several categories, covering features from legibility to the quality of ideas, is one way to ensure comprehensive feedback.

🔑 Definition — Editing: The process of going back over writing to make changes to its organization, style, grammatical and lexical correctness, and appropriateness.

Topic-158: Diagnosing Control of the Parts of the Writing Process

An advantage of seeing writing as a process is that a writer's control of each part can be examined to identify strengths and weaknesses. Poor control in one part (e.g., organizing ideas) can lead to poor performance in other parts (e.g., reviewing). There are three ways to get information about a writer's control:

• Looking closely at the written product (pieces of writing already completed).
• Questioning the writer.
• Observing the writer going through the process.

This lecture focuses on gathering information by analyzing the written product.

Topic-159: Diagnosing from the Written Product

By analyzing a piece of writing, teachers can diagnose a writer's control over each part of the process by asking specific questions.

The Goals of the Writer: Poor performance is signaled by a lack of a cohesive purpose.

• Does the piece have a clear goal (e.g., convincing, describing)?
• Has the writer stated the goal, and does the writing reflect that goal?

A Model of the Reader: Poor performance is signaled by an inconsistent style, lack of detail where needed, and too much information where the reader already knows it.

• Is the level of formality consistent?
• Is the amount of detail appropriate for the reader's knowledge?
• Does the writing's formality match the question's formality?

Gathering Ideas: Poor performance results from not having enough to say.

• Does the writing contain plenty of relevant, interesting ideas?
• Does the range of ideas provide complete coverage of the topic?
• Does it draw on a range of sources (e.g., personal experience, reading)?

Organizing Ideas: Poor performance results in writing that is difficult to follow.

• Are there clear parts to the writing?
• Are the parts arranged in a logical and interesting way?
• Are the parts clearly signaled (e.g., sub-headings)?

Ideas to Text: Poor performance is signaled by a short piece, poorly expressed sentences, and many errors.

• How much was written in the time allowed?
• Are the ideas well expressed and easy to follow?
• Is the writing largely error-free?

Reviewing: Poor performance is signaled by a poorly organized and presented text.

• Has the text improved from previous drafts?
• In what aspects are there or are there not improvements?
• Is the text clear, well-organized, and well-presented?

Editing: Poor performance is signaled by a failure to respond to feedback, repeated errors, and inconsistencies.

• Are there signs of self-correction?
• Is the text free of spelling errors (including those a spellchecker can't find)?
• Is the text well-formatted and consistent?

💡 Why this matters: The purpose of these diagnostic questions is to allow teachers to assess a writer's control over each part of the process, give useful feedback on strengths and weaknesses, and eventually train learners to evaluate their own work.

⭐ Key Takeaways

The writing process is recursive, with reviewing and editing occurring throughout, not just at the end. Effective reviewing involves checking for coherence, ideas, and errors, and can be enhanced with checklists and peer feedback. Editing must be comprehensive, covering content, organization, and style, not just grammar. Teachers can diagnose a writer's specific weaknesses by analyzing their written product with targeted questions for each part of the process. The ultimate goal is to provide feedback that helps learners develop strategies for self-monitoring and evaluating their own writing.

🧠 Quick Revision Questions

1. What are the four purposes of the reviewing process?
2. Besides grammatical errors, what other aspects should feedback for editing cover?
3. Name three methods a teacher can use to get information about a writer's control of the writing process.
4. What signs in the written product indicate a writer has poor control over "A Model of the Reader"?
5. What is the ultimate goal of the diagnostic feedback described in the lecture?

📘 Lecture 30 — Issues of Cohesion and Coherence

📖 Overview: This lecture explores how texts achieve unity through cohesion and coherence. It explains the concepts of genre and register, and then details the linguistic devices — both lexical and grammatical — that make texts "stick together." The lecture also examines how coherence depends on internal logic and the writer's purpose, and concludes with implications for teaching writing through genre analysis.

🗂️ Topics Covered

The lecture covers teaching text construction through genres and schematic knowledge, teaching lexical cohesion through word repetition and lexical sets, teaching grammatical cohesion through pronoun reference, article reference, tense agreement, linkers, substitution, and ellipsis, teaching coherence as distinct from cohesion, and explores implications for learning and teaching including the genre trap and the importance of combining reading with writing instruction.

