THE PROCESS OF WRITTEN COMMUNICTION
In this paper we are going to get in deep into understanding the difference between a Oral and written communication. As a first step we should define what do we understand by communication & language in order to develop strategies and techniques to encourage oral / comprehension & expression skills. We will define skills involved in the process of textuality highlighting the importance and difficulties of each one and the necessity of and adequate integration of both to develop on our students conversational skills.
Question development
Written Communication
Although communication occurs in many different ways, oral communication is the most natural way of using language. Oral communication is restricted to those cases in which the speaker intends to use the oral language to convey certain information to the hearer. The hearer recognizes our intention, based upon what we have said.
written communication No immediate answer. Time for thinking
Affective factors are not that important
Grammatically complex
Static
Non-negotiation of meaning
Relies on nominalization
Planned language Content-dependent
Non-nextness: Syntactic structure and explicit cohesive elements to draw the connection between the clauses
Parallelism: rhythm, rhyme, alliteration is mainly used
the effects of repair in spontaneous talk
Embedded clauses Sentence organisation must always adjust to grammar rules Decontextualized language
Written texts do not occur on interaction and do not show features of personal involvement; on the contrary they take the so-called features of detachment (some morpho-syntactic forms). They show the importance of complex syntax in
integration of ideas Relative clauses Complement clauses
Sequences of prepositional phrases Nominalizations
Atributive adjectives Passive voice
Subordinate conjunctions Complex morphosyntax
Authentic learning for beginning learners of a second language is a process of developing communicative language competence. This process requires
comprehensible input firstly in oral & written form that students store, in varying amounts, in their developing language systems and that they access in real-world communicative tasks. The process of accessing language from the developing system improves accuracy as well as speed of communication. A simplified model of that process is shown below.
Input ---> Intake ---> Developing Language Competence ---> Output (Adapted from Lee and VanPatten, 1995)
COMMUNICATING
WRITTEN DISCOURSE IN WRITTEN FL
Traditional grammar taught us to view a word as a basic part of speech in grammatical analysis (Traditional/Normative grammar), later on to contemplate a sentence (syntax and structure of finite utterances –Structuralism- to a more contemporary vision of grammar as an act of speech and discourse – functional discoursive grammar-). In order words this former emphasis on words or in the construction of sentences has recently changed towards an increasing interest in analyzing the sentences work in sequence to produce coherent and cohesive stretches of language conveying meaning. This interest has developed into discourse analysis - Some linguists normally use discourse analysis as the general term which can be described as the study of how sentences in spoken and written language form larger meaningful units such as paragraphs, conversations, interviews, etc. For example, discourse analysis deals with: how the choice of articles, pronouns and tenses affects the structure of the discourse. the relationship between utterances within a discourse; the moves made by the speaker to introduce a new topic, change the topic, or assert a higher role relationship to the other participants.
It is generally recognized for practical matters two main approaches within discourse analysis: - text analysis
- Speech act analysis
The distinction between them was the distinction between the study of written and spoken language. Analysis of spoken discourse may be called Conversational discourse. Analysis of written discourse may be called Text analysis.
Text definition
Traditionally, has been defined according to the concepts of language and
refer to a sequence of speech acts –dialogic texts- for our primary goal of defining text under a Primary curriculum we will differ between text in wriiten and Speech acts in oral discourses.
TEXT as a product
A Text (with a capital ‘t’)-event is the authentic recorded product of such a
communicative event, usually in writing, but also in such media as pictures, graphics, soundtrack, videos and so on. This second definition includes what is commonly called a ‘text’, namely a piece of writing in hard-copy, such as a friendly letter, an essay, or a book.
THE TEXT: STRUCTURE AND CHARACTERISTICS
Most authors from the ones introduced earlier may agree on a general accepted understanding of text: The word text is used in linguistics to refer to any passage, spoken or written, of whatever length, that does form a unified whole. A text may be spoken or written, prose or verse, dialogue or monologue. It may be anything from a single proverb to a whole play from a momentary cry for helping to an all-day discussion on a committee. A text is a unit of language in use. It is not a grammatical unit, like a clause or sentence; and it is not defined by its size.
