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Developing Task-based Writing with Adolescent EFL Students
Maria Cabral
farroba[at]mail.telepac.pt
University of the Algarve (Faro, Portugal)
Introduction
Writing is a social act. Even when writers are English as a Foreign
Language (EFL) students in a language classroom context, their texts
always reflect their ability to solve a rhetoric problem, and their
awareness of their own communicative goals, of the reader, and of the
writing context. (Atkinson, 2003).
Consequently, the text produced by EFL writers is always, as in any
other writing situation, the product of a socio-cognitive process which
requires complex cognitive abilities, as well as linguistic and
cultural competence (Grabe & Kaplan, 1996; Johns, 1997).
This text describes a learning sequence designed for an English as a
foreign language class of Portuguese ninth graders, with five years of
EFL. The learning sequence is planned according to the principles of
task-based learning methodologies, in a communicative language teaching
approach.
Writing a Letter Asking for Advice
In order to write a letter in English students have to be able to
activate:
- their knowledge of the specific genre configurations of the
letter, starting with their representations of the letter structure in
their own native language;
- their textual competence in foreign language (knowledge of
cohesion and awareness of aspects that contribute to textual
coherence);
- specific language related to topic (vocabulary);
- their communicative intentions, and
- the linguistic and the sociocultural profile of their readers.
The task here described requires the students to discuss multicultural
patterns of
interactive relationships among teenagers. Students are challenged to
work collaboratively as well as individually. They are asked to think
of a problematic situation concerning interactive relationships among
teenagers and to write letters asking for and giving advice to help
solve a problem.
Adolescent students are usually concerned with their relationships with
their peers, as well as with the way their self-image is portrayed in
these relationships.
Portuguese adolescents, due to the high cultural significance they give
to social interactions, value the ability to communicate with others,
particularly with boys and girls of their own age. They also have a
tendency to more easily rely on their peers’ advice rather than on
adults’ advice whenever relationship problems occur.
The discussion of their eventual interactive problems in English,
rather than in their native language, might facilitate the
approach to the topic by means of the emotional distance that the
foreign language provides as a communicative tool.
The critical, unprejudiced analysis of this fact requires the teacher
to assume a non-traditional role in classroom, which implies his/her
ability to problematize and to facilitate collaborative knowledge
construction.
The knowledge of the sociocultural needs of the students will help the
teacher to be able to challenge the students and to promote their
involvement with the task presented – Writing a letter asking
for/giving advice.
Negotiation of the Task
The occurrence of negotiation between the teacher and the students is
one of the characteristics of the collaborative language learning
process in a communicative language classroom. It provides the
opportunity for students to interact with their teachers and with their
peers, and, at the same time, it helps to set the pedagogical climate
for the development of the task, which requires the active
involvement of students.
The teacher might approach the task by questioning the students about
the interactive pattern of the relationship between teenage boys and
girls:
- how different these relationships are from the past;
- the roles of boys and girls in interactive relationships;
- the eventual problems that occur in the relationships.
After the introduction of the topic -- the need to ask for
advice through writing--, the teacher highlights the advantages of the
written text compared to the verbal oral interaction. The advantages
are:
- it gives the author the possibility to specifically focus on the
problem, without the need to supply extra personal information, usually
shared with a friendly advisor on a conversation;
- it protects the identity of the writer, by allowing the use of an
invented name;
- it promotes the chance of receiving a more objective suggestion
for the solution of the problem because the advisor ignores the real
identity of the writer.
Assigning Roles
A clear understanding of the role students are expected to perform in
the classroom facilitates their own engagement with the
activities they are required to do. In this case, students are
asked to work in pairs, while they perform the roles of adolescents who
ask for and who give advice on the subject of conflicting
relationships.
Each pair of students thinks of a relationship
problem that might occur among teenage friends (boys and girls). They
are then asked to invent the character, to set the setting and the
context of the conflict.
Once the letters are written, they are exchanged with other pairs of
students in class, who then have to give advice on how to solve the
problem described in the letter they receive.
Each pair consequently has to write one letter asking for advice and
another letter giving advice. This way, all the students have the
chance to to
try both roles.
