The weekly column

Article 92, March 2002

Writing More Than An Assignment

By Ji Shaobin
Wenzhou College of Profession and Technology

1. Introduction

The development of writing skills is a complex and dynamic cognitive process. It requires more than the mastery of vocabulary and linguistic competence. Traditional writing mainly cultivates students through vocabulary and grammar exercises while the real nature of writing is often neglected. Therefore, it is necessary to distinguish between "real writing" and "display writing". Real writing is "writing" when the reader doesn't know the answer and genuinely wants the information from the writer. For example, writing letters, filling a form and writing a simple message all belong to real writing. However, written exercises, short answer essays and other forms of writing in test situations are instances of display writing. Although display writing is very useful for academic purpose, real writing can be incorporated in our classroom to keep our writing course meaningful and intrinsically motivating.

2. Significance and Background

When students are asked to write for the sake of their teacher's assignment, they are only fulfilling their duty in class, which is sometimes regarded as a burden. However, if students have been provided a real-life reader rather than a task by their teacher in their mind, writing can become enjoyable and practical. Through sharing information with their peers, writing turns into a social activity and real communication. Meanwhile, getting prompt feedback from the peers gives a good reason to go on writing. A pilot experiment was set up in my intensive writing course for non-English majors. Making use of a letter exchange program, the students have received a substantial practice on writing. For most participants, they have learned not only how to master a certain amount of vocabulary, grammar and writing mechanics but also how to get thoughts down on paper. The writing experience has become very different from it used to be. Students can now write anything they have an interest in. As a result, it is getting easier for them to write which turn motivates them to say more. As it is a well-known fact that the major population of English learners in tertiary education in China is composed by non-English majors. Yet it is this portion of learners who are seriously lacking productive skills. Most of them can not speak fluently nor write effectively even though they have passed the very competitive national college English tests. One of the prominent reasons is that class hours are too limited and the teacher has to squeeze the teaching mainly on reading easily operational in person. As far as the students are concerned, though they have acquired adequate vocabulary, grammatical knowledge and even some writing skills, they don't have enough time to display their learned knowledge. Therefore, it is urgent for an EFL teacher to find appropriate ways to motivate his students to write. At the same time, it is difficult to find a shared topic that will equally suit each student's interest since they are from different background and learning various subjects among non-English majors. The best bet is to give them more opportunities to choose the topic they like a so as to let their ideas flow and to use those differences as a source of writing to keep on arousing their interests.

3. The Trial Experiment

Each student in the class is given his or her pen name on the website for seeking interested pen-pals and are then asked to write a paragraph in English in the form of letter. The content of the letter can be anything they like. The teacher will help students find their interested overseas counterparts. It turns out that students have a lot of enthusiasm in the experiment. They are always looking forward to receiving the letter from their foreign pen pals whom they have never met in real life. Some even get excited to receive a letter from a foreign peer. They read their pen pal's responses and share with their classmates the interesting things they happen to find. Consequently, some students have made their pen pals real life friends. Motivated by the excitement from a real reader, the student tries consciously to write long and complicated messages and gradually build up their writing confidence. As for the writing topics, a variety of them have been presented such as studies, entertainment, hobbies and pets and so on. Take a student, he wrote: "I think I have fallen in love with the girl sitting in front me. But she seems cold to me. I don't know how to express my true love to her. Can you help me?". As a matter of fact, love affairs is one of the rising problems frequently met by the more liberated Chinese college students. If a student in love has a pen pal to talk with in privacy, it will be better for him or her to deal with his or her problem properly. Hence, English comes into the life of Chinese students as a way of expressing feelings. The other perceivable problem could be a case of study. One student wrote to his pen pal: "I feel I am no man in the world, because I am so hopeless to take the computer exam" His pen friend encouraged him by telling him to practice more with the computer. It is evident that the exchange between Chinese students and their foreign counterparts is deeply rooted in the communication with English. Many participants feel they have changed a lot after the experiment. They think learning English is just a way of their future life. Of course, the teacher plays an important role in the experiment. As the activity goes on, some students may find themselves running out of topics, because, after all, most of Chinese college students' life is merely confined to the "Ivory Tower". In view of this, the teacher may put up with some imaginable topics or introduce more pen pals from other countries.

4. Conclusion

There are many forms for the diversity of writing practice. The most important is that the students should be given a chance to put their own ideas and to reflect on their own experience. If we EFL teachers can set up a concept of learning English in our daily life and try to lessen the anxiety from our students to write, then both the teachers and students will teach and learn enjoyably and rewardingly.

About the Author

I am an English teacher in China. I am very interested in teaching English. I would like to make friends who have the same hobbies as mine around the world.

To contact Ji Shaobin please e-mail jishaobin@yahoo.com .

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