The Teaching of EFL Writing at High School
劉雲湘 / 國立台灣師大附中
Introduction － an overview
This paper aims to help Taiwanese high school students write better in English by using useful skills as well as common knowledge. When it comes to teaching writing, what should the teacher know and how could the teacher succeed in teaching writing? This paper is meant to answer these two questions.
The following are four questions used as a makeshift outline to provide a brief overview of what this paper is about.
1.
Where does the teaching take place?
Under this point, some elaboration on language settings will be given.
2.
How come students learn to write?
This question serves as a reminder of the students' motivations for writing.
3.
What should be taught to students?
To write better, students should be armed with writing expertise .
4.
How could one write a well-organized essay?
It is a routine matter for a writer to formulate a tentative writing plan to facilitate the production of a well-organized essay.
Language settings － environments (TEFL, TESL, AND TESOL)
A general description of the language setting provides us with a better understanding of the role of the target language and the role that the native language plays in the local community. In general, language settings where English is the target language might be classified into three different types, including Teaching
English as a Foreign Language (TEFL), Teaching English as a Second Language
(TESL), and Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL).
TESOL is the teaching of English to people who immigrate to an
English-speaking country, like the United States or Australia, but whose first language is not English. TESL is the teaching of English to people who live in an
English-speaking country, like the Philippines or Singapore, but whose first language is not English, either. TEFL is the teaching of English to people from a country where English is not spoken, like Japan or Taiwan.
TEFL is the main setting we focus on in this paper. Take Taiwanese students for example. They study their subjects in the native language, namely, Mandarin.
They seldom use English to communicate in their everyday lives. That is why there is a gap between the school system and actual needs that school graduates face. This
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gap affects their attitude toward the learning of the target language, namely, English.
For most Taiwanese students, English is considered a language used for seeking a job, reading technical material, translation, and so forth. Now, we have got a clearer idea of the role that the English language plays in the local community.
Motivations for writing—reasons (passing tests and seeking jobs)
There are several reasons why we want and need to write. Basically, we write to communicate. However, for most high school students in Taiwan, they write for no better reason than that they are required to write. In fact, tests can be used as a strategy to motivate students to learn to write in English. Besides, in Taiwan, more and more professions require a good knowledge of the English language. Seeking jobs may also get students to think they need to learn to write in English. That is why in recent years our government has required all college students as well as government employees pass the General English Proficiency Test (GEPT), of which the test of written English has been a mandatory part. To sum up, the students' main motivations for writing are passing tests and seeking jobs.
Writing formats—purposes (academic, practical, and personal)
Students should be encouraged to write for a variety of purposes and different purposes require different writing formats. Here is a list of three conventional writing formats appropriate for high school students.
■ Academic writing formats include essay writing, research writing, etc. Essay writing is the most common writing format for high school students to use to practice writing in class. The point on how to write an essay will be discussed in more detail in a later section on the writing process.
■ Practical writing formats include writing for a school newspaper, writing a thank-you note, composing an advertisement or announcement, creating a script for a school play, etc. All the practical writing formats are appropriate for high school students. In particular, many high schools in Taiwan give a playlet contest annually. Therefore, many high school students around Taiwan have chances to create a playlet script. In fact, many of their teachers are experts helping them to do so.
■ Personal writing formats include composing a friendly letter, writing a diary, etc.
These personal writing formats are especially appropriate for average students, who may think it much easier to write a friendly letter than to write an essay.
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We suggest students use these personal writing formats to practice writing as often as they can.
Writing forms—techniques (descriptive, narrative, informative, and persuasive)
There are many different forms of writing and different writing forms require different writing techniques. To help students become better writers we need to help them internalize the writing techniques. It is believed that the more we have students write, the better they will write. In other words, if they want to learn to write, they must write. Below is a list of writing forms and these writing forms frequently interoperate with each other during writing. After each of the writing forms comes a list of titles given on the college entrance examination (CEE) papers during the past 20 years. All these titles could be reused for practicing writing in writing classes.
