Techniques for Teaching Writing Skills - using controlled writing

Techniques in using controlled writing

What is ‘Controlled Writing’?
(also known as guided writing)

Raimes (1983), states that, unlike free writing, controlled writing takes place when learners are supplied with “a great deal of the content and/or form [such as] an outline to complete, a paragraph to manipulate, a model to follow, or a passage to continue” (p. 95).

 Sliva (1990) added that controlled writing assists in both preventing errors that apparently occur from first language interference and reinforcing proper use of second language patterns

What are some of the chief advantages of using controlled
writing in the classroom? 

1.ITS CONTROL AND FLEXIBILITY.

The advantages of the ability to control the specific outcomes of the writing activity cannot be overestimated.

This is an advantage both from the teacher`s and students` point of view.

From the teacher`s point of view controlled writing activities may take a relatively short time to create and are very easy to grade.

Thus, controlled writing activities allow the teacher to  engage students in writing activities without having to worry about  how they are going to have to correct it or access it.

In this way teachers can assign a fairly large amount of different kinds of controlled writing activities without having to worry about that tremendous time it is going to take for them to deal with the after effects.

From the students point of view controlled writing is  also good because it allows them to focus on one thing at a time.

If the teacher has done her/his job well and set up controlled writing activities to try to focus on problem areas the students have shown during the course of the class then the student should be practicing the points that they might need to develop more.

Thus, carefully planned use of controlled writing activities can allow a teacher to really get students engaged in a lot of very useful and different types of writing practice.

What are some of the representative controlled writing activities?

¢Controlled composition

¢Question and answer

¢Guided composition

¢Parallel writing

1.CONTROLLED COMPOSITION

When people think of controlled writing activities it is usually controlled composition that people generally think of first.

 These usually include texts that have had certain elements removed or  have certain elements which are not useful or somehow need to be changed.

In doing these we try to get our students to focus on a specific form focused problem and often things related to grammar or vocabulary. This is good for us because this is similar to the revision process in that both deal with changing a ready made text to make it better

2.QUESTION AND ANSWER

This technique is often used to as a way of getting students to build outlines in a more controlled way.

 It can also be used as a way of generating ideas and even sentences which can be turned into more  formal pieces of writing from spoken forms.

In this way, it is often related to interviewing and uses the results of the interview which are either tape/video recorded and transcribed or just noted down as a way of scaffolding the writing process.

This works well for us because it is a perfect seamless connection between speaking and writing.

In effect students need to turn speaking into writing. Fun!

3. GUIDED COMPOSITION

This refers to, as mentioned above, activities which engage the students in actually creating more open-ended compositions.

Different levels and amounts of control however can be introduced to make this in theory easier (more control - more close-ended) or more difficult (less control - more open-ended)

4.SENTENCE COMBINING

This one is easy to get a grip on as we have already done this in this class. Sentence combining gets the students involved in just what the name implies; sentence combining.

This can be tweaked by picking certain types of sentences to be combined or having them combine a certain number of sentences.

Thus even in something seemingly straightforward there are still possibilities for diversity. Again, like question and answer, this is often a way of converting the simpler even incomplete forms of speaking into the more complex forms of writing.

5.PARALLEL WRITING

Parallel writing is somewhat related to copying but with a twist. Instead of simply copying certain information, which is provided and possibly first needs to be written out (this step can be skipped), the student needs to change or add to the information from the model.

Thus, parallel writing can best be described as rewriting with different basic information, which again is provided.

  References:

¢Modul TSL 3107  Teaching Writing Skills In The Primary ESL Classrooms

¢Eman Elturki, the USA (2; April 2013) Controlled Writing: An Effective Traditional Practice for Developing ELLs’ Composition Retrieved From http://www.hltmag.co.uk/apr13/ex.htm on 21,July 2013

¢Stephen van VlackSookmyung Women`s UniversityGraduate School of TESOLTeaching Writing Spring 2007Raimes (1983), Chapter 7: Techniques in Using Controlled Retrieved From http://www.udveksling.com/TeachWrit/TeachWritWeek13 on 21 July 2013