1. Developing Extensive Writing: Why, What ,and How?
Anne Wiseman
The British Council

2. Overview Definitions Current Research in Writing in L2
Indicators for Teachers
Some useful ideas
1. Definitions and research– the ‘what’ and why
2. Indicators – what we can take away from thsi research and implemnt int he c/room – the How
Useful idea – also how.
Add: will rleate to text book
Want you to think critically
Will NOT spend a lot of time on
Assessment because a very large area which can spend a whole day on.

3. Definitions What is extensive writing?
What difficulties do you face in teaching extensive writing?
Elicit answers from audience
Refer to Report form UAE NAP National Assessment Programme writing in Arabic and English not up to expected standards.
Why?

4. Research Cognitive processes (Flower and Hayes)
Krashen: writing can contribute to cognitive development
Social –constructivist ( Johns 1990)
Will look at just 3 areas of research related to writing:
Cognitive processes involved – research by Flower and Hayes
– e.g finding the topic, generating ideas +info, focussing,
planning structure and procedure
2 Krashen and Lang acquisition
In his later work Krashen (2003) investigates how writing can
contribute to cognitive development. He summarizes research
that shows how various writing activities, in particular note-taking
and summary writing, are significant aids to learning §§.
More on writing
Krashen claims that writing competence, "the feel for what
good writing looks like", arises through reading. Writing
practice has no impact on competence. However, the
quality of the learner's written end product, a school
composition for example, can indeed be influenced by
practice and the grammar/usage rules that the student
has learned. Krashen devotes much attention to
the writing strategies that have been found to be
effective in improving writing quality. These include
flexible planning, frequent revision, and postponement
of editing.
Krashen states further that practice, i.e., regular writing,
correlates with creativity. It is wrong to believe that ideas and
inspiration must precede writing; on the contrary,
these often result from regular writing and
the periods of incubation in between. When we write down ideas,
the ideas become concrete. They are then more readily
available for inspection and modification.
Comments
The important insight from Krashen's work is that neither
competence nor performance is alone sufficient in the production
of a good piece of writing. Extensive reading, regular
writing practice and the acquisition of writing skills and
strategies are all necessary to ensure a strong end product.
3. Social constructivist – text created by reader and writer together. A collaborative process taking into account the context and the process
of writing itself. The Process writing approach. More on this next.
More on all the above and how relate to the classroom next

5. Process Writing
Process writing focuses learners on the different stages and aspects of writing as they have been observed in good writers.
They then spend time on each stage to produce a collaborative piece of written work
A collaborative process.
Base don the idea that writing is not a one off process and is collaborative.
Process base don understanding of cognitive process – try out idea, share ideas, draft, re draft, peer review, edit and final draft .
How many stage to do is up to you.
Associated problems of – noise, marking, getting groups to work together and fittign thsi into the curriculum /textbook.,

6. Writing Stages (P.Grundy)
Pre –writing
Planning
Targeting
Organising
In-writing
- Drafting
- Evaluating
- Editing
- Re-writing
So, what are the writing stages?
Elicit
These would be done collaboratively as a group, or individually.

7. What do writers need to know?
Content knowledge
Context knowledge
Language systems
Writing process
Know what writing about
The social context in which writing will be read - reader's expectations e.g if a letter to a gov’t official letter expect a formal style
Language – lexis, syntax all that is necessary for completion of the task
Knowledge of how to prepare for a writing task

8. Learning to write or writing to learn?
A) An activity which actively engages learners in the process of writing
B) Having to write in order to
complete a task
Elicit what they think the difference might be. Then click

9. TASK Look at the examples of writing tasks and
decide which are type a)
and which are type b)

10. Task Analysis Listen to the tape Report the conversation.
The following verbs might help:
Explain insist refuse
Point out go on to say
Begin like this:
The speaker began by saying that although it appears that prices are going up , in fact….

11. Some factors to remember when setting writing tasks
Tasks should:
-involve real communication
-be of interest and relevant to the learners
-be motivating/fun!
- ??
Ask audience for more suggesitons

12. Some ideas to start students writing
Blogs
Postie, Postie
Picture sequence
Consequences
Newspaper articles
Letters/ s/texts
Continue the story….
Blogs- read out bit from IATEFL 2010 case study . Class blog
Letters to each other in class. Must reply. Often do in TT when doing peer observation
Sequence of magazine pictures. Make up a story around them ( do demo)
Pass the paper: name 2 people, where they were, what he said to her, what she said t him, what happened next, what the Consequence was.

13. Questions?