Considerations for Teaching Second Language Writing

By Manuel Espinal

Manuel Espinal

         The process of writing in a foreign language or second language (L2) implies two determining factors to be considered: the ability to write in our first language and the proficiency in the target language.

Both aspects are really important for developing the mechanics of writing, and other needed skills in the learning of a specific or particular language, English in our case.

The above mentioned can be focused or addressed from two perspectives: a cognitive and a sociocultural.

The cognitive perspective, centering on the abilities and knowledge residing within an individual, is the one that allows such individual to write with easiness about different topics and events. On the other hand, we have the sociocultural perspective (contextual), focused on the participation in specialized groups or discourse community (politicians, religious, musicians, biologists, particular fans, and professional of other fields), that helps learners obtain an accurate terminology for the use of the language, whether to use it orally or, on the contrary, in a written way for particular purposes.

 Furthermore, as writers, we cannot produce isolated texts; I mean those without a referent, because the task of writing in focused on preexisting texts which help us to transform our knowledge (using writing to create new knowledge), or convey the same knowledge when we lack of the reading and writing strategies. Moreover, we need to take into account the context (sociocultural perspective), since it plays a very important role at the time we write. Context provides us with clear ideas about the audience (for whom we write) and what we write.  

As writers of a second or foreign language, we need to be aware of the strategies that will help us to become effective writers, such as: ongoing reading about different topics, extensive and intensive writing practices, composing different types of documents, following the most expert writers, getting familiarized with the culture of the target language, comprehension of the formality and functionality of the target language, the tools we use to practice, learn and improve the task of writing, what we do to understand problems and solve them, and so on. Other important aspect to mention is the phases to be developed during reading and writing tasks.

Limiting our summary report to the fact that the focus of it is to producing for second or foreign language, special attention must be given to the role of students and teachers in the process of writing. They have to be involved in the whole procedure for writing because it demands a lot of effort and time-consuming. Let us see the role of them separately.

Since we are focusing the topic on students’ role as foreign or second language writers and the most suitable place where the process is developed is the classroom, because their immediate audience is the fellow students and teacher; and from them the learners receive feedbacks (see Reid and Kroll (1995), it is our duty to point out a series of observations that help learners to become better composers or writers.

To fulfill with the commandery of producing an accurate and effective written text (texts are the means that any writer use to convey his/her thoughts) learners must:

a)Develop writing skills in both: first and second language.

b)Follow teachers’ instructions.

c)Carry out activities previous to the writing process or producing first drafts (read a lot of materials, discussions, webbing, generation of ideas (brainstorming), and others).

d)Learn about issues related to the writing task: grammar rules (language skills), rhetorical organization (content), etc.

e)Freewriting until producing as many ideas as possible. 

f)Practice intensively about composing on different topics.

g)Read works of the most expert writers and how they control the process for obtaining their written products.

h)Follow and belong to discourse communities.

i)Learn the phases to organize their papers.

j)Adapt the written text to their context (since they are learning, their raters are classmates and teacher).

k)Avoid plagiarism (citing sources is the most advisable and recommendable). 

l)Access software or correcting programs to see the amount of errors they have committed while writing.

With relation to teachers, since they guide students’ writing process, they must:

- Plan lessons they want to teach. That is, they must select suitable     contents to be developed according to the type of learners they have in   front of them.

- Guide apprentices to learn about the writing rules.

- Ask students to read a lot: on different topics and different writers.

- Indicate students the purpose of the writing activities or tasks.

-Assign tasks according to the students’ proficiency level (see Williams, 2005).

-Motivate students to generate ideas from their experience and observation.

- Evaluate student’s drafts pondering both the critiques and the praises.

- Allow learners using any means or tools for improving their writing.

   As we can see, in the task of writing, teachers and students need to get involved with each of the aspects that the mentioned process demands. They need to understand that writers produce texts according to the time they are living in and in relation to the context, and those texts need to be corresponded with the public or audience that is supposed to read them (classroom’s readers).

  Since our operational place is the classroom, because the writers are students pertaining to a different language; whom the process of writing is difficult in the beginning, teachers and their fellow are the first readers or audience and any shortcoming must be corrected in that context.

   Furthermore, before producing a final draft, learners have to go through a series of steps, guided by teachers, which will allow them composing good papers and attaining an excellent scoring.

  And finally, teachers and students must go hand in hand with the use of technological tools that let us correct and assess our written texts or drafts.