Teaching Writing - Week 1 - Course Introduction

Introduction: Hello and welcome to Week 1 of the course Teaching Writing for the Bachelor's in English Teaching at ULACIT in term IIC 2023. In this class we will take time to get to know each other, review the important dates and assignments in the syllabus, and begin our exploration of L2 writing by describing the differences between written and spoken discourse.

Today's Goals:

• Review the course content, evaluation structure, and important dates from the syllabus.
• Express your personal thoughts, preferences, and experiences regarding L1 and L2 writing.
• Compare and contrast the features of written and spoken discourse.

Guiding Questions:

• What are some of the key issues in the area of second language writing instruction?
• How is written production different from spoken production?
• What do I hope to learn in this course?

Task 1: Initial Thoughts about Writing

Let's discuss the following questions regarding our current thoughts about writing.

• Initial Thoughts:
• In general terms, do you like writing? Why or why not?
• How confident are you in your abilities to express yourself well in writing? Why do you say that?
• What specific areas of writing come easy to you? Which are challenging?

• L1 vs L2:
• How would you compare your writing abilities in Spanish versus English?
• How did you learn to write in Spanish? What specific memories do you have? What helped you learn to write better?
• How did you learn to write in English? What specific memories do you have? What helped you learn to write better?

• Real World Writing: 
• What forms of writing do you do most in your everyday life?
• How important is it for a person to be able to express themselves well through writing?
• What does good writing look like? What does bad writing look like? How do you know?

• Teaching Writing:
• How is teaching writing different from teaching speaking?
• How is teaching second language writing different from teaching first language writing?
• Writing is often called the neglected skill in English language teaching. Do you think that is true? Why or why not? 
• How much did your language teachers focus on writing when you were a student? How much do you focus on writing in your own classes that you teach (or will teach in the future)?
• How confident are you in your abilities to diagnose and treat student writing difficulties?
• What are you most curious about exploring in this course?

Task 2: Contrasting Written and Spoken Production

Language is language, right? I can speak fine. Writing is basically the same thing but written down. Not really! Let's take a moment to analyze some of the unique features of written discourse.

• Group Link: CLICK HERE

References: 

Ur, P. (2013). A Course in Language Teaching (2nd ed.). Cambridge University Press.

Ur, P. (1991). A Course in Language Teaching. Cambridge University Press.