WRITING SKILLS

Writing is the most powerful medium of human communication that not only

involves just a graphical representation of speech, but the development and

presentation of thoughts in a structured way. According to Klein (1985), writing is

the ability to put pen and paper to express ideas through symbols, this way,

representations on the paper will have meaning and content that could be

communicated to other people by the writer. Writing skills are specific abilities

which help writers put their thoughts into words in a meaningful form and to

mentally interact with the message. According to another definition proposed by

Michael, writing could be a semantically visible and permanent representation of

the auditory and transient phenomena of speech. Within a language system, writing

relies on many of the same structures as speech, such as vocabulary, grammar and

semantics, with the added dependency of a system of signs or symbols.

PROBLEM IN WRITING SKILLS

From the ancient time, writing is an extension of human language across time and

space. It is not only one of the most profound communicative medium in the

sphere of academics for transmitting information but it is also a significant skill

educational environment, in such a way that a student’s failure rather than the

success are focused on. The writing process is learned, by and large, in an

environment of constant criticism and repeated failure. Creative and use of

language, liberal thinking, and critical reasoning, often evoke displeasure or

hostility than praise. Some teachers even resort to the use of writing as an intensive

mean of punishment. Many students recall their earliest writing experience as

traditional methodical classroom bound activity, involving monotonous, passive or

irrelevant topic (almost similar to their first reading experience). Furthermore,

according to Robert Todd Caroll, many students were never required to learn

proper spelling, mechanics of writing, or elementary techniques of grammar during

their school days. So, for them writing corresponds to inevitable failure as they

identify quality writing with grammar or convoluted sentence structure.

METHODS FOR IMPROVING WRITING SKILL

Writing skill is included in main standardized tests worldwide as well as

nationwide, as writing assessment is employed as a part of performance assessment

in classroom testing at high school level. The definition of writing ability can be

formed depending on teachers’ own experience as teachers and philosophy of

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writing, taken into consideration characteristics of learners and aims of pedagogy

in a given context. It may also be formed according to pedagogical approaches to

the teaching of writing which each teacher adopts. Without skilled systematic or

grammatical instructions, many students may not become proficient in the skill. In

order to administer valid and appropriate writing assessments, it is desirable on the

part of the teachers, to start considering how writing ability is actually defined in

classroom environmenti.

According to Humboldt one cannot really teach language but can only present the

conditions under which it will develop spontaneously in the mind in its own way.

Traditional methodologies do not help a student in acquiring the essence of a

language unless the teacher is able to create an interest in the minds of the young

learners. Therefore, the teacher should try innovative methods rather than the

traditional methods of teaching by integrating writing activities in the classroom

environ as a prominent feature for the blended learning outcome in the teaching

and learning context.ii The most important factor in writing exercises is that

students need to be personally involved in order to make the learning experience

of great value. Encouraging student participation in the exercise, while at the

same time refining and expanding writing skills, requires a certain pragmatic

approach on the part of a teacher. The teacher needs to decide on which means

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(or type of exercise) can facilitate learning of the desired students at a larger

context. Once the target skill areas and means of implementation are defined, the

teacher can then proceed to focus on what topic can be employed to ensure

student participation. By pragmatically combining these objectives, the teacher

can expect both enthusiasm and effective learning.iii.

Teaching Basic Writing Skills can be segmented into two comprehensive sections

that support students in generating high-quality sentences; precise, clear

paragraphs; and powerful, compelling compositions

Section1, Sentences: Uses activities such as scrambled sentences, sentence

combining, and summarizing to increase students' understanding of sentence

structure while developing their ability to compose complex sentences that reflect

extended thinking. Practice in editing and revising is key to these activities.

Section 2, Paragraphs and Compositions: Teaches students to develop paragraphs

by beginning with a topic sentence, then writing/organizing additional sentences to

create a cohesive paragraph. Outlining, drafting, editing, and revising are important

components of these lessons.

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 Teaching Basic Writing Skills Helps Students:

 In enhancing their communication skill and thus propelling confidence for

creative and critical analysis of a given topic.