📝 Lecture Summary

Topic-160: Teaching Text Construction I

Different types of writing (advertisements, letters, etc.) are called genres, and the specific choice of vocabulary within a genre is called the register. A reader recognizes a text's genre instantly because it is typical of its kind in both construction and language choice. For example, "literary fiction" is a different genre from "science fiction," and a "newspaper letter" differs from a "holiday postcard" or an "application letter."

Knowledge of genres is just one of many "knowledges" or "competences" a reader brings to reading. These knowledges, grouped under schemata, include: general world knowledge, sociocultural knowledge (social and cultural knowledge shared by a social group), and topic knowledge (knowing something about the subject). The newspaper headline "Move over, Big Brother. Now politics is the latest reality TV" exemplifies this — readers need knowledge of the TV show Big Brother and the concept of reality TV to make sense of it.

🔑 Definition — Genre: Different writing constructions (e.g., advertisements, letters, scientific reports) that are typical of their kind in both construction and language choice. 🔑 Definition — Register: The specific choice of vocabulary within a genre. 🔑 Definition — Schemata: The various knowledges or competences a reader brings to reading, comprising general world knowledge, sociocultural knowledge, and topic knowledge. 📌 Example: The headline "Move over, Big Brother. Now politics is the latest reality TV" requires knowledge that Big Brother is a TV show where contestants are filmed constantly and voted out, and that "reality TV" involves cameras watching people in staged situations.

Topic-161: Teaching Cohesion

Cohesion refers to the linguistic techniques that make prose "stick together." Lexical cohesion is achieved through two main devices: repetition of words (e.g., using "grandparents" twice in a text) and lexical set chains — groups of words in the same topic area that interrelate as the text progresses (e.g., "grandparents, daughters, sons, grandchildren, relative, grandchild" or "work, employers, staff, employees, retired, employment").

🔑 Definition — Lexical cohesion: The use of word repetition and lexical set chains to bind a text together. 📌 Example: In a newspaper article, lexical cohesion is achieved through repetition of "grandparents" (twice), "grandchildren" (twice), and "people" (five times), as well as lexical chains like "work, employers, staff, employees, retired, employment" and "two-thirds, one-third, 60%, one in three, one in ten."

Topic-162: Teaching Grammatical Cohesion

Grammatical cohesion is achieved through several devices:

• Pronoun and possessive reference: Using pronouns or possessives instead of repeating nouns. Anaphoric reference occurs when a word refers back to something mentioned earlier. For example, in "Growing pressure on people in their 50s and 60s," "their" refers back to "people."
• Article reference: The definite article "the" is often used for anaphoric reference. For instance, "retired local authority staff" is first mentioned, and later becomes "the local authority staff." However, "the" can also be used for exophoric reference — assuming shared world knowledge, as in "the national census" (assuming readers know it exists).
• Tense agreement: Consistent tense usage makes texts cohesive. In an article, the past tense predominates ("It found") with occasional "future-in-the-past" ("would make").
• Linkers: Words describing text relationships, such as addition ("and, also, moreover"), contrast ("however, on the other hand, but"), result ("therefore, consequently, thus"), and time ("first, then, later").
• Substitution and ellipsis: Substitution replaces a longer phrase with a shorter one (e.g., "did so" substitutes for "cheated in his exam"). Ellipsis deliberately leaves out words when the meaning is still clear (e.g., "Penny was introduced to a famous author, but even before she was [introduced to a famous author] she had recognized him").

🔑 Definition — Grammatical cohesion: The use of pronoun/possessive reference, article reference, tense agreement, linkers, substitution, and ellipsis to help the reader understand what is being referred to. 🔑 Definition — Anaphoric reference: When a word refers back to something mentioned earlier in the text. 🔑 Definition — Exophoric reference: When the definite article assumes shared world knowledge, without earlier mention in the text. 🔑 Definition — Substitution: Replacing a longer phrase with a shorter one that has preceded it. 🔑 Definition — Ellipsis: Deliberately leaving words out of a sentence when the meaning is still clear.

Topic-163: Teaching Coherence

Coherence is different from cohesion. A text can be rich in cohesive devices but still not make sense if it lacks internal logic. For a text to be coherent, the reader must understand two things: the writer's purpose (e.g., to inform, suggest, judge, or express an opinion) and the writer's line of thought (the reasoning in discursive texts, the story in narratives, or descriptions in descriptive pieces).

