idea generating activities in teaching writing

Purposes of the study The main purposes of the author when conducting the study are: - To raise teachers’ awareness of the importance of ideas in teaching writing - To find out the chall

Part A: Introduction

1 Rationale

Due to the fast development of the society, the increasing living standard and the unceasing demand for broader international cooperation, the communication among different nations is necessary day after day Communicative competence has become the major goal of the curricula innovation which has been a burning issue in education in recent years

For a long time, the teaching and learning of English in Vietnam has rotated around teaching grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation with little concern about communicative competence Such emphasis on linguistic materials has been the reason for many communication breakdowns between Vietnamese and foreigners, especially English-used communication Consequently, the new English textbook series were compiled following the communicative approach which focuses on four skills: reading, speaking, listening and writing Among these four skills, writing seems to be the most challenging skill to both teachers and learners Students often find it difficult to start to write, which means that they lack of necessary ideas for their writing Therefore, a study

on idea- generating activities in teaching writing to high school students is conducted

2 Purposes of the study

The main purposes of the author when conducting the study are:

- To raise teachers’ awareness of the importance of ideas in teaching writing

- To find out the challenge that 11th form students face with in getting ideas in writing

- To work out common activities used by teachers in helping their students generate ideas in writing lessons

- To help teachers find out effective activities to provide necessary ideas for their students in writing

3 Scope of the study

Because of the limitation of a minor study, the author only carries out research on teachers and students at Duong Xa high school in Gia Lam district The study also mainly focuses on students’ difficulties in getting ideas for their writing, the teachers’ perspectives about ideas and the activities used in helping students generate ideas in writing lessons

4 Methodology

The theoretical background of the study mainly relies on many published books written

by different authors on language teaching and language acquisition

The major method used in the study is the quantitative one That is all comments, consideration and suggestions given in the research are based on the analysis of the statistics from the survey questionnaires conducted with 11th form students and teachers

of Duong Xa high school in Gia Lam district

The survey questionnaires are used in order to find out the answers for the following research questions:

1 What are teachers and students’ perception of the importance of ideas and generation in writing lessons?

idea-2 What are students’ difficulties in learning writing?

3 What are common activities used by teachers to help students generate ideas in writing lessons?

Besides, the study is also the combination of quantitative and qualitative research together with author’s own experiences and observation in teaching

5 Design of the study

Part A: Introduction

Part B: Development

- Chapter 1: Literature review

- Chapter 2: Practical research

- Chapter 3: Recommendations

Part C: Conclusion

part B: development

Chapter 1: Literature review

1.1 Overview of Communicative Language Teaching (CLT)

Together with education innovation, new series of textbook for secondary education are compiled following Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) approach which has been known as the “new” or “innovative” approach to teach English as a second or foreign language within the last quarter century So what is CLT?

1.1.1 Concept of CLT

CLT is an approach to language teaching in which the goal of language teaching is

“communicative competence”, the ability to use language to communicate CLT appeared from 1960s, its scope, however, has expanded since the mid- 1970s It is also referred to as “communicative approach to the teaching of foreign languages” or simply the “Communicative Approach” On the website of Wikipedia.org, CLT is defined as

“an approach to the teaching of second and foreign languages that emphasizes interaction as both the means and the ultimate goal of learning a language.”

CLT places great emphasis on helping students use the target language in a variety of contexts and places great emphasis on learning language functions In other words, its primary focus is on helping learners create meaning rather than helping them develop perfectly grammatical structures or acquire native-like pronunciation This means that successfully learning a foreign language is assessed in terms of how well learners have developed their communicative competence, which can loosely be defined as their ability to apply knowledge of both formal and sociolinguistic aspects of a language with adequate proficiency to communicate

Both American and British proponents now see it as an approach (not a method) that aims to

(a) make communicative competence the goal of language teaching

(b) develop procedures for the teaching of four language skills that acknowledge the independence of language and communication

1.1.2 Features of CLT

CLT is usually characterized as a broad approach to teaching, rather than as a teaching method with a clearly defined set of classroom practices As such, it is most often

defined as a list of general principles or features One of the most recognized of these lists is David Nunan’s (1991: 279) five features of CLT:

