Teaching Second Language Writing

Charlene Polio

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2016
• Print ISBN: 9781138501676
• eBook ISBN: 9781134872015
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Sprachen & Linguistik
• Subtopic: Sprachwissenschaft

This module explores the purposes of and methods for teaching second language writing. Engaging and accessible, Teaching Second Language Writing is organized into three sections that mainly focus on activities, approaches and real-life writing tasks and genres that are the most applicable and useful for the language teaching classroom.

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The Routledge E-Book Modules on Contemporary Language Teaching introduce students to the major areas of second language instruction through jargon-free style and explain concepts as they are introduced thus facilitating comprehension for those with little or no background. The series consists of independent modules that can stand alone or be combined at the discretion of the reader or instructor. The modules can also be used as supplements to existing materials for maximum flexibility. Modules in this series include:

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• Language ( Bill VanPatten)
• Communication and Skill (Bill VanPatten)
• Second Language Acquisition: The Basics (Gregory D. Keating)
• Focusing on Form in Language Instruction (Wynne Wong and Daphnée Simard)
• Vocabulary in Language Teaching (Joe Barcroft)
• Interactive Tasks (Michael J. Leeser and Justin P. White)
• Technology in Language Learning: An Overview (Bryan Smith)
• Teaching Second Language Writing (Charlene Polio)

Readers have the option to select and download electronically the 40-50 page modules for individual use, or to purchase multiple modules at once. With each module written by an expert in that respective field, with self-quizzes, reflection boxes, recommended readings, and discussion questions, these modules serve as the ideal text for introductory courses in Second Language Instruction.

To purchase these modules and view module summaries, please visit the series companion website: www.routledgetextbooks.com/textbooks/9781315679594/

Teaching Second Language Writing

Charlene Polio
Michigan State University

Overview

In this module you will explore the following topics:

• the reasons for teaching writing
• the role of writing in second language acquisition
• writing activities and tasks that will help students learn language
• collaborative writing
• goals and activities related to real-life writing tasks
• scaffolding the writing process
• options for giving feedback
• assessing writing

What Is Writing and What Is Its Purpose in the Language Classroom?

Often when we think about writing, we think of writing an essay, but writing can also be thought of in a much broader sense. Literacy researchers, who also often study first language writers, have considered writing to include daily tasks such as keeping lists and filling out forms as well as blog writing and even tweeting. In this sense, writing is a modality that helps people achieve real-life goals. In contrast, in language classes, writing can help students achieve language learning goals. In sum, writing can be something through which one communicates information to a wide audience, a tool through which one accomplishes real-life tasks, or a modality in which teachers construct pedagogical activities to help students learn language.

One approach to thinking about teaching writing is to consider three different reasons that students in language classes might write. First, writing can be used to help students learn language. For example, students studying Spanish in a beginning high school class may not have specific writing goals. Instead, they may simply want to learn to speak, or, more likely, they may not know why they are studying the language, or they may be doing so simply to fulfill a requirement. Nevertheless, teachers can (and should) construct writing activities that will help students learn language. This is often called a writing-to-learn-language approach and is discussed in more detail in the next section. An example of a writing-to-learn-language activity might be to give students a set of pictures with a set of vocabulary words and ask them to write a story describing the pictures with the words provided. The primary goal of this activity is for students to be able to use the new vocabulary as opposed to being able to write a story from pictures, which likely has no real-life equivalent.

In contrast, students might have writing goals outside of the classroom. These might include tasks as diverse as writing an email to a hotel to inquire about amenities or writing a research paper for publication. In this case, instruction should focus on writing a specific genre for a specific audience. This is often called a learning-to-write approach. Such an approach, which is detailed later, often involves having students look at real-life examples, after which the teacher helps the students through the process of producing the target text. Of course, students can and should learn language in this approach. A learning-to-write approach includes language goals, but they are directly related to the target genre. For example, if students are learning how to write a polite email in English, they would need to understand how to use modals in this context. In contrast, in a writing-to-learn-language approach, the language objectives, not the task, are the starting point.

A third approach that can be discussed in the context of language teaching is a writing-to-learn-content approach. It is easiest to think about this approach outside of a language class. For example, a teacher may have students write about how they solved a math problem to help them learn math. In this case, writing forces the students to think about and reflect on the problem-solving process. Similarly, a professor in a language teaching methods class might have students observe a class and write about the class while focusing on specific topics. Most people will never have to write about solving a math problem or about what they observed in a language class, but in both cases, the act of writing is a process for reflection and a way for students to organize their thoughts on the content.

Although this last approach is not discussed in detail here, it can be useful to consider in certain contexts related to language learning. In an ESL context, a child might understand and complete a mathematical operation but not be able to talk about math in English. Having the student write about the problem will not necessarily help the student learn math and, in fact, might slow him or her down, but it might provide the student with the vocabulary and grammar needed to be able to talk about math and understand explanations about math in English. Another context in which writing-to-learn-content should be considered is when teaching about history, literature, or culture in the target language. A teacher might, for example, have students write a journal entry about their reactions to a short story or a paper about an author’s background. The instructor’s goal may be for the students to understand the literature by writing about it. However, the act of writing, as with the ESL math student, requires productive use of grammar and vocabulary and should facilitate language learning. This approach, too, is not mutually exclusive with the others in terms of activities but rather represents a different instructional starting point related to the instructor’s goals.

This module is organized into three sections. In the first, I expand on the writing-to-learn-language approach and provide examples of activities. In the second part, I focus on real-life writing tasks and genres and activities that will scaffold students through the assignments. I end with a short discussion of the major issues related to assessing writing, but it is recommended that readers see the module on language assessment in this series for more details on the major issues related to assessment.

Reflection

What kinds of writing did you have to do when you were beginning to study another language? What do you think the purpose of the writing was?

How Can Writing Help Students Learn a Second Language?

What Are Writing-To-Learn-Language Activities?

As explained earlier, activities done when preparing or helping students write real-life genres can and should facilitate language learning. Thus, writing-to-learn-language and learning-to-write activities are not mutually exclusive, and many of the activities can be used for either purpose. Although this module conceptualizes writing very broadly, it does not include writing at only the word or sentence level. For example, a cloze passage (i.e., a text with blanks for certain words), a sentence dictation, or a grammar transformation activity (e.g., changing present tense sentences into past tense) would not be considered as writing here. Such activities are not necessarily bad, but the latter two, specifically, do not teach students anything about discourse-level issues, such as coherence and cohesion. Below are two examples of how these activities can be transformed from activities mostly devoid of meaning into more meaningful writing activities that require writing connected discourse.

Original Activity: Dictation

The students listen to a teacher read the following sentences one at a time as the students write them.

A thief was chased by a policeman.

Some money was stolen from the bank.

The police were called by the bank manager.

Improved Activity: Self-dictation

The teacher displays the following passage on the screen (or hands the students a paper copy). After a certain amount of time, the teacher hides the passage (or has the students turn th...

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