Nowadays, second-language teachers face new challenges in the process of instructing and educating students for them to be active subjects in the teaching learning process.
It is essential, then to assume this process not as an isolated matter but as a task that covers all areas giving students the possibility to acquire knowledge making use of their right to think, to differentiate, to discover, to analyze, to deduce, to create, to compare and to produce
. Language is the most used human tool and thus, we have the right to use it to say what we want, we can or we need to say. Language is dynamic; it is in a constantly changing process because men need to find answers, to give solutions to assume our role in the present world.
Traditionally, second-language learners have paid more attention to speaking or listening and have taken aside writing may be following the principle that states that language is primarily oral, but the present development of the Information and Communication Technologies has made possible to use writing more and more to simple send an e-mail to a friend, to inform millions pf persons about the oil prices or to make a weather report.
One of the challenges of teachers is to develop the written language of students .Writing is both things, a technique and an art. Some writing elements are the result of a rule while others are just a matter of aptitude.
Writing, thus, is not a spontaneous skill like speaking; it demands the clear organization and presentation of the material. This is just the simplest requirement. It is essential also for writing a text to reflect on the communication situation, to take down notes, to make graphs and finally to take into consideration that writing is closely related to reading, listening and speaking.
Besides, writing is not simply speech written down on a sheet of paper. It is very necessary to take into account the differences between writing and speaking in the process of teaching a second language. Writing requires more time in terms of planning because it does not count on some oral resources like gestures or intonation to convey information but only on words and syntax. Speakers and addresses are mostly face to face while writers and readers are not.
Although speaking and writing differ in some ways, they share many features from the sociolinguistic and developmental perspectives. Written language affects speaking then; writing can be used to improve speaking.
The idea of using writing to improve speaking may seem strange to many people because common sense tells us that speaking should improved by the practice of speaking:
- Writing is easier to handle for those students who are not ready to speak up in class, psychologically or physically.
- Writing can reinforced what has been practiced orally.
- Writing activities are applicable to a large class if the activities require no teacher response.
Writing activities are expected to facilitate speaking in an indirect way and can be used as warm up activities and homework. If the aim is to improve speaking, the writing task itself should not be very difficult. If the students already know the basic skills of writing such as grammar, vocabulary and punctuation, the task becomes easier.
But, we should not feel well if the students can produce texts only to communicate with others, writing should be a tool to express feelings and emotions, to make and affective and aesthetic contact with others through written words.
Writing is intimately related to other language skills. One reads a text to write answers to questions or to summarize it. Similarly, one usually discusses ideas before writing them down; and one listens before writing. There are different types of writing which reflect the different reasons for writing. Whether students are writing an examination, a letter to a friend, a newspaper article, or simply filling out a form, it is very important for them to be able to communicate effectively and it depends on the student’s ability to structure and organize words and sentences into a meaningful whole.
A student who successfully arranges words in a writing task must have mastered the grammatical rules. Traditionally; the correct placement of words in a sentence was proof of the student’s effective ability in writing.
However, effective writing is much more than that. Writing is a difficult skill for native speakers and non-native speakers as alike, because writers must balance multiple issues such as content, organization, purpose, audience, vocabulary, punctuation, spelling, and mechanics such capitalization. Writing is especially difficult for non-native speakers because they are expected to create written products that demonstrate mastery of all the above elements in a new language. In addition, writing has been taught for many years as a product rather than as a process. Therefore, teachers emphasize grammar and punctuation rather than decisions about the content and the organization of ideas. Sometimes, students are exposed to the rules of writing and grammar from the outset without developing their ability to express their ideas.
Reading and writing are long-enduring technologies. Reading and writing have been aided by a wide range of physical technologies such as the development and mass production of paper and pencil, typewriter, and ball point pen. More recently, computer technology has added the benefits of word processors, high quality computer graphics, and laser printers to "traditional" reading and writing. Producing and accessing written information continues to benefit from new and improving techniques provided by the latest technology.
In addition to new writing tools, the technology field brings new environments for writers, such as e-mail and various Internet "chat" modes. Writers and readers benefit from the new dimensions being added to reading and writing in interactive, multimedia documents. Writers can make use of computer technology to publish professional quality documents in both paper and electronic format.
It is relatively easy to determine that the changes in reading and writing are improvements for both readers and writers. It is less easy to determine if these same changes are improving the learning that occurs when students read and write with these new tools. The question of improved benefits for students is still being researched. Do students read and write with greater skill as a result of the new tools? Since the equipment and programming languages were changing too rapidly for schools to be able to keep up with technology, students were going out into the work world without the needed training.
As the technology started being affordable, it became viewed as an efficient way to provide instruction at lower class levels. Teachers found that the basic skills review practice they were providing were begun to be offered by computer programs. These programs would use colourful visuals and animations to "drill and skill" students on simple math problems or spelling words (Viadero, 1997).
Since then, the computer's track record is getting better. In research done by Kulik and Kulik (1991), 254 studies were conducted between the mid 1960's and mid 1980's which measured students' learning comparing a classroom using computer-aided instruction with a classroom that did not. Overall, students in the computer-using classrooms learned more and learned it faster. They gained the equivalent of about three months of regular classroom learning -progress that is about par for many kinds of classroom interventions (Mediated Learning Review, 1996).
