Prelude:
Writing plays an important role which speaking cannot do in fulfilling our communicative needs. According to holliday (1985. PP 40-41) writing culture serves the following functions for action (public signs) for social contact (letters, postcards) for information (newspapers, magazines) and for entertainment (film, poetry, and songs). The teaching of writing is aimed at one’s ability to function effectively in such written language contexts. In foreign language class such as English as foreign language (EFL), Students learn to write to organize and communicate their thoughts in their target language. Academic writing as a specific writing genre and part of English for Academic purpose was introduced in 1970s in English speaking countries where non native speakers of English came to Study at Universities. Through EAP program, Students learn to function for various communicative purposes in academic discourse in English.
Statement of the problems:
Good writing was done from a set of rules and principles the teacher’s duty was relate these rules and students then wrote in response to selected written texts, following the rules of good writing. A students essay was then graded for its grammatical accuracy and correct organization as well as its content. This idea is shown clearly in Harvard University’s entrance requirements of 1874.
Each candidate will be required to write a short English Composition, correct in spelling, punctuation, grammar and expression. The subject to be taken from such works of standard authors as shall be announced from time to time. The Subject for 1874 will be taken from one of the following works. Shakespeare’s Tempest Julius Caesar and merchant of Venice goldsmith’s vicar of wake field: Scoll’s Ivanhoe and lay of last minstrel (Cited in Bizzell, Herzberg & Reynolds, 2000).
Writing was used to show that students had mastered a particular grammatical rule rather than had a good idea about the subject matter. In fact correct spelling, grammar and overall organization were the most important evidence of foreign language, proficiency. A student’s ability to form and write the future perfect tense correctly was seen as evidence of a students ability to write and moreover of the students overall English ability. In class students spent a great deal of time in copying models rather than expressing their own ideas creatively. This creates the writing problems because their creativity decreases.
This article will address two problems related to EFL teaching and learning in Bangladesh and then provide some suggested solutions to deal with it. The problems chosen for discussion in this article is that of teaching and learning EFL writing skill which places a lot of demands of any teacher and learner of EFL.
Objectives of the Study:
At the end of the article we should be able to-
- Define the writing
- identify the problems of writing
- identify the common mistakes of writing
- learn the writing process
- Learn how the raise students awareness of why they should write in English.
- learn how to teach students to write in English
- Learn how to assess students writing skill.
Significance of the Study:
Writing skill in the study of a second or foreign language is considered as one way of measuring individual’s language proficiency. Especially people are more likely to access through written language proficiency is only measured by the writing at the SSC level. Here the distribution of marks is mainly based on writing. Almost half of the marks in the emanation may be examined on the student’s writing skill within 200 marks. Here paragraph writing placed 30 marks, essay writing placed 20 marks, letter or application placed 20 marks. Story writing placed 20 marks dialogue, though it is considered the skill of speaking but here it is examined on the basis of writing skill, it placed 10 marks. On the other hand the reading skill is also ranked by the writing skill. It placed 60 marks. Others 40 marks placed on grammar. There is not tested the students listening competent. So at the SSC level, writing is considered more important than the others. But to be a good writer one need, to carefully consider about planning and organization of writing. In this paper, I want to figure out how importantly organization and the process of writing can be considered on text.
First in this paper I did research on Bangladeshi learners writing in private language institute, (a coaching center named English School). Second I reviewed the data and results and findings and finally it provides some suggested solutions to deal with it.
Outlines of the thesis:
This thesis paper deals with five research questions-
- That are students attitudes a about writing an essay, a paragraph, a letter, and a story?
- What are most difficult factors in writing?
- What kind of relations can be found between the amount of exposure in target language and writing?
- What are the problems of the writing process?
- What causes a problem in reading Bangladeshi students writing form the product and process oriented view?
EFL writing:
What is writing?
Writing can be defined by series of contrasts-
- It is both a physical and a mental act. At the most basic level, writing is the physical act of committing words or ideas to some medium. Whether it is hieroglyphics inked onto parchment or an e mail message typed into a computer On the other hand, writing is the mental work of inventing ideas, think about how to express them into statements and paragraphs that will be clear to a reader.
