WRITING FOR ELEMENTARY LEVEL

The main features of the writing program:

a)      the writing program should continue to provide opportunities for reinforcing language learned orally:

As assumed that the learners are being exposed to a great amount of written language either through the type of texts in their course book or through supplementary reading. As this stage therefore, the amount of dialogue writing should be gradually reduced, although it should not be abandoned altogether, partly because it is one way of getting the students to write material which they can use themselves – for oral work, for example – and partly because dialogue writing may be one of the requirements of the examination. However, as the main format for reinforcement practice at this level, we can now begin to make greater use of informal letter writing, since this provides a convenient and appropriate way of re-presenting material learned orally of course by this stage the learners are already familiar with this type of writing.

b)      The writing program should be designed to include a greater range of the resources of the written language:

We must increase the learners’ awareness of rhetorical devices such as comparison and contrast, definition, exemplification and their ability to use these. For this purpose, we should now begin to introduce a certain amount of institutional-type writing, such as formal letters and reports. As at the previous stage of the program, when the students were introduced to writing informal letters, this component will teach them something new through writing and will therefore increase their interest and motivation.

c)      The amount of control over what the learners write should be reduced:

At this stage they should learn to respond the cues which stimulate their imaginations but leave them relatively or completely free to decide what they actually write and how they organize their ideas.

d)      The range of communication tasks should be extended:

The learners are given opportunities for free expressions these will to some extend involve greater reliance on role-play techniques.

 

The role of the teacher: it has been emphasized that this is a delicate and crucial stage of the writing program. It is especially important therefore so:

a)      get the right balance of writing activities: for example with regard to dialogue writing, this should be reduced considerably unless it is an examination requirement. At the same time it is important to extend systematically the sentence linking and sequencing component of the program. No real progress will be made unless this done.

b)      Ensure that the type of writing activity and the formats used to practice these are sufficiently varied so that the students do not get bored: practice materials may have to be selected and adapted from a variety of sources.

c)      Gauge carefully the amount of guidance required: the amount of oral preparation for many writing activities can now be reduced. The amount of individual writing may also be increased, especially when the students approach the time when they will have to do a public written examination. For certain activities, however, it has been suggested that pair and group work will still be extremely valuable.

 

Reinforcement activities:

The need to provide opportunities for practicing what has been learned orally continues throughout this stage, although the increasing use of texts other than dialogues now makes it possible to introduce writing activities which are based more directly on a reading text.

The suggestions for reinforcement activities given below are classified according to the type of writing involved.

1)      DİALOGUE WRITING:

a)                          the students are given a model dialogue, together with cues for writing parallel versions. It is guided rather than controlled and the students can select from the cues provided. In the example below, which focuses on offering advice, the students also have to modify the form of the cues.

 

Read this dialogue:

A: what’s up Mike?

B:I don’t know what to do this evening.

A: well, why don’t you go to the club, then?

B: oh, that is not much fun, is it?

A: well how about coming to the cinema with me?

B: Hmm, that sounds like a much better idea!

 

Now choose any of these ideas (or use ones of your own) write similar dialogues:

Go and see (Jane) go for a walk

Help me cook the supper sit and read the paper

Have a game of cards write some letters

Help me wash the car go and watch television

 

b)                          the students are given an incomplete dialogue, together with instructions for completing it. These do not specify the actual words to be used.

 

Complete this dialogue:

A: ………………………..( suggest doing something)

B: oh, all right. If that is what you really want to do.

A: ………………………..( enquire about B’s wishes )

B: don’t know. Go to the cinema, perhaps.

A: ………………………..( object to this idea )

B: oh all right then. Let’s……………………….

Now write (2) similar dialogues on your own.

c)                          the students write the complete dialogue. They are given an outline or “map” of the dialogue, but none of the actual words to be used:

 

 

 

Another possibility is to give students a scenario.

Mr. A has an appointment with Mr. B in big office block. When he enters the building, he announces his arrival to the receptionists, who speaks to Mr. B on the phone. The receptionist then tells Mr. A how to get to Mr. B’s office. Mr. A gets out of the lift on the wrong floor. He meets an employee, who offers to take him to Mr. B’s office. When he gets there, Mr. A, who is now rather late, makes his excuses and explains what happened.

