5. Writing to Learn, Functional Writing, Creative Writing

7/24/2019 5. Writing to Learn, Functional Writing, Creative Writing

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9. 5. Writing to Learn, Functional Writing, Creative Writing

STEP 5.1 PAIR WORK! WRITI"# $O%R"AL

INSTRUCTIONS

In pairs, decide on what can go into a writing journal.

2. Functional writing

· the practice of expressing specific inforation eant to irror real!life scenarios such ashow to a"e or do soething, gi#ing ad#ice, in#iting soeone to soething or telling what

happened in a specific situation$

· includes letters, eoranda, directories, anuals, fors, recipes, and inutes$

· to succeed in producing effecti#e functional texts, learners ust ha#e a clear sense of

purpose and audience %learners& awareness of audience and purpose will facilitate the

selection of appropriate language, st'le and forat which will further support the piece of

writing(.

STEP 5.& '#RO%P WORK! LETTERS

INSTRUCTIONS

In groups, decide on how to teach 'our students) foral*inforal letter writing*article

writing*proposal writing. +ecide on the forat, the tas" and the length reuireent.

3 .Creative Writing

· a"es it possi-le for students to experient and pla' with the language

· is engaging and oti#ating

· helps students see language as a counicati#e tool, with focus on eaning, not erel' on

a linguistic s'ste

Short stories, poes songs, draa, screenpla' are all exaples of creati#e writing tas"s that ha#e

-een suggested for use in a foreign language class.

STEP 5.( '#RO%P WORK! ALTER"ATE E")I"#SINSTRUCTIONS

lternate ending acti#ities include)

· coing up with a different ending to a "nown text

· predict an ending of a stor' fro the class reading

· write a seuel to a stor'

· ha#e students re!write the stor'*part of the stor' fro another character&s perspecti#e

/ow would 'ou de#ise such a tas"0 1ocus on)

· the reuireent%s(

· group wor"*pair wor"

· length reuireents· e#aluation o-jecti#e%s(

· ar"ing schee

· tie allotted

· disseination

STEP 5.* 'PAIR WORK! CO+ERE"CE A") CO+ESIO"

INSTRUCTIONS

Cohesion and coherence are central to all instances of language use, and indeed, to counication

of an' "ind. /owe#er, it is in writing that learners of a foreign language often find that an' pro-les

the' ha#e in these areas -ecoe highlighted.

2. 3oo" at the following extracts fro copositions written -' learners of 4nglish. 5oth

students ha#e pro-les with cohesion, which is wh' the texts see odd e#en though

ista"es of graar and #oca-ular' ha#e -een corrected.



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%a(

My landlady is an old woman. My landlady is very kind to me. She

does not give me pork to eat. My landlady does not know I am used to

eating a lot of pork. In my country people of my country tend to eat a

lot of pork.

%-(

My landlady is called Mrs Smiths. She lives on a ground floor of

house. It is a very old house. Sometimes it rains. Water comes through

a roof. My room is not at top of a house. My room is dry.

Rewrite these extracts so that the' 6read& naturall'. 7hat pro-les does each student ha#ewith cohesion0 %Other ista"es ha#e -een corrected.(

8. +efine 6cohesion& and a"e a list of words which coonl' act as 6cohesi#e de#ices&.

9. 3oo" at the following two sentences. 5oth are cohesi#e, -ut one has a pro-le of coherence.

7hich one0

a. :esterda' I got up late and had a uic" -rea"fast.

-. :esterda' I got up late and -ought a new car.

Co-erence /e0crie0 t-e logical relation0 et2een t-e i/ea0 an/ in3or4ation e4o/ie/

in /i0cour0e. In co-erent tet it i0 clear -o2 0entence0 relate to 0entence0, an/

6aragra6-0 to 6aragra6-0 'ee46li37ing a 6oint 4a/e, countering a 6oint 4a/e,eten/ing a 6oint 4a/e, etc. Co-erence i0 -el6e/ 7 co-e0ion, ut o3ten a 2riter

a00u4e0 t-at t-e rea/er 2ill u0e 6articular a06ect0 o3 general 8no2le/ge an/ 8no2le/ge

o3 t-e 06eci3ic convention0 o3 certain 8in/0 o3 tet0 to 0u66l7 t-e nece00ar7 logical

connection0.

In 0entence 'a aove, it i0 clear t-at t-e relation0-i6 et2een getting u6 late an/

-aving a uic8 rea83a0t i0 one o3 cau0e an/ e33ect. In 0entence ', t-e t2o 6art0 o3 t-e

0entence a66ear to e unrelate/ an/ it i0 /i33icult to in3er an7 connection. In t-i0

0entence t-ere i0 a 6role4 o3 co-erence.

T-e 0econ/ o3 t-e 0entence0 in 'c elo2 i0 gra44aticall7 0i4ilar to 0entence 'a aove.

Again it i0 6er3ectl7 co-erent. +o2ever, in t-i0 ca0e t-e relation0-i6 et2een t-e t2o

6art0 o3 t-e 0entence i0 not one o3 cau0e an/ e33ect ut o3 euivalence:ot- 6art0 o3 t-e0entence illu0trate an/ e6an/ t-e in3or4ation containe/ in t-e 6rece/ing 0entence!

c. I had a wonderful wee"end. :esterda' I got up late and had a leisurel' -rea"fast.