A text will be defined by Beaugrande and Dressler as a communicative occurrence which meets seven standards of textuality. If a stretch of language does not satisfied any of these standards, it will not be communicative and therefore it will not be a text. However, we must be aware of a certain tolerance in human language towards minor flouting of these standards if we uphold the remainder. The seven standards of textuality are:
1. Cohesión. 2. Coherence. 3. Intentionality. 4. Acceptability. 5. Informativity. 6. Situationality. 7. Intertextuality.
1. Cohesión.
. Coherence.
We define coherence as the standard of textuality which concerns the ways in which the components of the textual world, i.e. the configuration of concepts and relations which underlie the surface text, are mutually accessible and relevant.
Concepts are definable as configurations of knowledge (cognitive content)which can be recovered or activated with more or less unity and consistency in the mind.
Relations are the links between concepts which appear together in a textual world. Sometimes the relations are not made explicit in the text, but people will supply as many relations are needed to make sense out of the text. These relations will include the group subsumed under causality (e.g. cause, purpose, reason), time (e.g. time when, frequency), agency (e.g. agent, recipient, experiencer).
Cohesión and coherence are text-centred notions. We also need some user-centred notions as the foliowing.
3. Intentionality.
We define intentionality as the standard of textuality that concerns the text producer's attitude that the set of occurrences should constitute a cohesive and coherent text instrumental in fulfilling the producer's intentions. Intentionality is important enough for a text to be cornmunicative even if
it was not coherent or cohesive, e.g. to attain the goal specified in a plan is more important that upholding cohesión or coherence. This happens especially in informal conversation.
4. Acceptability.
We define acceptability as the standard of textuality that concerns the text receiver's attitude that the set of occurrences should constitute a cohesive and coherent text having some use or relevance for the receiver, e.g. to acquire knowledge or provide co-operation in a plan. This attitude is responsive to such factors as íext type, social or cultural setting, and the desirability of goals.
5. Informativity,
unknown. Highly informative texts are more demanding but also more interesting that run-of-the-mill ones.
6. Situationality.
We define situationality as the standard of textuality that concerns the factors which make a text relevant to a situation of occurrence. The influence of the situation in the interpretation of a text can be of extreme importance. It may even affect cohesión, eg in situations where language economy is intended such as telegrams, headlines, road signs, etc.
7. Intertextuality.
We define intertextuality as the standard of textuality which concerns the factors which make the utilization of one text dependent upon knowledge of one or more previousiy encountered texts. This feature is responsible for the evolution of text types as classes of texts with typical patterns of characteristics.
Beaugrande and Dressler (following Searle) think that these standards of textuality are constitutive principles, ie they define and create the form of behaviour identifiable as textual communication, and if they are defied, that form of behaviour will break down.
DEVELOPING LITERACY –READING/WRITING- IN ENGLISH
Research points to the desirability of developing literacy first in young children's native language so that they can transfer reading and writing skills to English (August, 1998;
Collier, 1992; 1995; Crawford, 1997; Krashen, 1993; Ramírez, 1992; Thomas & Collier, 1999),. Logic indicates that older English language learning students, like their younger counterparts, would find it much easier to learn to read and write first in the language they can already speak, and that skills developed in the first language could be transferred to literacy acquisition in the second language.
that "children are active learners, drawing on direct social and physical experience as well as culturally transmitted knowledge to construct their own understandings of the world around them"
Researchers believe that goals and expectations for young children's achievement in reading and writing should be developmentally appropriate, that is, challenging but achievable, with sufficient adult support. A continuum of reading and writing
development is generally accepted and useful for teachers in understanding the goals of literacy instruction and in assessing children's progress toward those goals. Good teachers understand that children do not progress along this developmental continuum in rigid sequence. Rather, each child exhibits a unique pattern and timing in acquiring skills and understanding related to reading and writing.
