TOPIC 8

LA LENGUA EXTRANJERA ESCRITA: APROXIMACIÓN, MADURACIÓN Y

PERFECCIÓN DEL PROCESO LECTOESCRITURA. LA COMPRENSIÓN
LECTORA: TÉCNICAS DE COMPRENSIÓN GLOBAL Y ESPECÍFICA DE
TEXTOS. LA EXPRESIÓN ESCRITA: DE LA INTERPRETACIÓN A LA
PRODUCCIÓN DE TEXTOS.
1. INTRODUCTION
The Order dated 16th June 2014 clearly states that Primary School children
must develop a basic communicative competence in at least one foreign
language, which enables them to express and understand basic messages and
cope in everyday situations. The process of achieving this competence is
complex and requires individuals to become effective users of language, which
in turn implies mastering its four linguistic skills, namely listening, speaking,
reading and writing.

This unit focuses on written skills - reading and writing. Although both
use a written medium, the former is a receptive skill whereas the latter is a
productive one, meaning that language users must master two different
processes if they are to successfully participate in written communication.

The first section in the topic deals with written language, in particular its
characteristics and classroom implications. Next, reading skills are addressed.
Finally, this unit focuses on writing skills and stages through they should be
taught in the classroom.

2. WRITTEN LANGUAGE
Written and oral language differ in many ways.
 Writing is usually permanent and written texts cannot usually be changed
once they have be sent or printed. Speech is usually transient, unless recorded,
and speakers can correct themselves and change their utterances as they go
along.
 Written language tends to be more complex and intricate than speech
with longer sentences. The punctuation, layout and graphical features of written
texts also have no spoken equivalent. Spoken language is normally full of
repetitions, incomplete sentences, corrections and interruptions.
 Writers receive no immediate feedback from their readers, therefore their
texts need to be clear and unambiguous. Speech is usually a dynamic
interaction in which feedback is continually taking place.

The characteristics of written language make it harder to acquire than

oral language, hence it should be introduced later.

3. THE READING-WRITING PROCESS: INTRODUCTION, DEVELOPMENT

AND CONSOLIDATION
English is classified as being an opaque language as the spelling-sound
correspondence is less direct than in other languages. This means that readers
and writers of English must learn a range of arbitrary pronunciations and
spellings of irregular words. This additional learning required to master reading
and writing skills means students take more time in acquiring them.

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 With regards to learning to read, Chall argues that there are different
stages to its development. Everyone passes through the same stages but at
different rates.
 Stage 0 Pseudo Reading (0-6)
This is emergent reading whereby children can retell a story from pictures,
develop phonemic awareness and learn the alphabet letter names. They also
can understand thousands of words they hear by age 6, but can read few if any
of them.Print awareness begins to develop. It is a child's earliest understanding
that written language carries meaning. Once acquired, children can begin to
understand that written language is related to oral language. Without print
awareness children will not develop letter-sounds correspondence, word
reading skills, or the ability to read and understand text.
 Stage 1 Decoding (6-7)
Children at this stage are able to read simple text containing high-frequency
words and phonically regular words. They begin to learn the relationship
between letters and sounds and between printed and spoken words, but they
need direct instruction and practice in letter-sound relationships.
 Stage 2 (7-8) Confirmation and Fluency
They learn to consolidate decoding and sight vocabulary, but still need direct
instruction in advanced decoding skills.
 Stage 3 (9-13) Reading for learning
Reading finally becomes a better means of learning new things compared to
listening and watching.
Although print awareness develops before primary education begins, it is
still important for foreign language teachers to create awareness of English in
print as it is not their pupils' mother tongue. An effective way of achieving this is
by decorating the classroom with poster, charts, labelling classroom objects and
making displays about different topics.

In stage 1 it is important to make decoding more meaningful for pupils.

This can be done through the use of games, songs and visual aids, for example
bingo, word searches and flashcards. There are different approaches to
teaching reading, namely: whole word, synthetic phonics or analytic phonics.
The activities undertaken must reflect the approach chosen, for example using
a set of flashcards of items, all of which contain a target sound.

Text structure and graphic organizers are aspects that must be

addressed in stage 3 as well as reacting to text through discussions and writing.

