EFL ESL Writing Tasks

Themes and Topics used for Teaching Writing

c.         The beginning of a science of teaching

Comenius (1592-1670) made the first comprehensive attempt to construct teaching methods on scientific principles.  He tested a number of processes in many years of teaching and incorporated them in a series of graded textbooks. His two great works, the Great Didactic (1632) and the Analytical Didactic (1948) emphasise the importance of sense experience and nature’s contribution to education.  According to Comenius

“nothing should be taught to the young,      unless it is not only permitted but actually  demanded by their age and mental strength”.

Here is the beginning of the developmental view of educational psychology.  In this age the spiral curriculum came into existence wherein the same things are taught in a different manner at successive levels.  This was done with a view to utilizing the knowledge of the stage of intellectual development reached by the learner in each case.

The topics selected for written work at the time of Comenius were quite different from the earlier ones.  In Comenius’ developmental and activity type approach, the nature of the leaner, the relevance of the process to him and his reactions to the teaching methods were given importance.  The subject – oriented approach of the past changed into a learner – oriented approach.  According to Comenius, an educated human being did not accept truth merely on authority but examined and probed ideas for himself.  Hence the teachers should encourage learners to seek and discover things by their own efforts.  This was a move away from dependence on imitation, memorization and observance of rules that characterized much of the practice of traditional literary education.

d.         Developments in the 18th and 19th century

Pestalozzi (1746-1827) wanted to make innovations in the field of education through experimentation.  He wanted to psychologise education which means two things :

a.            To develop methods in line with the developmental pattern of children’s growth, and

b.            To make the progress of perception the central element in his teaching method.

There was concrete and persistent effort to make the intellectual development of children the starting point of the teaching process.  The teacher should follow a process which would turn initial sensory contact into clear and distinct ideas.  A sense perception must be –

?        Related to others already in mind,

?        The essentials should be distinguished from the inessentials and

?        The essentials should be described and possibly classified so that it becomes distinct and capable of use.

All these activities should be in accord with the learners’ intellectual development.  The principle tools in the process were language, form and number.  By associating language with sense impressions through the process of analysis, description and classification, he considered that ideas would be developed and classified into thought patterns. To facilitate the process, Pestalozzi developed object lessons, an elementary form of discovery learning. The procedure was to use the sense perceptions of objects such as a piece of mineral, classroom objects, or objects available in the environment.  The sense perceptions of these objects were used as the basic for examination, classification, and development into ideas appropriate to the object.  Pestalozzi puts more emphasis not on learners’ sense impressions but on self activity.  He had great concern for the learners’ emotional and intellectual development.  The teacher was to develop the individual creative force, keeping in mind how to relate it to other individuals and to the world they live in.  Here for the first time, the concept of looking at the written work from the readers’ point of view was introduced.

Herbart (1776-1841) developed Pestalozzi’s embryonic ideas into a substantial cognition centering on the process of apperception.  This is the process of fusing with an acceptable group and being related to the ideas within the group.  The instructional steps were – preparation, presentation, association, assimilation and application.

The first step was to stir up in the learners’ mind the ideas upon which the teacher wished to graft the new material.  The second was to present his material clearly, succinctly and attractively. The third was to associate it with ideas previously in the learners mind, knitting it skillfully into the existing pattern. Then the fourth step was to examine the fresh pattern formed out of the association mass that had been formed.  The final step was for fixing the new material in the learners’ mind by applying it in a variety of ways, in tests, classroom exercises and assignments for homework.

The instructional sequence was associated with what the Herbartians referred to as the “doctrine of interest”.  The use of interest meant that the material should be within the range of learners’ apperception. There should be scope for self activity through stimulation of curiosity, inquiry, imagination and reflection. There should be a constant drive towards the mastery and permanent acquisition of what was being learnt.

e.         Progressive education -20th century

Progressive educators merged in several European countries and in the US about the turn of the 20th century and remained an important influence on educational theory and practice until about 1950.  The essential element in the methods of all progressive educators was activity based learning.

The activity method emphasizes the following :

­Learners’ needs and interests as perceived from current social conditions and aspirations as well as individual’s own expectations are important.

­Learners should acquire functional knowledge through purposive work and problem solving.  Learners should be given practice in gathering and evaluating data and putting forward and testing hypotheses; reaching appropriate conclusions and presenting them effectively.

­Appropriate opportunity for expression is very important because expression makes understanding of knowledge and experience better.  Teachers’ task is to emphasise not elegance but sincerity, that is, to teach learners to express their experience aptly and accurately in whatever was the appropriate medium.

Invo lvement of the learners in cooperative experiences should be given importance.  The course was neither teacher centred nor learner centred but was evolved with a cooperative effort between the teacher and the learner.

In early 20th century in England the prevailing method of teaching English was criticised because it was based on the teaching of classics and not on the teaching of modern languages and it suppressed personal expression and spontaneity.  Hence the progressives argued for more activity and individual expression.

Some of the improvements brought about by the progressive educators of the 20th century are as follows:

$              Grady produced a textbook on composition which omitted grammar and encouraged learners into the art of writing through experimentation with various styles.

$              Caldwell Cook inspired his learners with a play-way approach which stimulated their imagination and gave them constant practice in writing spontaneous compositions on activities in which they were interested.

In the 1980s emotional and intellectual growth were linked with language development and the study of English literature was given importance.  Linguistic theories supported the movement away from traditional methods by directing attention to language as was currently used and by looking for a grammatical structure that fitted the usage of the living language.

The Bullock report
The Bullock report entitled ‘A language for life’ written for the British Government in 1975 integrated a number of 20th century trends.  It tried to fuse together the orderliness and quality of the traditional process with the thrust, relevance and freedom of a more recent approach.

The traditional Boundaries of grammar, reading, dictation, composition and literature and to allot each separate time and place were not considered useful. The grammatical structure of language was taught as and when learners needed it, in the course of their own speech and writing.

Learners learnt the language by using the four modes of talking, listening, writing and reading in close relationship with one another.  Interplay of these modes and the interactive process were emphasised.  In writing for example,

“.... the first task for the teacher is one of encouraging vitality and fluency in the expressive writing that is nearest to speech.  Children will move out into other modes in their own various ways and at various times that no one can predict in any detail.  Their reading interests will be an influential factor, particularly in the early stages.  To develop they must take in written forms of the language and articulate these with their own general language resources, built up by years of listening and speaking.  And they must do this in such a way that the whole corpus is within call when they sit down to write”.  (Bullock Report 1975)

Versatility and precision in written expression were encouraged by writing for various audiences.  The teacher created conditions for fluent expression, helpe d the learners develop technical control of the process of expression and gain an understanding of a range of communication styles and increasing control over the quality of their own speech and writing.  Language experiences were related to learners’ life and their further intellectual, emotional and linguistic development.  The teachers ensured that the learners perceived this relationship.

The gradual change we see here from the time of Aristotle to the twentieth century progressive educators is a process of evolution.  The changes in the teaching learning process of native speakers of English have changed the methods of teaching written English in TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages ) situations too.  Tracing the changes in TESOL situations could help us draw useful conclusions for devising effective techniques and materials for teaching written English.