- Its purpose is both express and impress. Writers typically serve two masters; themselves and their own desires to express and idea or feeling, and readers also called the audience, who need to have ideas expressed in certain ways, writers must then choose the best form for their writing – a shopping list, notes from a meeting, a scholarly article, a novel, or poetry are only a few of the choices. Each of these types of writing has a different level of complexity, depending on its purpose.
- It is both a process and a product, the writer imagines, organizes, drafts, edits, reads and rereads. This process of writing is often cyclical and sometimes disorderly. Ultimately, what the audience sees. Whether it is an instructor or a wider audience, is a product an essay, letter, paragraph, story or research report.
Writing competence: Toward a definition:
The word ‘competence’ suggests a state of sufficiency or capability, or an ability that a person might have. Krashen defined writing competence as “the abstract knowledge the proficient writer has about writing” (1984. p. 20). However, the notion of competence is not absolute; there is degree of competence. Therefore, a competent writer is someone who has achieved a given level of ability and is able to communicate effectively and convincingly. A competent writer might also be called a “Good writer”.
What is “Good” writing?
There are many various factors, however descriptions of good writing in which most writers agree. Features such a clarity, explicitness conciseness, clear paragraph structure and overall organization are considered important ultimately, however the quality of a text is based on Judgment If the reader and readers own criteria become the essential measure of quality. It the language teaching matrix, Richards (1990) indentifies coherence and cohesion as the two basic aspects that determine the quality of a writer text.
Writing problems:
Writing is both a process and a product, the writer imagines, organizes, drafts, edits, reads and rereads. This process of writing is often cyclical and sometimes disorderly. Ultimately, what the audience sees. Whether it is an instructor or a wider audience, is a product an essay, letter, paragraph, story or research report. There are four activities of writing which considered the writing; pre-writing process, drafting process, post-writing process, and after all throughout the writing process,. Writing is a product of language, organization, content, academics style. If anything from it lacked the whole writing affected. So before writing anything the writer need to more concern to that product. Product a process oriented writing problems in efl writing in Bangladesh is elaborately discussed on chapter-4.
Literature Review:
Learning the process of writing is a difficult skill for students to develop and learn, especially in EFL context, where exposure to English is limited to a few hours per week. Students, learning English composition as a second or foreign language, struggle with many structural issues including selecting proper words, using correct grammar, generating ideas, and developing ideas about specific topics. More importantly, they have trouble developing functional language skills, such as proper natural language use in different social contexts and using language in creative ways. These functional language use problems are worsened because writing teachers tend to focus largely on teaching students grammar, and proper language structure, and typically see students as passive writers. These factors tend to hamper students from improving their classroom interaction and keep them from developing more active learning in writing. Due to this gap between students’ needs and teachers’ instructional methodology, the issue becomes how teachers can help students express themselves freely and fluently to be more autonomous writers, and how teachers can help students become more successful readers and writers of academic and workplace texts. Additionally, the issue is how teachers can help students understand social functions, allowing them to make writing more meaningful and productive in different social contexts. There is pressing need for composition class to help students develop their skills in using language by experiencing a whole writing process as well as knowledge of the contexts in which writing happens and the purpose of the writing.
The literature of the thesis paper are view on the following works of the researchers.
Campbell, C. 1998 Teaching Second Language writing Interacting with text, Boston, MA: Heinle & Heinle.
Part of the Teacher Source series, this volume tells of the author’s development as a teacher of writing. it address major issues in the field of writhing and leads readers into an examination of their own practices. Teaching second language writing has an accessible style and a strong teaching focus.
Ferris, D. and J. S. Hedgcock 1998. Teaching ESL Composition: Purpose, process, and practice. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Teaching ESL composition is a practical guide for designing handouts, revision plans and writing portfolio assessment. It is designed to serve a wide audience of teacher and researchers.
Kroll, B. 2001. Second Language Writing: Research insights for the classroom. In M. Celce-Murcia (ed.) teaching English as a Second or Foreign Language. Boston, BA: Heinle & Heinle.