To further help children to read they need practice in using different

strategies. Depending on their purpose they may use skimming or scanning.
The former is helpful if they have to gain a general idea of the text, while the
other is used when they need to find specific information.

There is a plethora of suitable reading activities used in developing reading

skills - these include:
 Using a feeling bag with objects related to a specific book, for example
Go away, big green monster! and matching each object to the word.
 Play snap with tricky words.

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  Reading sentences loosely based on the Cat on the Mat book, for
example the dog is under the mat, and then actually do the action with
the objects.
 Using story wheels to retell stories
 Sequence stories along a time line.

Like with reading, writing develops through a series of stages, starting

with scribbling all the way to standard writing. Kroll and Wells identified three
stages through which native English-speaking children pass.
 The preparatory stage is when a child acquires the basic mechanisms
of handwriting and spelling. Both aspects usually become automatic in most
children by the age of seven.
 In the consolidation stage writing is still personal, colloquial, situational
and context-bound. Although children will correct letter shapes and spelling,
they rarely revise and edit their work. Between the ages of seven and nine,
children become fluent story writers. From the age of nine, they become
increasingly aware of the notion of audience, meaning that they begin to
understand writing is communicative rather than exclusively being means by
which they write about themselves.
 The differentiation stage begins at about nine or ten years of age.
Structures in writing becomes more pronounced and they are more aware of a
range of text types as well as their corresponding purposes and audiences.

Furthermore, Palmer argues that children have different learning styles

when it comes to learning how to spell words. This is of particular importance
given the fact that English is an opaque language. The styles are:
 Visual :Learners respond to the shape of words and the patterns of letter
strings within them and have a feeling whether something looks right.
 Auditory :These learners sound the word out as they can recognise the
relationship between sounds and letters or groups of letters.
 Kinaesthetic: Spelling is a graphic-motor skill and the writer lets the
hand remember the kind of movements and shapes made when producing
words.
 Linguistic: Some children may draw on this style as they grow older by
developing skills which enable them to see relationships between words based
on grammar, meaning and so on.

This classification partially reflects Gardner's multiple intelligences. Like

Gardener it recognises the fact that students learn in ways that are identifiably
distinctive thus learning and assessment ought to be conducted in a variety of
ways to ensure fairness.

Examples of different classroom writing activities are:

 The use of frameworks and graphic organisers such as grids so children
can easily follow the sentence structure in order to describe, for example their
favourite toy or an animal from the book Dear Zoo.
 Making a poster to explain Meg's spell from the book Meg and Mog
Witches' Party.
 Writing simple instructions on how to make a pancake.

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 Activities to develop an awareness of environmental print include: use of
plasticine letter mats, play stations with written labels, for example a shop with
lots of different signs, and the use of personal dictionaries.
 Activities used for different purposes: personal writing (diaries and
shopping lists), social writing (thank you letters), public writing (posters),
creative writing (designing food packets and poetry) and study writing (personal
dictionaries and self-assessment).

4. READING COMPREHENSION
Reading comprehension is the process of simultaneously extracting and
constructing meaning through interaction and involvement with written
language. It is therefore a complex cognitive process that depends upon a
number of different elements like vocabulary, decoding skills, and
comprehension strategies becoming synchronised. Moreover, children must be
motivated to read so that they put into practise all these elements, thus a range
of suitable reading materials has to be used, for example stories, letters,
advertisements, dialogues, maps and graphs.

Students must learn to be competent users of a variety of comprehension

strategies; knowing the most appropriate one to chose and when is also
important. Normally a reading comprehension lesson has three phases: pre-
reading stage, while-reading stage and after-reading stage. It is within these
different stages comprehension strategies are taught, allowing students to
become familiar with them and understand their purpose.

Pre-reading stage
This consists of motivating students. Prediction strategies using students'
knowledge about the topic, their personal experiences and any visual aids such
as illustrations can get the children's attention and help them focus on the tasks
to come.

While-reading stage
The aim of this stage is to give students a purpose to achieve. Reading
comprehension has three levels, namely word, simple sentence and text level.
The first two levels tend to rely on visual information to provide a context for
understanding the written word or words. Activities such as matching the word
to the corresponding image when playing bingo or working with magnetic letters
to spell a word correctly.