Other studies suggest that computer-based lessons were particularly effective for teaching basic skills to disadvantaged students because they started out in school further behind their more affluent classmates in reading, writing, and arithmetic. Inspired by the research of cognitive scientists, educators are favouring classroom environments in which students take charge of their own learning, learn to think critically and analytically, work collaboratively, and create projects which demonstrate what they have learned. As the thinking about technology in the education field changes, it becomes clear that "drill and skill" programs are not enough. The old style of schooling in which a teacher stands in front of a room and is the "sage on the stage" who lectures seems very ineffective compared to "child-centred" instructors, who function as a facilitating "guides on the side." It seems time to put learning in the hands of students (Viadero, 1997).
Writing, an important part of the language learning, is essentially a reflective activity that requires enough time to think about the specific topic and to analyze and classify any background knowledge. Then, writers need suitable language to structure these ideas in the form of a coherent discourse. The teacher’s purpose, therefore, is to help learners produce self-contained compositions. But for the learners to do so, they have to link and to develop information, ideas, or arguments in logical sequences. Without writing practice, students have difficulty in achieving clarity, which is the goal of any writing exercise.
Too often it is assumed that after giving learners an initial stimulus to arouse interest in a given topic, teachers can simply leave learners to complete the writing tasks. But even professional writers must make plans, use notes, reflect on issues, and make some several rough drafts before completing their work. So; students who are still learning the process of thinking through writing require their teachers’ help to structure and organize their ideas.
Experience has shown teachers, researches, and school administrators that, just like language itself, testing practices in English language teaching are not static but dynamic and changing. One controversial area is testing writing which that test construction and evaluation criteria be based on course objectives and teaching methodologies. In the English language classroom, especially at the high school and university levels, teachers are always challenged by how to reliably and validly evaluate students’ writing skills, so that the students will be better prepared for internal and external proficiency and achievement exams. Indeed, writing in the academic community is paramount; a student can’t be successful without a certain level of academic writing proficiency.
There are many reasons for testing writing in the English language classroom, including to meet diagnostic, proficiency, and promotional needs. It is generally accepted by teachers and researchers that there are two main goals of testing: first, to provide feedback during the process of acquiring writing proficiency, and second, to assign a grade or score that will indicate the level of the written product.
Evaluation of writing in English language teaching has a long history, with various procedures and scoring criteria being revised and adapted to meet the needs of administrators, teachers, and learners. For testing writing, reliability and validity, as well as choice of topics and rather training, are important and must be addressed whatever the purpose of the testing situation may be.
An essential element to take into account at the time of writing is coherence. It is traditionally described as the relationships that link the ideas in a text to create meaning for the readers. Although coherence is crucial to effective writing, it is often considered an abstract, elusive, and
controversial concept that is difficult to teach and difficult to learn. Research has found that in their writing English as a second language and English as a foreign language student focus almost exclusively on the word and sentence levels rather than the level of the whole discourse, that is, textual coherence. The majority of English as a second language and English as a foreign language students feel that their only sense of security comes fro what they have learned about grammar and that grammar is the only tool they can use in writing English essays.
It is important that students be taught alternative strategies to improve their writing. A pedagogical focus on coherence can shift students’ attention from sentence –level grammar to discourse features such as textual structuring and proposional unity, which are crucial for creating meaning in texts. Indeed, helping students improve the coherence of their writing ought to be a significant aspect of second language instruction.
We think that the technological medium itself has provided some important advantages that we would like to highlight:
- Network-based language learning involves a multifocal and rotational teaching technique in which the focus of attention is not the teacher but each of the students taking part in the task.
- The newness of the medium acts as a catalyst for students' participation.
- It provides for a wider range of activities and for students being more cooperative among themselves.
- It creates a richer scope for interaction.
Teachers have a double role that changes according to the progression of the task. On the one hand, they have an active role, basically in the pre-task phase, as language instructors and task developers; in the task development phase, as reviewers of written assignments and in the post-delivery phase, as language advisors providing feedback. On the other hand, they also have a passive role in the development and delivery phases as observers.
Instructional multimedia is creating a revolution in universities. Academic staffs are being urged to transfer instruction to a format suitable for either CD/ROM and/or the Internet, principally the World Wide Web. Many, it seems, simply take their existing course materials, add image and sound without proper consideration of the nature of the medium in which they are seeking to instruct and present the product to their students. In essence, it appears they ignore the need to motivate their students to work with their instructional multimedia materials. It is a contention of this paper that the user-interface to instructional multimedia is strategically important: if it is poorly designed students will not be intrinsically motivated to make use of the product or to learn with it. Interfaces that motivate learners are realistic, easy to use, challenging and engaging. Superior interfaces have some of the elements of a game: they provide the user with a functional model of task, content and processes; they encourage exploration and engagement; and they demonstrate cognisance of design considerations such as interactivity, functionality, learner control and cognition.
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- S.Stoney & M. Wild. Motivation and interface design: maximising learning opportunities. Faculty of Business, Edith Cowan University
Authors:
Lic Bertha Elena Dìaz Herrera
University of Pinar del Rio,
Lic. Rusbel Santiago González
University of Information Sciences,
MSc. Ileana Galván Vidal
University of Pinar del Rio,