Nowadays, second-language teachers face new challenges
in the process of instructing and educating students for them to
be active subjects in the teaching learning process.
It is essential, then to assume this process not as an
isolated matter but as a task that covers all areas giving
students the possibility to acquire knowledge making use of their
right to think, to differentiate, to discover, to analyze, to
deduce, to create, to compare and to produce
. Language is the most used human tool and thus, we have
the right to use it to say what we want, we can or we need to
say. Language is dynamic; it is in a constantly changing process
because men need to find answers, to give solutions to assume our
role in the present world.
Traditionally, second-language learners have paid more
attention to speaking or listening and have taken aside writing
may be following the principle that states that language is
primarily oral, but the present development of the Information
and Communication Technologies has made possible to use writing
more and more to simple send an e-mail to a friend, to inform
millions pf persons about the oil prices or to make a weather
report.
One of the challenges of teachers is to develop the
written language of students .Writing is both things, a technique
and an art. Some writing elements are the result of a rule while
others are just a matter of aptitude.
Writing, thus, is not a spontaneous skill like speaking;
it demands the clear organization and presentation of the
material. This is just the simplest requirement. It is essential
also for writing a text to reflect on the communication
situation, to take down notes, to make graphs and finally to take
into consideration that writing is closely related to reading,
listening and speaking.
Besides, writing is not simply speech written down on a
sheet of paper. It is very necessary to take into account the
differences between writing and speaking in the process of
teaching a second language. Writing requires more time in terms
of planning because it does not count on some oral resources like
gestures or intonation to convey information but only on words
and syntax. Speakers and addresses are mostly face to face while
writers and readers are not.
Although speaking and writing differ in some ways, they
share many features from the sociolinguistic and developmental
perspectives. Written language affects speaking then; writing can
be used to improve speaking.
The idea of using writing to improve speaking may seem
strange to many people because common sense tells us that
speaking should improved by the practice of
speaking:
- Writing is easier to handle for those students who
are not ready to speak up in class, psychologically or
physically. - Writing can reinforced what has been practiced
orally. - Writing activities are applicable to a large class if
the activities require no teacher response.
Writing activities are expected to facilitate speaking
in an indirect way and can be used as warm up activities and
homework. If the aim is to improve speaking, the writing task
itself should not be very difficult. If the students already know
the basic skills of writing such as grammar, vocabulary and
punctuation, the task becomes easier.
But, we should not feel well if the students can produce
texts only to communicate with others, writing should be a tool
to express feelings and emotions, to make and affective and
aesthetic contact with others through written words.
Writing is intimately related to other language skills.
One reads a text to write answers to questions or to summarize
it. Similarly, one usually discusses ideas before writing them
down; and one listens before writing. There are different types
of writing which reflect the different reasons for writing.
Whether students are writing an examination, a letter to a
friend, a newspaper article, or simply filling out a form, it is
very important for them to be able to communicate effectively and
it depends on the student’s ability to structure and
organize words and sentences into a meaningful whole.
A student who successfully arranges words in a writing
task must have mastered the grammatical rules. Traditionally; the
correct placement of words in a sentence was proof of the
student’s effective ability in writing.
However, effective writing is much more than that.
Writing is a difficult skill for native speakers and non-native
speakers as alike, because writers must balance multiple issues
such as content, organization, purpose, audience, vocabulary,
punctuation, spelling, and mechanics such capitalization. Writing
is especially difficult for non-native speakers because they are
expected to create written products that demonstrate mastery of
all the above elements in a new language. In addition, writing
has been taught for many years as a product rather than as a
process. Therefore, teachers emphasize grammar and punctuation
rather than decisions about the content and the organization of
ideas. Sometimes, students are exposed to the rules of writing
and grammar from the outset without developing their ability to
express their ideas.
Reading and writing are long-enduring technologies.