This collection of Articles cover the main issues witting teachers face in teaching ESL/EFL writhing. Topics include the composing process, variables in writing performance, instructor response to student writing and student processing of feedback, assessment and the reading/writing connection.
Leki, I 1992. Understanding ESL Writers: A Guide for Teachers. Portsmouth, NH: Boynton Cook.
This text focuses on the ESL writer as well as the writing product. It examines: the educational and linguistic contexts, the writing bravos of ESL students, and types of assignment.
Reid, J M. 1993. Teaching ESL Writing. Englewood Chiffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
This book provides a theoretical and historical basis for the field of ESL writing, from planning and implementing of actual writing activities. It includes discursion of croll-cultural communication, learning styles and strategies collaborative learning and response and evolution techniques for ESL writing.
Helpful Website:
The Journal of Second Language Writing (http://www.jslw.org)
A referred journal that features reports of research and discussion of issues in section and foreign writing and writing instruction topics include characteristics and attitudes of second language writers second language writers composing processes, features of writers tests readers responses to second language writing specifically devoted to ESL/EFL a large number of the articles deal with writing.
Method:
In order to examine students writing problem 32 Students handed in 4 kinds of writing assignments and a questionnaire about what made students difficult to write and what types of writing are difficult to write (essay, letter, paragraph and story), what kind of written text they read or write on a regular basis and questions about writing process. The results of questionnaire and analysis of writing showed crucial data on what students really need to learn to improve writing and what aspect of writing can be applied to teaching methods to make learners thought express more fluently especially when it comes to inter-language.
Participants
32 high school students from different institution at SSC level in a private language institute were placed into one of three levels according top their English Proficiency. In Group A, there are 12 students and group B, there are 10 students and group C, there are 10 students. The 32 participants were Bangladeshi Students (14-17 years old)
Instrument
Step I
Data Collection & Data Analysis:
The questionnaire that had been administered as a pre-course evaluation was comprised of 4 sections. In section one, students were asked to identify and rank the subject of difficulty in writing in five categories such as essay, paragraph, letter, story and dialogue. And in section two students were asked to rank the five types of writing problems, 1.Content 2. Organization 3. Language 4. Academics writing style 5. Mechanics.
- Section 1 (Table-1)
- Ranking 5 categories of writing at SSC level
- How often they feel it difficult?
Often (O) =1 Sometimes (S) =2 rarely(R) =3 never (N) = 4
Writing categories | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Percentage of difficulty % | avarage percentage of difficulty | |||
Letter | 1 | 2 | 4 | 25 | O=3% | S=6% | R=10% | N=81% | 8% |
Paragraph | 3 | 5 | 6 | 18 | O=10% | S=16% | R=18% | N=56% | 16% |
Dialogue | 2 | 7 | 4 | 19 | O=7% | S=21% | R=10% | N=62% | 12% |
Essay | 8 | 10 | 9 | 5 | O=26% | S=32% | R=29% | N=13% | 29% |
Story telling | 18 | 11 | 2 | 1 | O=54% | S=35% | R=8% | N=3% | 35% |
From this Table-1(Questionnaire), more than 54% Students said that was the most difficult category of writing is story telling. I asked them why? Most of them replied that it is difficult because it has no selective syllabus. The second one of difficulty is essay writing 26%. And 10% students said that paragraph writing is difficult to write. And 7% and 3% students said that dialogue and letter writing are difficult to write.In section two students were asked to rank the five types of writing problems, 1.Content 2. Organization 3. Language 4. Academics writing style 5. Mechanics.
