Introduction

Language instruction has five important components, students, a teacher, materials, teaching

methods and evaluation. Most of the scientists and pedagogies emphasize that materials control

learning and teaching and even they help learning and teaching to happen effectively. Material is

anything which is used to help to teach learners. Materials can be a text book, a work book, a

cassette, a CD- Rome, a video, a photocopied handout, a newspaper, a paragraph written on a

white board, anything which present or informs about the language being learned.

The role of teacher is to help learners to learn. Teachers have to follow the curriculum and

provide, make or choose materials. They may adapt, supplement, and elaborate on those

materials and also monitor the progress and needs of the students and finally evaluate students.

Materials influence the content and procedures of learning. The choice of deductive vs. inductive

learning, the role of memorization, the use of creatively and problem solving, production vs.

reception, and the order in which materials are presented are all influenced by the materials.

So this is very important to know how to select materials, how to use them and how to

develop them for teaching writing, which is crucial need for help learning to happen effectively.

As technology developed, it influenced to humans’ life, even to materials that teachers select for

teaching writing. Computer programs which are especially designed for writing skills, computer

games and videos are examples of these materials. The basic writing tool provided by the

computer is a word processor, with most word processor including a spellchecker and many

including a grammar checker as well. Many studies have shown that beyond their facilitating

effects, word processors have student writers, attitudes, the characteristics of their texts, and their

revising behavior. This is only a example of material that teacher can use that in teaching

writing, thus the job of teacher is to seek useful and applicable material for his/her teaching.

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 Why Do We Use Materials in Teaching Writing
Language instruction has five important components, students, a teacher, materials, teaching

methods and evaluation. Allwright (1990) argues that materials should teach students to learn,

that they should be resource books for ideas and activities for instruction/learning, that they

should give teachers rationales for that they do. From Allwright’s point of view, text books are

too inflexible to be used directly as instructional material. O’Neill (1990), in contrast, argues that

materials may be suitable for student’s needs, even if they are not designed specifically for them,

that text books make it possible for students to review and prepare their lessons, that text books

are efficient in terms of time and money, and that textbooks can and should allow for adaptation

and improvisation.

Allwright emphasizes that materials control learning and teaching. O’Neill emphasizes that

they help learning and teaching. It is true that in many cases teachers and students rely heavily on

text books, and textbooks determine the components and methods of learning, that is, they

control the content, methods, and procedures of learning. Students learn what is presented in the

text book, and the way the text book presents material is the way students learn it. The

educational philosophy of the text book will influence the class and learning process. Therefore,

in many cases, materials are the center of instruction and one of the most important influences on

what goes on in the classroom.

Theoretically, experienced teachers can teach English without a text book. However, it is not

easy to do it all the time, though they may do it sometimes. Many teachers do not have enough

time to make supplementary materials, so they just follow the text book. Text books therefore

take on a very important role in language classes, and it is important to select a good text book.

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The Role of Materials in Relation to Other Elements
Material is anything which is used to help to teach language learners. Materials can be in the

form of a text book, a work book, a cassette, a C-D Rome, a video, a photocopied handout, a

newspaper, a paragraph written on a white board, anything which presents or informs about the

language being learned.

Since the end of 1970s, there has been a movement to make learners rather than teachers the

center of language learning. According to this approach to teaching, learners are more important

than teachers, materials, curriculums, methods, or evaluation. As a matter of fact, curriculum,

materials, teaching methods and evaluation should all be designed for learners and their needs. It

is the teacher’s responsibility to check to see whether all of the learning processes are working

well for learners and to adapt them if they are not.

In other words, learners should be the center of instruction and learning. The curriculum is a

statement of the goals of learning, the methods of learning, etc. The role of teachers is to help

learners to learn. Teachers have to follow the curriculum and provide, make, or choose materials.

They may adapt, supplement, and elaborate on those materials and also monitor the progress and

needs of the students and finally evaluate students.

Materials include text books, videos, and audio tapes, computer soft ware, and visual aids.

They influence the content and procedures of learning. The choice of deductive vs. inductive

learning, the role of memorization, the use of creatively and problem solving, production vs.

reception, and the order in which materials are presented are all influenced by the materials.

Technology, such as OHP, slides, video and audio tape recorders, video cameras, and computers,

supports instruction/learning. Evaluations (tests, etc) can be used to assign grades, check

learning, give feedback to students, and improve instruction by giving feedback to the teacher.