 To develop their compositional skill and put their newly acquired knowledge

to test for a better evaluation and recognition of their limitations.

 To enrich their vocabulary and thus in turn helping them to expand their

knowledge for a better comprehensive understanding of the subject domain.

 For a balanced presentation of argument and thus increasing their ability in

using the language.

 Bridging the application of writing to support reading, speaking, listening,

and content-area learning.iv

LISTENING SKILLS

Listening is a complex cognitive process which is a significant attribute for

effective communicative exchange which involves identifying the sounds of

speech and processing them into words and sentences.v Listening can be defined

as, “More than just hearing to understand and interpret the meaning of a

conversation”.vi Like poet Alice Duer Miller said "You can listen like a blank wall or

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like a splendid auditorium where every sound comes back fuller and richer."vii

Effective listening skills are the ability to actively understand the information

provided by the speaker, and display interest in the topic discussed. According to

Nunan, listening is a six-staged sequential cognitive process, consisting of hearing,

attending, understanding, remembering, interpreting the content and relational

messages; and finally responding with verbal and nonverbal feedback.viii

PROBLEM IN LISTENING SKILLS

Comprehending and understanding a language is necessary when students are

learning a language due to the fact that people always need to communicate and

interact with others in different moments or situations in their life. Rivers claimed

that, “Speaking does not of itself constitute communication unless what is said is

comprehended by another person. Teaching the comprehension of spoken speech is

therefore a primary importance of the communication aim is to be reached”.

Sometimes, students often resort to selective or preferential listening while

ignoring or devaluing the rest in a class bound setting and these results to an

inadequate understanding of the subject domainix. According to Yagang, the

problems in listening are accompanied with the four following factors: the

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message, the speaker, the listener and the physical setting. While Flowerdew &

Miller and Buck assumed that the students often encounters problems pertaining to

the pace of delivery of the lecture, new terminology and concept, the physical

environment of the classroom, no prior background knowledge of the topic,

inappropriate strategies adopted by the teacher that creates a hindrance for their

listening comprehensionx Brown acknowledged the relevance of all these issues,

and further argued that listener difficulties are also related to the levels of cognitive

demands made by the content of the texts. Thus, in order to help students get

improved with their listening skill, it is needed finding out their listening problems

which cause difficulties to them.

METHODS FOR IMPROVING LISTENING SKILL

The listening process is often described from an information processing

perspective as “an active process in which listeners select and interpret information

that comes from auditory and visual clues in order to define what is going on and

what the speakers are trying to expressxi. Vandergrift claims that, Strategy

development is important for listening training because strategies are conscious

means by which learners can guide and evaluate their own comprehension and

responses.’’ "If we expect children to become good listeners, we will need to do

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more than worry, complain or demand. We need to teach them become active

listeners.xii Teachers can, promote good listening skills by varying the ways in

which they communicate, and by making subtle changes in the classroom setting.

For effective listening, Teachers can implement some active listening strategies,

involving different vocal emphasis and accents, reading style, variable rates of

delivery and instructional strategies, reduced forms of the language, reinforcing

with gestures and interpersonal and interpretive modes of communication by

satisfying the students’ preference for connectivity by providing them with the

opportunity to derive and articulate their own views on the topic.xiii

READING SKILLS

Reading is a multifaceted complex cognitive process of decoding symbols in order

to construct or derive meaning. It is the ability to interpret what the information

symbols represents called recognition; construct an understanding from the given

information – a process called comprehension and to be able to re-create those

same symbols so that others can derive the same meaning called fluency. Like all

languages, it is a complex interaction between the text and the reader which is

shaped by the reader’s prior knowledge, experiences, attitude, and language

community which is culturally and socially situated. xiv

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 PROBLEM IN READING SKILLS

According to Anderson,Hiebert, Scott, & Wilkinson, reading proficiency is

the most fundamental skill for academic learning and a cornerstone for a

child's success in school and, indeed, throughout life. Despite all its

importance, reading is one of the most challenging areas in the prevalent

education system. The ever-increasing demand for high levels of literacy in

our technological society makes this problem even more pressing. xv

Reading is not only, understanding the meaning of the words and the sentences in

isolation but also demands critical interpretation of the text as a whole and the

