Teaching Writing and Text-Based Teaching

Writing interrelates to literacy where literate people can utilize the ability in writing for some purposes such as academic writing. Harmer (2007) asserted the detail information regarding to literacy. In handwriting, it is firstly done by every people in learning. They learn writing from handwriting. In a classroom, each student will produce different handwriting. Some people say that handwriting is your characteristics. However, the concern is not on ow readable their handwriting but the content or the writing quality. Also, spelling becomes one of the biggest problem in learning English. Many words with different spelling can be pronounced the same. Thus, the teachers are suggested to introduce them with phonemes and contrast the spelling differences and compare the same pronunciation. Layout should also be introduced to distinguish the type of layout in every text type. Punctuation is not as serious as spelling yet it is also needed to be presented.

In teaching writing, the teachers’ goals are mostly the product where the students are encouraged to produce a readable writing. The steps usually involve pre-writing, editing, re-drafting, and a final product.  Genre should also be introduces. Emilia (2017) in International Seminar of English Language easserted that genre is very important. How can the students make a writing with the right chronological order if the genres are not taught? In addition, language features, rules, and the structure willl supoort the riting quality. It will be different from creative writing where genres are not the focus. The students’ creativity are explored in writing this. In abig class, it is suggested to use cooperative writing where the students are grouped. Some students may be frustrated because they cannot write in English. Thus, it is teacher’s job to introduce some interesting and easy steps. It can also be used to mtivate them. The roles of the teachers in teaching writing skill are as a motivator, resource, feedback and provider.

The nuts and the bolts of writing present the awareness of punctuation. Then, the paragraph reconstruction can be learnt through a puzzled story and they have to arrange it well. In using poem, the students are divided into some groups and it uses dictation. A representative will memrize the poem given and thell tell friend how the writings are. Another media are movies or videos where they engage to review it. The students will be excited when their works are collected by the teacher. This is called portfolios.

A Commonly Found Question

Question	:	What is the best approach to teach writing to young learners, especially the lower level?
Answer	:	In teaching, there is no the best approach to conduct. What we consider as the best approach nowadays may become a boring approach in the future. Moreover, if it is applied regularly, the children will not be weel-motivated an it leads them to boredom. Therefore, the activity should engage them i learning. Also, the task should be easy enough for them. The teachers are suggested to bolster the learners’ product pride by putting a speacial attention to their works, such as making a show case regarding to their work in the classroom.

Critical Analysis

In teaching writing, the teachers commonly ignore the process of writing because the goal in the syllabus is the produt not the process. However, how can they produce a good writing if they cannot run the appropriate steps? Therefore, emphasizing the process is also compulsory.

Writing as a cooperative activity never worked well in my classes. The students prefer to do it individually. Moreover, if the class consists of mixed ability students. The good students do not want to be grouped with the lower level. If they are group with the same level students, the poor learners will be intimidated. Therefore, it sometimes does not work. Surprisingly, they work very well in individual writing. However, cooperating writing can only be done as a school work not a homework. On the other hand, grouping them with the same level will give adavantages for the teachers because each group will have the same abilities. The teacher can explain to the groups. Also, the product should not be presented, it is suggested that they only make it. The poor learners group will feel anxious because their writing is not as good as the good learers. Morever, it is not allowed to give score after the presentation. The score should be the teacher’s secret.

References

Harmer, Jeremy. 2007a. The Practice of English Language Teaching. Malaysia: Pearson Education Limited.

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