Though students should be the center of instruction, in many cases, teachers and students rely

on materials, and the materials become the center of instruction. Since many teachers are busy

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and do not have the time or inclination to prepare extra materials, text books and other

commercially produced materials are very important in language instruction. Therefore, it is

important for teachers to know how to choose the best material for instruction, how to make

supplementary materials for the class, and how to adapt materials.

What Are Characteristics of Materials?

Littlejohn and Windeatt (1989) argue that materials have a hidden curriculum that includes

attitudes toward knowledge, attitudes toward teaching and learning, attitudes toward the role and

relationship of the teacher and student, and values and attitudes related to gender, society, etc.

Materials have an underlying instructional philosophy, approach, method, and content, including

both linguistic and cultural information. That is, choices made in writing textbooks are based on

beliefs that the writers have about what language is and how it should be taught. Writers may use

a certain approach, for example, the aural-oral approach, and they choose certain activities and

select the linguistic and cultural information to be included.

Clarke (1989) argues that communicative methodology is important and that communicative

methodology is based on authenticity, realism, context, and a focus on the learner. However, he

argues that what constitutes these characteristics is not clearly defined, and that there are many

aspects to each. He questions the extent to which these are these reflected in text books that are

intended to be communicative. In a study of English text books published in Japan in 1985, the

text books were reviewed and problems were found with both language and content of many of

the text books (Kitao et al, 1995).

Vocabulary is limited, the vocabulary in text books should be controlled or the text books

should provide information to help students understand vocabulary that they may not be familiar

with. For lower-level students, grammar should also be controlled. Many text books use

narratives and essays. It would be useful to have variety of literary forms (for example,

newspaper articles, poetry, or letters), so that students can learn to deal with different forms.

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The cultural information included in English text books should be correct and recent. It

should not be biased and should reflect background cultures of English. It should include visual

aids etc, to help students understand cultural information.

From Learners’ Viewpoint

Content English text books should be useful, meaningful and interesting for students. While

no single subject will be of interest to all students, materials should be chosen based, in part, on

what students, in general, are likely to find interesting and motivating.

Difficulty, as a general rule, materials should be slightly in higher in their level of difficulty

than the students’ current level of English proficiency. (Exception is usually made for extensive

reading and extensive listening materials, which should be easy enough for students to process

without much difficulty.) Materials at a slightly higher level of difficulty than the students’

current level of English proficiency allow them to learn new grammatical structures and

vocabulary.

Instructional issues: English textbooks should have clear instructional procedure and methods,

that is, the teacher and students should be able to understand what is expected in each lesson and

for each activity.

Textbooks should have support for learning. This can take the form of vocabulary lists,

exercises which cover or expand on the content, visual aids, etc. traditionally; language teaching

materials in Japan are made up mostly of text, with few, if any, visual aids. However, with the

development of technology, photos, visual materials and audio materials have become very

important components of language teaching materials, and they are becoming easier to obtain.

Teachers need to learn how to find them, and how to best exploit these characteristics. Materials

are getting more complicated and instructional philosophy, approach, methods, and techniques

are getting more important. Teachers need to be able to evaluate materials involving photos,

videos, and computers now.

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 How Can We Learn About Materials?
There are various ways to get information about text books and other teaching materials.

Many materials are published by publishers and developed and distributed by commercial

companies. Thus, publishers are useful (if not entirely unbiased) sources of information and

advice about what materials are available and what materials are appropriate for various

purposes. Many publishers provide sample copies on request. Bookstores that carry textbooks are

another possible source of information. Clerks at such bookstores may help you find the

materials you want. In addition, publishers’ displays at conferences are useful. They usually have

the most recent materials, exhibitors are willing to help you and answer your questions, and in

some cases, you will have opportunities to meet and talk with the authors, colleagues and friends

who are teachers are also good sources of recommendations of textbooks and advice about how

to best use them. Finally, there is information from computer mailing lists and web pages on the

internet. List On language teaching often have discussions on materials, and you can ask

questions and may get good feedback. Many publishers have www pages and e-mail addresses,

so you can check with them and also ask questions about the materials.

How Do We Get Materials?