inter-relationship between the sentences and the paragraph. Most students use a

latent surface approach for reading academic materials. Thus, one of the main

difficulty often encountered by the school learners, is the incomplete knowledge of

the subject or superficial retention of information of the text which poses a major

obstacle particularly during examination. Sometime, a pupil with a reading

problem shows difficulties in reading skills which are unexpected according to age,

cognitive ability, intervention and quality and quantity of instruction. So these

students meeting with failure in reading inside the classroom setting often develop

a poor self-image which eventually reflects negatively in his/her future reading

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process.xvi Since this reading difficulty impacts on all the other areas of the

curriculum, these learners feel humiliated when asked to read and find them unable

to access information and hence this further lowers their self-esteem.

METHODS FOR IMPROVING READING SKILL

Researchers have found that teaching reading strategies is a key element in

developing student comprehension. However, many teachers lack a solid

foundation for teaching these reading comprehension strategies. Therefore,

teachers need to be prepared on how to design effective comprehension strategies

and how to implement these strategies in the teaching-learning process. Teachers

can help improve student comprehension through instruction of reading strategies

like predicting, making connections, visualizing, inferring, questioning, and

summarizing which in turn would increase the student’s interest and improve their

understanding of the text. Problem solving strategies can also be very effective in

generating interest and motivating students to apply their reading skills. With the

application of the ‘problem solving strategy’, adopted by the classroom teacher, the

students will be able to develop critical reading abilities that will foster self-

inquiry, genuine cooperation and self-confidence.xvii So if the teachers explicitly

teach students how to read academic texts in aligned courses where students have

ample opportunities to engage in reading activities throughout the term, students

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are more likely to adopt a thorough approach to reading and thus reading as a

process becomes much more comprehensive and successful.

SPEAKING SKILL

Speaking is the process of building and sharing meaning through the use of verbal

and non-verbal symbols, in a variety of contexts. Oral communication offers

"living" words of a speaker who can respond to a listening audience, while written

words remain helplessly silent on the page, offering no response to the reader's

questions. Like Robert Frost once said: ‘‘I am a writer of books in retrospect, I talk

in order to understand, I teach in order to learn.’’ Therefore, the capacity to express

one’s thoughts, opinions and feelings, in the form of words put together in a

meaningful way, provides the speaker with the advantage of being an efficient

comminucator.

PROBLEMS IN SPEAKING SKILL

While many realize that children need instruction in literacy and numeracy,

teachers do not realizes the importance of oral communication skills and neglect

the conscious training in the use of spoken language. Despite references to the

development of children's language skills, National Curriculum guidance does not

make it clear that such direct training may often be required. Therefore, the most

pertinent question that can arise in the mind of an enthusiastic educator is, can

10
academia afford to tolerate a dichotomy between the rhetorical skills of speaking

and the rhetorical skills of writing, and to neglect the former, when life sets before

us such examples of their interdependence and mutual support? There seems to be

an implicit belief that the subtle skills of active listening and reasoned speaking

will develop over the course of time simply through children's involvement in

whole classroom settings and small group dialogues. But all children may not

benefit from such preconceived models for speaking and listening. Moreover,

many teachers do not offer any opportunities to deliver opinions about whether and

how well students could be helped to present themselves and their ideas effectively

by speaking rather than writing.

METHODS FOR IMPROVING SPEAKING SKILL

Throughout the educational curriculum there is a strong emphasis on enabling

children to use language to work together effectively. Recent research has shown

the importance of the link between spoken languages, learning and cognitive

development. Therefore, today's educational system demands that the goal of

teaching speaking should improve students' communicative skills, because, only in

that way, students can express themselves and learn how to follow the social and

cultural rules appropriate in each communicative circumstance. Use of Ground

Rules to establish a clear, constructive, context for speaking is important for

11
mutual respect, encouragement for classroom speaking, thinking together, and

exploratory talk, as opposed to dismissive dispositional or ‘cumulative’ talk which

just restates the already known experiences.