■ In using the form of descriptive writing (describing an object), writers describe an object by observing it. In fact, there are only two college entrance exams, one in 1991 and the other in 2002, in which the test-takers are required to describe an object. The titles given on these two years' CEE papers are My Favorite O'clock and The Most Precious Thing in My Room respectively. Besides describing an object, we may also have students describe a person, a pet, or a place, like a classroom. （ CEE 1991 My Favorite Clock ; CEE 2002 The Most Precious Thing in My Room ）
■ In using the form of narrative writing (telling a story), writers tell a story or create a personal essay by using story elements (character, event, time, place, action, sequence, and conclusion), to which the eye-catching details of an experience are added. For example, we may have students practice using this narrative form to write about a picnic they had with their families.
（ CEE 1983 A
Taxi Ride ; CEE 1984 How I Spent Yesterday Evening ; CEE 1986 A Shopping
Experience ; CEE 1989 On the Way to School ; CEE 1998 Being Caught in the
Rain ; CEE 2000 The Difficulties I Have with Learning English ; CEE 2003 The
Most Unforgettable Exam ）
■ In using the form of informative writing (informing the reader), writers provide the reader with information, e.g. reporting on events or analyzing concepts. For example, we may have students report on something happening on their way to school and express their opinions on that event. This topic was selected for a two-paragraph composition test given on the 1989 CEE paper. （ CEE 1988 The
Importance of Trees ; CEE 1989 On the Way to School ; CEE 1990 Saving Wild
Animals ; CEE 1995 Making Decisions ; CEE 2003 The Importance of Music ）
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■ In using the form of persuasive writing (persuading the reader), writers seek to persuade the reader to take action or to bring about change. For example, we may have students put down several reasons to explain why smoking is harmful and list several ways to help quit smoking. This topic is discussed in a two-paragraph model composition in the book entitled Guided Composition for
High School Students by Liu Yun-hsiang (2003). （ CEE 1996 You Win Some, You
Lose Some ; CEE 1998
Saying “Thank You” and “I’m Sorry”
; CEE 2002 If I Won
Two Million Dollars in the Lottery ）
It is also noteworthy that these writing forms are alternately used to test students' writing ability in the yearly CEE. Therefore, we suggest teachers coach their students on these writing forms alternately.
Writing tools— 3-D writing skills (horizontal, vertical, and outlining)
It helps us a lot to choose the right tools if we want to do a good job. To write a coherent essay, we basically need at least three kinds of tools for writing: horizontal skills, vertical skills, and outlining skills. This set of writing skills could be referred to as three-Dimensional (3-D) writing skills. These writing skills always interact with each other during writing. The detail that follows provides further elaboration of these 3-D writing skills.
■ Horizontal skills refer to the usages of grammatical items (e.g. rules and patterns).
They are called "horizontal" because these writing skills, such as relative clauses, complex and compound sentences, transitional expressions, and so forth, are commonly, frequently, and repeatedly used in almost every article.
■ Vertical skills refer to the accurate and effective choice of lexical units (e.g. words, phrases and idioms). They are called "vertical" because the chosen lexical units are uniquely and exclusively selected for the topic or main idea we write about.
That is to say, the words, phrases and idioms used in a piece of writing should be centered on the main topic.
■ Outlining skills refer to association of ideas and organization of paragraphs. I call these skills Dimension III writing skills because they can be used to activate effective thinking during writing. For example, they help writers produce mental images and in turn they can put these images into words. Some more elaboration on these outlining skills will be given in the following section of the writing process.
Below is a diagram used to elaborate further on how the 3-D writing skills interact with each other during writing. As indicated in this diagram, the point at the top represents the skills of association and organization; the left point at the bottom represents grammatical skills; the right point at the bottom represents lexical skills.
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The point at the top generates ideas and produces mental images. These ideas and images in turn are put into words supplied by the lexical skills at the bottom right and these words are subsequently put into sentences made by the grammatical skills at the bottom left. And the ideas and images created by the outlining skills may also be directly put into sentences. This is a cycle in which these interactions always keep happening during writing, just like a wheel goes round and round.