In addition to publishers, there are many possible sources of materials. There is a lot of

material available on the internet. You can search for materials when you have free time, and

they can collect materials in English-speaking countries. TV and radio are good sources. They

provide variety of materials. The information is current and the language is natural, but the

content has to be chosen carefully. Newspapers, magazines, advertisements, and other types of

printed materials are very useful. Teachers can take photos; make video tapes or record audio

tapes. If they make plans before they go overseas, they may be able to make good video or audio

programs. Even in your home country you can browse the World Wide Web and search for

useful materials for classes.

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The market of language teaching materials are fairly large and many companies are

competing. They produce new materials and promote them with many advertisements and

through their salespeople. You need to be careful about what they tell you. You always need to

examine their materials carefully from the point of view of what is appropriate for your students

and the classes you are teaching. Another concern about materials is the copyright issue. Many

teachers violate the copyright laws every day. We cannot copy any copyright materials. Of

course, we cannot copy them and distribute them to our students in the class. We need the

permission from publisher to do so.

Effective Teaching Materials for Writing

Materials obviously reflect the writers ‘views of language and learning, and teachers (and

student) will respond according to how well these match their own beliefs and expectations. If

materials are to be a helpful scaffold, these underlying principles need to be made explicit and an

object of discussion for both students and teachers. The remainder of this paper looks at the

assumptions about language and learning which the author believes should underpin materials

used in language classrooms. Individual end- users will, of course, weigh these factors

differently, and so need to adapt the materials to their own context and learners.

Ten Steps in Planning a Writing Course

Ann Raimes (2002) commended that a few years ago; I gave papers called “The Neurosis of

lesson planning” and “Anguish as a second language” in which I explored the fact that both

learning and teaching a language promote anxiety. There is even more anxiety when writing is

involved, especially when many teachers themselves do not feel entirely comfortable with

writing in English, even if it is their native language. Today, with a burgeoning of conflicting

theories, planning a writing course is like walking a minefield. It involves so many choices about

where to go next, what is the best step to take, and what is the best route to the goal. Taking a

wrong step in this context might not be as dire as stepping on a mine, but it can undermine our

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confidence and detonate our students’ resistance. So I have come up with ten steps that I hope

can lead us to safer ground both in planning writing courses and in helping teachers to plan

writing courses. These steps are:

Step 1: Ascertaining goals and instructional constraints

Step 2: Deciding on theoretical principle

Step 3: Planning content

Step 4: Writing the elements

Step 5: Drawing up a syllabus

Step 6: Selecting materials

Step 7: Preparing activities and roles

Step 8: Choosing types and methods of feedback

Step 9: Evaluating the course

Step 10: Reflecting the teacher’s experience

Selecting Materials for Writing

Increasingly, teachers of writing are beginning to view the main texts of a writing class as

what the students write and what the teachers write a response. Certainly, students and teachers

generate a lot of words on the page for analysis, discussion, and revision. But to open up the

classroom to shared experiences- to topics to stimulate writing- teachers turn to other materials,

such as videos, software, and books. Then the materials have to fit as far as possible with the

goals, principles, content, and weighting that we have already decide on. It just won’t work, for

example, to decide that a process approach to writing will help our students with fluency and

discovery of ideas and language, and then to use a book full of sentence- level grammar

exercises with a few controlled compositions thrown in.

Before selection a book, either as an individual or as a committee, it is advisable to take a

section or a task or two and work through it to see what is asked for and what assumptions the

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author makes, because sometimes authors make claims on which they don’t follow through. If

you decide to use an ESL writing text book and not books and articles written for authentic

purposes, I would suggest looking for the following seven features:

1. Topics. Will they engage the students’ interest? What are they based on- experience,

materials in the book such as reading and pictures, activities and inquires beyond the

classroom, or out of the blue random topics? Culturally appropriate for your students? Is

the content relevant and engaging?

2. Types of writing. Are the students writing essays, letters, or paragraph? Is that what

they need to be writing?

3. Opportunities for and instruction in methods of generating ideas. Which of the

following are included: brain storming, free writing, listing, mapping, outlining? Which

are appropriate for your students?

4. Instruction on principles of rhetorical organization. What information is provided to

help students organize various types of writing- letters, description, narration, exposition,

and argument, for example- and which types do your students need to practice?

5. Opportunities for collaboration. Is group working a part of the activities? If so, how are

collaborative activities viewed in your culture?

6. Opportunities for revision. Are students encouraged and directed to write drafts? Does

the book provide instruction on what to do in various stages? Does your curriculum allow

for revision of essays?