Coherence is frequently achieved by how a writer sequences information, which relates directly to genre and text construction. Different genres provoke different writing to satisfy the expectations of the discourse community. When writers stray from text construction norms, coherence is one of the qualities most at risk. However, genre constraints should not stifle creativity — writers can choose to accept or violate genre constraints.

🔑 Definition — Coherence: The internal logic of a text that allows the reader to follow the writer's purpose and line of thought, with or without prominent cohesive devices. 📌 Example: The text "This made her afraid. It was open at the letters page. His eyes were shut and she noticed the Daily Mail at his side..." is fairly cohesive (using pronouns and references) but not terribly coherent because the sequencing of information lacks clear internal logic.

Topic-164: Implications for Learning and Teaching

Writing in a particular genre leads to the use of certain kinds of text construction. Students need to be made aware of how genre and register work in English so they can choose language appropriately. For example, business English students learning to write job application letters need to know how such letters are typically constructed and what register is used.

Students benefit from learning how to use cohesive devices effectively and from paying attention to coherent organization within a genre. This requires letting students read examples of the writing they are expected to produce. Reading and writing are interconnected — students might enjoy writing "lonely hearts" advertisements, but only after reading and analyzing examples. Teachers can ask students to:

• Put genre elements in order (contact instruction, description of advertiser, description of desired responder, etc.)
• Find language used for each element
• Analyze texts to spot cohesive language

At lower levels, parallel writing can be used — students look at a paragraph, discuss its structure, and write their own similar ones using the same construction and vocabulary.

However, there is a danger in over-emphasizing genre analysis: the genre trap. This occurs when students are limited to imitating what others have written, making the approach prescriptive ("you must do it like this") rather than descriptive ("this is how it is often done"). To avoid this:

• Ensure students see a variety of examples within a genre, showing individual differences
• Make sure students understand that examples are descriptive, not models to slavishly follow
• Accept that genre analysis is not the only kind of writing students need — encourage free writing about themselves, stories, and compositions without reference to genre
• Focus on the actual process of writing alongside genre study

🔑 Definition — Genre trap: The danger of limiting students to imitating what others have written, making genre instruction prescriptive rather than descriptive. 💡 Why this matters: Balancing genre instruction with creative, process-oriented writing helps students become flexible, independent writers rather than mere text reproducers.

⭐ Key Takeaways

This lecture establishes that texts achieve unity through two distinct but related qualities: cohesion, which uses linguistic devices like word repetition, pronouns, articles, tense agreement, linkers, substitution, and ellipsis to "stick together," and coherence, which depends on internal logic so the reader can follow the writer's purpose and line of thought. Genre knowledge — understanding how different purposes are commonly expressed within a discourse community — is essential for both reading and writing, and students benefit from reading and analyzing multiple examples of a genre before attempting to write within it. However, teachers must avoid the genre trap by presenting examples as descriptive possibilities rather than prescriptive models, and by balancing genre instruction with free, creative writing and a focus on the writing process.

🧠 Quick Revision Questions

1. What is the difference between lexical cohesion and grammatical cohesion? Give one example of each.
2. How does the definite article "the" function differently in anaphoric reference versus exophoric reference?
3. Explain why a text can be highly cohesive but still lack coherence, using the example provided in the lecture.
4. What is the "genre trap" in teaching writing, and how can teachers avoid it?
5. According to the lecture, why is reading a prerequisite for successful writing instruction within a specific genre?

📘 Lecture 31 — Teaching the Nuts and Bolts of Writing I

📖 Overview: This lecture introduces the foundational mechanical components of writing—handwriting, spelling, punctuation, and sentence/paragraph construction—that underpin effective written communication. It emphasizes that mastering these "nuts and bolts" is essential for students, especially those whose first language (L1) differs significantly from English, before they can write creatively.

🗂️ Topics Covered

The lecture begins by defining writing as a tool for making languages readable, then moves into teaching the mechanics of writing, including handwriting, spelling challenges in English, and practical strategies for teaching spelling. It covers the importance of recognizing and producing English letters for handwriting, the complexity and regularity of English spelling, and numerous activities for raising student awareness of sound-spelling correspondences.

