Approaches to Teaching Academic Writing
By Jessie Wee Ai-Hwa
In this paper, I will discuss some of the approaches to teaching academic writing. Through analysis, I will also write on what I think is the most effective approach to teaching academic writing for English as a Second Language (ESL) primary school students in the context of Singapore.
The article by Paltridge, Harbon, Hirsch, Shen, Stevenson and Phakiti (2009) provided me with a better understanding of how the approaches to the teaching of academic writing have developed and evolved over the years. From it, I learned about the five approaches to academic writing, namely –controlled composition or guided writing, rhetorical functions, the process approach, content-based and genre-based approaches. The article also proposed an approach which is a combination of the genre and process approaches.
Among these approaches, I feel that the ‘process approach’ or ‘process writing’, is one of the more effective approaches. Process writing emphasises the communicative approach whereby the act of writing or expressing one’s ideas and meaning is deemed more important than the final product. Educators in Singapore have adopted some elements of this approach to suit the needs of the students and to work within the constraints of curriculum time. Typical writing lessons begin with the brainstorming of ideas and vocabulary. Subsequently, students either write their first draft independently or go through guided writing with their teachers. Teachers normally edit their students’ writing in place of peer editing as they are apprehensive about the students’ability and language competency to carry out peer editing effectively. With the input from their teachers, students are encouraged and cchallenged to revise their initial drafts.
I agree with educators who adopt the process approach as opposed to the product-based approaches such as the traditional controlled composition of the mid-40s to the mid-60s. This is because in controlled composition, “The main focus was on accuracy and correctness...” (Paltridge, Harbon, Hirsch, Shen, Stevenson and Phakiti, 2009) but as a language student teacher who will be teaching ESL students in the primary school, I feel it is more pertinent to foster a love for writing by promoting it as a creative process rather than making it seems like a chore. Having said that, it is impossible to adopt the entire approach for two reasons. Firstly, the curriculum time does not permit students to carry out the entire activity as extensively as the process approach demands and secondly, primary school students may not be capable of understanding the approach fully.
The next approach to teaching academic writing that I will be discussing would be the genre-based approach. This approach teaches students how to write different kinds of texts that are specified in our English curriculum. Students will have to be familiar with the text types in order to produce them in their summative school exams or in the national exams. To illustrate with some examples, students in our primary schools learn to write narratives, factual recount, information texts and also situational writing which include formal letter, informal letter, report, speech, information sheet, magazine articles and Letter to the Editor. Besides learning about the structure and language features of the various text types, the genre-based approach also teaches students to be aware of their audience, the purpose of writing and the context of their writing. Emphasis is placed on how writing a particular genre will accomplish certain functions or goals, for instance, petitioning the school principal with a letter. In addition, within the genre-based approach lays the idea that different variations of language are used when faced with different sociocultural contexts. After all, one does not write an informal letter riddled with Singlish to a government official! Thus, I feel that this approach is useful in the classroom as it teaches students how to write different text types for different purposes and how to vary their writing according to situations and functions which are essential life-skills in the long run.
So which is the most effective approach to teaching writing to ESL primary school students in Singapore? English may not be our students’ dominant language in the homes. Even some who claim to be using the language at home may not actually be using the Standard English which is our working language and the main medium of instruction in schools. It is therefore still necessary for educators to teach the four language skills through specific instructions and tasks. Through the genre-based approach, our students learn about syntax, grammar and vocabulary through the language features of various text types while the process approach enables them to learn about and acquire the genres. By way of the process, educator help students to see how language creates meanings and how language itself works. Students also learn to acquire a way to talk about language and the role it plays in texts.
To conclude, a synthesis of the process, product and genre approaches to writing will be the best approach to meet the needs of our ESL students in the primary school.
References
Hyland, K. (2007). Genre pedagogy: language, literacy and L2 writing instruction. Journal of Second Language Writing. 16 (3):148-164.
Paltridge, B., Harbon, L., Hirsch, D., Shen, H., Stevenson, M., Phakiti, A., et al. (2009). Teaching academic writing: An introduction for teachers of second language writers. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press.
