The presentation includes Writing skill based on Harmer's book. It describes writing skill and the appraoches in teaching this langauge skill.

1. Teaching Writing Skill

2. Reasons for teaching writing
1. Writing for learning
Writing is used as a practice tool to help students practice and work with language they have been
studying.
Example: asking a class to write five sentences using a given structure or five of the new words
2. Writing for writing
It is directed at developing the students’ skills as writers. In other words, the main purpose for activities
of this type is that students should become better at writing.
Example: to write such things as emails, letters and reports

3. Issues to consider in teaching writing (According to Harmer)
1. Genre
2. The writing process
3. Building the writing habit

4. Genre
• A genre is a type of writing which members of a specific community would instantly
recognize for what it was.
Determine which genres are important for your students. Then show them examples of
texts within a genre to see how typical texts within a genre are constructed, and this
knowledge will help them construct appropriate texts of their own. At lower levels, we
may give them clear models to follow, and they will write something that looks very
much like the original. Such guided writing will help students produce appropriate texts
even with fairly limited English. Later they can create their own texts.

5. The writing process
When students are writing-for-writing, we will want to involve them in the process of
writing. In the ‘real world’, this typically involves planning what we are going to
write, drafting it, reviewing and editing what we have written and then producing a
final version. It’s not always a linear process, Thus we may plan, draft, re-plan, draft,
edit, re-edit, re-plan, etc. before we produce our final version.

6. Building the writing habit
Many students think that they cannot, or do not want to write. This may be because
they lack confidence, think it’s boring or believe they have ‘nothing to say’. We need
to engage them, from early levels, with activities which are easy and enjoyable to take
part in to acquire the writing habit. Some activities can help the students develop the
writing habit.

7. Some writing activities leading to the writing habit
Instant writing
Instant writing activities are those where students are asked to write immediately in response to a
teacher request. We can, for example, dictate half sentences for students to complete (e.g. ‘My favorite
relative is ...’ or ‘I will never forget the time I ...’). We can ask students to write two sentences about a
topic ‘right now’. We can give them three words and tell them to put them into a sentence as quickly as
possible.
Using music an pictures
For example, we can dictate the first sentence of a story and then have the students complete the story,
based on the music we play them. We can then dictate the first sentence again and have them write a
different story (because the music they hear is very different). Pictures offer a wealth of possibilities. We
can ask students to write descriptions of one of a group of pictures; their classmates then have to guess
which one it is.
Newspapers and magazines:
Magazines and newspapers include different types of genres such as advertisements , articles with
different headlines,… and such genres can be analyzed and learnt.
Brochures and guides:
We can get students to look at a variety of brochures (e.g. for a town, health club or leisure complex) to
analyze how they are put together. They can then write their own brochure or town guide, using this
analysis to help them.

8. Some writing activities leading to the writing habit
Collaborative writing:
Students gain a lot from constructing texts together. For example, we can have them build up a letter on
the board, where each line is written by a different student.
We can tell a story which students then have to try to reproduce in groups (a version of this activity
goes by the name dictogloss, where, when students have tried to recreate what they have heard, they
compare their versions with the original and others as a way of increasing their language awareness).
Writing to each other:
• The email interview (see above) is an example of getting students to write to each other. They can be
involved, under our supervision, in live chat sessions on the Internet,

9. Correcting written work
• Some pieces of written work maybe completely full of mistakes, but even in these cases, over-
correction can have a very demotivating effect. Rather than this, the teacher has to achieve a
balance between being accurate and truthful, on the one hand, and treating students
sensitively and sympathetically, on the other.
• One way of avoiding the ‘over-correction’ problem is for teachers to tell their students that
for a particular piece of work they are only going to correct mistakes of punctuation, or only
spelling or only grammar, etc. This has two advantages: it makes students concentrate on
that particular aspect, and it cuts down on the correction.
• Another technique which many teachers use is to agree on a list of written symbols (S =
spelling, WO = word order, etc.). When they come across a mistake, they underline it
discreetly and write the symbol in the margin. This makes correction look less damaging.

10. Handwriting
Teachers cannot ask students to change their handwriting style, but they can encourage
neatness and legibility. Especially when students are intending to take pen-and-paper exams,
such things are crucial.
For beginners, special classes or group sessions may have to be arranged to help students who
are having problems with English script. They can be shown examples of certain letters, and
the teacher can demonstrate the strokes necessary for making those shapes.

11. Major approaches to writing
• Product-oriented approach
• Process oriented approach

12. Product-oriented approach
This is a traditional approach, in which students are encouraged to mimic a model
text, which is usually presented and analyzed at an early stage.
Four stages of product-oriented approach:
• Stage 1:
Model texts are read, and then features of the genre are highlighted.
• Stage2:
This consists of controlled practice of the highlighted features, usually in
isolation.
• Stage 3:
Organization of ideas.
• Stage 4:
The students use the skills, structures and vocabulary they have been
taught to produce the product.

13. Process-oriented approach
Process-oriented method emphasizes the process of the way ideas are generated in writing. It focuses more
on the varied classroom activities which promote the development of language use: brainstorming, group
discussion, re-writing. The main stages are:
Stage 1
Generating ideas by brainstorming and discussion.
Stage 2
Students extend ideas into note form, and judge quality and usefulness of ideas.
Stage 3
Students organize ideas into spidergram or linear form. This stage helps to make the
(hierarchical) relationship of ideas more immediately obvious.
Stage 4
Students write the first draft. This is done in class and frequently in pairs or groups.
Stage 5
Drafts are exchanged, so that students become the readers of each other's work.
Stage 6
Drafts are returned and improvements are made based upon peer feedback.
Stage 7
A final draft is written.