(i) An emphasis on learning to communicate through interaction in the target language(ii) The introduction of authentic texts into the learning situation

(iii) The provision of opportunities for learners to focus, not only on language but also

on the learning process itself

(iv) An enhancement of the learner’s own personal experiences as important contributing elements to classroom learning

(v) An attempt to link classroom language learning with language activation outside the classroom

These five features are claimed by practitioners of CLT to show that they are very interested in the needs and desires of their learners as well as the connection between the language as it is taught in their class and as it is used outside the classroom Under this broad umbrella definition, any teaching practice that helps students develop their

communicative competence in an authentic context is deemed an acceptable and beneficial form of instruction Thus, in the classroom CLT often takes the form of pair and group work requiring negotiation and cooperation between learners, fluency-based activities that encourage learners to develop their confidence, role-plays in which students practice and develop language functions, as well as judicious use of grammar and pronunciation focused activities

Language is used for communication For this reason, CLT makes use of communication

to teach languages Whereas traditional language teaching places a lot of emphasis on grammar rules and verb conjugations, CLT emphasizes real-life situations and communication in context While grammar is still important in the CLT classroom, the emphasis is on communicating a message Richards and Rodgers present some of the characteristics of CLT as follow:

1 Language is a system for the expression of meaning

2 The primary function of language is to allow interaction and communication

3 The structure of language reflects its functional and communicative uses

4 The primary units of language are not merely its grammatical and structural features, but categories of functional and communicative meaning as exemplified in discourse (1986:161)

In summary, Littlewood (1981:1) states “one of the most characteristic features of communicative language teaching is that pays systematic attention to functional as well

as structural aspects of language”

1.2 Teaching writing in ESL/EFL classes

1.2.1 Writing and the roles of writing

Halliday (1985b) suggests that writing has evolved in societies as a result of cultural changes creating communicative needs which can be readily met by the spoken language He speculates that with the emergence of cultures based on agricultural rather than hunting and gathering, there developed a need for permanent records which could

be referred to over and over again This was the initial stimulus for the emergence of new form of language: writing (Nunan, 1991:84)

In the past, writing was considered as “talk written down”, “the act of forming graphic symbol” Fortunately, no one holds this view today because it is found out that writing is

not just speaking in written form as Byrne in Teaching Writing Skills says that “writing

is clearly much more than the production of graphic symbols, just as speech is more than the production of sounds.” (1988:1) In fact, “writing is far from being a simple matter

of transcribing language into written symbols: it is a thinking process in its own right It demands conscious intellectual effort, which usually has to be sustained over a considerable period of time.” (White & Arndt, 1991:3) This is totally true in the sense that all physically and mentally normal people learn to speak a language and can master

it naturally, but all people have to be taught how to write and it takes much time to acquire

Yet writing emerges with its own functions and brings along communicative code of the writers When making a piece of writing, the writer implies a message or a certain purpose In the modern world, writing (written language) serves a range of functions in everyday life including:

1 Primarily for action: public signs, e.g on roads and stations; product labels and instructions, e.g on food, tools or toy purchased; recipes; maps; television and radio guides; bills; menus; telephone directories, etc

For social contact: personal correspondence; letters, postcards; greeting cards

2 Primarily for information: newspapers and magazines, non-fiction books including textbooks; public notices; advertisement; guidebooks and travel literature, etc.

3 Primarily for entertainment: light magazines, comic strips; fiction books; poetry and drama; film subtitles; games including computer games

- Writing remains the commonest way of examining student performance in English (all public examinations include a composition) Consequently, ability to write remains a key to examination success

- In the eyes of both parents and students, ability to write may be associated with evidence of having learnt the language Writing is tangible- parents and students can see what has been done and what has been achieved So it has high ‘face validity’

- In the classrooms, writing may be used as one of a number of techniques to help add variety and interest to lesson

- The teacher may use writing as a testing device to provide feedback on what the students have learnt Student writing can provide useful evidence of successes or failures

in learning, of confusions, and errors

- Writing requires thought, discipline and concentration It is relatively a permanent form and readers judge us by our style, content and logic So writing demands care and thought

