Vivian Cook and H. Douglas Brown have differing views on second language writing skills, but agree that written language represents spoken language. The essay argues that writing relies on speech, and learning to write helps develop reading skills. It also stresses the importance of teacher feedback and assistance in helping students understand the writing process to improve their skills.

1. The objective of this essay was to compare and contrast different points of view of
two recognized researchers on second language learning, Vivian Cook and H.
Douglas Brown. I could noticed they have different perception about writing skill,
but at the same time they have the same opinion that written language is the
graphic representation of spoken language. I totally agree that writing depends on
speech because we can see that writing is the formal way of our speaking;
moreover, learning writing is important to develop another skill as reading. For
example, when we are learning a second language we need to read to know how
to write. In addition, another thing that I could notice was the importance of the
teacher’s role at the moment of teaching writing. In my opinion, is difficult for
students to know how to write in English if they do not have help from a teacher,
but if teachers give feed-back to the students, time enough to write and help them
to understand the composing process they could get excellent results.
Writing skill is as important as reading, speaking and listening, but we as future
teachers have the responsibility to find entertaining strategies to engage our
student and also to facilitate them this process.