Like other complex skills, reading and writing are outcomes that result from the continual interplay of development and learning, and therefore a range of individual variation is to be expected in the rate and pace at which children gain literacy skills. Given exposure to appropriate literacy experiences and good teaching during early Primary is therefore an essential departuring point
COGNITIVE MATURITY PROCESS IN DEVELOPING LITERACY -READING+WRITING-ACQUISITION
Theoretical background
Reading and Writing are post-literate skills in opposition to Listening and Speaking which are pre-literate skills. Post-literate skills are reached through a previous semantic –acquisitive process that it makes meaning on the world surrounding children. Post literate skills therefore do necesseraly imply a previous oral knowledge on the different centers of interest of children and a certain amount of consciousness on the process of learning. This does not mean boring reading aloud teaching sessions but quite the opposite affective language in use for deviating language (reading/writing) to different varied and meaningful tasks.
acquired in a natural or classroom setting. These theories do affect the way we apporach to the process of reading (pre-reading) and writing (pre-writing) in English.
Piaget: "Children do not package knowledge but they build it through day to day interaction with their centres of interest”
Vigotsky: "Beyond every human being who learns there is a human being who thinks” In order to help our students we need to get close to their “nearest developing zone” taking into account as a reference his own knowledge . Vygotsky's theory (1978) of The Zone of Proximal Development states that the learner acquires the languages on two levels of development: the actual and potential development level. Through interaction with others, a learner achieves the potential development level and therefore expands his cognitive abilities. Cooperative, meaningful interaction is the key to language development and acquisition.
Ausubel: Learning processes should be functional – they are useful and significative (based on comprensión)
Krashen's Input Hypothesis (1982) focuses on language acquisition in the classroom. His theory suggests that language learning only occurs under certain conditions, e.g. when students receive optimal comprehensible and interesting input from their
instructors beyond their present level of competence and not presented in grammatical sequences. Language acquisition, so Krashen, takes place as a subconscious learning process which results in real communication skills, rather than actively learning grammar and structural rules of the target language.
Variable Competence Model, developed by Bialystok (1982), Ellis (1988) and Tarone (1983), illustrates a different approach to language learning. This theory views language acquisition as a combined process between subconscious, automatic processes and conscious, analytic processes. Thus, the learner begins to speak the language
spontaneously without any knowledge of grammatical structures or language patterns (= imitation process). However, after having received formal instruction, the learner then will begin to apply acquired language rules and structures, which in return will explain the meaning of students' initial use of language patterns.
participants when receiving language input. Only listening to new language structures will not lead to successful language learning. The learner has to become an active participant in the target language by using received input in immediate interaction and communicative patterns with other learners.
Applying those major theoretical concepts towards foreign language learning and teaching methodology for reading and writing in the actual classroom, the following significant objectives should become an integral part of foreign language teaching: Instructors have to make sure that their students continuously receive optimal input of language instruction beyond their level of competence in order to guarantee progress and success. Furthermore, initial reading instruction should not be based on formal instruction such as grammatical structures and its rules, but rather as a spontaneous input of words, phrases and sentences to the learners, which are to be imitated (re-written) and applied, and later being related to their formal rules and structures of the language. Moreover, active participation and interaction with others in story-telling are important steps to successful reading acquisition. Those steps not only show the
learner's actual level of development but also leads to the expansion of potential development.
Psicopedagogical background
The analysis of the learning processes leads us to several general psicopedagogical issues for the teaching of the L2 reading-writing process
Generally speaking, children around 5/6 years old do already have in L1 a complex linguistic knowledge –discursive and syntactical skills close to the adult
age-Taking into account our current social western environments; writing is not something that students do visualize firstly at school but writing surrounds us
We as teachers cannot think that students do have an innate desire for reading and writing –they already do communicate through oral skills -. Students do need to have enjoyable and meaningful experiences of reading and writing in order to wake up on them a love for books.
Students will learn through imitation and active participation in activities –reading & writing- where teachers are firstly involved (If they see you reading to them a tale in English they will desire to do so)
Grouping and peer-reading provoking students`interaction are essential strategies for developing information exchange and communication. Through these interactions they do read and do choral reading
Using a contrastive framework between the L1 and L2 may help teachers to assess individual children's progress against realistic goals and then adapt instruction to ensure that children continue to progress.
L1 .During the preschool years most children can be expected to function in phase one of the developmental continuum, Awareness and Exploration.
