Foreign Language Teaching Methods: Writing

This module intended to make several points regarding teaching L2 writing. First, it underscored the idea that writing deserves systematic and continued attention in the foreign language classroom in its own right, not merely as a support skill for listening, reading or speaking. Second, this module presented L2 writing as a complex process that demands of authors to have clear ideas they wish to communicate, to take note of their audience, to be aware of the purpose of the texts they produce, and to use the linguistic aspects of language necessary for conveying meaning effectively. Third, L2 writing tasks should reflect a variety of purposes for writing in real life.

This module also aimed to impress upon instructors that activity sets rather than individual tasks provide the necessary scaffolding for a process-approach to L2 writing. Generating ideas, pre-writing, re-writing, collaborative writing not only improves the quality of the written product learners create, but also provides a coherent framework for instruction that reinforces the legitimacy of writing and literacy as worthy pedagogical pursuits in their own right.

Feedback guides further improvement of the written product; its main purpose is not merely to assign a grade. Even regarding assessment, writing should be viewed as a process, with multiple steps that guide learners from generating an idea to articulating it clearly, effectively, tailored to the purpose of the task.