Chapter 8: How to teach writing

Chapter 8How to teach writingHarmer, J. (1999). How to teach English. LongmanI. Reasons for teaching writingReinforcementLanguage developmentLearning styleWriting as a skill (the most important) ReinforcementSome Ss requiring language orallyOthers  written forms as useful sentences using what they have learned Language developmentActual process of writinghelping Ss to learn as they go along Learning styleSome Ss: picking up language by looking & listeningOther Ss: needing time to think in order to produce the language in a slower way  writing Writing as a skillA basic language skillLearners 1. some kinds of writing: letters, reports, advertisements 2. Some kinds of special writing conventions (punctuations, paragraph construction.)II. Kinds of writing tasks How to choose tasks: learners’ age, interests & levelKinds of tasks: postcards, various kinds of letters, narrative compositions, reports, newspaper articles, advertisements or poems. III. Writing sequencesA) writing postcardsB) alternating dictationC) newspaper headlines/articlesD) report writingRead these sample lessons (page 80-84)IV. How to correct writingAvoiding over-correctionTelling Ss particular kinds of mistakes to be correctedUsing correction codes/symbols