It may be felt that this is rather a long way round to get the students to write a dialogue but remember at this stage we are looking ways of providing guidance without control. Both the dialogue map and scenarios direct the students towards certain uses of language, and thus prevent the production of rambling and often trivial dialogues, but at the same time require them to think of the actual words, which will fit the situation. When they translate the scenarios into dialogue form they can also write some narrative commentary in the form of stage directions.

d)                          the students write a dialogue for which the setting is defined and some suggestions are given for the language to be used.

 

For example:

You are in a restaurant with a friend. You are looking at the menu, trying to decide what to have. Write the conversation you have. You may use these phrases:

How about………..? that’s (rather)…………

What shall we have to…………? I wonder what…………

Have you ever…………………? Why don’t we……………..

This looks………………… let’s ask…………………….

 

For activities (b) to (d), it is suggested that the students should be allowed to collaborate, either in pairs or small groups, at least for the initial stage of the activity, when various possible forms of expressions can be discussed.

2)      WRITING NOTES AND LETTERS

By this stage the students are already familiar with writing informal letters, but there are various things we can do to give this activity a new slant. For example, we can teach new ways of beginning and ending letters. We can also see that the students are given systematic opportunities to practice writing letters which have, overall, a specific function such as making an apology ( a complaint, an excuse), sending congratulations, giving directions, etc., and at the same time show how such tasks will require very uses of language on different occasions and in particular how these depend on the relationship between the writer and the person he is addressing.

a)                          the students are given a model text, together with cues for writing parallel versions. The cues may be phased out so that the students produce their own versions.

b)                          The students are given an incomplete text, with suggestions or instructions about how to complete it. This activity can be particularly useful for practicing speicific items of language, (such as the –ing form.)

c)                          The students complete a text by expanding notes. Activities like those suggested in (b) and (c) lend themselves well to related writing tasks within the context already established. For example the students may be asked to write a short reply to a letter based on some cues about the letter given.

d)                          The students write the complete text. They are given guidance of the content but not for the language to be used.

 

3)      WRITING SHORT REPORTS:

The students may also be given a guided introduction to writing reports. For this, guidance should focus chiefly on the organization and orderly presentation of ideas.

a)                          As a preliminary step, the students complete forms similar to this one.

 

 

 

 

b)                          the students are given a model text, together with cues for writing parallel versions.

c)                          The students are given a model text and, after focused practice ( e.g. identifying advantages and disadvantages) are asked to write parallel one.

 

Sentence linking and sequencing activities:

This component of the writing program should be extended and strengthen by varying the formats for practice to include formal letters (for this the students must be given appropriate models) and reports, by expanding the basic kit of linking devices. Suggestions for activities are given below:

a)      the students complete a short text by using linking words or phrases.

We can use this type of exercise for various purposes. First, to familiarize the students with a wider range of linking devices from the expanded basic kit. After this, they may be asked to select from a list which is more extensive than the number of items omitted from the text. Finally they may be asked to supply their own linking devices. Again the students may be asked to do these tasks in pairs or in small groups, so that they can discuss the various possibilities. It should be emphasized that there need be no one correct version. What is important is that, if the students choose an item which did not appear in the original version, they should consider whether this affects the meaning of the text and if so, in what way. At this stage we may also use incomplete texts to et the students to consider other semantic links through grammar and lexis.

b)      the students combine sentences so that they form an acceptable sequence: the linking devices my be provided or the students may use their own supplies.

c)      The students rewrite texts within the framework of a related outline

d)      The students form texts from a list of jumbled sentences: the purpose of this activity is to get the students to think about sentence sequencing, it must not become just a puzzle. Narrative texts usually have a fairly transparent sequence and therefore provide a good stating point. You can provide some frame work or reference, as with the map in the activity below. As a final stage, use expository texts with a clear openşng “topic” sentence. Otherwise the first sentence should be indicated:

 

Look at the map. John lives at 7, elm lane. He is having a party. What directions must he give to his friend? Put these instructions in the right order. Number them 1 to 7.

 

 

Walk along until you get to the to the

library

 

 

Walk around the pond to hazelbank road

 

 

 

Get off the bus at the Green man.