(White, 1981: 1)

In CLT, the teaching of writing also aims at communication However, beside used to communicate, writing helps our students learn According to Raimes’ opinion, “first writing reinforces the grammatical structures, idioms and vocabulary that we have been teaching our students Second, when our students write, they also have a chance to be adventurous with the language, to go beyond what they have just learnt to say, to take

risks Third, when they write, they necessarily become very involved in the new language; the effort to express ideas and the constant use of eyes, hand and brain is a unique way to reinforce learning” (1983:3)

With all the roles mentioned above, writing really becomes an integral part in almost every language syllabus from elementary to tertiary level

1.2.2 Writing and Speaking

Due to the fact that writing is not simply speech written down on paper, learning to write

is not just a “natural” extension of learning to speak a language We learn to speak our first language at home without systematic instruction, whereas most of us had to be taught in school how to write that same language The two processes, speaking and writing, are not identical When developing appropriate classroom activities and procedures for teaching written language, it is significant to be aware of the differences between spoken and written language

Spoken and written language exist to fulfill different functions, so they exhibit different characteristics Harris differentiates speaking and writing in three aspects: situation, grammatical choices and lexical density In terms of situation, speakers and listeners are

in a shared environment; therefore they can easily understand each other with the assistant of gestures and facial expressions In contrast, writers and readers do not share

an immediate environment, so writers have to describe the situation and make explicit the people or objects they refer to Grammatically, “Speech, typically, consists of chains

of coordinated, weakly subordinated and adjoined clauses; writing, by contrast, is marked by full subordination and embedding.” (Harris, 1993:4) By lexical density, writing displays a greater degree of lexical density This means writing has a higher ratio

of content to structure words than speech As a result, information is more densely packed into writing than into speech

When making comparison between speech and writing, Byrne highlights the main differences in the table below:

1 Takes place in a context, which often

makes references clear (e.g ‘that thing

over there’

1 Creates its own context and therefore has to be fully explicit

2 Speaker and listener(s) in contact

Interact and exchange roles

2 Readers not present and no interaction possible

3 Usually person addressed is specific 3 Reader not necessary known to writer

4 Immediate feedback given and expected

(a) verbal: questions, comments murmurs,

grunts

(b) non-verbal: facial expressions

4 No immediate feedback possible Writer may try to anticipate reader’s reactions and incorporate them into text

5 Speech is transitory Intended to be

understood immediately If not listener

expected to interact

5 Writing is permanent Can be reread as often as necessary and at own speed

6 Sentences of ten incomplete and

sometimes ungrammatical Hesitations and

pauses are common and usually some

redundancy and repetition

6 Sentences expected to be carefully constructed, and linked and organized to form a text

7 Range of devices (stress, intonation,

pitch, speed) to help convey meaning

Facial expressions, body movements and

gestures also used for this purpose

7 Devices to help convey meaning are punctuation, capitals and underlining (for emphasis) Sentences boundaries clearly indicated

Table 1: The differences between speech and writing (Bynre,1988:3)

Briefly compared with speech, effective writing requires a number of things: high degree

of organization in the development of ideas and information; high degree of accuracy to avoid ambiguity of meaning; the use of accurate and complex grammatical devices for emphasis; a careful choice of vocabulary, grammatical patterns and sentence structures

to create a style which is suitable to the subject matter and to attract readers

From the distinction presented above, it can be inferred that writing seems to be more complex and causes more challenges for foreign writers of English That leads to the essentiality of teaching writing carefully and ways of teaching writing; therefore need to

be taken into account

1.2.3 Approaches to teaching writing

Writing seems to be a difficult skill and a challenge to both teachers and students Identifying approaches adapted in teaching writing can help teachers find out effective techniques to overcome difficulty and attain the objectives in teaching, therefore help students improve writing skill The ways of teaching writing are really diversified due to various teaching and learning styles and references

Ann Raimes (1983: pp5-10) presents six approaches to teaching writing: The Free Approach, The Free-Writing Approach, The Paragraph-Pattern Approach, The Grammar-Syntax- Organization Approach, The Communicative Approach and The Process Approach.