L1. In kindergarten, an appropriate expectation is that most children will be at phase two, Experimental Reading and Writing.
L1. By the end of first Year -Primary cycle- , most children will function in
phase three, Early Reading and Writing.
L1. An appropriate expectation for second year is Transitional Reading and
Writing(phase four),
L1. The goal for third grade is Independent and Productive Reading and
Writing (phase five). L2 at this moment is introduced through meaningful & comprehensible Input (Krashen)
L1 Advanced Reading is the goal for fourth grade and above. L2 is introduced
through experimental and early reading & writing –exercises of recognising; matching through visual aids; simple and easy controlled texts….etc
L1. At 5th year Advanced Reading and organized writing is expected.
gist- L1 At 6th year. Advanced Reading, organized writing + syntax correctness in
free texts. L2 Advanced reading with simple & short texts + easy writing giving a model and basic, simple and meaningful free writing texts
Most important, teachers must understand how children learn a second language and how this process applies to young children's literacy development. Teachers need to respect the child's home language and culture and use it as a base on which to build and extend children's language and literacy experiences.
As theories of second language education have evolved from the grammar-translation to the audio-lingual method to the more communicative approaches that are commonly used today, ideas about how language proficiency develops and ought to be taught have also changed. Reading/ Writing has commonly been viewed as a support skill, used to reinforce the acquisition of grammar, as in the grammar-translation method, or to support the memorization of language structures, as in the audio-lingual method. Until recently, even the communicative approaches, with their emphasis on oral proficiency, have tended to de-emphasize writing. But ideas from Reading/writing-to-learn,
Reading/writing across the curriculum, and Reading/ writing for academic purposes movements in composition and English as a Second Language (ESL) have all had an impact on thinking about the place of Reading/writing in second language education.
Written communication
Reading + writing = composition
Read…. Process…. note ….. organise …….. write
Reading:
A written receptive skill whose main aim is comprehension. Reading implies a process –how do students read- and a product –how much did they understand-. The reading skill is basically a silent activity although it may be used for oral purposes – to improve student’s pronunciation. The final goal of reading is developing a love of books in the future.
Pre- READING SKILLS
2 Using one's own knowledge of the outside world to make predictions about and interpret a text.
3 Retrieving information stated in the passage.
4 Distinguishing the main ideas from subsidiary information.
5 Deducing the meaning and use of unknown words; ignoring unknown words/phrases that are redundant, ie, that contribute nothing to interpretation.
6 Understanding the meaning and implications of grammatical structures, e.g. cause, result, purpose, reference in time (e.g. verb tenses; compare: 'He could swim well - past, 'He could come at 10 a.m.' - future).
7 Recognising discourse markers: e.g. therefore + conclusion, however + contrast, that is + paraphrase, e.g. + example.
8 Recognising the function of sentences - even when not introduced by discourse markers: e.g. example, definition, paraphrase, conclusion, warning.
9 Understanding relations within the sentence and the text (words that refer back to a thing or a person mentioned earlier in the sentence or the text, e.g. which, who, it). 10 Extracting specific information for summary or note taking.
11 Skimming * to obtain Ihe gist, and recognise the organisation of ideas within the text. 12 Understanding implied information and attitudes
13 Knowing how to use an index, a table of contents, etc A difficult text: Help students by:
More background information! Pre-teach key words the day before! Divide text into short chunks! Sign-post questions for main points! Add discourse markers where helpful! Ask easy questions!
Paraphrase difficult ideas! Set easy tasks like matching
Different stages in the process of teaching reading as a process (at grapho level)
Recognizing grapho- semantic relationships: sun = sol (most of the time a visual image is ingluded
Using jumbled letters to find a meaning Matching activities
Matching: image and word
Identifying odd elements in a list ( for instance a lis of different food items and car is included)
Crosswords and letter soup games (at sentence level)
Matching image with short sentence Matching functional language with context Relating sentence to translation
Matching half-sentences (at paragraph/text level)
Reading for meaning: skimming : getting general idea of the text Scanning: getting specific information in the text true/false questions
Multiple choice Wh- questions Etc
Different teaching stages for reading as a product: (extensive reading = skimming the text)
Pre-reading: Questioning and brainstorming: Using the visual aids attached to the text to deduce meaning and create an hypothesis. Using the title to recycle previos knowledge
While-reading: Different tasks and activities to infer meaning, from Wh-
questions to true/false activities; filling the gaps; sequencing; substitution tables, etc
Post-reading: Linking reading to speaking or creative guided writing, etc 1.