📝 Lecture Summary

Topic-165: Introduction

Writing is a medium of human communication that represents language with signs and symbols. For languages that utilize a writing system, inscriptions create a durable version of speech that can be stored or transmitted across distance. Writing is not a language itself, but a tool used to make languages readable. Within a language system, writing relies on the same structures as speech, including vocabulary, grammar, and semantics, with the added dependency of a system of signs or symbols. The result is called text, and the recipient is called a reader.

Topic-166: Teaching Mechanics of Writing

Writing has mechanical components including handwriting, spelling, punctuation, and the construction of well-formed sentences, paragraphs, and texts. These are the "nuts and bolts" of writing that must be focused on at certain learning stages. The greater the difference between a student's L1 and English in these areas, the bigger the challenge. Activities designed to help students overcome problems with handwriting and spelling are called enabling exercises—they help students on the way to developing overall writing ability. Similarly, techniques like copying and parallel writing (imitating a written model) give students basic mechanical competence they can use when writing more creatively.

🔑 Definition — Enabling exercises: Activities designed to help students overcome problems with handwriting and spelling, on the way to developing an overall writing ability.

🔑 Definition — Parallel writing: Imitating a written model to give students basic mechanical competence for creative writing.

Topic-167: Teaching Handwriting

Despite the growth of computer use, handwriting remains necessary and widespread in exams, postcards, forms, etc. Handwriting can be particularly difficult for students from L1 backgrounds using different scripts, such as Chinese, Japanese, Arabic, or Indonesian. Areas of difficulty include producing the shapes of English letters in both upper case (capitals) and lower case (non-capital) forms, as well as the relative size of letters and their correct positioning with or without ruled lines. For students accustomed to right-to-left scripts (e.g., Arabic), Western script going left-to-right involves problems of perception and requires a different angle and position for the writing arm.

Teachers can follow a two-stage approach: first recognition of letters, then production of letters. Students must recognize English letters before they can form them correctly. For example, students can be asked to recognize specific letters within a sequence of letters.

🔑 Definition — Two-stage approach for teaching handwriting: First, students recognize letters; then, they produce them.

Topic-168: The Spelling Challenge

English spelling is often described as irregular due to a lack of spelling-sound correspondence. For example, the same sounds can be spelt differently (threw and through both sound like /θruː/), and the same spelling can be pronounced differently (threw vs. sew, through vs. trough). However, English spelling is complex but fairly regular—there are usually clear rules, though they often have exceptions applying to only a small number of words. For example, the rule that "gd" at the end of words is silent (e.g., reigned) is broken by words like enough—but enough is only one of seven such words. Similarly, the rule "i before e except after c" explains believe vs. conceive but has exceptions like seize, weird, species, Neil.

Learners need to be aware of homophones (words that sound the same but are spelt differently), such as threw/through, sun/son, sew/so. What appears to be a disadvantage in sound-spelling correspondence actually serves an important purpose: spelling differentiates these words in writing, making English relatively easy to read. Word roots remain recognizable even when affixes are added (e.g., sing → singing, art → artist). The function of affixes is reflected in their spelling—for example, -ist and -est are both pronounced /ɪst/ in artist and fastest, but spelling makes it clear that the first denotes someone who does something, while the second gives a superlative form.

🔑 Definition — Homophones: Words that sound the same but are spelt differently, e.g., threw and through.

📐 Formula: Spelling rule "i before e except after c" → Most of the time, i comes before e except when the letters follow c, e.g., believe vs. conceive (with exceptions like weird).

Topic-169: Teaching Spelling

The best way to help students learn spelling is to have them read as much as possible. Extensive reading (reading longer texts like simplified readers for pleasure) helps students remember English spelling rules and their exceptions, though many may need encouragement. Teachers can be more proactive by raising the issue of sound and spelling correspondence, giving word formation exercises, getting students to work out their own spelling rules, and using activities to familiarize them with spelling patterns:

• Students hear words and identify sounds made by common digraphs (pairs of letters with one sound, e.g., ck pronounced /k/) and trigraphs (three letters with one sound, e.g., tch pronounced /tʃ/).
• Reading aloud can be useful when the teacher takes students through a short text, getting them to listen to words, repeat them correctly, and coaching them to read "with feeling." If the text demonstrates certain spellings, it focuses minds on how specific spellings sound or how specific sounds are spelt.
• Students read and listen to a series of words sharing the same sound (e.g., small, always, organised, four, sort, more) and identify the sound. They then check if the sound is present in other similarly spelt words (e.g., call, our, work, port). This raises awareness of the convergence and divergence of sounds and spellings.
• The same effect can be achieved by focusing on a particular letter. Students listen to words containing the same letter and say what the sound of the letter is in each case. For the letter a, students say whether it sounds like the a in cat, or in a bottle, or in many, or in say, or like the o in or. They then read sentences such as: Tony loves playing golf much more than other games. He thinks it’s absolutely fascinating. He thought Saturday’s game on TV was amazing...