- Section II (Table-2)
- Ranking of five types of writing problem
Most difficult (1) ………………………………….. Least difficult (7)
Types of writing Problem | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | Avrage Percentange % |
Contents | 14 | 28 | 13 | 10 | 12 | 12 | 10 | 26% |
Organization | 38 | 20 | 19 | 7 | 8 | 6 | 2 | 53% |
Language | 22 | 18 | 15 | 13 | 19 | 6 | 6 | 7% |
Academic Style | 12 | 16 | 18 | 26 | 8 | 18 | 2 | 10% |
Mechanics | 1 | 5 | 6 | 12 | 26 | 19 | 31 | 4% |
From this table 2, More than 53% students were said that organization was the most difficult part of the five. The second was contents ( 26%) which were mainly about ideas related to a given topic. Students showed some variation as the proportion of the numbers was relatively balanced. The third was Academic Style 10%. The four is language including grammar and word usage or collocation expression. So here the organization is the main problem in learning efl writing.
In section 3, I asked them what kind of written texts do you read and write and decide how often they read and write such text, on often/sometimes/rarely/never scale. The text types are five kinds; (1) Letter (2) Newspaper (3) poem (4) Diary or Journal (5) Academic articles.
- Section III (Table-3)
- What kind of written texts do you read and write?
- How often do you read and write?
Read = R Write= W
Often = 1 Sometimes =2 rarely =3 never= 4
Types of written texts | Read | Write | |||||||
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | average Percentage of R& W | |
Letter | 4 | 11 | 15 | 2 | 0 | 8 | 12 | 12 | R=30% W=20% |
Newspaper | 1 | 12 | 15 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 32 | R=86% W=0% |
poem | 0 | 5 | 12 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 32 | R=51% W=0% |
Diary | 1 | 2 | 5 | 24 | 0 | 2 | 18 | 14 | R=25% W=6% |
Academic article | 0 | 7 | 3 | 22 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 27 | R=30% W=18% |
This question was included to figure out the relation of reading and writing and familiarity of written text type. Familiarity is viable to writing competence. As the table 3 indicates that students have read a lot of letters are more frequently than other types of written text. But they are not practiced writing it regular basis.
From the table-3.more than 30% students said that they read the letters but only 20% students said that they write the letter. Here I see that only letters are much used on reading and writing. Then academic article are placed second R & W 30% &18%. Then diary is used 25% & 6%. And after that poem & newspaper are the later one. Here one thing is mentionable that more than 86% students are read the newspapers but no one writes it. i asked them why they read it more than any one , they answers their institution have put the newspaper daily. From that they read it.
In section-4, i asked them about the questions about writing process; 1. Pre-writing 2. Drafting 3. Post-writing and 4. Throughout the writing process, on always/usually/never scale.
- Section IV (Table-4)
- What is the writing process?
- How often do they?
A = Always = 5 marks U = Usually = 3 marks N = Never = 0 | Percentange of users% | ||||||
When pre-writing, the student: | |||||||
considers the purpose of the piece | 22 | 5 | 5 | 86% | |||
considers the audience for the piece | 23 | 5 | 4 | 88% | |||
considers various possible points of view | 9 | 2 | 21 | 35% | |||
considers possible formats appropriate to purpose and audience | 18 | 7 | 7 | 76% | |||
When drafting, the student | |||||||
produces a first, rough draft | 2 | 3 | 27 | 16% | |||
produces subsequent drafts | 2 | 2 | 28 | 12% | |||
confirms point of view | 6 | 10 | 16 | 48% | |||
confirms format appropriate to purpose and audience | 11 | 6 | 15 | 53% | |||
confers with peers and teacher | 2 | 3 | 27 | 16% | |||
revises the draft for content and clarity of meaning | 1 | 1 | 30 | 6% | |||
edits the draft individually and collaboratively | 0 | 1 | 31 | 3% | |||
When post-writing, the student: | |||||||
prepares a final, polished draft | 0 | 1 | 31 | 3% | |||
decides if and how the written work will be shared | 0 | 2 | 30 | 7% | |||
shares a variety of written forms | 0 | 0 | 32 | 0% | |||
decides which writing pieces become part of the portfolio | 0 | 1 | 31 | 3% | |||
‘ * Throughout the writing process, the student: | |||||||
reflects upon the written piece and revises accordingly | 5 | 10 | 17 | 47% | |||
confers willingly with teacher and peers | 2 | 10 | 20 | 37% | |||
monitors continuous progress | 2 | 5 | 18 | 22% | |||
From this table-4 more than 71% students followed pre-writing technique but in pre-writing technique only 35% students are considers the points of view in writing. It considers the most important problem in efl writing. Then the questions about drafting; writing; only 22% students draft their writing. Among them only 3% percents students were edits their writing individually and collaboratively. On the other side only 6% revise their drafts for content and clarity of meaning. Those are the problems in writing; drafting. The questions about post-writing activities only 3% students positively responded. There is no doubt that it is the most serious problems in learning efl writing. Finally I question them about the throughout the writing process only 26% students response positively. Here monitoring of continuous writing progress, is the major problem in learning efl writing.