Reading and writing have been aided by a wide range of physical
technologies such as the development and mass production of paper
and pencil, typewriter, and ball point pen. More recently,
computer technology has added the benefits of word
processors, high quality computer graphics, and laser printers to
"traditional" reading and writing. Producing and accessing
written information continues to benefit from new and improving
techniques provided by the latest technology.
In addition to new writing tools, the technology field
brings new environments for writers, such as e-mail and various
Internet
"chat" modes.
Writers and readers benefit from the new dimensions being added
to reading and writing in interactive, multimedia
documents. Writers can make use of computer technology to publish
professional quality documents in both paper and electronic
format.
It is relatively easy to determine that the changes in
reading and writing are improvements for both readers and
writers. It is less easy to determine if these same changes are
improving the learning that occurs when students read and write
with these new tools. The question of improved benefits for
students is still being researched. Do students read and write
with greater skill as a result of the new tools? Since the
equipment and programming languages were changing too rapidly for
schools to be able to keep up with technology, students were
going out into the work world without the needed
training.
As the technology started being affordable, it became
viewed as an efficient way to provide instruction at lower class
levels. Teachers found that the basic skills review practice they
were providing were begun to be offered by computer programs.
These programs would use colourful visuals and animations to
"drill and skill" students on simple math problems or spelling
words (Viadero, 1997).
Since then, the computer's track record is getting
better. In research done by Kulik and Kulik (1991), 254 studies
were conducted between the mid 1960's and mid 1980's which
measured students' learning comparing a classroom using
computer-aided instruction with a classroom that did not.
Overall, students in the computer-using classrooms learned more
and learned it faster. They gained the equivalent of about three
months of regular classroom learning -progress that is about par
for many kinds of classroom interventions (Mediated Learning
Review, 1996).
Other studies suggest that computer-based lessons were
particularly effective for teaching basic skills to disadvantaged
students because they started out in school further behind their
more affluent classmates in reading, writing, and arithmetic.
Inspired by the research of cognitive scientists, educators are
favouring classroom environments in which students take charge of
their own learning, learn to think critically and analytically,
work collaboratively, and create projects which demonstrate what
they have learned. As the thinking about technology in the
education field changes, it becomes clear that "drill and skill"
programs are not enough. The old style of schooling in which a
teacher stands in front of a room and is the "sage on the stage"
who lectures seems very ineffective compared to "child-centred"
instructors, who function as a facilitating "guides on the side."
It seems time to put learning in the hands of students (Viadero,
1997).
Writing, an important part of the language learning, is
essentially a reflective activity that requires enough time to
think about the specific topic and to analyze and classify any
background knowledge. Then, writers need suitable language to
structure these ideas in the form of a coherent discourse. The
teacher’s purpose, therefore, is to help learners produce
self-contained compositions. But for the learners to do so, they
have to link and to develop information, ideas, or arguments in
logical sequences. Without writing practice, students have
difficulty in achieving clarity, which is the goal of any writing
exercise.
Too often it is assumed that after giving learners an
initial stimulus to arouse interest in a given topic, teachers
can simply leave learners to complete the writing tasks. But even
professional writers must make plans, use notes, reflect on
issues, and make some several rough drafts before completing
their work. So; students who are still learning the process of
thinking through writing require their teachers’ help to
structure and organize their ideas.
Experience has shown teachers, researches, and school
administrators that, just like language itself, testing practices
in English language teaching are not static but dynamic and
changing. One controversial area is testing writing which that
test construction
and evaluation criteria be based on course objectives and
teaching methodologies. In the English language classroom,
especially at the high school and university levels, teachers are
always challenged by how to reliably and validly evaluate
students’ writing skills, so that the students will be
better prepared for internal and external proficiency and
achievement exams. Indeed, writing in the academic community is
paramount; a student can’t be successful without a certain
level of academic writing proficiency.
