Teaching English as Second language

1. Materials for Developing Writing Skills
Sarah O. Cruz

2. Materials for Developing Writing Skills
• Together with teaching methodologies,
materials represent the interface between
teaching and learning, the point at which the
needs, objectives and the syllabi are made
tangible for both teacher and students

3. Roles of Materials in writing
Instruction
1.Model
• presents good examples of the target genre
and illustrate its distinctive features(lexical,
grammatical and rhetorical)
• Must be relevant and authentic

4. Roles of Materials in writing
Instruction
2. Language Scaffolding
• Provides opportunities for discussion, guided
writing, analysis, and manipulation of target
structures and vocabulary,
• Grammar should be taught inductively(top-
down)
• Grammar as resource for producing text

5. Roles of Materials in writing
Instruction
3. Reference
Provides explanations and examples of relevant
forms

6. Roles of Materials in writing
Instruction
4. Stimulus
• Encourages learners to think about and use
language

7. Selecting Writing Materials
A. Ask
• 1. What is the proficiency of my students?
• 2. Why are they learning English?
• 3. What texts will they need to write in their
social, academic, and workplace contexts?

8. Selecting Writing Materials
B. Determine the text types to which the
students need to be familiar
• Emails
• Reports
• Narratives
• Persuasives

9. Textbook as Writing Material
"Teaching writing is primarily a local and complex
endeavor which defies being packaged into a single
textbook."
• Consider the textbook's local relevance (i.e.,
suitability to the needs of the students, teachers,
curricula)
• Remember the five methods of adapting
materials: adding, deleting, modifying,
simplifying, reordering.

10. The Internet
• Some of the many advantages:
offers access to an abundance of authentic
materials
• encourages collaborative research and writing
projects
• provides access to dictionaries, corpora, and
reference aids
• provides opportunities for student written
communication and dissemination of their work
to a wider audience

11. Representative Resources for Teachers
and Students
• Dave's Internet Cafe (www.eslcafe.com)
• BBC English
(www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/)
• Writing Centers' Online Discussion Community
(lists.uwosh.edu/mailman/listinfo/wcenter)
• WPA-L: Writing Program Administration
(www.wpacouncil.org/wpa-l)
• Online Writing Lab (OWL) at Purdue
(owl.english.purdue.edu)
• Using English (www.usingenglish.com)
• ESL Gold (www.eslgold.com/writing)
• Blackboard, Moodle, etc.

12. Creating Writing Materials
Recommendation
• participating in materials-writing teams
• leaning heavily on existing materials

13. Model for Materials Design (Hutchison
and Waters 1987)
• Four key components:
A. Input (text that provides stimulus for
thought, context and purpose for writing,
opportunities to use and build on prior
knowledge, etc.)
B. Content Focus (topics, situations, and
information for meaningful communication)

14. Model for Materials Design (Hutchison
and Waters 1987)
C. Language Focus (opportunities for text
analysis and integration of new knowledge)
D. Task (culminating communicative activity and
writing assignment)

15. Using the Input Text
• model to highlight genre features and context
• foundation for building content schemata and
initiating writing through extensive reading
and discussion (focus on comprehension,
reflection, engagement)

16. References
• Masood, A
citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=
10.1.1.837.7694&rep=rep1&type.
• Tomlinson, B
http://www.iltec.pt/pdf/Principles%20and%20
Procedures%20of%20Materials%20Developm
ent%20Paper.pdf
• https://prezi.com/jtxdjtmoi-va/materials-for-
developing-writing-skills-ken-hyland/