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Writing in Second Language

The document discusses the importance of writing in second language learning. It notes that writing requires mastery of linguistic aspects like grammar and text structure. Practicing writing tasks promotes noticing, which increases linguistic resources. For benefits to occur, writing must be combined with feedback from teachers. Both indirect feedback, which favors reflection, and direct feedback, which aids internalization of new forms, are beneficial. Teachers should also incorporate different genres to help students understand how to achieve various purposes through writing. Overall, developing writing skills is crucial for second language acquisition, and feedback-supported writing tasks can be a useful resource for students to improve their abilities to communicate through the written word.

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Dominique Andrade
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35 views

Writing in Second Language

The document discusses the importance of writing in second language learning. It notes that writing requires mastery of linguistic aspects like grammar and text structure. Practicing writing tasks promotes noticing, which increases linguistic resources. For benefits to occur, writing must be combined with feedback from teachers. Both indirect feedback, which favors reflection, and direct feedback, which aids internalization of new forms, are beneficial. Teachers should also incorporate different genres to help students understand how to achieve various purposes through writing. Overall, developing writing skills is crucial for second language acquisition, and feedback-supported writing tasks can be a useful resource for students to improve their abilities to communicate through the written word.

Uploaded by

Dominique Andrade
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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UNIVERSIDADE FEDERAL DE MINAS GERAIS

FACULDADE DE LETRAS
Linguística Aplicada: Ensino de Leitura e Escrita
Teacher: Lilian Aparecida Vimieiro Pascoal
Student: Dominique Andrade - NS10

Writing in Second Language Learning

Writing may be considered one of the most important human skills. Its uses are
numerous and it is part of all walks of life. It is necessary for human development, that
encompasses basic communication, study activities, professional work and so forth. But the
principal advantage of it is its quality of being a permanent register. Thus, when it comes to
second language writing, it may be able to cross geographical and temporal boundaries. But,
if writing in one's native language is really challenging, second language writing is another
turn of the screw. With that in mind, reflecting about second language teaching it is essential
to take some points into consideration regarding writing in a second language.
Second language writing has a key role in language learning. And this is due to its
productive quality. In other words, the writer actively produces content, which requires a
certain mastery of the linguistic aspects, like text structures and grammar rules, in order to
express complex ideas in a proper way. So, working on writing tasks may be useful to explore
that process of composition, because it leads the second language writers into a noticing
process that promotes the increase of linguistic resources (LIONTAS, 2018). However, the
benefits of a written task only take place if combined with the process of feedback. That is to
say, the students need to be guided by the teacher in order to analyze their errors, find the
solutions, understand the L2 form, reflect about the content and the language, so they are able
to assimilate the knowledge.
The feedback may be indirect and direct (LIONTAS,2018). Indirect feedback is
beneficial because it favours long-term acquisition, once it makes the students more engaged
in the reflection about their errors. But this type of feedback may not be effective when it
comes to complex linguistic errors, because it doesn't provide sufficient information to
resolve the error, so the students may get confused and insecure about correct L2 form,
especially when the learner is at a lower proficiency level. So, direct feedback is more
beneficial in terms of language acquisition, because it may be effective in the internalization
of a new linguistic form, as indirect feedback, but it also may be effective in the increased
control or mastery of a target language form that has already been partially internalized.
Furthermore, a good way to work on written tasks is approaching different types of
genres. Once people use each genre in a specific context to convey a message, using them in
second language instruction “allows teachers to understand, and make explicit to students, the
ways that texts can be written to achieve particular purposes.” ( LIONTAS, 2018). Thereby,
the students develop more than just linguistic aspects, structures and grammatical forms in
order to compose a piece of written text. They develop the ability to communicate in a second
language through writing.
To sum up, if on one hand second language writing itself is a crucial skill to be
developed, on the other hand, it can be a useful resource of language acquisition. Therefore,
that development cannot be neglected in the face of the challenge that writing represents. The
teacher is in charge of guiding the students in the writing process in order to improve their
abilities, so they can become good second language writers that are capable of, not simply
communicating, but also constructing and conveying deeper thoughts through writing.

Referências:

LIONTAS, J. I. (Ed.). The TESOL encyclopedia of English language teaching. Singapore:


Singapore, 2018. (Selected Chapters)

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