There are many reasons for testing writing in the
English language classroom, including to meet diagnostic,
proficiency, and promotional needs. It is generally accepted by
teachers and researchers that there are two main goals of
testing: first, to provide feedback during the process of
acquiring writing proficiency, and second, to assign a grade or
score that will indicate the level of the written
product.
Evaluation of writing in English language teaching has a
long history, with various procedures and scoring criteria being
revised and adapted to meet the needs of administrators,
teachers, and learners. For testing writing, reliability and
validity, as well as choice of topics and rather training, are
important and must be addressed whatever the purpose of the
testing situation may be.
An essential element to take into account at the time of
writing is coherence. It is traditionally described as the
relationships that link the ideas in a text to create meaning for
the readers. Although coherence is crucial to effective writing,
it is often considered an abstract, elusive, and
controversial concept that is difficult to teach and
difficult to learn. Research has found that in their writing
English as a second language and English as a foreign language
student focus almost exclusively on the word and sentence levels
rather than the level of the whole discourse, that is, textual
coherence. The majority of English as a second language and
English as a foreign language students feel that their only sense
of security comes fro what they have learned about grammar and
that grammar is the only tool they can use in writing English
essays.
It is important that students be taught alternative
strategies to improve their writing. A pedagogical focus on
coherence can shift students’ attention from sentence
–level grammar to discourse features such as textual
structuring and proposional unity, which are crucial for creating
meaning in texts. Indeed, helping students improve the coherence
of their writing ought to be a significant aspect of second
language instruction.
We think that the technological medium itself has
provided some important advantages that we would like to
highlight:
- Network-based language learning involves a multifocal
and rotational teaching technique in which the focus of
attention is not the teacher but each of the students taking
part in the task. - The newness of the medium acts as a catalyst for
students' participation. - It provides for a wider range of activities and for
students being more cooperative among themselves. - It creates a richer scope for
interaction.
Teachers have a double role that changes according to
the progression of the task. On the one hand, they have an
active role, basically in the pre-task phase, as language
instructors and task developers; in the task development phase,
as reviewers of written assignments and in the post-delivery
phase, as language advisors providing feedback. On the other
hand, they also have a passive role in the development and
delivery phases as observers.
Instructional multimedia is creating a revolution in
universities. Academic staffs are being urged to transfer
instruction to a format suitable for either CD/ROM and/or
the Internet, principally the World Wide
Web. Many, it seems, simply take their existing course
materials, add image and sound without proper consideration of
the nature of the medium in which they are seeking to instruct
and present the product to their students. In essence, it appears
they ignore the need to motivate their students to work with
their instructional multimedia materials. It is a contention of
this paper that the user-interface to instructional multimedia is
strategically important: if it is poorly designed students will
not be intrinsically motivated to make use of the product or to
learn with it. Interfaces that motivate learners are realistic,
easy to use, challenging and engaging. Superior interfaces have
some of the elements of a game: they provide the user with a
functional model of task, content and processes; they encourage
exploration and engagement; and they demonstrate cognisance of
design considerations such as interactivity, functionality,
learner control and
cognition.
- Elbow, P.1973.Writing without teachers. Oxford:
Oxford University Press. - Raimes, A.1983.Techniques in teaching writing. New
York: Oxford University Press. - Takagaki, T.1997.The Facilitative Role of Written
Language in Speaking: Using Writing Activities to Improve
L2 Speaking .English Teaching Forum, 35, 1.pp
47-49. - M.Mar Duque and Ana Ibáñez .Using New
Technologies through a Broad-Band Digital Network for
Language-Learning. – Universidad
Politécnica de Madrid. - S.Stoney & M. Wild. Motivation and interface
design: maximising learning opportunities. Faculty of
Business, Edith Cowan University
Authors:
Lic Bertha Elena Dìaz Herrera
University of Pinar del Rio,
Lic. Rusbel Santiago González
University of Information Sciences,
MSc. Ileana Galván Vidal
University of Pinar del Rio,