Master

Writing & Speaking

It has been stated that when we learn a language, we learn to communicate with other people: to understand them, talk to them, pay attention to the pieces of written work theyhave produced, and write to them. The most important aspect when taking active part in a new cultural setting is learning how to convey ideas and thoughts when the other person is not right there infront of us, listening to us and using gestures and facial expressions. We can do so by means of writing; the question is: How should we approach writing lessons?
There are basically two approaches: AProduct Approach, and A process Approach. The first one focuses on the final outcome, the teacher sets the students a task, the students complete that task and the teacher provides feedback on theproduct produced by the students. The Process approach, on the other hand, switches its focus from the final piece of written work to how we get there. Focusing on the process is more empowering andwill give the students the skills and independence needed to start producing. Writing plays such an important role that it would be a terrible mistake not to give the students opportunities to startproducing in a written form.
However, some teachers may wonder why it is not enough to teach our students to write English adequately. Learning to write is not just a natural extension of learning tospeak a language. We learned to speak our mother tongue at home without any formal guidance or instruction, while most of us had to learn how to write during the first years of school. It means thesetwo skills are not the same or identical. There are several very important differences between writing and speaking:
* Speech is developed during the first years of life. Writing implies formalinstruction
* Speakers focus on pronunciation. Writers pay attention to punctuation
* Speakers usually use informal language. Writers are more sophisticated
In sum, the way we integrate these...