Control-to-1.2.3.1 The Control-to-Free Approach

The Control-to-Free approach in writing is sequential In this approach, writing is considered as a reinforcement means of speech and is used to master grammatical or syntactic rules In lower level, students are often given sentence-level exercises or controlled compositions to imitate, copy or manipulate Students, therefore, make few mistakes Only at high or advanced level are students allowed to try some free composition, in which they can express their own ideas In short, this approach emphasizes accuracy rather than fluency and grammar, syntax and mechanics are main stresses of the approach

1.2.3.2 The Free-Writing Approach

Contrast to the control-to free approach, the free-writing approach focuses more on fluency; quantity of writing is more concerned than quality Students are assigned a vast amount of free writing on given topics with only minimal correction of errors They are allowed to write freely without worrying about grammar and spelling Content and fluency are taken into account first

1.2.3.3 The Paragraph-Pattern Approach

Different from the two approaches mentioned above, the paragraph-pattern approach stresses on paragraph organization Students copy a model paragraph, analyze its form and then write a parallel one In this approach, students are provided such kinds of exercises as sentence ordering, sentence inserting or sentence deleting, etc

1.2.3.4 The Grammar-Syntax- Organization Approach

The name of the approach, the grammar-syntax- organization approach, fully reveals the characteristics of the approach Writing cannot be seen as composed of separate skills which are learned one by one Students need to pay attention to organization while they also work on the necessary grammar and syntax For example, to write a clear set of instructions on how to use a phone card, the writer needs more than the appropriate vocabulary He needs the simple forms of verbs, an organizational plan based on chronology; sequence words like first, then, next, etc In the preparatory stage, these

vocabulary and structures are reviewed and taught In general, this approach is the combination of the purpose and the form of the writing

1.2.3.5 The Communicative Approach

The communicative approach aims at communicative competence, so it stresses the purpose of the writing and the audience for it Students are regarded as writers in real life and they are encouraged to ask themselves the key questions: Why am I writing this? (purpose) and Who will read it? (audience)

Conventionally, the teacher acts as the audience for students’ writing However, to make

it more real- life- closed communication, students become readers for each other They read each other’s writings, respond, rewrite in another form or make comments, but not correct Sometimes the teacher creates a context in which students are real readers by making them role play, exchange letters, reply, ask questions and comment

1.2.3.6 The Process Approach

The teaching of writing has recently moved away from a concentration on the written product to an emphasis on the process of writing, which lead to the emergence of process approach Process approach to writing came into play in the 1970s This approach encourages students’ communication of ideas, feelings and experiences It is more global and focuses on purpose, theme, text type, i.e the reader is emphasized Thus, writers not only concern about purpose and audience but also have to make decisions on how to begin and how to organize a piece of writing

Writing is a process, so students are given time to set out ideas, make plan, write a first draft, revise what has been written after a peer feedback, then they can edit their writing

or write other drafts before the final version is produced Shih points out some features

of process approach as follow:

a focus on the process of writing that leads to the final written product

b help student writers understand their own composing process

c help them to build repertoires of strategies for prewriting, drafting, and rewriting

d give students time to write and rewrite

e place central importance on the process of revision

f let students discover what they want to say as they write

g give students feedback throughout the composing process (not just the final product)

as they attempt to bring their expression closer and closer to attention

h encourage feedback from both the instructor and peers

i include individual conferences between teacher and student during the process of composition

(Brown, pp 335-336)

1.2.3.7 The Genre Approach

The 'genre approach' to teaching writing has taken place in different ways in different parts of the world It has also had different underlying goals as well as focused on different teaching situations In Britain and the United States, for example, teachers have been mostly concerned with teaching international students in English medium universities Genre-based classrooms in Australia, on the other hand, have had a rather different ideological focus This, in part, draws from the underlying concern in Australian genre work with empowering underprivileged members of the community and providing them with necessary resources for success

The genre approach to teaching writing focuses, as the terms suggests, on teaching particular genres that students need control of in order to succeed in particular settings This might include a focus on language and discourse features of the texts, as well as the context in which the text is produced