Outlining Skills
(association & organization)
Grammatical Skills Lexical Skills
(grammatical rules & patterns) (words, phrases & idioms)
▲ Diagram 1.
Three-Dimensional writing skills
Now we have got to know better about writing formats, writing forms, and writing tools. All of these are the main parts of the writing expertise that high school students should be familiar with. What follows is the writing process, a four-stage series used for writing an essay.
Writing process—stages (associating, outlining, drafting, and revising)
The writing process series contains an ordered sequence of four stages, associating, outlining, drafting, and revising. The four stages, seemingly coming one after another, virtually come together during the writing process. This is because the brain keeps working continuously during writing. After completing the four-stage writing process, writers get the work finished. Below is a writing process flowchart, on which some notes are given.
Flowchart : associating → outlining → drafting → revising → finished work
Notes on the flowchart:
1. During the associating stage, writers generate ideas and sort out the useless ones by means of background knowledge , i.e. personal prior knowledge and experience.
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Practically, a little bit imagination can actually help generate ideas.
2. During the outlining stage, writers organize the ideas to draw up an outline in ordered arrangement.
3. During the drafting stage, writers u se grammatical items (e.g. grammatical rules and patterns) and lexical units (e.g. words, phrases and idioms) to make sentences and paragraphs.
4. During the revising stage, writers proofread, correct and improve the draft.
It is possible that the four-stage writing process may still keep working even after we get the work finished. This is because the brain always keeps working and, believe it or not, the brain seems more or less dissatisfied with what we got in our writings. Some further elaboration is needed on both the outlining stage and the drafting stage as follows.
■ Outlining － a sample outline
During the outlining stage, writers make an outline in ordered sequence. The purpose of making an outline is to formulate a tentative writing plan. This plan is designed to provide an efficient way to facilitate the production of a well-organized essay. Below is a sample outline, in which an ordered sequence of structural arrangements can be clearly seen.
■ Drafting － body paragraphs
The body of an essay should have a clear organized structure. During drafting, grammatical items (e.g. grammatical rules and patterns) and lexical units (e.g. words, phrases and idioms) are used to make sentences and form body paragraphs. Each main idea given in the outline will become one of the body paragraphs. The steps used for making a body paragraph are as follows:
1. Clearly state each main idea, in sentence form.
2. Present sufficient supporting evidence to back up the main idea.
3. Provide necessary elaboration of each supporting point.
The drafting stage plays the most important part in essay writing. This is because the organization of the body paragraphs should be finished during this stage.
Now we have got a clearer idea of how to write a well-organized essay. Indeed, to write a well-organized essay, we need to know how to make good use of the four-stage writing process － associating, outlining, drafting, and revising.
Conclusion － roles a teacher plays
To say is one thing; to do is quite another. In a writing class, the roles that a
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teacher plays can be varied. A teacher should be an instructor with a good knowledge of teaching expertise, but what outweighs it is that a teacher should also be a writer. This makes the teaching more persuasive and the learning more efficient.
A sample outline － an ordered structure
The outline of an essay always contains three parts, including an introduction, a body and a conclusion.
Introduction (The introduction is used as an attention grabber, including a few sentences explaining the topic and a thesis statement telling what the essay will be about.)
Body (The body contains several main ideas. Each main idea followed by supporting points will become a body paragraph.)
I. main idea (topic sentence)
A. supporting points (Some elaboration is needed.)
B. supporting points (Some elaboration is needed.)
C. supporting points (Some elaboration is needed.)
II. main idea (topic sentence)
A. supporting points (Some elaboration is needed.)
B. supporting points (Some elaboration is needed.)
C. supporting points (Some elaboration is needed.)
II. main idea (topic sentence)
A. supporting points (Some elaboration is needed.)
B. supporting points (Some elaboration is needed.)
C. supporting points (Some elaboration is needed.)
Conclusion (The conclusion is used to briefly review the main points or simply provide a final perspective on the topic.)
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【本文摘自「英文新天地」第 11 期（ 2005 年 4 月 1 日） 13 ~ 19 頁】
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