Yamiriam Ruiz Boicet is an Associate Professor and MSc of Education at the Language Center of the University of Guantanamo. She is interested in updating knowledge and practice of foreign language teaching based on the Common European Framework. She has written and co-written several articles to stimulate oral communication using participatory techniques.
Email: yamiriamr@cug.co.cu

Yanelis Jovellar Iznaga is an Assistant Professor and Bachelor of Education at the Language Center of the Guantanamo University. She has worked on different topics related to the English Language Teaching. She has written articles about the English teaching-learning process, and also enjoys working with participatory techniques in classes.
Email: yanelisji@cug.co.cu

 

Introduction

One of the biggest problems that our students face in language development is working with writing. Students are often heard saying "I don't know how to write"; "I don't know how to do it". A large number of our students are left handed while speaking, have concordance errors, general construction errors, and poor and hesitant vocabulary. The most worrying thing about this is the poor development of the ability to use language, which reflects a parallel clumsiness in thinking. Who speaks and writes badly, also in his inner language is confused and hesitant. Ineptitude in using language slows down the development of thought.

Nowadays, the scientific-technical development itself requires constant preparation and updating of our professionals where the search for information and the understanding of what is being investigated leads to a subsequent final drafting work that leads to it being carried out efficiently. Therefore, all of the above requires a commendable job in order to prepare our students in the development of writing skills.

There have been many methods used to enhance this work but they are still insufficient and a continuous search for varied activities is needed to promote it, raise interest and motivation in our students so that they write more frequently and thus achieve improve your spelling, your handwriting as well as your writing.

In general, achieving a favorable attitude towards the use of written language, which allows communication and expression that is more nuanced and faithful to thought than oral communication and expression, overcoming the widespread rejection of the use of the written word, do not appear to be simple goals of attainable but not impossible to achieve either.

Current times require the comprehensive training of future graduates who, in addition to being a good researcher, know how to express clearly and precisely the message they want to convey and that it reaches the reader without losing its meaning.

That is why it is proposed with this work to make an outline of how the teacher can treat such an important aspect as writing, writing as appropriate as possible and according to the level of education in which the student is.

Teaching to write is not an easy task, but if we do it systematically, marked results can be achieved in the medium and long term, defining different ways, activities that favor strengthening the development of this skill.

We all know in advance that there are numerous independent jobs in which our students have to put it into practice, where they have to make compositions, presentations, among other things, as well as make assessments, make judgments, opinions, all through a written report with its proper structure and redaction.

 

Research findings

The Language Center at the University of Guantanamo has been carrying out an intensive task to enhance and stimulate the students' interest to write about updating topics through a set of some practical exercises to be done in class or at home based on the CEFR to better their writing competences as future professionals.

 

Different forms of writing

We must begin by stating that a student must have various skills in the use of written language, which involve specific abilities, knowledge of the language and a favorable attitude to this form of expression, among them we can mention:

1. Communicate in writing in a clear, simple and efficient manner, in accordance with the rules of the language.
2. Summarize an article, a chapter of a book, in general a medium -complexity writing.
3. Assimilate some knowledge of literary structures and styles, in a functional way, to improve your writing style.
4. Improve the first draft of a job, when you don't find it right, and incorporate this self-criticism into your writing technique.

Something that worries teachers today is the fact that a large part of our students dislike two of the main instruments of thought: mathematics and the conscious use of their native language in written form. Both are means of organizing thought about things and about other thoughts. Perhaps the best way to make these tools enjoyable for our learners is to make them more powerful in the hands of those who use them.

 

Writing versus composition?

The first is nothing more than the exercise of writing down the material collected in the act of invention, elaborated and ordered in the act of disposition, while composition, assimilated to an art of thinking, involves the rhetorical process of invention, disposition and elocution. Undoubtedly, composition and writing refer to the same thing: relating thought to words, mentally organizing what is meant and committing to words and their syntactic combinations.

Despite this, we all say ¨write a summary¨, ¨write a report¨, ¨write a record¨,  and it would not seem appropriate to use the verb compose in such cases. Now, if we wanted to maintain the distinction between composition and writing, we should observe that "compose" makes us think more about invention and arrangement and "writing" in the linguistic order and its definitive organization in words and sentences. The teaching of the written language will sometimes emphasize creation - in a free work where the student can create - and at other times in the elaboration of the paragraph, in the linguistic structure. However, it is useless to want to separate the composition from the redaction, since both are inextricably related.

Today both terms are known by composition and written expression, to refer to the preparation of a summary as well as a report or presentation.

 

Creative composition

The student must have the opportunity to write creatively, with some frequency, on the topics that most interest him and in the way that he deems best; but at the same time, you must receive specific guidance on the elaboration of certain types of formal compositions: reports, letters, etc.