After all we see that average 31% students followed the process of writing. So the process oriented teaching of writing need to be developed.
Step II
Students’ writing collections and analysis, Students were asked to submit 1 writing assignment per week. Students’ writing scores were given under the same measurement standard. The students received the average score of the five.
Result & Discussion:
Section 1 (table 1)
What is the most difficult to write?
Essay 29%
Paragraph 16%
Letter 8%
Story telling 35%
Dialogue 12%
More than 35% students answered that Story telling is the most difficult to write. the second is essay writing 29%,and the third one is paragraph writing 16%. and the four one is dialogue writing 12%. and they said that letter writing is most easiest one 8%.
Results of students’ writing:
Topic:
1. You are having trouble with your teeth. Write a letter to a dentist requesting an appointment.
2. Write a paragraph on your Next-door Neighbor.
3. Write an essay on differences between village and city life.
4. Complete the following story
Once upon a time there was a farmer. He has seven sons but they are not united………………………………….
*4 topics were given to students. The 4 topics of categories were essay, letter, paragraph, and storytelling. The length of each writings was limited to one page. Here the students’ writing scripts is scored for testing why a student copied writing.
*Rating measurement used 5 categories of scoring
1) Contents (0-25)
2) Organization (0-25)
3) Grammar /structure (0-25)
4) Word Choice/ word form (0-15)
5) Mechanics (0-10)
Results of scoring students’ writing:
(A……….., A2……..,A3…… represents the students name.)
1. Group A of 12 students
(1) Contents =C (2) Organization =0 (3) Grammar =G
A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | |
25-23 | C | C | C | |||||||||
22-20 | C O | C | C | CO | O | C | C | C | ||||
19-17 | G | O | OG | O G | G | OG | CO | O | O | O | ||
16-0 | G | G | G | OG | G | G | G |
(4) Word choice/ word form =w
A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | |
15-14 | W | |||||||||||
13-12 | W | W | W | W | W | W | W | W | ||||
11-10 | W | W | W | |||||||||
9-0 |
(5) Mechanics = M
| A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L |
10 | M | M | ||||||||||
9-8 | M | M | M | M | M | M | ||||||
7-6 | M | M | M | M | ||||||||
5-0 |
2. Group B of 10 students
(1) Contents = C (2) Organization = O (3) Grammar= G
A2 | B2 | C2 | D2 | E2 | F2 | G2 | H2 | I2 | J2 | |
25-23 | C | C | C | G | C | G | CG | |||
22-20 | CG | CG | OG | OG | C | C | CO | |||
19-17 | O | O | OG | O | OG | OG | O | |||
16-0 |
(4) Word choice/ word form =w
A2 | B2 | C2 | D2 | E2 | F2 | G2 | H2 | I2 | J2 | |
15-14 | W | W | W | W | W | W | ||||
13-12 | W | W | W | W | ||||||
11-10 | ||||||||||
9-0 |
(5) Mechanics = M
| A2 | B2 | C2 | D2 | E2 | F2 | G2 | H2 | I2 | J2 |
10 | M | M | M | M | M | M | ||||
9-8 | M | M | M | M | ||||||
7-6 | ||||||||||
5-0 |
3. Group C of 10 students
(1) Contents = C (2) Organization = O (3) Grammar= G
A3 | B3 | C3 | D3 | E3 | F3 | G3 | H3 | I3 | J3 | |
25-23 | C | CG | O | CG | C | COG | COG | |||
22-20 | OG | O | CG | O | COG | CG | OG | CG | ||
19-17 | O | O | ||||||||
16-0 |
(4) Word choice/ word form =w
A3 | B3 | C3 | D3 | E3 | F3 | G3 | H3 | I3 | J3 | |
15-14 | W | W | ||||||||
13-12 | W | W | W | W | W | W | ||||
11-10 | W | W | ||||||||
9-0 |
(5) Mechanics = M
A3 | B3 | C3 | D3 | E3 | F3 | G3 | H3 | I3 | J3 | |
10 | M | M | M | M | M | |||||
9-8 | M | M | M | M | M | |||||
7-6 | ||||||||||
5-0 |
Chapter six conclusions and Recommendation
conclusions and Recommendation
The Findings of the study:
From the scoring data, I have been found that insufficient organization led to confusion of understanding idea. The second is grammar, in inter-language grammatical errors are very common. It is inevitable when students are in the process of learning L2. So fluency matters first then accuracy comes next, from the results, however, organization in terms of fluency was the trickiest part to be improved. The third is word choice. Both contents and mechanics were not considered to make them confused. Learners in all 3 groups were estimated to have fairly good and creative ideas even though sentence structure is still problematic. so in contents, no significant differences were shown among different levels. However the three groups had organization problems in common. Especially those groups were not good at making smooth changes and connections between sentences. Each sentence formation was constructed well among B and C groups. So grammatical errors were dramatically reduced among group B and C, in word choice, A and B showed no significant variations. So between A and B groups, B group used more grammatical knowledge. In addition: B group maintained better mechanics. So B and C groups were more aware of mechanics and grammar. C group scored a little higher mark than group B in organization In contrast, both B and C groups’ maintained similar scores of grammar. From this observation, Organization is the trickiest part; all groups received high marks on contents. These findings suggest that the inability of developing meaning from the given topics should not be blamed for lack of grammar or insufficiency of fluency. Problems in organization in detail (see Appendix A and B)In group A and B: students put Coordinate “and” in front of the sentences Coordinate conjunctions were most frequently used in group A and B Only C group of students tend to use “however, nevertheless even though: in spite of, consequently hence eventually”. Group C used more “Transitions” than any other group the C group had more transition. For example, there were ‘ in short, in this case, in addition, in fact on the other hand, and in contrast1. Students rarely used ‘ -whereas, neither, nor, likewise, similarly1. Although there was a bit more variety of usage, students need to notice appropriate usages of transitions and conjunctions. Surely individuals’ variations or topic related variables should be considered. Related to organization, further studies could do more research about relations between LI transfer and frequency of transitions and conjunctions,
Conclusion:
As a result, we should think of pedagogical issues. Organization should be taught and emphasized in writing class instruction, writing class can support thorough lessons of what is organization in contexts. So language teachers should keep this importance in mind and try to develop more techniques on teaching organization. Organization affects not only writing but also speaking in terms of production ability and discourse skills.
Suggestions for teacher, student:
How to Make EFL Students Aware of Why They Should Write in English
As Ur [7] puts it, language teachers should explain the function of writing as self-
Expression and communication before having students practice writing skills. The function of writing can be exemplified as narrating, describing, reporting, and so on. The teacher’s mission is certainly beyond that, however. Teachers should also explore students’ motivation for writing, which, according to Kellogg [8], includes achievement motivation, intrinsic motivation, and extrinsic motivation. This will help the teacher design meaningful and purposeful writing tasks in accordance with students’ motivation. For example, if students need to write research papers, reports, abstracts, memos, professional letters, project analyses, and proposals in English, the writing tasks should be closely related to such task types, thus making students realize the meaningful purposes of their writing.
How to Teach Students to Write in English:
At present, the approach of teaching process-writing is being emphasized. This writing approach can be briefly summarized as a process of planning, writing and reviewing (Flower and Hayes, [9J). in this article, the discussion on the process approach will, however, focus on explaining how to provide input for students before writing, how to develop students’ understanding of social contexts, arid how to give feedback to students’ writing since these seem to be the most serious problems that EFL teachers in Bangladesh often encounter.