7. Instruction in editing and proofreading. What can students learn from the book about

how to edit their own work? What instruction is provided in finding and editing

grammatical errors?

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 A Recommended Sequence for Preparing Materials for Teaching
Writing
1. Determine the needs and preferences of the students and institution/ corporation through
questionnaires and interviews.
2. Decide what sort of language contexts the course will focus on (e.g., lectures, business
meetings).
3. Decide on the categories for presenting the language in the course (e.g. grammar,
function, lexis, situation, topic, communicative skill).
4. Decide what language skills and sub-skills the course will focus on (e.g. listening,
speaking, reading, writing), taking into account learners’ and company’s objectives.
5. Design the syllabus; will it be cumulative, or will each unit/lesson be independent?
6. Decide the types of activities that will be used in the course (e.g. individual, pair, group,
whole class).
7. Decide on the page layout of worksheets; prepare templates.
8. Prepare the materials
9. Pilot the materials; collect and collate feedback through questionnaires and interviews.
10. Revise the materials.
11. Use the materials.
12. Get feedback from students, teacher and sponsors during and after the course through e.g.
questionnaires, interviews, classroom observation by peer teachers and managers,
videotaping of lesson, lesson comment sheets.
13. Revise the materials if necessary.
14. Periodically review the course.

This sequence is an ideal, and very often a number of steps will be omitted; however, it does
illustrate two important points:

In the process of materials design, the role writers, learners, teachers and sponsors are
inextricably interconnected;

The process is essentially circular; there is no beginning or end- there is never a “finished
product.

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 Tools for Teaching Writing: Text Books, Computer Program and
Videos
Many materials suggested up to this point- television programs on video, newspapers and

lyrics to popular songs, maps, pictures, photographs, and others- are not especially intended for

use in language teaching. However, commercial products specially designed for second

language, foreign language, or bilingual teaching can be invaluable if they are chosen carefully.

Such materials can provide challenging content, aid organization, give guidance when needed,

complement and constitute lessons, and introduce and reinforce concepts. Moreover, they can

serve as important resources in emergent participatory classrooms and allow for self- access

learning.

Text Books
Some teachers and many publishers long for the days when one set of materials (complete

with student texts, work books, teacher manuals, and audio/ visual components) were considered

the answer to language teaching needs. Today most of us realize that much more is needed to

build a program. Perhaps with the shift in emphasis to interactive/ participatory practices and

academic content, publishers feel even greater pressure to provide materials that are

communicative and logically motivated and that lead students to further inquiry. This is as true

of large programs with multiple levels as it is of supplemental programs or materials that

teachers themselves have developed. Moreover, many educators are already insisting that

materials require teachers and students to be more active and creative and that they focus on

relevant, meaningful content. Some teachers even turning entrepreneur and publishing their own

materials in an attempt to fill the gap.

Cleghorn and Rollnick (2002) argued that a problem with many texts is that they are often

written as though the readers already speak the target language and know the culture. In addition,

the proficiency levels for which the materials are written are often uneven and inconsistent. For

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example, directions may be written for high proficiency levels whereas the lesson content itself

may be at a much lower level for which the book was intended.

Computer Programs
Hanson- Smith and Riling (2006) commended that computers have brought about great

changes in the way people communicate and learn, not only in western cultures but in many

countries around the world. In addition to assisting and facilitating the language learning.

Process and exposing students to intercultural communication, they have created a language of

their own. This language includes mixtures of languages, symbols in the form of icons and

graphic displays, and sounds (speech, music, and so on).

One important question is: To what extent is computer use beneficial to language learners?

Zhao (2003) argued that few conclusions can be reached in answering this question. So much

depends on how the technology is used in addition to the fact that there are many other variables

related to who the learners are and the environment in which the technology is used. Each use of

the computer needs to be evaluated on its own merits and possibilities in relation to each student.

Traditionally software use in computer-assisted language learning (call) programs has been of

the “drill-and-test” type-the computer plays “teacher” and imparts information; the students

apply the information and then are tested. Those who give wrong answers on the test are cycled

back for further instruction and practice. Some programs allow teachers to use an authoring

system to set up similar lessons by using already established content, or by selecting items from

a series of possible choices, or by creating new content for the program. Authoring programs are

available that do not require the teacher to know advanced techniques or complex computer

language. in addition, some web sites (e.g., blackboard) allow teachers to display notes,

exercises, and tests that students can access (Lismore, 2007).