By Jessie Wee Ai-Hwa
In this paper, I will discuss some of the approaches to teaching academic writing. Through analysis, I will also write on what I think is the most effective approach to teaching academic writing for English as a Second Language (ESL) primary school students in the context of Singapore.
The article by Paltridge, Harbon, Hirsch, Shen, Stevenson and Phakiti (2009) provided me with a better understanding of how the approaches to the teaching of academic writing have developed and evolved over the years. From it, I learned about the five approaches to academic writing, namely –controlled composition or guided writing, rhetorical functions, the process approach, content-based and genre-based approaches. The article also proposed an approach which is a combination of the genre and process approaches.
Among these approaches, I feel that the ‘process approach’ or ‘process writing’, is one of the more effective approaches. Process writing emphasises the communicative approach whereby the act of writing or expressing one’s ideas and meaning is deemed more important than the final product. Educators in Singapore have adopted some elements of this approach to suit the needs of the students and to work within the constraints of curriculum time. Typical writing lessons begin with the brainstorming of ideas and vocabulary. Subsequently, students either write their first draft independently or go through guided writing with their teachers. Teachers normally edit their students’ writing in place of peer editing as they are apprehensive about the students’ability and language competency to carry out peer editing effectively. With the input from their teachers, students are encouraged and cchallenged to revise their initial drafts.
I agree with educators who adopt the process approach as opposed to the product-based approaches such as the traditional controlled composition of the mid-40s to the mid-60s. This is because in controlled composition, “The main focus was on accuracy and correctness...” (Paltridge, Harbon, Hirsch, Shen, Stevenson and Phakiti, 2009) but as a language student teacher who will be teaching ESL students in the primary school, I feel it is more pertinent to foster a love for writing by promoting it as a creative process rather than making it seems like a chore. Having said that, it is impossible to adopt the entire approach for two reasons. Firstly, the curriculum time does not permit students to carry out the entire activity as extensively as the process approach demands and secondly, primary school students may not be capable of understanding the approach fully.
The next approach to teaching academic writing that I will be discussing would be the genre-based approach. This approach teaches students how to write different kinds of texts that are specified in our English curriculum. Students will have to be familiar with the text types in order to produce them in their summative school exams or in the national exams. To illustrate with some examples, students in our primary schools learn to write narratives, factual recount, information texts and also situational writing which include formal letter, informal letter, report, speech, information sheet, magazine articles and Letter to the Editor. Besides learning about the structure and language features of the various text types, the genre-based approach also teaches students to be aware of their audience, the purpose of writing and the context of their writing. Emphasis is placed on how writing a particular genre will accomplish certain functions or goals, for instance, petitioning the school principal with a letter. In addition, within the genre-based approach lays the idea that different variations of language are used when faced with different sociocultural contexts. After all, one does not write an informal letter riddled with Singlish to a government official! Thus, I feel that this approach is useful in the classroom as it teaches students how to write different text types for different purposes and how to vary their writing according to situations and functions which are essential life-skills in the long run.
So which is the most effective approach to teaching writing to ESL primary school students in Singapore? English may not be our students’ dominant language in the homes. Even some who claim to be using the language at home may not actually be using the Standard English which is our working language and the main medium of instruction in schools. It is therefore still necessary for educators to teach the four language skills through specific instructions and tasks. Through the genre-based approach, our students learn about syntax, grammar and vocabulary through the language features of various text types while the process approach enables them to learn about and acquire the genres. By way of the process, educator help students to see how language creates meanings and how language itself works. Students also learn to acquire a way to talk about language and the role it plays in texts.
To conclude, a synthesis of the process, product and genre approaches to writing will be the best approach to meet the needs of our ESL students in the primary school.
References
Hyland, K. (2007). Genre pedagogy: language, literacy and L2 writing instruction. Journal of Second Language Writing. 16 (3):148-164.
Paltridge, B., Harbon, L., Hirsch, D., Shen, H., Stevenson, M., Phakiti, A., et al. (2009). Teaching academic writing: An introduction for teachers of second language writers. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press.