Developing Writing Skills among ESL Learners: SHARING SIX PRAGMATIC TEACHING AND LEARNING TIPS

By

ZANURIN BIN MOHAMAD SAFAR SEKOLAH MENENGAH KEBANGSAAN KULIM

 Writing is a complex task (Kroll, 2001) Writing is challenging and teaching writing is intricate (Campbell,1998). THEREFORE. THEREFORE, teaching writing requires teachers critical thinking. THEREFORE, developing writing skills requires teachers thorough planning THEREFORE, developing writing skills requires underpinning pragmatic concepts WHAT ARE YOUR CONCEPTS IN TEACHING WRITING?

EXPERIENCE SHARING SESSION 1: DEVELOPING WRITING SKILLS AMONG LOWER SECONDARY STUDENTS: UNDERPINNING CONCEPTS 1. Writing tasks should be motivational. 2. Writing tasks should be developmental. 3. Writing tasks should be manageable. 4. Writing tasks should be continual.

 CONCEPT 1: WRITING TASKS SHOULD BE MOTIVATIONAL Rationale? Most students dislike writing essays Tips? TIP 1: Develop your students writing skills by giving writing tasks which they enjoy. Examples?

 Examples: In 50 / 100 / 350 words / 2 paragraphs You met your favourite idol recently. Describe your great experience. Write about important characteristics of your future spouse. Your father has donated RM50000 to upgrade your class. Write about the plans you have made on how the money should be spent.

WORKSHOP 2:
Suggestion: Teachers teaching PMR and SPM should not be in the same group

In a small group, suggest topics/issues for the paragraph writing task that your weak students may be eager to write about.
Think of a topic/an issue for each of the following themes: Health / Environment / Social issues / Science and technology / People / Values Discussion: 10 minutes Sharing session: 5 minutes

 TIP 2: Allow students to decide the topic/issue of their written product Occasionally, ask the class to suggest 4-8 topics/issues that they would like to write about. After the voting is done, all the students have to write on the same topic or they are allowed to choose any one of the top 3 topics/issues for the paragraph/essay writing.

 CONCEPT 2: WRITING TASKS SHOULD BE DEVELOPMENTAL Rationale? The guiding rule for all written work .. the children should not be urged to run before they can walk. (Gurrey, 1964: 67) TIPS? TIP 3: Developmental sentence construction practices

 Developmental sentence construction practices: Level 1: She sat on the sofa. (5 words) Level 2: She sat on the sofa. She felt bored so she switched on the television. Then, her phone rang. (18 words) Level 3: She sat on the sofa. She felt bored so she switched on the television. Then, her phone rang. It was a call from Jim. She switched off her phone because she very angry with Jim. She trusted Jim but he dumped her for an older woman. (46 words)

WORKSHOP 3:
Individually, construct sentences to show the development of ideas. Use simple language and basic words for your weak students. Level 1: 5 10 words Level 2: 11 20 words. Level 3: 21- 50 words. Preparation: 6 minutes Sharing session: 6 minutes. Please be on the move and share your sentences with at least 3 teachers.

 CONCEPT 3: WRITING TASKS SHOULD BE MANAGEABLE Rationale? To ensure students do not shun writing tasks Tips? TIP 4: Make a deal with students DEAL 1: High flown words (HFWs) and average students
JANUARY FEBRUARY MARCH APRIL MAY 3 HFWs IN AN ESSAY 6 HFWs IN AN ESSAY 9 HFWs IN AN ESSAY 12 HFWs IN AN ESSAY 15 HFWs IN AN ESSAY

 DEAL 2: Essay length and weak students (e.g. SPM Continuous essay)
JANUARY FEBRUARY MARCH APRIL MAY 150 WORDS 200 WORDS 250 WORDS 300 WORDS 350 WORDS

DEAL 3: Compound/Complex sentences (CS) and weak/average students

JANUARY FEBRUARY MARCH APRIL MAY 2 CSs IN AN ESSAY 4 CSs IN AN ESSAY 6 CSs IN AN ESSAY 8 CSs IN AN ESSAY 10 CSs IN AN ESSAY

 TIP 5: Give writing tasks that are manageable by weak learners. Initial stage: Combining parts to make a sentence Our holiday was a senior engineer. His father was small but colourful. The flowers were very memorable. Transformation drilling The student is lazy The students are lazy She goes to school She went to school

Filling in the blanks exercise Copying paragraphs Sentence linking activities: GREAT!!! The man was rich but. She loves to eat banana and . Lina opened the door. Later, .. Before going to school, Jim . After taking the money, Senah If I were rich I would . He was small but he could . Jim gave me some money. Moreover,

 CONCEPT 4: WRITING TASKS SHOULD BE CONTINUAL

Rationale? Developing writing skills takes time. Tips? TIP 6: 50% of my teaching is on developing students writing skills (grammar in sentence construction practices, paragraph writing, essay writing, applying sophisticated adjectives in essays) 20% on novel 20% on Reading Comprehension and Summary 10% on objective questions (text/graphics, rational cloze)

 THE POINT IS: ALWAYS HAVE CONSTANT, INTERESTING, MANAGEABLE AND FOCUSED WRITING (SENTENCE-PARAGRAPH-ESSAY LEVELS) PRACTICES TO DEVELOP THEIR: CONFIDENCE TO WRITE ABILITY TO EXPRESS IDEAS IN ENGLISH ABILITY AND CONFIDENCE TO

CRAWL-TODDLE-WALK-RUN
IN THE ESL WRITING CLASSROOM

CLOSURE EACH TEACHING AND LEARNING ACTIVITY SHOULD BE SHAPED BY A CERTAIN CONCEPT SO THAT TEACHERS DO NOT TEACH BLINDLY SO THAT TEACHING IS CARRIED OUT MORE EFFECTIVELY SO THAT MEANINGFUL LEARNING CAN TAKE PLACE IN OUR WRITING CLASSROOM. The least proficient ESL writers, who for some reasons are largely not keen to learn English, require a reasonable
amount of motivation. Motivation

has by and large been viewed as the most powerful and forceful among other factors which can influence the learning process (Noor
Zainab, 2005).