 

 

Turn right in the elm lane

 

 

Turn right into firtree lane

Number seven is

Go over the bridge.on the left.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

e)      The students do exercises which specially direct their attention to the high way ideas are organized in a text.

f)        The students write texts based on a model that has a clear logical development.

 

Communication activities:

At this stage, it is important that communication activities should match the growing ability of the learners express themselves through the written form of the language. They should, therefore in the first instance be on a much more extensive scale, compared with the modest tasks of sending messages and notes. They must also be more challenging. With this type of writing activity the students may of course make mistakes, as with free oral expression but the important thing, from the point of view of motivation, is to demonstrate that writing is a purposeful activity.

You should also encourage and help the students to find pen friends as a way of extending communication practice. From time to time you can also conduct all or part of the lesson entirely through the medium of writing so that the students really appreciate what is involved in giving and receiving instructions, request, etc., in this way.

-         Role play activities:

-         Report writing activities are also good examples for communication activities.

 

 

Writing for fun:

It demonstrates to the students how much more they can get out of an activity as their proficiency in the language increases. Amongst the activities suggested, it is especially important to go on using questionnaires and quizzes, jumbled texts, role descriptions, imaginary diaries, and writing about pictures and speech bubbles. For writing about pictures in particular we can begin to expect more than just a few sentences and ideas jotted down.

a)      posing problems: the students work in pairs or small groups, think up problem situations such as:
what would you do if…….( the school caught fire/ you became prime minister/ you have to live without water for a month..)?

we need ( €1000) at once! Can you suggest me some ways of getting or making money?

They then send these problems to one or more other pairs or groups for their suggestions or solutions.

b)      writing clues for crosswords: for this the students, working in pairs or small groups, are given a crossword puzzle ( perhaps made up by another group.). they then have to write the clues ( which you would normally be given to complete the crossword puzzle.).

c)      role description: the students have to produce descriptions which could be used for simple simulation situations( based perhaps on characters in the coursebook). The text involves more sentence linking and sequencing than the earlier activity, but still is a relatively straight forward piece of writing. Once again , “ the role description is intended for a specific person and should aim to be amusing.

 

 

 

your name is Jacky snatcher. You lived in the village when you were a child. Your fat-

her was the shopkeeper and you didn’t have much money. Now you are rich and you

want to make a lot of changes. For example:

 

a good hotel ( your husband like drinking/ …………)

a supermarket ( you want to be able to shop quickly/….)

a police station ( you like to have a lot of policeman around/…….)

 

 

 

Scenarios: the students, working in groups, write scenarios. Or short stories which they give to one another to decide how to act out. Notice that the scenario has opportunities or talk for but does not give any of ther actual words.

d)      inaccurate accounts: the students, working in groups, write a description of a well-known person, place or thing or an account of event which contains some deliberate mistakes of fact. The groups then exchange what they have written and try to detect the inaccuracies.

e)      Jumbled stories: students work in groups, have to write two short stories about four to six sentences each. The stories can be about the same person or a similar event. The stories are then cur up into separate sentences and given to another group to sort out into original stories.

f)        Jigsaw writing: cut up any suitable picture: each should have it have a clear over all structure and some, but not too much. Give one such picture to each group and ask the students to work in pairs to work out a description of one or more pieces. They should not look at one another’s pieces. When they gave written out their descriptions, they should put away their pieces and try to work out what the picture as a whole looks like from what they have written. When they have described, orally or in writing, the complete picture they can check this against the visual.

g)      Headlines: give each group one or more headlines like the ones below. This can be invented or taken from real news papers. Ask the students to discuss and write out the related story. At this level ( and for the purpose of this activity) the sty-udents should not br asked to try to write a news paper account of the story. The important thing is for them to use their imagination. Ideas are more important than formally correct language. If the headline comes from a real news paper, you can compare their version with the original. If all groups have the same headlines, you can also compare versions across the class.

h)      Graffiti: most students like to write on walls from time to time: this activity may encourage them to be more creative! Give the students some examples of imaginative graffiti. Then ask them (individually in pairs or groups.) to try their hand at writing their own graffiti. It sometimes helps to suggest an event or a location.