Page 30 - BRIDGES - ISSUE 7

cnce is necessary so that the reader of audience and stored writing plans. and organisation of the text-type they
can follow the writer’s thoughts. Understanding the nature and pro- arc asked to produce is also necessary
cessof writing has led to the develop- which means the teacher should pro-
Time is a factor that affects the pro- ment of process approach as opposed vide learners with samplesof the text-
cess of producing language.Speech is to the traditional product approach type he expects them to write.
processed in real time and that is why which focused on producing correct
spoken language is full of false starts, texts. Processapproach focuses on the CONCLUSION
fillers, repetitions, paraphrases, un- process writers go through and the
connected, incompletesentencesetc. cognitivestrategies theyemploywhen In myexperiencewritingis nofun even
When processingwritten language the writing. Research based on: for competent student-writers. If the
writercan correct earlier drafts and so 1. Observingwriters while writing ultimate goal of teachingwriting is to
the reader sees only the final draft 2. Interviewingwriters while writing help our students towrite coherently,
which of course does not exhibit the 3. Interviewing writers before and af- communicate effectivelyand hopefully
features of spoken language produced terwriting become independentwritersadopting
under the pressure of real time. 4. Analysing teacher-student interac- process approach to writing might
tion in thewritingclassroom (Raimes, makewritinga less painful processand
UNDERSTANDING 1985: 229) shows that the process of the student-writer a less lonely figure.
THE WRITING PROCESS writing is "recursive and not a linear
one where thewriter movesfrom plan- BIBLIOGRAPHY
Writing has always been a basic ele- ning to translatingand to reviewingin
ment of language teaching but for an orderly sequence" (Connor,1996: Abbot G & Wingard P The Teaching
most of its history it meant writing to 75) On the contrary, research has of English as an International (eds
learn the language and concentrated shown that writers do not follow the 1981) Language London: Collins
on the structure of the sentence and sequence neatly but taking advantage Brown G&TeachingtheSpoken Lan-
not on conveyance of ideas.The most of the fact that writing does not take guage Cambridge CUP
important insight research into writ- place in real time, revisit the Connor Ulla (1996) Contrastive
ing has given us is understanding the subprocesses many times before the Rhetoric Cambridge:CUP
processwriters go through in order to final draft iscompleted and the goals Flower LS&’Identifying the Organi-
produce successful pieces of written set are fulfilled. zation of Writing
work. Hayes J R (1980) Processes’ in Gregg
According to Flower and Hayes’ IMPLICATIONS FOR LW &SteinbergE R (eds) Cognitive
(1980:11) writing model the writer’s TEACHING WRITING Processes in Writing Hillsdale NJ: L
world is divided into three partswhich Erlbaum Associates
interact with each other: the writer’s Our understanding of the nature and Kroll B(1990)Second Language Writ-
long term memory, the task environ- process of writing as well as the prod- ing Cambridge CUP
ment and the writing process. They uct/process distinction have implica- Raimes A (1985)’What unskilled ESL
suggest that writing consists of three tions for teaching writing. When de- students do asthey write:
main processes: planning, translating veloping a framework for teaching a classroom study of composing’
and reviewing. Planning consists of writingweshould takeintoaccount the TESOL/ QUARTERLY 19/2: 229-
threesubprocesses:generating,organ- principles that derive from study and 258
ising and goal-settingwhile reviewing research on writing.Morespecifically: Richards J (1990) The Language
consists of two subprocesses: reading Translatingthe processapproach into Teaching MatrixCambridgeCUP
and writing. Thus the planning proc- classroom context, it meanscreating a Tribble C(1996)WritingOxford OUP
ess takes information from the long- collaborative workshop atmosphere Stern H Fundamental Concepts of
term memory and the task environ- where learners feel comfortable and LanguageTeachingOxford OUP
^ *
ment in order toset goals.The trans- explore the nature of writing through Widdowson H (1983) ’Newstarts and
lating process is guided by the plan- their own strengths and weaknesses. different kinds of failure’ in
ning process and produces text based The teacher’s role is to conference Freedman A, Pringle I & Yalden J
on the information in thewriter’slong- learners while writing in order to help (eds) Learning to Write : First Lan-
term memory. Finally the function of them developtheirwriting abilitiesand guage/ Second
the reviewing process with its ultimately become effective and inde- Language London: Longman
subprocesses is tocorrect and improve pendent writers.
the text so that the final draft As far as writing tasks are concerned This paper was presented on Decem-
fulfills the writer’s goals. Therefore, they should be clearly framed with a ber 6tli, 2000 in Patrasat the State
the writer in order to write needsfour topic and an audience. Learners School Teachers Seminar organised
typesof knowledge: knowledgeof lan- should always know who they writing by the School Advisor
guage, knowledge of topic, knowledge to and why. Knowledge of the layout NikosChryshochoos

33