Assignment 11

What is the difference between L1 and L2 writing?

ANSWER:

Recent research into the writing process of second language writers has
produced a range of different conclusions. In particular, research done in
the last decade in Canada, Iceland, Japan, and USA indicates two different
views:

 Position One: The composing process in first language (L1) is

different from the composing process in second language (L2)
(Silva 1993).
 Position Two: Writers transfer their writing strategies from
their first to their second language provided they possess
second language grammatical proficiency (Berman 1994).
Moreover, L2 writing strategies are similar to L1 writing
strategies (Matsumoto 1995).

One important aspect of understanding second language (L2) writing is

knowing how it differs from first language (Ll) writing. The most common
way of studying these differences has been to observe and analyze
students' behaviors and written texts. While such observation is
necessary, interesting, and valuable, it is just as, if not more, important
for teachers to know how their students perceive the differences in writing
in their first and second languages. S

This observational research literature, though it indicates broad

similarities in L1 and L2 writing (Le., in both cases writing is a complex
and recursive intellectual process), suggests some interesting differences:

 The picture the research presents is one in which L2 composing

processes seem generally more laborious than those in the Ll.

 Planning requires more effort and generates material that is less

detailed, developed and useful.

 Transcribing, i.e., going from thought to written text is also more

difficult.
  And when reviewing, writers focus more on lexical and grammatical
concerns and revise more, but less effectively.

The research also indicates a number of differences in written L2

texts.

 These texts tend to be shorter and less developed and to receive

lower quality ratings.

 Their paragraphs are less unified.

 Working in the L2, ESL writers seem to have fewer cohesive

resources and less control over those they possess. They use less
figurative language.

 Their smaller L2 vocabularies result in less ability to recognize

words' subtle nuances.

 Also, they make more errors overall.

Thus, it is important to determine appropriate approaches to writing

instruction for L2 writers in different contexts. Writing teachers need to
be equipped to deal effectively with the socio-cultural and linguistic
differences of L2 students, and the assessment of L2 writing may need
to take into account the fundamental differences between most L1 &
L2 writing.

QUESTION- 2.
Describe the two different theories – process approach and genre
approach on teaching skills of writing.
ANSWER:
English is a language widely spoken around the globe. About 1,121 billion
people regardless of natives or non-natives speak English. It is a language
that bridge people in different sectors.
English is language of business, education and communication, and even
seen as an official language and used in documenting. Second language
learning differs from first language acquisition. To meet these
requirements there were various theories and hypotheses found and
experimented to facilitate educators to impart the knowledge of second
language.
In addition, various researches in multiple disciplines, such as linguistics,
psycholinguistics, psychology and education were carried out to enable
students to learn second language. Listening, talking, reading and writing
are the primary four language abilities taught to these learners.
“Writing is the most challenging skills to be learnt and to be taught in ESL
classroom”. Writing skills is a vital skill that to be mastered by all the
students in BE classrooms as it has its various purposes. It goes beyond
the school scope.

The Importance of Writing:

Mastering writing skills is important due to its need in almost all the
professions which need documentation, especially in this era. It is
necessary to enter any modern workplace with good writing skills.
Business world requires and expect potential employers with good writing
skills and they are seen as the clients of corporate world. Therefore, it is
vital to equip oneself with good writing skills to get appointed and to
disclosed to more job opportunities. In other words, employee with good
writing skills are seen as “hot commodities” Other than that, it is one of
the most serious skill to the acquired in tertiary education.
Besides that, writing promotes creativity, imagination, and understanding.
Writing is a thinking process which involves brain process, in order to
organise ideas to write, writers need to imagine and be creative in putting
their thoughts in words. Therefore, it is compulsory to incorporate
teaching of writing skills as it is an important skill in communication in this
globalised world .

Theories to teaching writing:

Teaching and learning writing in ESL classrooms are demanding.
Researchers develop various theories to assist the learners and teachers
because in ESL students have to cope with language proficiency and the
process of writing. Theories are crucial for the teachers to know and
understand the theories in teaching writing because it will allow the
teachers to implement research-based practices better.
Here we are going examine in detail the two main approaches to teaching
writing skill- Process based writing approach and Genre based
writing approach.
Good writers plan and revise, rearrange and delete text, re-reading and
producing multiple drafts before they produce their finished document.
This is what a process writing approach is about.

