teaching writing through the competency based approach

WRITING THROUGH THE COMPETENCE BASED APPROACH

Writing : Process and Product



Elaborated by




Souad Belbachir



























TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction

I-Definition : Writing

II- Process versus Product
III- Composition
IV- Managing Writing Activities


A. Pre-Writing

a) Brainstorming
b) Discussion
c) Quickwriting
d) Journal writing
e) Debating
f) Reading
g) Wordmapping
h) Interviewing
i) Free Association
j) Conferencing

B.While Writing Activities
a) Drafting
b) Revising
c) Peer response
d) Collaborative Writing
e) The editing process

Conclusion

Bibliography





To the student










INTRODUCTION

This modest work shows how the students are encouraged and given
opportunities to produce written texts. Years ago, writing was
characterized by an approach that put emphasis on linguistic forms.
Speech was primary, and writing served to reinforce oral patterns of the
language. Writing took the form of sentence drills, transformations,
completions, imitations and substitutions. It tested the exact application
of grammatical rules, and focussed on the written products composed by the
students.

Researchers and teachers realized that the focus on the product did
not take into consideration the act of writing. Moreover the students were
not allowed freedom to create their own compositions. In other words,
content was neglected. Researchers noticed that emphasis was put in the
form and structure of writing rather than on how writers create a written
piece.

Now, the students in the English language classroom, no longer do
the same types of activities that they did in the past. The attention to
the writer as language learner and creator of a text, has led to a process
approach with new classroom tasks and projects characterized by the use of
journals, drafts, collaborative writing, revision and attention to content
as much as form, and we should keep in mind that with the reform of the
Algerian Educational system, the final objective is that, at the end of
the Secondary Education (3rd year ), the student should be able to produce
a piece of writing of about 20 lines through the Competence based
approach. And we all know that writing skills are essential for succeeding
in high school, college, and at a job. And as our President said during
the settling session of the C.N.R.S.E.:





"We want to equip
our kids (the learners) with necessary assets to succeed in tomorrow's
world."


Therefore , our students should be familiar with the competency-based
teaching and the learner- centered approach. ( 1AM, 2AM, 3AM, 4AM 1AS, 2AS,
3AS Programs the approach is competency based.)












« Competency-based learning is motivated by the idea that the classroom
should prepare learners for real life. Learners acquire the language, but
they also develop skills and strategies that will help them complete the
kind of tasks they would do in real life. »


Alison Oswald



















































The Power of Writing, the Writing of Power ( By Elsa Auerbach )




If you had walked into an adult English for speakers of other
languages (ESOL) class 20 years ago, you might have seen students doing
little writing other than completing short exercises designed to reinforce
particular grammar points or language functions. The teacher may have
evaluated this writing on the basis of formal correctness; students may
have had little opportunity to write extended pieces in which they
expressed their own ideas. Today, you may see exactly the same kind of
writing in some adult ESOL classes; in many others, however, you're likely
to see students filling out job applications, writing notes to their
children's teachers, or practising taking phone messages. They may be
writing journal entries, doing free writing, composing stories about their
lives, or writing down folktales from their homelands. Some may be revising
their work for publication. Others may be working together to draft letters
to the editor of a newspaper about a community problem or to craft a
petition to the local school board. The teacher may be writing alongside
students, responding to their writing by asking questions and sharing
experiences, or giving mini-lessons about a particular grammar point.


Behavioral and Functional approaches:
Writing for Assimilation
One of the first departures from grammar-oriented writing instruction for
adult ESOL students in nonacademic contexts was the functional or
competency-based approach (Savage, 1993). This approach, which evolved in
the late 1970s, is based on the view that, for immigrants or refugees, the
priority is survival; according to this view, their needs for writing focus
primarily on very functionally-oriented, context-specific writing tasks.
Thus, where grammar-based approaches value what students know about
language, this view emphasizes what students can do with language. It is
concerned with the behaviors and performance demanded in particular domains
or roles rather than with grammar per se. For example, workplace educators
may develop an inventory of writing tasks required for a specific job and
base writing instruction on that inventory. As such, this approach is
parallel to the English for special purposes (ESP) approach used in
academic contexts. Often writing tasks are integrated into thematic life
skills modules along with reading and oral language skills: reading want
ads, filling out job applications, and preparing for interviews may go hand
in hand as tasks associated with finding a job. Assessment is based on the
ability to demonstrate competence; this approach is congruent with outcomes-
based models currently being mandated through federal policy initiatives.
Proponents of this approach argue that it will enable learners to
participate in the contexts of their daily lives competently and meet the
practical demands of work, family, and community life. It will, they say,
prepare new immigrants and refugees to succeed according to the
expectations of American society. The message here is that being able to
perform the writing tasks associated with specific contexts, norms, and
societally defined roles will results in assimilation into the American
mainstream.



Cognitive Approaches: Writing for Self-Expression and Meaning-Making.
As second language acquisition and composition theories have developed, an
emphasis on writing as a cognitive, meaning-making process has become
increasingly popular. Critiquing behavioral and functional approaches,
believers in this approach argue that writing should be much more than
filling out forms or responding to externally defined norms. All too often,
they claim, the functional approach limits both the kinds of writing
students can do and the roles for which it prepares them. It trains
students to fit into the social order as it exists, which, for refugees and
immigrants, often means filling menial roles or dead-end jobs that require
little thinking or extended writing (Tollefson, 1989).
In the cognitive view, often called the "process" approach to writing, the
focus on meaningful communication for learner-defined purposes derives from
second language acquisition theory. The focus on the process of writing as
a vehicle for reflection and exploration of ideas comes from composition
theory. The content, practices, and purposes of ESOL writing inspired by
this approach differ from those in functional classes: writing becomes a
way of making sense of experience or discovering what one thinks rather
than performing functionally useful tasks. Thus, writing often starts with
personal narratives, as titles such as Writing Our Lives (Peyton & Staton,
1996) suggest. Literary forms such as poetry are also often incorporated
(Kazemek & Rigg, 1995). While instruction focuses primarily on writing to
create meaning, form is addressed both implicitly and explicitly: advocates
of this approach argue that increasing accuracy evolves through drafting,
revision, and editing; in addition, teachers often incorporate mini-lessons
about relevant linguistic points.

Common practices in the process approach include free writing in
journals, writing extended narratives through a cyclical process, and
publishing student writing. In dialogue journals, students write about
thoughts, experiences, reactions to texts, or issues of importance to them,
and teachers respond to the content of students' entries by sharing
experiences, ideas, and reactions as well as modeling correct usage (see
Peyton & Staton, 1993). The cyclical process of composing extended
narratives involves generating ideas through free writing and
brainstorming, drafting, conferencing with peers and teachers, revising
organization and content, editing for form, and, in some cases, publishing
writing for a broader audience. These publications give writers real
audiences and purposes for their writing, as well as becoming the impetus
for building curriculum around learner writing and serving as models for
student writers (Peyton, 1993). The message this approach sends is that
learners' lives and voices have value and can become the vehicle for
language acquisition as well as self-discovery.


The Socio-Cultural Practices Approach: Writing for Affirmation

A third perspecti