Developing a Writing Class

Writing is a paramount means by which learners can demonstrate their knowledge， as well as an instrument for organizing， sharing， and refine ideas about a specific matter， and studies have shown that writing is also the most difficult skill to master. However， many EFL learners do not aware of the importance of cultivating intentional writing ability and do not have enough appropriate language learning strategies in writing. Even if learners have knowledge of writing strategies they often do not make good use of what they have learnt. According to Graham and Harris （2005）， students can succeed in enhancing writing performance when they are supported by explicit and systematic instruction， so it is crucial for teachers to provide learners with cognitive instruction of writing strategies and guide them on the implementation of these skills into practical writing.

Developing writing strategy could focus on three dimensions， linguistic level such as grammatical and lexical enhancement， ideational level which refers to develop mental models and textual level， for example， how to cohere with writing ideaslogically and make paragraph in well-organized structure. According to an investigation， Deane and Gopee （2013） shows that effective writing instruction should be multidimensional， which means teacher should balance the linguistic skills and planning strategies in writing class. A good written plan built in advance， provides a strong support for the development of whole writing task. However， learners rarely plan in advance of writing and tend to minimize the amount of time and steps of planning. As a result， many learners， especially higher level group who is not struggling with linguistic knowledge， find they have difficulties on generate ideas and organize structure logically. Except planning， modeling is also play an important role in assisting learners to manage writing performance successfully， which relates teachers to model the writing process to learners that could include how to give an initial overview of a topic/problem， provide supported information. Modeling could be viewed as dealing with macro-structure and is a way of assistance to students combination of thinking and writing procedure.

In order to improve the students writing performance on these aspects， three writing lessons that are closely relevant are designed to train students more proficient in developing ideas and constructing well-organized text with cognitive writing strategy. The writing topic is ‘Attitudes toward studying abroad. Lesson one is functioned to introduce writing topic， genre and its text structure by analysis a sample expository text——‘Effects of entering a University. And then it is followed by topic discussion aimed at promoting learners motivation which is an essential element of successful language acquisition （Dornyei， 2001）， facilitating students to generate ideas by conducting brainstorming and scaffolding learners with set questions. In the second lesson， the teacher models the entire writing process by showing students explicit writing strategies， involving the stage of planning， organizing structure， and constructing sentences and paraphrases into text. In lesson three， students begin independent writing practice and develop self-regulation which requires learners to use self-check list to do reflection as it could affect learners future learning behaviours， performance and the habit of the formulation of new ideas.

Lesson one is divided into two parts. The first part is to introduce basic writing information to learners including genre of the text and text structure. Genre knowledge for L2 intermediate level writing learners is important as it closely links the macro-skills with micro-units， such as text structure and functions， patterns of organization and purpose of text， etc. The second part aims at motivating learners writing interest to the topic and training them how to generate ideas for the whole text. Two activities are employed that are braining storm and group discussion. According to Manchons （2011） pre-writing activity suggestion， the chief method of preparing students for writing is to formulate content generation task that usually contains as brainstorming， which results in a list of topic-related ideas. In the process of brain storm， students would activate personal life experience and refresh restored knowledge in result of assisting learners building authentic context in class. In addition， underlying thinking process may motivate learners to be more interested in the topic in result of improving the quality of writing performance.

In Lesson two， the teacher models writing process which could support students with a visible and concrete model of how to implement strategies. The term ‘modeling encompasses presentation of cognitive processes by the teacher， analyzing of completed text products or performances. There are three types of modeling， text model， cognitive modeling and social modeling. Text model refers to the analysis of finished text or structure pattern； cognitive model relates to demonstrations by the teacher of skilled composing process； social model requires students work collaboratively to construct a text by small group or as a whole class under the assistance of the teacher. These three models can be selected to use separately according to teaching style of teachers or studentsneeds. Also， it can be used as integrate， especially in genre-based approach writing class.

Specifically speaking， in lesson two， modeling part includes two stages， planning and organizing structure. Planning puts at the first step as it plays a key role in strategy instruction in writing and a good planning has a powerful and strong effect on writing performance as well as other positive influences on strategic knowledge and motivation. In planning part， the teacher focuses on two goals. One is to identify the writing purpose， the other goal is to stimulate learners background knowledge relating to personal experience， which could review the information gathered in brainstorm process. It is as Donato （2000） suggests that it is wise for teacher to assist students by activating prior knowledge， eliciting， supporting and undertaking direct instruction to enhance writing skills.

Moving to the stage of organizing structure which playing the predominant role of developing text is a fundamental part in teaching academic writing strategies to students. The teacher can at first introduce the instruction of text structure. However， there is no very rigid requirement on format and structure because learners should be encouraged to be creative. Then， some words， phrases and sentences can be showed to the students. At last， In order to make sure that each student can make their ideas understandable and properly， peer-feedback is conducted in the next step. Two students work together could support strategy use， maintenance and generalization. In addition， students awareness of composing process could be promoted through ideas interaction with peers and learners could be more active in the recursive process of constructing expository text.

Lesson three refers to practice writing and self-regulation which is as a useful strategy to reflect writing quality and to make sure the proficiency of using language. In the process of writing， the teacher needs to monitor and guide learners when it is necessary. However， the scaffolding to learners is increasingly faded during each instructional section in result of promoting mastery of learners writing strategies， so feedback and instructional supports could be individualized by the teacher so that they are responsive to learners needs. After independent learning， learners are asked to use self-check list to do self-evaluation of the text， reflecting on both content and organization. Self-regulation， such as self-evaluating， self-monitoring and self-instruction， etc， can assist learners to manage writing strategy as well as to obtain specific and visible evidence of their improvement. In addition， self-regulation is regarded as a writing strategy that could improve writing performance and Karen R. Harris and Steve Graham develop it further as SRSD model （self-regulated strategy development）. Through self-check list， learners can rethink the text in two manifests， the achievement of the text purpose and text structure， which are essential elements for a successful expository text.

Conclusion

Learning to write is a complicated process as it requires high level cognitive processing and metacognitive skills. The cognitive writing strategy can be developed in classroom teaching with assistance of various kinds of writing courses where the teachers are acting as the predominant role. Three lessons are designed to develop learners ability of generating ideas through brainstorming， to raise awareness of constructing text structure by using sample text， to show explicit writing strategy through modeling process and to develop self-regulation by employing self-check list. From the perspective of the whole class， more emphasis is on the writing process instead of product， though the product is what going to be judged on. However， the way to get product is a process which is usually neglected in teaching class. Through instruction strategy guiding， teachers could successfully assist students to bridge the gap between thoughts and practical implementation. Further， there are also some improvements need to be done when refers to three lessons， such as increase one or two lessons which could involving guided practice， in result of scaffolding learners with more repeated practices to develop fluency before independent writing， and revising and editing part could be enforced and detailed on text organization， cohesion development and creation of innovation.

References：

[1]Deane，M.&Gopee;，N.Strategies for successful academic writing： Institutional and non-institutional support for students[J].Nurse Education，2013，33：1624-1631.

[2]Donato，R.Socio-cultural contributions to understanding the foreign and second language classroom.In Lantolf，J.（eds.）Socio-cultural theory and second language learning[M].Oxford：Oxford University Press，2000：pp27–50.

[3]Dornyei，Z.Motivational Strategies in the Language Classroom[M]. Cambridge：Cambridge University Press，2001.

[4]Manchon，R.M.Learning-to-write and writing-to-learn in an additional language[J].Amsterdam/Philadelphia：John Benjamins，2011.

【作者簡(jiǎn)介】虞雯，電子科技大學(xué)成都學(xué)院。