Process based Approach:

The process approach treats all writing as a creative act which requires
time and positive feedback to be done well. In process writing, the teacher
moves away from being someone who sets students a writing topic and
receives the finished product for correction without any intervention in the
writing process itself.

White and Arntd say that focusing on language errors 'improves neither
grammatical accuracy nor writing fluency' and they suggest instead that
paying attention to what the students say will show an improvement in
writing.

Research also shows that feedback is more useful between drafts, not
when it is done at the end of the task after the students hand in their
composition to be marked. Corrections written on compositions
returned to the student after the process has finished seem to do little
to improve student writing.

The changing roles of teacher and students :

The teacher needs to move away from being a marker to a reader,
responding to the content of student writing more than the form.
Students should be encouraged to think about audience: Who is the
writing for? What does this reader need to know? Students also need to
realise that what they put down on paper can be changed: Things can
be deleted, added, restructured, reorganised, etc.

Stages in a process approach to writing

Although there are many ways of approaching process writing, it can
be broken down into three stages:

Pre-writing
The teacher needs to stimulate students' creativity, to get them
thinking how to approach a writing topic. In this stage, the most
important thing is the flow of ideas, and it is not always necessary that
students actually produce much (if any) written work. If they do, then
 the teacher can contribute with advice on how to improve their initial
ideas.

Focusing ideas
During this stage, students write without much attention to the
accuracy of their work or the organisation. The most important feature
is meaning. Here, the teacher (or other students) should concentrate
on the content
of the writing. Is it coherent? Is there anything missing? Anything
extra?

Evaluating, structuring and editing

Now the writing is adapted to a readership. Students should focus more
on form and on producing a finished piece of work. The teacher can
help with error correction and give organisational advice.

The importance of feedback

It takes a lot of time and effort to write, and so it is only fair that student
writing is responded to suitably. Positive comments can help build student
confidence and create good feeling for the next writing class. It also helps
if the reader is more than just the teacher. Class magazines, swapping
letters with other classes, etc. can provide an easy solution to providing a
real audience.

Writing as communication
Process writing is a move away from students writing to test their
language towards the communication of ideas, feelings and experiences.
It requires that more classroom time is spent on writing, but as the
previously outlined activities show, there is more than just writing
happening during a session dedicated to process writing.

Conclusion:
Writing is a complex process and can lead to learner frustration. As with
speaking, it is necessary to provide a supportive environment for the
students and be patient. This approach needs that more time be spent on
writing in class, but as you have seen, not all classroom time is spent
actually writing.
Students may also react negatively to reworking the same material, but
as long as the activities are varied and the objectives clear, then they will
usually accept doing so. In the long term, you and your students will start
to recognise the value of a process writing approach as their written work
improves.

Genre Approach :
“Genre” refers not only to types of literary texts but also to the
predictable and recurring patterns of everyday, academic and literary
texts occurring within a particular culture.

In the western countries, genre, either spoken or written, is often

identified/grouped according to its primary social purposes. According to
Swale (1990), the genres which share the same purposes belong to the
same text-types.

Derewianka (1990) identified further six main genres according to their

primary social purposes:

(1) narratives: tell a story, usually to entertain;

(2) recount: to tell what happened;

(3) information reports: provide factual information;

(4) instruction: tell the listeners or readers what to do;

(5) explanation: explain why or how something happens;

(6) expository texts: present or argue a viewpoint.

These social purposes of the text-genres in turn decide the linguistic

inputs of the text (i.e. their linguistic conventions, often in form of
schematic structure and linguistic features). Specifically, schematic
structure refers to internal structure or text organization of the text-type
in forms of introduction, body and conclusion, while language features
consist of linguistic aspects such as grammar, vocabulary, connectors,
etc. that the writers have to use in order to translate information/ideas
into a readable text.

Genre-based approach :

A genre-based approach placed great emphasis on the relationship

between text-genres and their contexts. In doing so, it aimed to help
students become effective participants in their academic and professional
environment as well as in their broader communities.

Following are some characteristics of the genre-based approach.

 First, the genre-based approach emphasizes the importance

of exploring the social and cultural context of language use
on a piece of writing. The context decides the purpose of a
text, an overall structure of a text in terms of language
features and text features often in the form of linguistic
conventions :

This approach argues that students can only produce a composition

to be successfully accepted by a particular English-language
 discourse community once they take the context of a text into
account into their own writing papers.