1.2.3.8 Combined Product- Process Approach

There are various approaches to teaching writing as mentioned do It is true to say that there is not necessarily any ‘right’ or ‘best’ way to teach writing skills The best practice

in any situation will depend on the type of student, the text type being studied, the school system and many other factors (Steele, 2002) Hereunder, the author wants to clarify the two most popular approaches used in ESL/EFL classroom, namely product approach and process approach

Product approach is a traditional approach which is a largely “prescriptive and centered” way of teaching writing This approach pays much attention to the final outcome of a writing process and supposes that students need to produce only one writing version of the task In this approach, model texts play important parts; the language and the organisation of ideas are more highly appreciated than the ideas themselves The result of the learning process is judged by the final product

product-On the contrary, process approach focuses on the process rather than the final product Students have chances to generate ideas of their own by brainstorming or discussing

The ideas are then evaluated and organised into an outline Next, the first draft is written and exchanged among peers After peer feedback, improvements are made and the final draft is written Finally, the students exchange their writings once more to respond or reply before the teacher’s final feedback

Comparing the two approaches, Steele summarizes the differences between product approach and process approach in the table below:

• text a resource for comparison

• ideas as starting point

• more than one draft

• more global, focus on purpose,

theme, text type, i.e., reader is

emphasized

• collaborative

• emphasis on creative process

• imitate model text

• organization of ideas is more important than ideas themselves

• one draft

• features highlighted including controlled practice of those features

• individual

• emphasis on end product

Table 2: The differences between process approach and product approach

From the analysis and comparison of the two approaches, it is undeniable that each approach has its own strength and weakness Process approach comes out with many advantages and support On the other hand, it also receives a lot of criticism It is also the fact that there are few classrooms where a teacher is devoted to one approach as to exclude all others Normally, the teacher still uses techniques drawn from other approaches as the students need them and those techniques are useful in the context of the class The writing in new textbook series was compiled following both product and process approach and this combined product- process approach is found to be more popular, appropriate and effective

The suggested general outline for writing lesson following the combined product- process approach may be as follow:

Stage 1: A model is given

Stage 2: Students work on the model, analyze its typical features, pay attention to the

language and structure of the model

Stage 3: Students work in groups/ pairs find out the ideas for the writing topic/ task and

produce an outline

Stage 4: Students write the first draft individually/ in pairs/ in groups, the model is used

for comparison

Stage 5: Drafts are exchanged, students give comments on each other’s work

Stage 6: Drafts are returned and changes or improvements are made based on peer

feedback

Stage 7: Students write final drafts

Stage 8: Final drafts are exchanged once more; students give response or reply to each

other

Stage 9: Teacher gives feedback

1.2.4 Position of idea generation in teaching writing

Communicative writing is a move away from students writing to test their language towards the communication of ideas, feelings and experiences Hence, ideas are more highly evaluated in communicative writing In this paper, the author desires to talk about idea generation in teaching writing

To study about the position of idea generation in writing, it is necessary to have a look at

a model of writing (following process approach) given by White and Arndt:

Figure 1: Model of process approach

More specifically, process writing can be broken down into three stages:

it is not always necessary that students actually produce much (if any) written work If they do, then the teacher can contribute with advice on how to improve their initial ideas.

• Focusing ideas

During this stage, students write without much attention to the accuracy of their work or the organization The most important feature is meaning Here, the teacher (or other students) should concentrate on the content of the writing Is it coherent? Is there anything missing? Anything extra?

• Evaluating, structuring and editing

Now the writing is adapted to a readership Students should focus more on form and on producing a finished piece of work The teacher can help with error correction and give organizational advice (Stanley)

Since writing is primarily about organizing information and communicating meaning, generating ideas is clearly a crucial part of the writing process Because actually getting started is one of the most difficult and inhibiting steps in writing, idea-generating is particularly important as an initiating process Even in later stages, however, idea-generating continues to take place, so that techniques used to stimulate ideas at initial stage may still prove useful

In the next chapters, students’ difficulties in generating ideas and the techniques used by teachers to help students stimulate ideas will be exposed and discussed

Chapter 2: Practical research

2.1 The setting of the study

The study was conducted at Duong Xa high school in Gia Lam district, the suburb of Hanoi Like other schools, new series of English textbook have generally been used for

three years The surveys were completed by teachers and students of grade 11 The English textbook 11 has been used for two years As a result, the teaching of the new textbook seems to be challenging to teachers.

