research report 'using the activity in pairs and in groups to teach writing in english'

§¹i häc Vinh T¹p chÝ khoa häc, tËp XXXVI, sè 2b-2007USING PAIR WORK AND GROUP WORK IN TEACHING ENGLISH WRITING NguyÔn ThÞ T−êng a Abstract.. The techniques that we covered in our writ

§¹i häc Vinh T¹p chÝ khoa häc, tËp XXXVI, sè 2b-2007

USING PAIR WORK AND GROUP WORK IN

TEACHING ENGLISH WRITING

NguyÔn ThÞ T−êng (a)

Abstract The techniques that we covered in our writing class were centered on using pair and group work to increase active student participation By using this method for teaching the first year students, we have got many benefits in teaching and learning English writing Therefore, we would like to introduce some writing games for using pair work and group work in order to help the teachers teach English writing more effectively

I A COMMUNICATIVE ON

WRITING SKILLS

Writing is an instrument of both

communication and self-expression

Most people, however, especially when

writing in a foreign or second language,

use it primarily to communicate with

other members of their own community

or the wider world Our main task is

therefore to teach effective functional

writing rather than creative

self-expression Andrew Little (1991)

suggested a few initial guiding

principles to note:

• Writing should be as close as

possible to genuine functional use of

language, as opposed to the traditional

set-piece classroom composition for the

eyes of the teacher only

• Since people’s ways of

communicating information are very

varied, there is no single way of writing

correct English It is therefore

important for students to read as

widely as possible in order to become

familiar with different varieties of

written English They cannot be

expected to write in a style which they

have never seen or read

• Good writing depends on a set of

specific writing skills It does not follow

automatically from good grammar and adequate vocabulary

II BENEFITS OF USING PAIR WORK AND GROUP WORK IN TEACHING WRITING

A writing game is one type of language games in which students work together, in pair or small groups Most language games are to reinforce the language already taught or acquired and to allow students to practise the language they are learning

in a more interesting way

The use of group work (which includes writing games) might at first sight appear inappropriate for the teaching of writing In general, however, group work means that there

is some kind of cooperation between the members of the class, who are divided into conveniently-sized groups for the purpose They might be discussing something in pairs before starting to write; they might play involving two teams; they might split responsibility among different students so that one student collects information, another organises it and a third actually writes whatever has to be written

NhËn bµi ngµy 30/3/2007 Söa ch÷a xong 09/8/2007

§¹i häc Vinh T¹p chÝ khoa häc, tËp XXXVII, sè 2b-2007

Even when group work is not explicitly

mentioned in the exercises, teachers

should encourage it whenever possible

Moreover, group work can go

beyond preparation for writing The

members of a pair, or larger group, can

actually do the writing together They

can discuss the exact words and

sentences to be used, and then either

each student writes down what was

said, or else they appoint one member

of the group to be the writer for all of

them It is always important for the

teacher to move fairly around the room,

helping each group with vocabulary,

making sure everyone is involved, but

not staying too long with any group

since the main initiative for writing

should rest with students

Group activity has two practical

benefits in the teaching of writing

Firstly, it overcomes the boredom and

frequent frustration of traditional

methods where each student is sitting

silently at his desk, racking his brains

for something to write Secondly, it

provides a situation in which students

have to communicate with each other,

both in speech and writing Students

are then writing for a real reader, not

just for the critical eyes of the teacher

Having a real reader will help them to

see their writing from the point of view

of the person who receives it – they will

be forced to consider whether it is clear

enough and will soon discover whether

it was successful or not for the purpose

of the activity

As for games, needless to say they

should be lively and enjoyable This

means that students should not be too

much inhibited by the fear of making

mistakes Teachers will find adults

quickly adapt to games as long as their

purpose in the writing lesson is clear

and they do not overshadow what the

students feel to be their main objectives

III SOME WRITING GAMES EMPLOYED IN THE WRITING LESSON

In this paper, we will introduce some writing games which we have selected from different sources and have given to our students during the last few years Most of the games below are typical ones to meet the target of teaching writing to the first year students with an intermediate knowledge of English who study in Vinh university The writing games can

be classified into group according to the teaching aims and situations:

3.1 Writing telephone messages Procedure:

- The teacher asks the students work in pairs

- Sit back if possible

- Telephone your partner’s with a message for another student in your class

- Listen to your partner’s message

- Write his/ her message on a piece

of paper for the student he/she wanted

to contact

- Give him/her the message

3.2 Writing notes and messages Preparation: Find two message or postcard texts Make enough copies for half of the

class to work in pairs on one text, and half to work in pair on the other text Procedure:

- Ask the students to get into pairs Give out copies of one text to half of the class and the other text to the half

- Ask them to list all the words in their text alphabetically

- Ask the students to exchange their lists, but not their texts, with a pair from the other half of the class

§¹i häc Vinh T¹p chÝ khoa häc, tËp XXXVII, sè 2b-2007

- Explain that they must try to

reconstruct the orginal text from the

alphabetical list, but they can first ask

the other pair six questions about the

text

- Give the pairs a few minutes to

prepare their questions

- In turn, each pair asks their

questions and the other pair

answers

- Tell each pair to try and

reconstruct the text from the word list

They should then check their version

against the original text

3.3 Writing narratives, film

reviews

Procedure:

- Ask the students to get into

groups of eight or ten

- Teacher reads aloud to provide

the students with the following

instructions:

1 Write a boy’s name with a

brief description of him

2 Write a girl’s name with a

brief description of her

3 Tell where and how the two

first met

4 What was his first words to

her?

5 What was her reply?

6 What happened next?

7 What was the reaction of the

people who know them?

8 What was the result of all

this?

- After each command the student

writes down the information that he

has been asked to provide, folds the

paper over to hide what he has written

and passes it to the person on his right

The next command is given and the

procedure is repeated

- When the work has finished, the

students open them and, in writing,

join the fragments of information together to make it more interesting and logical

- The students read the story aloud

3.4 Writing stories Procedure:

- This game is used in groups of ten

- The teacher chooses a story that

is interesting enough to stimulate the students to start writing immediately and dictate the beginning of the story to them

- After the dictation, each student adds up the story within two minutes

- When the first student has finished his part, he must fold the paper to hide what he has written, except the last line

- Then he passes the paper to the second student, this student starts with the visible line

- The procedure is repeated until the last student

- Then students read the story aloud

crosswords

In this activity, students get the opportunity to express themselves imaginatively They learn to express an idea in various ways

Procedure:

- Students, working in pairs or groups, are given a crossword puzzle They have to write the clues The clues can be literal or amusing

- The clues for “school” in the following crossword may be … you can

go there to study/ It is a very unpleasant place where they try to teach you things

Đại học Vinh Tạp chí khoa học, tập XXXVII, số 2b-2007

S C H O O L

Z O O

C I R C U S

P A R K

L I B R A R Y

F A C T O R Y

G A R A G E

H O T E L

IV CONCLUSION

The teaching of writing is a vast,

complex task and is often considered

the last language skill to be acquired

Moreover, a writing lesson can often

become a rather tedious “book-bound”

activity No matter what sorts of books

are used, no matter how good and

useful the books are, the basic teaching

techniques and supplementary

activities are of significant importance

to a writing lesson Depending on

various teaching aims and situations teachers can create suitable activities

to make the writing lesson more effective and interesting

Therefore, we can say that teachers

of English should devise a number of communicative activities such as pair functional discussion and simple role play, so that a lesson can easily be phased to hold the student’s attention and interest

References [1] A Littlejohn, Writing 1, 2, Cambridge University Press, 1991

[2] A Pincas, Teaching Writing, The MacMillan Press, 1982

[3] A Wright, Games For Language Leanring, Cambridge University Press, 1979 [4] C Hadfield & J Hadfield, Writing Games, Nelson (HongKong) Ltd, 1983

[5] D Byrne, Teaching Writing Skills, Longman Group UK Ltd., 1988

[6] M Stphens, Practise Writing, Longman Group Ltd, 1986

[7] S Greenall, Language Games and Activities, Hulton Educational Publicationa Ltd, 1984

Tóm tắt

Sử dụng hoạt động theo từng cặp và theo nhóm

trong việc dạy môn viết tiếng anh

Để tăng thêm tính tích cực tham gia của sinh viên khi học môn viết ở trên lớp, chúng tôi đã áp dụng phương pháp dạy học theo đường hướng giao tiếp với cách thức

là thực hành theo từng cặp hoặc theo nhóm Sử dụng phương pháp này để dạy sinh viên năm thứ nhất chuyên ngữ ở trường Đại học Vinh đã đạt được hiệu quả cao trong việc dạy và học môn viết tiếng Anh Với mong muốn cùng bạn đọc chia sẻ và tham khảo, chúng tôi đã đưa ra một vài hoạt động tiêu biểu