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[saudade]

Here in Brazil, I work primarily with with non-native speakers. The case of one particular teacher struck me. She's not typical necessarily, but i think her case is metaphorical. She speaks flawless English. She's extemely knowledgable and experienced, generous with her considerable expertise, and utterly professional. She has no trouble reading and speaking and understanding, even when I speak idiomatically or use slang.

But basically, she can't write. I mean, she can write, but not particularly well, and she doesn't feel comfortable really teaching it.

So I guess it's not surprising that many of the students I work with have a writing ability far behind what it should be based on their speaking, reading, and listening abilities. I realize this might be partly natural, and some people need to write more than others, but in general, writing seems to get the short end of the stick. It's a pain to grade, it's more abstract to their basic needs, even native speakers may feel uncomfortable teaching it, and there's a feeling like it comes automatically as a result of the other skills. Even in books I notice the writing often comes at the end, as a kind of "extra credit", where it often gets cut due to time. And of course an elegant sentence is nowhere near as viscerally impressive as correctly pronouncing "rural" or "persnickety".

I personally think writing is very important. But under the press of making tangible progress, I see it falling behind other skills. Am I observing an unusual phenomena here? How often do you all teach writing? Under what circumstances? Are you discouraged from teaching it, explicitly or implicitly? Is it a priority for you?

[leeroy]

Hey saudade,

Ever since the Direct Method(s) and Communicative Approach(es), speaking kind of took over from writing as the productive skill. Writing is difficult to grade and inherently subjective, despite attempts to formalise the marking of it (like CROAT, which I learnt during my DELTA);

Coherency/Cohesion
Range of vocabulary/Grammar
Organisation
Appropriacy of language
Task achievement

There are lots of arguments (and as many refutations) against teaching writing in a normal general English class...

1. It is boring
2. In 'real life' we speak far more than we write
3. It is a waste of class time.
4. 'How to present a discursive essay' is not actually teaching English
5. Students rarely want to write - class motivation is often nonexistant.
6. Spoken production has instant recognition and feedback, writing is far less dynamic.

(I'll leave the refutations to other posters)

Naturally in EAP and exam classes I teach writing all the time - in general English classes, less. Although writing is a skill that should not be ignored, I beleive that speaking should be given the greater weight of attention.

[dmb]

Leeroy, point 2 on your lists says that we speak in 'real life'more then we write. Look back at your previous posts and repeat this claim.

[Teacher in Rome]

Stuck for words, Leeroy?? Surely not...

Anyway, I teach small groups of students who email in their work for feedback. Naturally, writing figures quite strongly in this.

However, even in trad classrooms, I think that writing is really important, even from very low levels. It gives the students practise in using new grammar and vocabulary in a controlled environment where there is not so much pressure to "produce" quickly. This increases confidence, in my opinion.

The other thing I love about students' writing is the way they can really go to town and use English creatively. Somehow, it is easier to express yourself on paper and have a little fun with the language than it is when they speak.

Student writing can also show up a lot of unresolved grammar / vocabulary difficulties, so it's useful from a revision point of view.

[leeroy]

Stuck for words? Me?

We do speak more than we write in real life.

Typing is a different matter for some of us, though. I have never done a class on email/discussion forum/chatroom etiquette; in fact I've never seen any of that in coursebooks. Could be interesting.