The creative composition, by emphasizing invention, forces the student to search in their experience or fantasy, to be original, clear, etc.

Various works should be considered within this type of composition, such as the ones mentioned below:

1. Original and free treatment compositions on a common theme for the whole group or chosen individually.
2. Works on works read in the form of comments or personal essays.

 

Free composition

It allows the student's personality to be formed, since in the development of intimate issues it gives him the profile of his predilections and the table of values and principles in the way he has assimilated them. Free composition is simply that, free composition, something similar in small and with the modesty of teaching work, to what the original writer does. It is important to start with what is done and not with what is taught, that is, after a composition is written, what can be taught to the student really begins. Collective criticism is also of relevant importance, since from it each student will draw their particular conclusions and the appropriation of norms and new structures, the adequacy of some expressions, the resources that allow the understanding of what is wanted to be transmitted, that enhance the expression and they also nuance the language with different tones.

There are vitally important aspects such as:

• The motivation to write.
• The structure of the composition.
• The criticism of the works.

In the first, the student will verify that when writing about something that really concerns him, he likes it, ideas and words arise more easily. If the teacher neglects the motivation to write, the class can be unproductive. That is why if the teacher proposes to his students for composition abstract topics about which the student has very little information; it leads to lifeless cold papers and worse, to entrench falsehood and vague reference as compositional procedures.

It is possible to allow each student to choose the title of their composition, but it would be convenient on some occasions, so that collective criticism is more effective and easily translates into functional self-criticism of each student, it is helpful for the whole group to agree on a certain theme or title, or two or three, of which each student will select the one they like best. This in no way limits spontaneity or makes the composition lose its free nature. If the topics that are suggested are interesting, choosing more than one topic for the whole group, rather than limiting, facilitates creation. The suggested topics that move the affective and incite the student to express himself spontaneously and with originality, within the framework of his reality, turn out to be a stimulus to write.

 

Composition structure

A composition is not a sum of sentences that are grouped in a paragraph. The one who writes must know where each paragraph ends and how to use punctuation marks so that his thought can be well understood, he must prepare a good final paragraph, adequate for the effect that is proposed.

One of the ways that helps in the work with the writing of a composition would be the collective writing and that it be done on the blackboard, these can be two or three compositions so that the students analyze them and can observe the gradation, the clarity, punctuation, ending. This variant resurfaces for the first classes which will encourage students to learn:

• That work must have an organization.
• That there are various resources to express what is meant, and that not all of them are appropriate in each case.
• That the punctuation helps others understand what one means with the approximate intonation and the pauses with which he wanted to express it.
• The student can make a sketch of his composition, so that he has a first expressible organization of thought.
• Other students can directly write the work.

In the case of the students who make their sketches, they do not need to copy complete sentences but rather use key phrases and words, which allow them to anticipate an order and some ideas, and also admit crossing out and additions.

During this work, the teacher can approach the students to get an idea of how the process is going.

 

Job evaluation

This is an important aspect because it is the moment in which a criticism of what has been done is made, although some teachers make an exhaustive review of what has been done by the students and consider that all faults must be pointed out by themselves, however This results in a huge waste of time and therefore in an inefficiency in learning. This practice tends to become mechanical and encourages the appearance of new errors, which would complicate the review somewhat.

Stimulating criticism has been shown to work better than detailed, scathing criticism when delivered orally. The one that is done on the blackboard is a true writing class and it must be done in an impersonal way, without having to evaluate the work through it.

The criticism of the works contributes to strengthening the judgment and critical evaluation of the students and makes it possible to improve the writing of the students in the form of expression of each one. In addition, this connection of the entire group with what each student has written allows them to take advantage of the experiences and judgments of others, appropriate the knowledge and achieve the skills that collectively seem necessary. This also helps to achieve group work, collective criticism and that this modifies habits and skills and provides necessary and usable knowledge for each student. All this must be done gradually by the teacher, since it leads to learning to think as much as to speak and write.

It is suggested that the best compositions be archived and at the end of the course, they are very useful to compare the progress that has been obtained.

 

Functional self-criticism

When the student makes his composition, this first draft will not be free of errors and this leads inexorably to a highly educational attitude: dissatisfaction with those mistakes made. The desire to improve what has been done, to adjust the word to the thought, leads to the reworking of the paragraphs, to the correction of words, etc. Here the use of the dictionary plays an important role.

From the collective criticism the student must repeat his work with what he has learned; it is this attitude of nonconformity, the desire for perfection without extremes, which is called functional self-criticism. A good technique for the development of the same is after the collective criticism is concluded, that each one revises his work again. Several revisions must be made, as many as necessary, this habit favors gaining in the quality of what the student writes.