Intensive reading
Once children no longer require visual support to read words, they can then
move on to text level reading comprehension using intensive reading to search
for specific information, for example to recognise key words and associate
meanings, such as matching a word with its definition.

Extensive reading
Children at this stage can cope with longer passages hence they can use
extensive reading to gain a general idea of the text in hand by using skimming.
Activities may involve suggesting a title for the text or deducing the meaning of
unknown words and structures.

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After-reading stage
The main objective of this stage is to use activities which integrate language
skills reflecting what normally happens in real life. Examples of such activities
are: choosing a character from the book and write some interview questions, act
out scenes from the book using masks and different props or use a
comprehension spinner to answer questions and be the first team to make a
complete sandwich.

5. WRITING: FROM IMITATION TO FREE PRODUCTION

There are many reasons why children should be taught to write - the most
important one being that writing forms part of our daily lives thus classroom
writing must reflect how we use it in real life. However, given that writing is a
difficult process to learn, it must be taught progressively. Pease proposes three
stages to teaching writing, namely copying, writing practice and writing for an
audience.

a. Copying
Pease argues that in the early phases of learning to write, young second
language learners may still be consolidating their concept of print, hence the
need for copying. This provides opportunities to practise aspects such
handwriting, learn and consolidate their understanding of new vocabulary,
develop an awareness of and gain confidence in English spelling and practise a
range of simple sentence patterns they have learnt to use in speaking. Activities
include copying a shopping list of food items needed to celebrate the end of
term party or make cards in order to play snap or bingo.

b. The next stage is: writing practice.

This helps to gradually widen and consolidate the range of vocabulary,
grammatical structures and sentence patterns pupils can produce. Providing
plenty of practice in the meaning and spelling of words so that their use
becomes more automatic. Children in at this stage enjoy personal writing,
therefore tasks should be personalised where possible and also related to their
interests and contexts. Examples of activities in this stage are: following a
model to fill in a form with a crime suspect's details or using a KWL framework
(what I know, what I want to know and what I have learnt) as part of a reading
comprehension activity.

c. The last stage: writing for an audience

Pupils become increasingly conscious of the fact writing can be directed at
difference audiences. This means it is a good idea to give children tasks which
involve writing for others to read and respond as well as displaying it. Writing
instructions to make gingerbread men and designing a questionnaire to find out
information about students' hobbies are examples of suitable activities. This
stage also includes the need for students to be aware of the characteristics of a
composing a good text, such as the proper use of grammar, spelling and
punctuation, the use of clear sentence and the logical flow of ideas. They
should also be encouraged to develop a habit of checking their own work for
any mistakes.

6. CONCLUSION

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Although children must acquire all four linguistic skills if they are to become
communicatively competent, reading and writing should be introduced after
listening and speaking skills. Teachers have to respect the development stages
associated with each skill, providing a variety of opportunities for progression
and teaching them strategies to help them use these skills more effectively.

7. BIBLIOGRAPHY
HARMER J The practice of English Language Teaching Longman Burnt Mill
1983
BYRNE D Teaching writing skills Longman Burnt Mill 1988
WHITE Process Writing Longman London 1991

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  Correctness - proper use of grammar, spelling and punctuation.
 Clarity - use of clear sentences.
 Conciseness - the economical use of words.
 Coherence - the logical flow of ideas.
 Control - the overall organisation of the text
 Content - text has substance.

An important principle to follow in all the stages is that children should never be
asked to write something that they cannot say in English.

Correcting work
Written work needs to be corrected as it is a permanent medium without the
possibility of immediate feedback. Both mistakes - slips of some kind and errors
- which occur when students do not have the required knowledge have to be
addressed. Donn Byrne stated that there are three basic ways to correct
mistakes:
 Correct all mistakes
 Correct mistakes selectively
 Indicating mistakes so that students can correct them by using some kind
of code. This approach makes students actively involved in correcting
their own mistakes.

Remedial strategies are used for correcting errors - they include:

 Explaining the error, normally done individually.
 Give the student practice exercises.