🔑 Definition — Digraph: A pair of letters commonly associated with one sound, e.g., ck pronounced /k/.

🔑 Definition — Trigraph: Three letters usually pronounced the same way, e.g., tch pronounced /tʃ/.

🔑 Definition — Extensive reading: Reading longer texts, such as simplified readers, for pleasure, which helps students remember spelling rules and exceptions.

⭐ Key Takeaways

The most critical point is that writing is a tool, not a language, and its mechanical components—handwriting, spelling, punctuation, and sentence/paragraph construction—are foundational skills that must be explicitly taught. Handwriting requires a two-stage approach of recognition before production, and students from different L1 scripts face specific challenges with letter shapes, size, and direction. English spelling, though complex with apparent irregularities, is fairly regular with rules that serve important functions like distinguishing homophones and preserving word roots for reading comprehension. The most effective spelling instruction combines extensive reading with proactive activities focusing on sound-spelling correspondence, digraphs, trigraphs, and targeted exercises that raise students' awareness of convergence and divergence in the English spelling system.

🧠 Quick Revision Questions

1. What is the two-stage approach for teaching handwriting to students struggling with English letter formation?
2. Why does the lecture argue that the complexity of English spelling is not entirely a disadvantage—what useful purpose does it serve?
3. What is the difference between a digraph and a trigraph in English spelling instruction?
4. According to the lecture, what is the single best way to help students learn to spell, and what type of reading does it involve?
5. Give two examples of English spelling rules mentioned in the lecture that have exceptions, and name one exception for each rule.

📘 Lecture 32 — Teaching the Nuts and Bolts of Writing II

📖 Overview: This lecture focuses on the foundational mechanics of writing, specifically punctuation, copying, and sentence/paragraph construction. It provides practical teaching strategies for helping students master these "nuts and bolts" to improve clarity, accuracy, and overall writing quality, from elementary to advanced levels.

🗂️ Topics Covered

The lecture covers six main topics: Teaching Punctuation (I), Teaching Punctuation (II), Copying, Teaching Sentence Writing, Teaching Paragraph Construction, and Teaching Text Construction II (including both controlled and free text construction). Each topic presents specific classroom activities and techniques for developing students’ written accuracy and organizational skills.

📝 Lecture Summary

Topic-170: Teaching Punctuation (I)

Using punctuation correctly is an important skill. People judge the quality of writing not just on content, language, and handwriting, but also on punctuation use. If capital letters, commas, full stops, and sentence/paragraph boundaries are used incorrectly, it can make a negative impression and make a text difficult to understand.

While email communication may seem to require less accurate punctuation, even emails can be formal or official. Careless keyboard use may make a poor impression. To help students become good writers in English, teachers need to teach punctuation conventions from the very beginning, so that by upper-intermediate level, students can complete revision exercises with ease.

💡 Why this matters: Punctuation is a key marker of written competence; poor punctuation can undermine the clarity and credibility of any written work.

Topic-171: Teaching Punctuation (II)

This topic offers practical ideas for helping students recognize and use punctuation correctly.

Activity 1 - Capital Letters: Elementary-level students can study a collection of words and identify which ones have capital letters, e.g., Anita, and, apple, April, Argentina, art, Australian, Andrew, act, at, in, island, I, ice, Iceland. They then work out the rule for why some words require capitals.

Activity 2 - Punctuating a Text: Students who have learned about commas, full stops, and capital letters can punctuate a short text like this:

"they arrived in Cambridge at one o'clock in the morning was cold with a bright moon making the river cam silver andrew ran to the water's edge angela hurrying to keep up with him ran straight into him by mistake and pushed him into the river"

Activity 3 - Punctuating Direct Reported Speech: Students can be shown a text and asked to identify punctuation features. A procedure involves giving students an extract (preferably from a book they are reading). For example:

‘I'm sorry to keep you waiting,’ a voice said. The speaker was a short man with a smiling, round face and a beard. ‘My name’s Cabinda,’ he said. ‘Passport police.’ ‘I can explain,’ Monika said quickly. ‘My hair. It's not like the photograph...’"