Methods for teaching reading
There has always been debate about which is the best way to teach reading and over the years all sorts oí different methods have been devised to try to make learning easier.
Today, teachers tend to rely on the four main methods described here. Phonics
This method relies on children being taught the alphabet first, learning the ñames of the letters and the sounds they make. Once they have learnt the letter sounds they begin to blend certain ones together to make simple words.
r-a-t c-a-t s-a-t m-a-t
In order to give children reading practice in these skills the story books have to be rather contri ved, so that all the words are regular and can be sounded out. It is extremely difficult to write books with phonically regular words that are interesting for children to read.
Ned set the wet hen in the bed.
having any idea what they mean. Children taught exclusively by this method will learn and pronounce nonsense words quite correctly, whereas if the words were in sentences they would know immediately that they had no meaning.
For these reasons the phonic method is not usually taught until children have a good grasp of the basics of reading. Older children, however, who are finding reading very difficult, often discover a phonic approach works well for them.
Look and say
In this method children learn to recognize whole words or sentences rather than individual sounds. They look at the words, they hear them said, and then they repeat them.
Twenty years ago it was common practice to use flashcards (individual words written in large letters on cards) in teaching by this method. The cards were held up for the children to recognize, but because there were no clues to help them, most of the time children just made wild guesses.
It is now generally recognized that it is better to show a whole sentence first, preferably with a picture;
then a set of matching word cards to put under the sentence; and finally just the word cards to make into a sentence.
In this way children can get meaning from print from the earliest stages of learning to read.
Language Experiencc Approach
In this approach the teacher uses the child's own words to help him learn to read. The words may be a caption for a picture or a little story made into a book. At first the child tells the teacher what to write. After a while the children can copy over the teacher's writing and can eventually write their own words down.
Many teachers use this method as a first approach to reading. Reading their own words helps children understand that the written word is for communicating meaning from one person to another.
Context support method
When children are learning to read it is very important that they use books that really interest them. They cannot manage too many new words in a book, though, and it is difficult to write interesting stories with a very limited number of words. __
To get round this problem some books are being produced which give two
Sometimes the longer versión is at the bottom of the page and the shorter versión in speech bubbles. The child hears the long versión before reading the shorter versión himself.The more limited vocabulary of the shorter versión is brought to life because the child can relate it to what he has already heard.
This is a relatively new way of teaching early reading. It does help to make the printed word more interesting and meaningful for a child. If you come across books with a long and a short text, it is well worth trying them out.
WRITING
A written productive skill whose main aim is to transmit information. Last skill to be achieved by our students. In a communicative approach: Listening + speaking + reading + writing.
Communication can be either oral or written. For some time communicative approaches seemed to deal only with the oral skills, but we should focus on writing as essentially a communicative channel, just as in real life, we write in response to a particular demand or purpose and with a real audience in mind.
In this communicative or "functional" approach to writing (Sampson, 1983), the tasks are characterized by four features: a product as a result, a specifíc audience, a function or purpose and a Linguistic focus.
When we speak we often use expressive features such as gestures, tone of voice, etc. that are absent in written communication. So when we write, we have to compénsate for the lack of those contextual elements and use other written conventions (punctuation, italics, bold letters, er,...)
Reasons for teaching "writing"
Writing favours interactive and communicative learning, since it involves all the three points of the communication triangle: writer, reader and text. In addition Raimes (1987) says that learning is, above all, a learning tool because it helps students to:
- communicate ideas to readers and develop fluency (express themselves in writing)
- reinforce grammatical rules and use linguistic structures - learn and extend their knowledge about subject matters - imítate models and develop their own writing style
The teacher has several reasons for teaching the writing skill. according to McLaren (1995)
•A reasonable level of proficiency in any language implies a level of competence both in oral and written communication.