How to provide input for students before writing:
It is obvious that language teachers need to provide learners with certain input before asking them to write. Input drives acquisition, which should be put ahead of teaching in any approach of language instruction that wants to be successful (VanPatten, [10]; Bardovi-Harlig. [1]). Therefore, how the teacher provides input for students and what kind of input to be provided are worth-concerning issues. As VanPatten [10] asserts, to facilitate the process of turning input into intake, the instruction should be psycholinguistic ally motivated. For instance, the input provided prior writing can be given through reading since reading and writing go hand in hand. Learners will be motivated to write when they obtain necessary vocabulary, grammar and writing style through reading passages. Particularly, as suggested by Beck [11], authentic reading texts often contain different levels of adequacy in formal linguistics, that is, observational adequacy, descriptive adequacy, and explanatory adequacy. Consequently, students will develop their understanding of these three levels simultaneously, thus being able to present descriptive adequacy and explanatory adequacy in their writing, which, in fact, seem to be neglected in most grammar textbooks today. The combination of writing with reading also satisfies the requirement that language teachers need to consider the connection between the writing course with other courses in the total curriculum (Grabe & Kaplan, [5]).
How to develop students’ understanding of social contexts:
Grabe and Kaplan [5] claim that language is produced in contexts of use, and writing does not escape this constraint. For example, the student’s writing style in a letter to his close friend will differ from that of the letter to his lecturer. In other words, the stylistic variation in communication largely depends on the contexts. (The concept of stylistic variation was strongly supported in Hartford’s [12] and Davies’ [2] contentions about how the context of communication affects the speaker’s use of communication style.) It is, therefore, essential to help students develop writing styles appropriate for specific contexts, and make them aware of how contexts of language use can influence their writing. In general, this can be done by providing a context for students to write, in which the audience and the purpose for writing are made clear right in the instruction.
Grabe and Kaplan [5] also argue that students need to consider cultural/social
variation between LI and L2 if they want to develop an understanding of social contexts. They contend that cultural aspects of the L2 writing setting can also create difficulties for learners coming from a different academic culture. For instance, Bangladeshi students tend to present their ideas inductively and indirectly in L2 since inductive and indirect presentation is frequently conducted in their LI as one popular culture practice. This means Bangladeshi students may produce Bangladeshi English, a variation of the English language, in their writing. Language teachers, therefore, need to ponder on this issue to understand their learners’ behaviors (Hartford. [12]) in order to instruct learners to practice the direct writing style or make them aware of who they need to sound like. As English in the Inner Circle is considered the standard English, one possible way to familiarize learners with the direct writing style is getting them exposed to the English texts written by native speakers. Thanks to this, learners will know to what extent the Bangladeshi cultural/social factors are proper for EFL writing.
Interestingly, learners’ awareness of social contexts in EFL writing makes them become conscious of language variation in general and stylistic variation in particular. They will come to know that their English is one Bangladeshi variation of the English language, and that Bangladeshi English belongs to them as they are the owners of English in the Expanding Circle (Brown, [13]). More importantly, their awareness of social contexts is a crucial condition for developing their pragmatic competence in EFL learning (Kasper, [14]). When language teachers consider language as a means of communication in social contexts, and pragmatic function as the primary function of language, they will find it essential to develop pragmatic competence for themselves and for their learners. Consequently, as Kasper [14] denotes, language teachers should see the relationship between pragmatics and language instructions in order to make appropriate pedagogical decisions.
How to give feedback to students’ writing:
The issue of giving feedback to students’ writing is related to the notion of being correct in English. According to Davies [2], correct writing is effective writing in its context because language is embedded in social life. Davies’ viewpoint [2] largely affects the way of treating learners’ errors that will be presented below.