 

Writing a paragraph

One of the activities that our students carry out most frequently at this level through the independent works that are guided by the subjects they receive in the year is precisely the writing about what they have read either one paragraph or several. However, in many cases, teachers do not provide the necessary tools for students to achieve adequate writing and win essential aspects of writing. It is advisable to carry out this work on the blackboard starting with a sentence that expresses a theme, and from this the students jointly elaborate others that support the first with elements and details related to it. It is worth noting that the purpose of the paragraph must be well defined, that is, if it is going to be defined, argued, narrated, etc. It is recommended that students be left free to relate the main clause with those that they understand to be the most appropriate of those that have been exposed on the blackboard, correcting or adding the words they want. Attention should be paid to the ordering of the sentences that support the first one – which amplify, clarify, or nuance that idea.

Once all the students have finished, numerous paragraphs need to be read and critiqued by the students in a way that improves the writing.

It is necessary that this work be carried out systematically until the students acquire the ability with the writing work and therefore the quality of the writings that our students carry out at different times is raised.

This work suggests that control and analysis be maintained orally so that their errors are heard and on the board so that they can observe the final result of the product and in this way continue enriching the development of the skill, reversing in quality when working in harmony independently without the help of the teacher.

 

Written language assessment

Evaluation is an aspect of great importance and to which adequate attention must be paid. We can mention that there are two instances when evaluating and they are the design of the task and the quality of what is produced in light of the task in question.

With respect to the aforementioned, the first related to design is nothing more than taking into account the stages that it entails: planning, development and evaluation. However, the evaluation of quality is carried out in various ways taking into account the purpose pursued with the writing that is guided by the teacher. In our opinion, if we want to promote writing in our students, we must evaluate the work from an organizational and structural perspective, guiding the process of correction and revision of the written text, as we previously stated orally and in writing on the blackboard, so that the students observe in what they were wrong, the knowledge of the errors is valid both to speak and to write. Although thought is required for both actions, we generally work harder to write than to speak, since writing remains and can be read by several people. All of the above must be carried out until the students demonstrate the acquired ability and here aspects that are also of vital importance would be taken into account, such as coherence, cohesion of the ideas that are written from a thematic idea or by free choice.

Taking into account the importance given to spelling through circular/01, this aspect will also be pointed out. However, in general, emphasis is placed on the control of the skills that our students have for: the development of logical reasoning, the formulation of ideas related to the assigned task, the organization of ideas according to the category of main or secondary schools in a coherent way, but always teaching them how to do it before evaluating it, since teachers regularly control far from showing them the ways to reach the goal set.

The constant transformations that are taking place today in our society require a change in the mentality of our teachers so that students are not controlled by rigid structures that do not allow the development of their sense of creativity. This, in the view of the authors, constitutes a way to disinhibit the development of our students in the face of the tasks that we guide them and would encourage them to write according to their interests, motivations, despite being indicated topics of another nature taking into account the content of the different subjects they receive in the year.

The role of the teacher at the beginning is to guide the student through steps to get to write with the required quality, which is why at this stage attention should not be focused on the final result but on the way in which the same They come to write. Group work is a way to achieve this goal when we are giving treatment to the skill even when in the end the evaluation is individual. With all of the above, emphasis is placed on giving a real treatment to the work with written language if we really want our students to develop it efficiently, knowing in advance the rejection that students show when they are guided to write something.

 

Conclusions

When expressing ourselves, it is not always done orally. In many cases we use the written word. Therefore, it is necessary to know how to write and to do it correctly. When the person is not present, the writings speak for them; they are their ambassadors, so it must be done properly. Writing requires what to say and how to say it, both in content and form.

Teaching writing is not an easy task to accomplish and requires systematic treatment. The lack of exercise in the written language causes an impoverishment of thought, which when stimulated to be carried out spontaneously, surprising results are obtained.

It is the task of the teacher to search for variants that favor raising the ability of our students to write any writing that is oriented and in the beginning not to inhibit them with schematic structures.

 

References

Teresa, A, (1989) The understanding of written language. Magazine General and Applied Pedagogy. Madrid, No. 42.

Ana, A, (2005) Life skills in reading writing assessments. UNESCO, LLECE-SERCE, Buenos Aires.

Chris, R, (2005) Face2Face. Cambridge University Press.

Daniel, C, (1998). The writing kitchen. Barcelona, Editorial Anagrama.

Cassany, D, (2005). The kitchen of writing. Barcelona, Editorial Anagrama.

Elio, D (1988). About the Writing. Havana, Editorial Pueblo and Education.

Maria Theresa, E (1989). Practical writing: The means of connection and the Paragraph, Mérida, Venezuela ULA Publications Council

Maria Cristina, M (1995 – 1999). Comprehension and production of academic texts: expository and argumentative. UNESCO Chair for reading and writing in Latin America.

Navy, P (1995). Production process of a written text, Typed Material.

 

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