.Written practice reinforces oral proficiency; both complement each other •In real Ufe, students will need some proficiency ¡n writing:
-They will probably need to write letters to friends, relatives, or for professional reasons, using both informal and formal language.
-When working on projects, surveys, and other tasks, we need to write reports and
present some information in writing
Different stages in the process of writing: 1. Lexis: the word
2. Sentence structure
3. Supersential structure: the paragraph
4. Organisation of several Ideas/ concepts into logical coherent structure (composition, letter, essay, etc)
Different stages in the process of teaching writing:
The whole process of learning writing communication takes places in two stages (Rivers & temperley 1978)
Cognitive stage: (receptive):
Knowledge of communication components: rules, categories, functions... Internalizing the rules relating those categories and functions.
Productive stage:
Practice in production complete communicative texts: writing a post-card, an informal letter, formal, etc
Controlled...guided...free writing activities Writing as a process: techniques and procedures
Traditionally, teachers and methodologists have concentrated on the learning results obtained by the students, but at present, there seems to be a shift (change) of focus from "product" (writing outcomes) to "process" (the writing process step by step). This is a general tendency, not only in the writing skill, but in Education and TEFL: Procedures are given more importance than isolated concepts, "procedural syllabus" and continuous assesment are recommended, etc.
Writing is essentially a complex process which starts in Primary Education and never ends, though the learner may feel satisfíed at some stage with certain proficiency level which is enough for her/his communicative needs. A wide range of techniques make their contribution to the development of that process. They complement each other.
Procedures and techniques for teaching writing start with simple, "controlled", activities at the word and sentence level to consolídate the student's graminar, lexicón, spelling and punctuation. Then, we move to more complex tasks that involve the students in the production of "guided" and "free" texts in order to cultívate their discourse competence: paragraph construction, c devices of cohesión and coherence and personal style in writing.
A good piece of writing
A high level of proficiency in the writing skill is very difficult and requires a dual process of instruction and practice which implies:
•Grammatical, morphosyntactic, competence: the ability to write correct sentences with the right spelling and punctuation.
•Sociolinguistic competence to be able to write appropriatety and effectively, that is, to use the language required for each situation
•Discourse competence: the ability to combine sentences to produce texts with coherence and cohesiveness (cohesión)
For practical use in correcting a piece of writing we will bear in mind: Organisation
Content Vocabulary Grammar Mechanics
Teaching implications
Our objective is also to encourage effective communication but through the médium of writing, that is, the final goal is to elicit written communication. This general principie has important implications that we must consider before presenting written tasks (see Byrne 1979, Bueno 1989, Fincas 1982, Hedge 1988, Whrte 1980):
• Writing is a dynamic process and as such is subject to revision, correction and change.
• Revision and change during the process of writing are necessary to improve the writing skill. With our first language we also reread what we have written, revise it and improve the final version again and agam. - The students must address an audience real or imaginary. When we write, we address a potential reader who is in our mind while writing.
• There must be reasons for writing. The student must know the purpose of the writing activity: to greet a friend on his/her birthday, to congratúlate someone for his/her success, to give information, to consolídate linguistic forms and grammatical points, etc.
-• The writing activity should be oriented around topics of interest for the students, related to their hobbies, leisure time and needs, cióse to their experiences and personal and immediate environment. Some topics may be suggested and others may be chosen according to the students' preferences.
• Integration of skills. The other communicative skills must be integrated in the writing process. After the students have read it, they must talk and write about it. In order to develop the students total communicative competence, both the oral and written skills must be encouraged in parallel.
• Promoting active correction. The students must get involved ¡n the correcting process. They can learn by correcting their mistakes, either individually or in a
cooperative way: ¡n pairs or ¡n teams, considering other options provided by the other classmates.