The use of the more familiar spoken language can lead students to understand

the application of a rhetorical principle to the written language. The teacher

himself/herself should be able to offer a reasonable standard of excellence.

More frequent presentation of readings by persons who are masters of the art

of expression should be encouraged in the schools. An occasional skid or

non-academic dramatic presentation can be arranged by a teacher which is yet

a more immediate way to help students learn how to present their ideas to

others through speaking. The teacher can engage the children in dialogues in

which they are encouraged to develop their spoken language skills. Children

need more of such kind of interaction which is generated by what Robin

Alexander calls 'dialogic teaching' that is the use of different simulating

topics as a basis for increasing children's awareness about how speaking can

be used most effectively to share ideas, negotiate thinking, challenge and

agree, build relationships etc. The teachers can also design pair and group

activities based on interesting yet critical problem-solving tasks or creative

endeavors which will stretch children's communication skills and help them

practice what they are learning about language as a tool for communicating.

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 GAMES

A game is a system in which players engage in an artificial conflict, defined by

rules, that result in a quantifiable outcome. Games are about creating spaces of

possibility for the proximal development of the child, where players feel the liberty

of comfort for expressing their thoughts. Schools, too, can aspire to design these

kinds of spaces: ones that encourage students to keep trying, without fearing

failure.

Benefits Of Educational Games In Classroom Setting

Educational games and simulations are experiential exercises in which action is

governed by rules of play and paraphernalia to execute the play. The situation can

take different directions, depending on the actions and reactions of the participants

Examples may range from simple mathematical exercises, such as matching

fractions to their decimal equivalents, to a more complex contest, such as

classroom tournaments involving several teams. Advantages of such games in the

classroom are that the students can apply their acquired knowledge, skills, and

strategies in the execution of their assigned roles that can increase student interest

and provide opportunities to apply learning in a new context. The right type of

simulations and games can challenge and engage a learner into actually

13
comprehending and then practicing new skills. Some of the immediate benefits of

well-designed learning games include:

 Active engagement: Unlike traditional lectures or hands-on

training, games push the learner to get actively involved in the

learning process.

 Adaptability: Lectures do not offer “try, fail, learn” experiences. With

simulations, learners will learn to adapt their skills to the real world.

Knowing what information or techniques to apply in which situations, the

educational games enables greater success, specifically, problem solving.

 Self-paced: The pace of most traditional learning is set by the

educator; not so with games and simulations. Learners tailor the

pace of the game to match their temperament.

 Feedback: learning games is a powerful assessment tool of aligning

learning goals with formative assessment standards, which communicates

student performance with the learner’s understanding. Meaningful

feedback or the reactions of the participants can provide the

educator with an opportunity to assess the success or the failure of

the game and also provides an opportunity for a further

modification of the game.

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  Standardization: When it comes to hands-on training, it’s extremely

difficult to assess all learners in a standardized way. Subjectivity invariably

creeps in. With simulated learning, the rules are applied equally to all

participants, allowing for better learner-to-learner assessments.

 Cost-effective: As opposed to organizing instructor-led or workshop-type

learning, simulations are much more cost-effective and broadly distributable.

Ways Of Building Blocks For Game-Based Learning

Well-designed games are challenging and interesting for the players while, at the

same time, requiring the application of particular knowledge or skills

Defined goals: The definite goals of “educational game” is to harmonize the goals

of the game with those of learning that is to practice and/or refine already-acquired

knowledge and skills and the winning should be based only on the demonstration

of that knowledge or skills.

