Z. M. Bobur nomidagi andijon davlat universiteti chet tillar fakulteti ingliz tili va adabiyoti kafedrasi

Lecture-12
Teaching writing in English for B1 level pupils.

Plan
1.The aim and tasks of teaching writing.

2. The technology of teaching written speech.(Press formula, Brainstorming, Spider-man, Net work Tree, Fishbone)
3. CEFR requirements of assessing written speech habits and skills.


Key words: tasks of teaching writing, writing letters, letter combinations, articulation, spelling, morphological principle, Venn diagram, Fishbone diagram.
The practical value of writing is great because it can fix patterns of all kinds (graphemes, words, phrases and sentences) in pupils’ memory, thus producing a powerful effect on their mind. That is why the school syllabus reads: “Writing is a means of teaching a foreign language.” Writing includes penmanship, spelling, and composition. The latter is the aim of learning to write.
Since writing is a complicated skill it should be developed through the formation of habits such as:
(1) the habit of writing letters of the English alphabet;
(2) the habit of converting speech sounds into their symbols — letters and letter combinations;
(3) the habit of correct spelling of words, phrases, and sentences;
(4) the habit of writing various exercises which lead pupils to expressing their thoughts in connection with the task set .
In forming writing habits the following factors are of great importance:

5. 
   Auditory perception of a sound, a word, a phrase, or a sentence, i.e., proper hearing of a sound, a word, a phrase, or a sentence.
   
6. 
   Articulation of a sound and pronunciation of a word, a phrase, and a sentence by the pupil who writes.
   
7. 
   Visual perception of letters or letter combinations which stand for sounds.
   
8. 
   The movements of the muscles of the hand in writing.
   

The ear, the eye, the muscles and nerves of the throat and tongue, the movements of the muscles of the hand participate in writing. And the last, but not the least, factor which determines progress in formation and development of lasting writing habits is pupils’ comprehension of some rules which govern writing in the English language.
Since pupils should be taught penmanship, spelling, and composition it is necessary to know the difficulties Russian pupils find in learning to write English.
The writing of the English letters does not present much trouble because there are a lot of similar letters in both languages. They are a, o, e, n, m, p, c, k, g, x, M, T, H. Only a few letters, such as s, r, i, h, 1, f, b, t, j, I, G, Q, N, etc., may be strange to Russian pupils. Training in penmanship is made easier because our school has adopted the script writing suggested by Marion Richardson in which the capital letters in script have the same form as the printed capital letters. The small letters such as h, b, d, i, k, f, are made without a loop.
Pupils find it difficult to make each stroke continuous when the body of the letter occupies one space, the stem one more space above, the tail one more space below.
The most difficult thing for Russian pupils in learning to write is English spelling.
The spelling system of a language may be based upon the following principles:

4. 
   Historical or conservative principle when spelling reflects the pronunciation of earlier periods in the history of the language. For example, Russian: кого, жил; English: busy, brought, daughter.
   
5. 
   Morphological principle. In writing a word the morphemic composition of the word is taken into account. For example, in Russian: рыба, рыбка; the root morpheme is рыб; in English: answered, asked; the affixal morpheme is ed.
   
6. 
   Phonetic principle. Spelling reflects the pronunciation. For example, in Russian: бесконечный - безграничный; in English: leg, pot.
   

Teaching writing should be based on such methodological principles as a conscious approach to forming and developing this skill, visualization and activity of pupils. Pupils learn to write letters, words, and sentences in the target language more successfully if they understand what they write, have good patterns to follow, and make several attempts in writing a letter (a word, a sentence) until they are satisfied that the work is well done.

Training in penmanship should proceed by steps.
1. The teacher shows the learners a letter or both a capital and a small letter, for example, B b. Special cards may be used for the purpose. On one side of the card the letters are written. On the other side there is a word in which this letter occurs.
2. The teacher shows his pupils how to write the letter. He can use the blackboard. For example, V and W are made with one continuous zigzag movement. Q is made without lifting the pen except for the tail, which is an added stroke. L is also made without lifting the pen. The first stroke in N is a down-stroke; the pen is not lifted in making the rest of the letter. Care should be taken that r is not made to look like a v: the branching should occur about two-thirds (r) from the bottom of the letter. The same applies to the letters d and b; g and q; q and p which are often confused by pupils. Then the teacher writes a word in which the new letter occurs. For example, B b, bed.
Whenever the teacher writes on the blackboard he gives some explanations as to how the letter is made, and then how the word is written. His pupils follow the movements of his hand trying to imitate them; they make similar movements with their pens in the air, looking at the blackboard.
Much care should be given to the words whose spelling does not follow the rules, for example, daughter, busy, sure, usual, colonel, clerk, soldier, etc. Pupils master the spelling of such words by means of repetitions in writing them.
The teacher shows his pupils how to rely on grammar in spelling the words. The more the pupils get acquainted with grammar, the more will they rely on it in their spelling.
For example, the pupils have learned the plural of nouns in the English language. Now they know that the ending s is added, though it sounds either [s] as in maps or [z] as in pens; in both cases they must write s.
In the words famous, continuous it is necessary to write ous, as it is an adjective-forming suffix. In the words dislike, disadvantage it is necessary to write i and not e as the negative prefix is dis.
Copying applies equally well to the phrase pattern and the sentence pattern with the same purpose to help the memory, for pupils should not be asked to write, at least in the first two years, anything that they do not already know thoroughly through speech and reading. Every new word, phrase or sentence pattern, after it has been thoroughly learnt, should be practised by copying.
Copying may be carried out both in class and at home.
In copying at home the pupils must be given some additional task preventing them from performing the work mechanically. The following tasks may be suggested:
(a) underline a given letter or letter combination for a certain sound;
(b) underline a certain grammar item;
(c) underline certain words depicting, for example, the names of school things.
The additional work the pupil must perform in copying a text or an exercise makes him pay attention to the sound and meaning of the words. This kind of copying is a good way of ensuring the retention of the material. It must be extensively applied in the junior and in the intermediate stages.