1.2.2 Students should be exposed to examples of the text-types they are required to
write
According to Ammon (1985: 65) much of the difficulty children have in
learning to write can be attributed to differences between spoken and written language
which demands from students to acquire new linguistic forms which are associated
with written language. These problems are magnified when students need to write in a
foreign language in which they are not yet fluent as, according to MacKay (1992: 9),
the social conventions which govern effective writing are culturally determined
O’Brien (2000, Unit 1: 10) stresses that since different text types use language
in different ways, part of teaching writing should aim at exposing students to different
discourse types so that they may form schemata( Williams and Moran 1989: 217) or
plans in their Long Term Memory, which, according to Hayes and Flower (1980), is a
necessary kind of knowledge a person needs in order to be able to write.
Finally, Byrne (1979: 10) points out that: “…an awareness of how language
functions as a communication system can only be taught through adequate exposure
to it and through activities which lead to an understanding of the devices which the
language employs” and suggests that to this effect reading has an important role to
play in any writing program. Krashen (1984: 20) as referred in Raimes (1983)
emphasizes the role of reading stressing that what most helps writing is input from
reading, not practice in writing.
Reading can be extensive aiming at bringing students into contact with a
variety of text types and thus subconsciously enriching their stored writing plans but it
can also serve more immediate needs such as presenting students with a model text
before asking them to produce a similar one as it is stressed in White (1980: 36).
However, as according to Raimes (1983: 127) : “We find the form to fit our
meanings, not the other way round”, a model text should be employed as a resource
rather than an ideal so that the writer considers it as an example of what he could do
rather than what he should do
1.2.3. Students should be provided with the language forms necessary for the
completion of the writing task
According to Byrne (1979: 6) one significant factor which affects writing in
the foreign language is the amount of language which students have at their disposal.
O’ Brien (2000, Unit 1) stresses that L2 learners are inhibited by their knowledge of
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