Personalization.: The dynamics of the game should be easy to

understand and rightly fit the age and developmental level of the players

and should not obstruct or distort learning experience. For older

students, for example, interest may be added by assigning weights to

15
questions according to their difficulty, accompanied by team choice in

the level of questions to be attempted. When designing game-based

eLearning content, Instructional Designers must provide for customized

learning experiences (fonts, colors, cast of characters, sounds, “quest”

objectives, etc.) to reflect each individual player’s preferences. Teachers

should play roles that allow them to mediate the experience for learners: providing

guidance when needed; ensuring that rules are followed; and maintaining a

respectful atmosphere.

Gradual progression: The idea behind this design concept is that the educator

must devise intrinsic mechanisms for a gradual progression and “levelling up” of

the game to a considerable degree for the further refinement of the student’s skills.

For example, if level 1 is extremely complex, a game player will immediately lose

interest for progressing to the next level. The players should be allowed to tackle

challenges and tests (like exams) as many times as necessary - and with no lasting

consequences - in order to progress from one level to another.

Accomplishment: Evidences suggests that game-based learning can improve

engagement and motivation because by and large it’s a voluntary activity.

Educational games are all about reinforcing self-accomplishment, independent

inquiry and exploration amongst learners.

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i
http://creationbrain.blogspot.in/2012/11/the-definition-of-writing.html

i
Defining Writing Ability for Classroom Writing Assessment in High Schools Jyi-

yeon Yi Chongshin University Yi, Jyi-yeon. (2009). Defining writing ability for

classroom writing assessment in high schools. Journal of Pan-Pacific Association

of Applied Linguistics, 13(1), 53-69.

ii
riting Difficulties and New Solutions: Blended Learning as an Approach to

Improve Writing Abilities Dana Adas(1) , Ayda Bakir (2) (1) Instuctor of English

Language ,Language Center, An-Najah National University, Nablus, Palestine. (2)

PhD in teaching English Language Methods, AL-Quds Open University, Nablus,

Palestin

17
iii
Writing Difficulties and New Solutions: Blended Learning as an Approach to

Improve Writing Abilities

Dana Adas(1) , Ayda Bakir (2)

(1) Instuctor of English Language ,Language Center, An-Najah National

University,

Nablus, Palestine.

(2) PhD in teaching English Language Methods, AL-Quds Open University,

Nablus, Palestine
iv
Retrieved on September 9 2016 from

http://www.voyagersopris.com/curriculum/subject/literacy/teaching-basic-writing-

skills/overview
v
https://www.englishclub.com/listening/what.htm

vi
http://www.tutorvista.com/english/define-listening-skills

vii
http://grammar.about.com/od/il/g/listeningterm.htm

viii
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Listening
ix
https://blog.udemy.com/listening-skills-exercises/
x
https://lhu.edu.vn/139/662/DIFFICULTIES-AND-STRATEGIES-IN-

LISTENING-COMPREHENSION-TRINH-VINH-HIEN-03AV4.html
xi
http://www.tesl-ej.org/wordpress/issues/volume8/ej32/ej32a2/
LISTENING COMPREHENSION DIFFICULTIES ENCOUNTERED BY STUDENTS IN
xii

SECOND LANGUAGE LEARNING CLASS JOURNAL OF EDUCATIONAL AND

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INSTRUCTIONAL STUDIES IN THE WORLD November 2014, Volume: 4 Issue: 4
Article: 01 ISSN: 2146-7463
xiii
LISTENING COMPREHENSION DIFFICULTIES ENCOUNTERED BY

STUDENTS IN SECOND LANGUAGE LEARNING CLASS JOURNAL OF

EDUCATIONAL AND INSTRUCTIONAL STUDIES IN THE WORLD

November 2014, Volume: 4 Issue: 4 Article: 01 ISSN: 2146-7463

xv
Improving reading skills through effective reading

strategies

Hacettepe University, Ankara, 06532, Turkey

Author(s): Deon O. Stevens

Source: The Reading Teacher, Vol. 25, No. 1 (Oct., 1971), pp. 52-55

Published by: Wiley on behalf of the International Reading Association

xvii

Developing Critical Reading Skills through Cooperative Problem Solving

19