In ot- 0entence0 'a an/ 'c an/ 6rovi/e0 t-e co-e0ion. +o2ever, t-e relation0-i6 it

i46lie0 can e /erive/ onl7 t-roug- t-e contet an/ t-roug- 8no2le/ge 'in t-e0e ca0e0,

o3 conventional -u4an e-aviour 2-ic- t-e rea/er ring0 to ear in t-e act o3

inter6reting.

;. 3oo" -ac" at the preceding paragraph in this tas". +efine the relationship -etween the

paragraphs -eginning 6“Coherence” describes ! and "In the sentence #a$ above% !.

<. In writing 4nglish, which appears to present ore pro-les to 'our learners, cohesion or

coherence0

=. 7ould this -e euall' true of the process of reading0

5. Writing to Learn, Functional Writing, Creative Writing

STEP 5.1!



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S%##ESTE) A"SWERS

n'thing can go into a writing journal -ecause it is, uite sipl', a collection of e#er'thing soeone

wants to write down.

· jup starters ! snatches of con#ersation, radio*T> -its, -ill-oards, songs, pictures!!jot

down an'thing that stri"es 'ou as an interesting iage or idea

· record of o-ser#ations!!ph'sical or ental

· pro-le stateent and pro-le sol#ing· dialogues

· process anal'sis

· letters

· inter#iews %including conferences with teachers and discussions with peers(

· scenarios or cases %especiall' good for audience anal'sis(

· reflections on writing process!!uestions*pro-les*successes

STEP5.&! Free An02er0

STEP 5.(! Free An02er0

STEP 5.*!

S%##ESTE) A"SWERS A") CO;;E"TS

2. ?articipants should -e a-le to identif' the pro-les with cohesion as these are the features which

a"e the language unnatural.

In text %a( there is a lot of unnecessar' repetition. The learner appears to ha#e pro-les in judging

how uch inforation the reader needs in order to percei#e the cohesi#e threads, and o#er!

copensates -' a#oiding su-ordination and the use of pronouns. /owe#er, he also appears to ha#e

difficult' in using conjunctions and*or ad#er-s to ar" soe of the cohesi#e relationships %6@'

landlad' is #er' "ind to e. She does not gi#e e por" to eat&(. This relationship of 6concession&

would norall' -e ar"ed through use of 6although& or 6howe#er&.

The writer of Text %-( has siilar difficulties, -ut additionall' has pro-les in operating the s'ste

of articles which would ena-le hi to ar" ore explicitl' inforation which is new, as opposed to

that which refers -ac" to soething alread' stated in the text %6a roof&!the roof, i.e. of this house$ 6attop of a house&!the house, i.e. ' landlad'&s house, in which I li#e(.

The text ight -e rewritten as follows)

%a(

My landlady is an old woman% who is very kind to me. &owever% she

does not know that people in my country tend to eat a lot of pork% and

so I am used to this. Conse'uently% she does not give me pork to eat.

%-(

My landlady% Mrs Smiths% lives on the ground floor of a very old house.

(lthough water comes through the roof when it rains% my room is dry

because it is not at the top.

8. ACohesion& refers to the explicit linguistic signalling of relationships within a text. These

relationships are coonl' signalled -')

6?ro!fors&

· %Not onl' pronouns -ut also 6pro!#er-s& B I don&t li"e cheese -ut ' sister does$ and 6pro!

ad#er-s& B I ha#en&t -een to apan -ut ' sister went there last 'ear.(

Conjunctions

· although, as well as, so -ecause

d#er-s



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· howe#er, nonetheless, furtherore, conseuentl'

Su-stituted nouns

· I li"e cats -ut ' sister can&t stand the animals.

Coparati#e fors

· I ha#e just seen a -ad accident, -ut the one I saw last 'ear was e#en worse.

+eteriners

· the, this, that, soe of the9. This is answered in the text itself.

;. The function of the second paragraph is to exeplif' the general point ade in the first paragraph,

pro#iding exaples of 6successful& and 6unsuccessful& coherence.

<. lthough con#entions of organising parts of the texts #ar' according to culture to soe extent,

people who can write coherentl' in their first language norall' ha#e the potential to transfer this

a-ilit' to the foreign language. Coherence is ore a uestion of logical thin"ing than of linguistic

expression.

?ro-les of coherence freuentl' ste fro an inadeuate coand of cohesi#e de#ices, howe#er.

s is iplicit in the answer to uestion 8 a-o#e, this 6coand& in#ol#es ore than just "nowledge

of the words. It also in#ol#es a coand of coplex sentence construction and the ultifarious

wa's of signalling definiteness in a text. Cohesion a' present particular pro-les to spea"ers of

non!4uropean languages as the s'stes of cohesion in 4uropean languages are relati#el' siilar.

=. Soe readers will use their "nowledge of the topic and their general "nowledge to percei#e

accurate logical connections e#en when the' cannot identif' the precise eaning or textual function

of soe of the cohesi#e de#ices. In reading, ignorance of cohesi#e de#ices is less li"el' to affect

coherence. Nonetheless, "nowledge of these greatl' facilitates reading s"ills.

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5. Writing to Learn, Functional Writing, Creative Writing