Students identify quotation marks, commas, apostrophes, and capital letters used in dialogue.

Topic-172: Copying

Previous copying activities involved copying single and joined-up letters, copying words from a list, and rewriting words in different columns, all to help students form letters and words from a given model.

Copying is an important real-life skill, but some students struggle. This may be due to an inability to notice key features of English spelling or difficulty with attention to detail. Computer copy-and-paste functions make matters worse by removing the need to account for how words are formed. Graeme Porte (University of Granada, Spain) found that “underachieving” students had great difficulty copying accurately when making notes or answering exam questions. His solution: have these students, under time pressure, copy a straightforward text set out in fairly short lines. They copied line by line, covering the whole text except the line they were working on. This focused their concentration and improved their copying accuracy.

🔑 Definition — Copying (in writing instruction): The act of reproducing written text from a model, used not only for learning letter formation and spelling but also as a practical life skill requiring attention to detail.

Topic-173: Teaching Sentence Writing

Students need to learn and practice the art of putting words together into well-formed sentences. One method is parallel writing, where students follow a written model.

Sentence production (elementary): The most basic form of parallel writing is sentence writing used for grammar reinforcement. Students are given one or two model sentences and must write similar sentences based on given information or their own thoughts. For example, students are given information about a character and see how information is combined with and and but. They then write similar sentences about themselves.

🔑 Definition — Parallel writing: A teaching technique where students follow a written model to produce their own sentences, paragraphs, or texts, often used for grammar reinforcement.

Topic-174: Teaching Paragraph Construction

Paragraph construction can be taught through a substitution-drill style of procedure. Students write a paragraph almost identical to one they have read, using new vocabulary within a set pattern.

Students first read a model paragraph:

"William Shakespeare is England’s most famous playwright. He was born in Stratford-on-Avon in 1564, but lived a lot of his life in London. He wrote 37 plays including Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, Henry V, and Twelfth Night. He died in Stratford-on-Avon in 1616."

After ensuring understanding, students are given a table of information about Jane Austen and asked to write a similar paragraph:

• Name: Jane Austen
• Occupation: one of England’s most famous writers
• Date of birth: 1775
• Place of birth: Steventon, Hampshire
• Lived: Bath and Southampton (cities in the south of the UK)
• Examples of work: six novels, including Emma and Mansfield Park
• Died: 1817, Winchester

Topic-175: Teaching Text Construction II

Controlled text construction: The logical organization of ideas (coherence) applies to whole texts, not just paragraphs. This example focuses on the genre of report writing.

In Activity 1, students work out the appropriate sequence for a report's five elements, raising awareness of a typical organization. In Activity 2, students look at a particular language issue (linking words) before moving on to Stages 1-3 to write a similar report.

Free text construction: This final example uses parallel writing but allows students to decide how closely to follow the original model. Instead of being bound by the layout and construction of the original, they use it as a springboard for their imagination. Students first read a story about "Stig," a large Alsatian dog, then write their own version freely.

🔑 Definition — Coherence: The logical organization of ideas within a text, ensuring that information flows in a clear and understandable sequence.

⭐ Key Takeaways

Punctuation must be taught from the beginning, as it affects clarity and credibility; practical activities (identifying capital letters, punctuating texts, and handling direct speech) build this skill gradually. Copying is both a learning tool and a real-life skill, and teachers can help struggling students by having them copy line-by-line under time pressure. Parallel writing (using models) is an effective method for teaching sentence, paragraph, and text construction, and can range from highly controlled substitution drills to free, imaginative writing. The logical organization of ideas (coherence) is crucial for both paragraphs and whole texts, especially in formal genres like report writing.

🧠 Quick Revision Questions

1. What are three practical classroom activities for teaching punctuation to students at different levels?
2. According to Graeme Porte, what specific technique helped "underachieving" students improve their copying accuracy?
3. How does the "parallel writing" technique work for teaching sentence construction at the elementary level?
4. Describe the substitution-drill procedure used in Topic-174 to teach paragraph construction about Jane Austen.
5. What is the difference between "controlled text construction" and "free text construction" in teaching writing?