2.1.1 An overview of English textbook 11

The textbook 11 was compiled following the communicative approach in which

communicative competence is emphasized The formation and development of communicative skills are the most important objectives in teaching and learning Therefore, the structure of each unit focuses on four skills: reading, speaking, listening and writing Language knowledge such as phonetics, vocabulary and grammar are considered the means and condition to form and improve communicative ability

In combination with the communicative approach, the learner-centered approach is also

adapted in order to promote students’ activeness and creativeness The teacher is the organizer and facilitator in the class

To achieve the teaching objectives under the two approaches mentioned above, based teaching is the major method applied in the book In each lesson, tasks are stated

task-clearly with different activities which provide students with opportunities to interact and cooperate

The content of the book was designed under theme-based approach It is the succession

and development of previous grades textbooks with 16 units covering different topics which were contextualized and developed naturally to attract and to help students practise communicative skills Each unit includes five items corresponding to five lessons (five periods): reading, speaking, listening, writing and language focus There are 6 consolidation units entitled “test yourself” to help students revise and check their achievement

2.1.2 Description of writing lessons

Writing is the last and the most challenging skill in each unit It is put after three other skills because it is a productive skill and bases on other skills input The required competences and objectives of writing lesson in each unit are shown in the following table:

1 Friendship Writing about a friend

2 Personal Experiences Writing a personal letter to describe a past experience

3 A Party Writing an informal letter of invitation

4 Volunteer Work Writing a formal letter expressing gratitude

5 Illiteracy Describing information in a table

6 Competitions Writing a letter of reply

7 World Population Interpreting statistics on population from a chart

8 Celebrations Describing a celebration’s activities

9 The Post Office Writing a formal letter to express satisfaction or dissatisfaction

10 Nature in Danger Describing a location

11 Sources of Energy Describing information from a chart

12 The Asian Games Describing preparations for the coming Asian Games

13 Hobbies Writing about a collection

14 Recreation Describing a camping holiday

15 Space Conquest Writing a biography

16 The Wonders of the World Writing a report on a man-made place

Table 3: Checklist of writing tasks in English textbook 11

2.2 Methodology

2.2.1 Informants

In order to get information to fulfill the aims of the study, two survey questionnaires were designed The first questionnaire was completed by 8 teachers who are currently teaching or used to teach students of grade 11 These teachers are all female, aged from

24 to 46 They all graduated from College of Foreign Languages- Vietnam National University, Hanoi In recent years, all of them have taken part in some short in-service teacher training courses organized by Hanoi Department of Education and Training.The second questionnaire was administered to 150 eleven form students They are male and female students randomly chosen from 11 classes with different study levels Most

of these students have learned new series of English textbook since sixth form However, their knowledge and level are generally weaker than students in other schools

in urban area

2.2.2 Instrumentation

The information is collected by means of survey questionnaires, containing both closed and open-ended items Each survey questionnaire includes two parts: Part 1 is some personal information and part 2 comprises of questions relating to researched issue The survey questionnaire for teachers is designed in an attempt to:

- explore teachers’ opinion about ideas and the importance of helping students to generate ideas when teaching writing

- find out common activities used by teachers to assist students to generate ideas in writing

The other survey questionnaire for students is carried out in order to:

- learn about the students’ perception of the importance of ideas in a writing

- find out the students’ difficulties in learning writing

2.2.3 Data collection

The survey questionnaires are distributed to teachers and students at Duong Xa high school in written form and respondents will also give feedback in written form After that, data from the questionnaire is collected, coded and analysed

2.3 Data analysis and discussion

2.3.1 Questionnaire for teachers

Table 4: Teacher’s experience

As can be seen from the table, most of teachers at Duong Xa high school are very young (62.5%) This fact leads to certain advantages and disadvantages Young teachers with less experience in teaching often have difficulty in controlling students and in dealing with teaching situations Less experience does not mean that they are less qualified Moreover, young teachers often have great enthusiasm They have more chance to approach updated knowledge and new teaching methods As a result, this may be an advantage in teaching methodology innovation