 Second, this approach highlights the magnitude of the

readers and the linguistic conventions that a piece of
writing needs to follow in order to be successfully accepted
by its readership :

According to this approach, any student who wants to be successful

in communicating in a particular English-language discourse
community needs to be able to produce texts which fulfil the
expectations of their readers in regards to grammar, organization,
and content.

 Third, it underscores that writing is a social activity. This

notion originated from the socio-cultural theory initiated by
Vygotsky (1978) :

According to this theory, knowledge is best constructed when

learners collaborate together, support one another to encourage
new ways to form, construct and reflect on new knowledge. In this
case, social interactions and participation of group members play a
key role in developing new knowledge.

In the writing classes, students are encouraged to participate in the

activities of meaning exchange and negotiation with peers and the
teacher. Learning writing in this way, as it is believed, can remove
the feeling of isolation which bothers many learners when writing
and, at the same time, help student writers have positive
reinforcements about the knowledge of linguistics, content and
ideas in the composing of texts.

 Fourth, a genre-based approach to writing instruction looks

beyond subject content, composing processes and linguistic
forms to see a text as attempts to communicate with
readers :

This approach is concerned with teaching learners how to use

language patterns to accomplish coherent, purposeful prose writing.
Its central belief is that “we do not just write, we write something to
achieve some purpose”. In this approach, student writers are
requested to take the overall social purposes of a text into account
when composing a text.

 Fifth, this approach emphasizes the important role of writer-

reader interaction on a piece of writing. Firstly, student
writer in this approach is requested to specify or think
about the intended and/or potential readers when writing in
 order to be able to select or anticipate appropriate content,
language and levels of formality :

He or she should always ask himself or herself some questions such

as –

- who will be my intended readers?,

- who might be interested in reading my text?,
- what are their beliefs about a good piece of writing?,
- what are their levels of English proficiency? and
- what are their educational and cultural backgrounds?, etc.

Similarly, readers when approaching the text should also ask

themselves some questions such as –

- for what purposes does this writer write this piece of writing?,
- what is the writer’s viewpoint when writing the text?,
- what kinds of language features and organization does he/she
use in the text?, and etc.

To recap, there always exists an interaction between a writer

and his/her readers in the form of written communication
despite the absence of readers.

 Sixth, the teacher’s role in this approach is viewed as

authoritative rather than authoritarian.

As an expert in the classroom, the teacher provides students with

systematic guidance and careful support through various activities
so that students ultimately gain the control of written genres. At the
same time, he/she also recognizes the importance of students’
contributions to the teaching-learning process.

 Last but not least, the genre-based approach emphasizes

the explicit teaching of the linguistic conventions of the
genre for second language novice student writers.

It is argued that students cannot produce a particular text-type

successfully if they are not taught explicitly about linguistic
conventions of that text-type with respect to language features and
schematic structure. Therefore, making known these conventions to
student writers, especially at the first stage of the instructional
modules of particular text-types, is a very important task of genre-
based teachers.

Conclusion
 All the approaches employed in the researches has its advantages
and disadvantages yet a good and proper selection of approaches
based on the students need is vital to make the students writing
successful. Moreover, enough time should be given to students to
get used to a certain approach. In addition, scaffolding is crucial in
assisting the students in each and every step of learning to write.
Hence, knowing students, selecting appropriate writing approaches,
and scaffolding in ESL classroom is vital to make students improve
in their writing.

QUESTION- 3
Write a business letter.

From, Date: 27 th Feb 21

Blessy Joseph,
Gilead Private Limited.
#26 Bornmann Enclave,
Hennur, Bangalore- 77

To,
Mr. John Doe
Customer Service Representative
Dell International Private Limited,
#98 Domlur,
Koramangala, Bangalore- 54

Dear Mr. John,

I am writing to you concerning a recent purchase of laptops. Approximately two

weeks ago, on February 13, I ordered a total of 50 laptops for my Company,
Gilead Private limited, via the Dell client webpage.

I received an email notification two days later confirming the receipt of payment
and the shipment of the laptops. According to your website, shipments should
reach their destination within 3-5 business days of being sent, however, I have
yet to receive the laptops.

Do you have any information on what may have happened to delay the
shipment or where the shipment is currently?

I have worked with Dell International services in the past and have the greatest
confidence in your products and customer service. We need the shipment of the
laptops soon, however, and I hoped you might be able to provide me with an
idea of when I can expect them.

Thank you in advance for any help you might be able to offer.

Yours Sincerely,

Blessy Joseph,
Program Lead,
Gilead Private Limited.