Exposing Students to Similar Texts
The development of the ability to write a particular genre requires
the learners to be given the opportunity to contact with texts
that are examples of that same genre. Through the exposure to similar
texts students can notice the specific configurations of that genre.
They can also activate their memory of previous reading and/or
writing experiences of texts similar to the one they are being
challenged to produce.
In this task, in order to give the students that opportunity, the
teacher introduces the students to the existence of Dear
Abby's advice letters, and contextualizes the cultural and the social
role of that particular letter writing.
Students are then given examples of letters written to Abby in
different times - today and in the 50's, for example. Still in
pair-work, they are asked to critically read the letters and Abby's
answers, reflecting on the cultural referents of boys and girls’
relationships in different times and in different cultural contexts.
A list of reading-comprehension questions might help the students to
focus on relevant information.
Genre Specifications
Departing from the students’ knowledge of the letter structure in
their own language and culture, the teacher draws the students’
attention to the structure of the Dear Abby's asking for advice letter.
The students attend to the organization of the text while they focus
on: who the writer is, the description of the
problem (settings, characters, conflict, etc.), and the communicative
function of opening and closing paragraphs. Students are also be
helped to focus on the linguistic features of the written texts (the
register and style used by the authors).
These activities of textual analysis should be accomplished with the
help of supportive pedagogical materials, namely worksheets that
might include questions concerning the use of specific vocabulary,
language structures, cohesive devices, etc.
Writing the Letter
The writing process begins with a time to think about the rhetorical
situation (Who writes to whom, why and what for? How?). Students are
asked to think of reasons why the character
they invented (a teenager just like them) would write a letter
asking for Abby's advice. Afterwards, students have some time to
plan their text in accordance with the genre specifications
of the advice letter, included in the worksheet handed out by the
teacher.
Students write their letter with the help of English language
dictionaries.
Revising and Rewriting
Students are expected to revise each sentence and each paragraph of
their text, prior to the delivery of the letter to the other students.
The revision and the rewriting activities might be supported by another
worksheet handed out by the teacher, in which students are reminded of
common problems in the use of English syntactic rules (subject-verb
agreement, connectors, 3rd person verb flexion, etc.).
Exchanging Letters and Roles
When students feel that their letter is ready to be sent to the
reader, the teacher exchanges the letters among students in the
class.
Assuming their roles of readers and advisors, the students are now
asked to give proper attention to the problems described in the letter
they received and to write a short advice for their solution.
The writing process is once again initiated and students have
to plan, to write and to revise their advice before it is finally sent
back to the students who wrote the letter asking for advice.
Closing the Learning Sequence
The sequence is closed with a time for the discussion of the
problems presented, and also for the discussion of the suggestions
given for their solution. This oral activity might benefit from the
help of the teacher in reminding the students of the language used to
express personal opinion, as well as of the language used to
agree/disagree with the opinion of others. Once again, students have
the opportunity to discuss their views and interpretations of the
facts and the reasons associated with interactive conflict among
teenagers.
Concluding Remarks
This learning sequence has been developed with a real class of EFL
portuguese 9th grade students, with five years of English. It has
contributed to the integrative development of the language competence
of the students to whom it was designed, since it focused on the use of
English to read, to speak and to write. All the language activities
were grounded on the knowledge of the students’ cultural background and
psychological needs. The task was also designed in accordance with
methodological principles of the communicative language teaching
approach: it provided time for negotiation between the teacher and the
students, and among the students themselves; it included real
communicative language activities that required the students to
interact meaningfully; it allowed the students to think about topics
that interest them and also to share their opinions on these same
topics. The task described here has also given the students the
opportunity to
develop their awareness of the target culture, by giving them
the opportunity to critically analyze theirbeliefs and behaviors and
to infer the beliefs that underlie the social behaviors of others.
References
- Atkinson, D. (2003). L2 writing in the post-process era:
Introduction. Journal of Second Language Writing, Vol. 1, N. 12, 3-16.
- Dear Abby. http://www.uexpress.com/dearabby.
- Grabe, W. & Kaplan, R. (1996). Theory and practice of
writing. London e New York: Longman.
- Johns, A. (1997). Text, role, and context. Cambridge: Canmbridge
University Press.
- Van Buren, A. (1958). Dear Abby. Englewwod Cliffs, NJ:
Prentice-Hall.