After learning about some personal information, the survey focuses on teachers’ opinion and methods in teaching writing as well as in idea generating in writing lessons

2.3.1.2 Teachers’ opinion on writing

Question 1: In your opinion, writing:

helps students revise the vocabulary they have learnt 8 100helps students practice grammatical structures they

provides students with chances of communicating

helps students train logical thinking 8 100

Table 5: Teachers’ opinion on writing

The table shows that all the teachers consider writing as a means to help students revise the vocabulary they have learned and train their logical thinking It is really true that writing is placed after three other skills, so in writing lesson students have a chance to recall the topic-related vocabulary as well as vocabulary learned from previous lessons Moreover, in order to have a good writing, students need to organize their ideas and combine the ideas logically As a result, writing contributes to train students’ logical thinking

It can also be revealed from the table that writing is not meant to be a break time for

teachers because no teachers choose the option “writing lets the teacher have break time” In fact, teachers are the guider, controller, director and motivator to students in

every lesson including a writing one If the teachers only give students the task and let them write on their own, students will certainly meet with difficulty and do not know what to do and how to do it Teachers, therefore, in the process of writing have to guide students to do the task and create activities to help students orient and complete the task That is why teachers maybe have no break time even when students are writing, teachers still need to go around to control and to observe students’ work

Last but not least important point needs to be discussed from the data shown in the table

is “Writing provides students with chances of communicating with each other” 37.5%

of the surveyed teachers chose this option Most teachers think that writing has less communicative value than other skills This is a misconception because writing is also a very effective means of communication It is also a matter of fact in writing classroom

as students can express their thinking, feelings and opinions The issue is provision of authentic tasks so that students have chances to exchange their thinking, feelings and viewpoints Each student becomes a real writer and a real reader and they respond to other’s writing This problem will be discussed more in the following part

Question 2: In a writing lesson, how important are the following stages?

Pre-writing While-writing Post-writing

Figure 2: Teachers’ viewpoint of the importance of different stages in writing

When being asked about the importance of three stages in a writing lesson, 50% of the teachers chose ‘Pre-writing’ stage the most important of all Pre-writing is the preparative phase to equip students the necessities for their writing such as: vocabulary, structures, form, style and ideas It is said that the more careful the pre-writing is done the easier the writing is Consequently, teachers should carry out suitable and effective activities in this stage to motivate and to facilitate students as well

Question 3: In pre-writing stage, which of the following items do you provide your students?

Table 6: Teachers’ opinion on items provided in pre-writing stage

As mentioned above, half of the teachers find pre-writing the most important stage, question 3 works out what the teachers often provide their students It can be seen from the result table that 100% of the teachers help their students with vocabulary, structures, form and style of the writing Nevertheless, 37.5% of the teachers do not assist their students to generate ideas for the writing When asked “Do your students have difficulty getting started? Why?” most teachers said “Yes, because they do not know what to write” This means that their students lack of ideas to write, so “Why don’t teachers help

12.5%

their students to generate ideas, or elicit ideas from their students?” Teachers’ opinion

on idea generating will be presented in the next part

2.3.1.3 Teachers’ viewpoint of idea generating in writing

Question 4: In your viewpoint, helping students generate ideas in writing lessons is:

Figure 3: Teachers’ viewpoint of idea generating in writing

The question made in the preceding part is answered through the data shown in the chart above A quarter of the teachers believe that helping students generate ideas is unnecessary They think that vocabulary and structures are more vital to students Hence, when correcting students’ writings, they only concentrate on correcting grammatical and spelling mistakes and the marking or evaluating is based on the use of accurate structures and vocabulary This conception is, perhaps, influenced by prior teaching methods The new teaching approach concerns more with communicative value, so ideas of the writing are required to be put into consideration

Question 5: How often do you help your students generate ideas in writing lessons?

Figure 4: Frequency of helping students generate ideas in writing lessons