There is a long-standing assumption that learners’ errors are mainly resulted from the interference of their first language. Many EFL teachers in Bangladesh also regard this as a vital reason when analyzing their learners’ errors. Nonetheless, as Savignon [15] puts it, the analysis of learners’ errors by means of contrastive analysis developed by Corder [16] is more direct but simpler than the contemporary approaches to error analysis, which analyze learner language as an evolving, variable system. Actually, SLA research has brought about more things for language teachers to consider rather than just looking at learners’ errors in terms of how their LI interferes their L2 learning. In analyzing learners’ errors, EFL teachers need to understand SLA so as to be aware of learners’ acquisition process and development stages. The knowledge of SLA will help EFL teachers assess learners’ linguistic development in an insightful manner (Bardovi-Harlig, [1]). In the examples, (1) Mary is talking to a man. The man is Mary’s father, and (2) The man who Mary is talking to him is her father, we can see that (2) suggests a higher linguistic development than the error-free production of (1). This means between the starting point and the end point, there may be a series of stages that are prescriptive incorrect, but that indicate progress.
Another issue in dealing with learners’ errors lies in the way of correcting learners’ grammatical errors. It is true that many EFL teachers tend to focus on correcting grammatical errors and that EFL learners also expect teachers to do this. Nonetheless, by giving both empirical reasons and theoretical
reasons, Truscott [17] proves that grammatical correction does not work. Truscott [17) also points out that grammatical correction may even be harmful. As a result, grammatical errors should not be seriously judged if they do not affect the transformation of meaning in the writing. In case grammatical correction must be provided, the teacher should specify what the error is, and explain why there is such correction, all of which aim to provide learners with an explanation for the acquisition of structural knowledge, thus equipping learners with explanatory adequacy.
Besides deciding how to treat learners” errors, language teachers should cooperate with students by sharing the correction workload with them. For example, the teacher can let students do the peer correction, which sensitizes students to the problems in their own paper, and gives them the sense of ownership in learning.
How to assess students’ writing skill:
The assessment type that EFL teachers in Bangladesh often make use of to test students’ writing skill is essay tests, which, according to White [18], cannot test all aspects of the learning process, let alone its hindering students from writing effectively under test conditions. To solve this problem, this article will conduct a discussion on portfolio assessment, which meets the two most important characteristics of a test, that is, validity and reliability (Bachman, [19]), as well as reduces the pressure of testing that students are likely to suffer.
Portfolio assessment is valid because it can measure all attributes of writing that have been taught. Indeed, the portfolio allows a collection of many different kinds of writing that students learn during the whole writing course (White, [18]). This comprehensive record gives the teacher a thorough idea of how students can make progress in the writing process, what they can achieve at each stage and how they evaluate their own and their peer’s work.
Portfolio assessment is also reliable because it has specific and clear criteria as well as assessment guidelines. Specifically, there should be checklists for students to do the peer review, self-edition, self-evaluation, and there should be a grading schema for the teacher to do the final evaluation. The teacher will make the checklists understandable to students by training students to use them. All of these can facilitate teachers and students to work in a collaborative effort (Fearn & Farnan, [20]).
The above-discussed solutions reveal that the problems in teaching and learning EFL writing can be addressed by a variety of methods such as psycholinguistics, SLA, syntax, sociolinguistics, and pragmatics. Language is viewed as being embedded in social contexts when the problems are defined and tackled.
The aim of such solutions is to better the teaching and learning of EFL writing in Bangladesh Additionally, the ultimate goal is to develop EFL learners’ communicative competence, which includes grammatical competence, sociolinguistics competence, strategic competence, and discourse competence (Savignon, [21]). In accordance with Davies’ contention [2], it is hoped that EFL learners in Bangladesh have the same degree of language proficiency as native speakers’, but the competence is not necessarily native-like.
The suggested solutions are not static, however. They are open to be questioned since there are still other issues that have not been addressed, one of which is the problem of curriculum design.
Limitation for the studies:
To conducts a research, time is essential; shortage of time is a great limitation for me. On the other side budgets of money is a great limitation for me. Unavailability of Reference books is also limitation for me.
Conclusion:
In conclusion it has been seen that organization and post-writing activities of writing are the most important problems than the others factors in efl writing at SSC level in Bangladesh. So we need to use more techniques to develop our learning and teaching.