Written Communication within Communicative competence
"Language proficiency is not a one-dimensional construct but a multifaceted modality, consisting of various levels of abilities and domains (Carrasquillo 1994:65). Hymes (1971) also assumes that L2 learners need to know not only the linguistic knowledge but also the culturally acceptable ways of interacting with others in different situations and relationships. His theory of communicative competence (1971) consists of the interaction of grammatical, psycholinguistic, sociolinguistic, and probabilistic language components. Built on Hymes' theory, Canale and Swain (1980) propose that
underlying writing proficiency. Our current curriculum supported by LOE and LEA understand writing under the communicative competence following these principles:
Grammatical competence. "Grammatical competence is an umbrella concept that includes increasing expertise in grammar (morphology, syntax), vocabulary, and mechanics. In order to convey meaning, EFL learners must have the knowledge of words clauses and sentences; that is, they must understand how words are segmented into clauses and later on sentences to create a paragraph. Thus, grammatical competence enables speakers to use and understand English language structures accurately and unhesitatingly, which contributes to their fluency.
Discourse competence. In addition to grammatical competence, EFL learners must develop discourse competence, which is concerned with intersentential relationships. In discourse, whether formal or informal, the rules of cohesion and coherence apply, which aid in holding the communication together in a
meaningful way. In communication, both the production and comprehension of a language require one's ability to perceive and process stretches of discourse, and to formulate representations of meaning from referents in both previous sentences and following sentences. Different types of texts imply different structures of organizing the information.
Sociolinguistic & sociocultural competence. Knowledge of language alone does not adequately prepare learners for effective and appropriate use of the target language. Learners must have competence, which involves knowing what is expected socially and culturally by users of the target language; that is, learners must acquire the rules and norms governing the appropriate layouy and
realization of discoursive texts
Strategic competence. Strategic competence, which is "the way learners
elaboration of the text. The creation of previous visual schema and mind maps or brainstormings may be necessary to buid a coherent and cohesive text.
TEXTUALITY: TEXT NOTION, TYPES AND FUNCTIONAL USES TEXT TYPOLOGY AND FUNCTIONAL USES
Descriptive texts: A Definition
Descriptions focus our attention on the characteristic features of a particular thing, eg Toby the Mongrel (as opposed to information reports, which deal with a general class of things, eg hunting dogs). The subject might be a person, eg Grandpa, a place, eg our house, or a thing, eg my favourite toy. It might be impressionistic/imaginative, eg a description as a poem or part of a narrative, or an objective description, eg of a robbery suspect.
While descriptions can occur as ‘stand alone’ texts, they are often part of a longer text, such as the description of a character or setting in a story or biography( within
narratives). Although they might not always be seen as a distinct text type, it is felt that the ability to describe someone or something in detail is an important skill that can contribute to a number of different text types
Purpose
Description is used in all forms of writing to create a vivid impression of a person, place, object or event eg to:
describe a special place and explain why it is special
describe the most important person in your life
describe the animal's habitat in your report
Descriptive writing is usually used to help a writer develop an aspect of their work, eg. to create a particular mood, atmosphere or describe a place so that the reader can create vivid pictures of characters, places, objects etc.
read descriptions in the sequence of events, as ameans to reach estra details about the action is narrated or finally in the resolution as a way to conclude and open or close ending.
Functional uses (Descriptive text types)
Five elements can be described:
1. Objects : These are normally described from bottom to top. Appearance is also complemented with information about functioning
2. Places: They often include an evaluation on the part of the speaker; preferences, likes and dislikes are an important part of place description. Places are also easily related to feelings. The description may occur from different perspectives: from the front to the back; a bird’s view; as a walking tour.
3. People: They are usually described according to their more prominent features. As it is the case with places, expressing likes, dislikes and the feelings the people cause on the speaker is an important part of the description
4. Emotions : The expression of feelings. The text must create in the audience the same mood or feeling that the writer wants o convey. It is mainly focus on visual impacts; it does not require a specific knowledge; the structure is what the writer wants it to be.
5. Processes: it is also related to narrative texts –description- and it usually includes an explanation about causes and consequences. Process texts include explanations, instructions and advice giving on how to achieve an aim. Samples of process texts go from recipes to giving directions. Most common syntax: imperative; passive voice; purpose clauses; conditions; final clauses
Narrative texts: A Definition
social opinions eg soap operas and television dramas that are used to raise topical issues. Narratives sequence people/characters in time and place but differ from recounts in that through the sequencing, the stories set up one or more problems, which must eventually find a way to be resolved.
