Free writing may be a useful tool of language learning. By free writing I mean that student can write about anything they are interested in such as jokes, recipes, films, books, holidays, entertainments, hobbies and so on. They can even choose the form of their writing: it can be a letter, a diary, a story or an essay. What is important, it is that they should try to express their own thoughts, their own opinions. Little children starting school are trained to write compositions. Why could not teachers do the same during second language acquisition? They should lead students step by step towards self-expression in the second language.
In the classroom where there are 15-20 students in general not everybody has a chance to speak. Some children learn more by listening than speaking; some of them are inhibited, some of them are not interested in the topic of the conversation, some of them are simply tired, sleepy or hungry. In the case of free writing they can choose the topic, the form and even the time when to do it. Everything depends on them. Thus, there is motivation: an interesting topic; there is freedom (this task is not compulsory, there is no deadline), and this is useful because students practise a foreign language. They have to consult dictionaries; they have to think about grammar, so free writing requires conscious work.
Many experts in methodology agree that students are interested most of all in themselves. Jim Wingate in his book entitled Getting Beginners to Talk proposes that students should write a first person of singular sentence with each new vocabulary or grammar item in order to memorise it more easily (Wingate, 1993:10). He also emphasizes that these sentences must be true and autobiographical. Students write them in their 'grammar diary' or 'learner diary'. According to Christine Frank personal and emotional involvement is vital to the learning process, and will ensure the grammar or vocabulary item is retained far longer by the learner. She suggests that teachers should put more emphasis on the learner and his/her personal world (Frank, 1991:1). Christine Frank and Mario Rinvolucri based their book Grammar in Action Again on the idea that students are principally interested in one central topic: themselves. Mario Rinvolucri's opinion is that teachers' duty is
. . . to offer students the chance to say meaningful, emotionally charged things about themselves in the target tongue, as this is the only way for them to find a way of being in the new language. It is not enough for them to 'know' the language or 'have' its structures. To really speak a language they need to live new thoughts in it and express real feelings through it (Frank, 1991:2).
When writing students may bump into problems that are not mentioned during the lessons. They may discover new things about the language. They can realise that dictionaries are sometimes inefficient because they do not give enough information about collocations and usage. Students doing written work have more time to think about expressions and grammar.
The teacher has to correct these writings carefully. Sometimes I give students my solutions, I give them some pieces of advice, or I write some remarks on their sheets. Sometimes I only underline the mistakes, but I do not correct them; it is their task. I am convinced that they can learn a lot in this way. The teacher can make a collection of mistakes and discuss them with the whole class. Some mistakes are very common. The teacher can use a code in correcting, but students also have to be aware what the different signs mean.
As far as evaluation is concerned I rarely give grades for these writings. In this case the student must agree; he/she can choose to accept or refuse this grade. I usually give pluses (+), and five of them make a 5 (the best grade). In my evaluation I take into consideration the length, the content, the style and the correctness of the composition.
Free writing permits an informal style: abbreviations, common words, slangs, short forms and so on. It has almost all the advantages of ordinary speech without its drawback, the lack of time to think before saying something. Students are very interested in slangs, and everyday use of the language in question is closer to them than literary style. At the level of secondary schools (not specialised in a foreign language) to teach only the former one is enough in my opinion. I am afraid the diary is not a good form of free writing because it may become boring. Most of the days are similar; people do almost the same things every day. My students wrote me their autobiographies and the biographies of their favourite actors, singers, writers and so on. They wrote me about their spring holidays and summer holidays. They wrote me about whether they prefer towns or villages and why. The teacher can propose them to write about the topics of the school-leaving exam and the state examination. In this way students may have a collection of topics.
Free writing makes possible an individual relationship between the teacher and the student. The teacher can know more about his/her student from his/her writings, consequently the teacher can make easier his/her second language acquisition by choosing topics he/she is interested in and by orienting his/her interest towards new areas. From the teacher's remarks the student can see that he/she cares about his/her progress, and he/she must realize that they are in the same boat. In schools students often miss individual treatment. I think a foreign language as a school subject can offer much more opportunities for students to be themselves than any other one. I think free writing should not be compulsory, thus there will be students who will not write anything. My opinion may hurt someones, but I wholly agree with the English proverb that says "You can lead a horse to the water, but you can't make it drink." Second language acquisition cannot be successful without teachers' and students' co-operation.
Free writing is only one possibility to make foreign language acquisition more successful. For teachers an area for continuing experiment is the challenge of finding different ways to work at the same skills and language points.
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