Teaching Writing Skills in EFL: Theory, Research and Pedagogy

reviewed by Neil McBeath, Oman

Neil McBeath served as a uniformed Education Officer in the Royal Air Force of Oman from 1981 to 2005. During that time he gained two Masters degrees and the Omani Distinguished Service Medal. Refusing to renew contract in 2005, he taught for two years with BAE Systems in Saudi Arabia.He has now returned to Oman and is teaching at the Sultan Qaboos University.E-mail: neilmcbeath@yahoo.com

Teaching Writing Skills in EFL: Theory, Research and Pedagogy
Christine Coombe; Adel Jendli; Peter Devidson (eds) 2008
TESOL Arabia Publications
ISBN 978-9948-8566-0-3

This is a book published by TESOL Arabia, but as the blurb makes clear, not all the contributors are based in the Arab Gulf. The majority of the authors may be currently employed in the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Iran, but other papers have been submitted from Australia, Egypt, Turkey and the UK.

The book therefore offers breadth of coverage, and in concentrating on Theory, Research and Pedagogy, it has been able to combine breadth with depth. The coverage, moreover, is comparatively even – eight papers on Theory; nine papers on Research and ten papers on Pedagogy.

As with all collections of this type, certain contributions stand out, depending on the reviewer’s own interests. The following six papers, therefore, are offered only as a snapshot of the complete collection.

In the Theory section of the book, Davidson and Spring’s “Rhetorical Patterns in Academic Writing; Re-examining Conventional Wisdom” (Pp. 27-40) build on a paper that they presented at the 11th CTELT Conference (Davidson and Spring 2007). The paper has a familiar topic, but it examines the way in which EAP students are taught to use set rhetorical patterns, many of which may not reflect the essay types actually demanded by faculty academics. The authors also believe that it is misleading when the complexity of academic writing is reduced to production set by formulae, and they suggest that EAP teachers should “increasingly move towards more academically appropriate ways of supporting their students” (Pp. 37-38) even though this may be more challenging for all concerned.

By contrast, Sean Dowling’s “The e-notice; An Emerging Genre” (Pp. 51-68) examines an area with which many teachers may be familiar, but which has received little academic attention. One reason for this, of course, is that advances in the internet and IT often leave teachers behind, with the result that it is only comparatively recently that textbooks have been available on the topic of e-mailing. (Emmerson 2004; Pile 2004)

Dowling suggests that the “e-notice” is a sub-genre of the e-mail; a routine text mainly submitted on intranet, and designed as a method of giving general information across a community in one workplace. In this instance, the supporting data is taken from the King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals in Dammam, but the idiosyncratic use of colour, graphics and subject lines instantly identify KFUPM e-notices to their intended audience. Dowling suggests that the e-notice is “a genre which combines the formality of paper-based notices with the dynamism of e-mails and web-pages” (P. 63) but he also suggests that if this type of emerging genre is to be taught properly, the teachers will have to be selected with care.

In the research section of the book, Karima Almazroui offers an interesting pilot study “Strategies Used by Sixth Grade Students of the United Arab Emirates When Standard Spelling is Unknown” (Pp. 139-173).

Based on the entirely laudable concept that “Children should learn to write by writing and not spend the majority of their instruction time talking about rules of writing and spelling” (P. 150), the author conducted interviews with a small group (20) of Young Learners, asking them to report on the strategies they used for spelling in (a) dictation and (b) composition exercises. She then invited the learners to comment on the effectiveness of their strategies, many of which appeared to be held in common.

One of my colleagues at the Sultan Qaboos University found this paper extremely unsatisfactory, complaining that there were no conclusions or recommendations. That is true, but the work is still in progress, and it is interesting to see a teacher from the Arab Gulf conducting action research with Young Learners.

Malcolm Lewthwaite’s paper “Teacher and Students Attitudes to IELTS Writing Tasks; Positive or Negative Feedback” (Pp. 175-191) reaches conclusions that came as a surprise, even to the author! The UAE government universities and colleges now use IELTS for benchmarking, and I had assumed from the title that this paper would be a ritual denunciation of the examination, along the lines of Phillipson (1992).

On the contrary, this “small scale study found a strong overlap between what the IELTS writing tasks required and what students and staff thought was needed in a writing course” (P. 189). Further research is necessary, but it would appear that the IELTS requires students to demonstrate both linguistic and thinking skills, and these prepare students both for university life, and beyond.

In the Pedagogy section, Couzens and Knowling’s “Promoting Student Involvement in the Writing Process” (Pp. 241-248) offers a brief account of teaching lower proficiency students to take responsibility for their own learning and how to correct and identify their own errors. The approach taken emphasized the development of dictionary and editing skills, and involved a simple feedback scheme which was reinforced by a “Learner’s Writing Journal” (P. 245). This is an extremely practical paper – the process described could easily be replicated elsewhere - based on teaching students how to learn.

Similarly, Rhonnda Lee-Ernest’s paper “Collaboration in Writing Classes” (Pp. 293-301) offers a short account of an initiative at the American University of Dubai. Having explored definitions of collaborative learning and considered the implications of group dynamics and the skills required for collaboration, she reports that the AUD experience shows that it is best to “start with a few tasks and slowly work up to a fully collaborative classroom” (P. 299)

While collaboration, particularly in writing, has the advantage of engaging critical thinking skills, it can also foster what some cultures might consider cheating, and it can also encourage conformity. Students who have been socialised not to question others’ opinions, or not to question perceived authority, may have initial difficulty, but they become interdependent with their peers once they have learnt to foster collaborative skills.

Nobody would pretend that it is easy to teach writing skills. Most native speakers never write at any length once they have left school. Even so, this collection of papers offers a number of interesting insights into the writing process in EFL, and it is highly recommended as a source book.

References

Davidson, Peter and Spring, Jerry (2007) The Myth of Academic Essay Types. have been sdocialised not have been sdocialised not Paper delivered at the 11th CTELT Conference, Dubai, UAE, November 1-2, 2007.

Emmerson, P. (2004) E-mail English Oxford. Macmillan

Phillipson, R. (1992) Linguistic Imperialism. Oxford. Oxford University Press.

Pile, L. (2004) E-mailing Addlestone; Surrey DELTA Publishing

Please check the Teaching English for Academic Purposes course at Pilgrims website.
Please check the Teaching Advanced Students course at Pilgrims website.