The origin of the narrative text is in the storytelling tradition. Narration is considered to be the most universal genre. All cultures have storytelling tradition.The most natural and primarily story-telling tradition is supported in oral speech.
Functional uses. Types of Narrative
There are many types of narrative. They can be imaginary, factual or a combination of both. They may include fairy stories, mysteries, science fiction, romances, horror stories, adventure stories, fables, myths and legends, historical narratives, ballads, slice of life, personal experience.
Literary narration
— Fairy tales and fables. — Myths and legends.
— Novels, Drama and Poetry. — Science fiction.
— Critical essay. 1
b) Entertainment and popular texts: — Nursery rhymes.
— Riddles.
— Romantic novels. — Historical romance.
Detective novels. — Comics.
— Thrillers.
— Humorous fiction. Factual narrative:
Narration is founded in any other type of text typology from description to
Argumentative texts: A Definition
Argumentation has often been defined as the process of supporting or weakening another statement whose validity is questionable or contentious.
Argumentation is the type of textual communication in which the encoder propes relations between concepts of phenomena. The encoder makes his/ her propositions in explicit or implicit opposition to deviant or alternative propositions. Argumentation is the text type related to the cognitive process of judging in answer to a problem. These texts are characterised because of their persuasive appeal. Appeal is used to effect co-operation from an identification with the audience
Functional uses . Types of argumentative texts For oral speech
Everything which is mentioned in this essay plus turn-taking procedures, repairs, cooperative principle, etc
Debates
Debates, which are conducted orally, are a form of argument in which two opposing points of view are stated and both sides are argued. Supporting evidence for each side is put forward and finally an opinion is stated based on the two arguments.
Speeches: Monologues given to an audience: conferences, exposition texts...
For written purpose (mainly) Persuasive texts
Formal letters.... to the school principal / local council with regard to current issues. Advertisement writing to promote the school concert/sports.
To put forward an argument - School uniforms should not be compulsory. To prove a proposal from a scientific point of view (Persuasive texts) Exposition texts:
Essays, papers (academic); exams.... (They re as well recognised as argumentative texts. They are used to argue a case for or against a particular position or point of view )
Expository texts: A Definition
or listener has prior knowledge or prior understanding of the topic that is being
discussed. One important point to keep in mind for the author is to try to use words that clearly show what they are talking about rather then blatantly telling the reader what is being discussed. Since clarity requires strong organization, one of the most important mechanisms that can be used to improve our skills in exposition is to provide directions to improve the organization of the text.
Functional uses . Types of expository texts
Recount (tell) what happened when . . .
Retell a story.
Record the events . . .
Write a report on . . .
Explain how to . . .
Describe the procedure for . . .
Explain the procedure used . . .
Define
Dialogic Texts: a definition
As happens with other types of texts, conversation may include different texts, which can be adapted to the same textual structure. These may be divided into
Functional uses . Types of dialogic texts:
Spontaneous conversations /personal exchange – two of the speakers in direct speech -, telephonic conversations...). They are more interesting as subjects of linguistic study and teaching English as a Foreign language because they show second language learners real contextualized oral exchanges and through a discourse analysis procedure may reflect a right patterns and utterances to use by native English speakers for different communicative purposes.
They are not usually planned in advance, subject may vary throughout the conversation and they may take place in various contexts and have various functions.
way either. On the contrary, as other texts they are governed by a series of features and possess an internal structure.
Dramatization texts. Non-spontaneous conversations subject to prior planning. They are usually about a fixed topic, maintained through the conversation, and progress through an also fixed system of turn-taking
Conclusions
In conclusion, reading + writing are the last but not least skills to be achieved by our L2 learners. Specific characteristics of written communication –reading + writing – such as “permanent, encourage independent learning, etc… turn the written discourse in
something essential to be managed by our students in their near future learning. In EFL teaching, it is an aspect that needs special attention and instruction, moreover in terms of error analysis. In order to provide effective instruction, it is necessary for teachers of EFL to carefully examine the factors, conditions, and components that underlie reading and writing effectiveness. Effective instruction derived from the careful analysis of this area, together with sufficient language input and speech-promotion activities, will gradually help learners read + write English fluently and appropriately
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