Drill-and-test discrete point materials are still plentiful and can be appropriate in the right

situations. Hoffman (1995/1996) reminded us early on that such programs can be beneficial to

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the curriculum, if used appropriately. She argued that computers can effectively reinforce

structural knowledge of a language and recommended that students be given an index of such

programs, arranged from easy to difficult. Students can then choose programs in the areas in

which each needs work, eliminating those in areas already mastered. Self-study activity can

probably best be accomplished in a laboratory where students can work at their own pace.

Although it may be used effectively for individual study, discrete-point software can often

lead to boring repetition and reduced motivation. It is important generally to use classroom

computer programs that have a highly integrative rather than a discrete-point focus (McLaughlin

& Oliver, 2005). Using computers as communicative tools not only teaches computer language

and skills but also help students reach other language, academic, and socio cultural objectives.

Many excellent communicative programs are available today that are constructivist in nature.

These include:

 Simulation programs in which students can take fantasy trips and choose from among
many options: where to go, what to eat, and so forth
 Interfacing programs in which students can hear prerecorded messages and interact with
the computer by pressing particular keys or touching certain areas of the screen
 Expository writing programs in which students are asked questions to clarify their
thinking about compositions that are in the planning stages
 Creative writing programs in which students can create and illustrate stories with
graphics or create poems, sometimes with line-by-line assistance for special patterns
(rhymes, limericks, haiku, and so on)
 Problem- solving programs in which students are immersed in a wide variety of problem-
solving strategies, some of which even have features that allow the student to “teach the
computer” to complete a task

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 Computer Games
Although not usually meant for language teaching, computer games can provide language

learners with challenges in the target language. They can present simulations that call for

students to make decisions, and they can require interaction with others involved in the game.

Computer games are currently available in many content areas. For example, one such

program introduces children to concepts involved with graph plotting; students are asked to

plot their own designs. Another program takes younger learners on a simulated safari journey

through a grid-like environment where they decipher clues in order to find the hiding place of

a “mystery” animal. In the process, they get practice in making inferences, creating tactics,

and collecting and organizing clues.

Other computer games can be useful in language learning (primarily for older learners).

These include chess, word games, memory games, teasers with missing numbers, and many

more.

When choosing a software program, bishop (2001) suggested that we consider the

following:

 Educational soundness
 Ease of use by students and teachers
 Age appropriateness
 Cultural sensitivity
 Visual appeal
 Cost effectiveness

Canale and Barker (1986) suggested that computers could make available integrative

programs that serve many of the same purposes for which language itself is used. Such programs

could be used as tools for thought, tools for social interaction, and tools for play and artistic

endeavors in which the emphasis is on self- expression. Canale and Barker were convinced that

the activities should be intrinsically motivating, provide for independence on the part of the
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language student, and involve problem solving in many different situations. Testing by

computer, programs for analyzing pronunciation and more interactive uses of the computer such

as video conferencing and tele collaborative projects are among the many possibilities for

computer use. Many of these uses involve multimedia.

Today we have sophisticated multimedia programs utilizing computers, printers, CDs,

DVDs, players, monitors, scanners, digital cameras, and other electronic devices, some of which

have recording capabilities. Amanti (2001) suggested, among other thing, that students use

multimedia tools to author original programs. She offered one idea in which students of various

proficiency levels collaborate to make a multimedia presentation of a field trip, including photos

that can be scanned into a computer file and for which captions can be written, retelling the

event. Student can then narrate a slide show presentation by reading the text on each slide, using

a computer microphone. Amanti suggested that activities such as these give shy students a

chance to produce the language in a nonthreatening environment. Text and graphics (e.g., tables,

charts, graphs, and animation) can be used with sound to create programs of many kinds.

However, Amanti emphasized the need for setting up guidelines, evaluation criteria, and

organization plans before students embark on projects of this nature.

Involving students in special media projects can be effective, but Kessler and Plankans (2001)

recommended going a step further by having students actually create instructional materials.

They argued that learners understand what is helpful to them in the learning process and what is

not. Because the learners are stakeholders, individuals with different learning styles, often

computer- literate already, and affected by the environment in which they will be using

computers, they should be part of the program development process whenever possible. Whether

or not teachers and their students actually create instruction programs, one should be mindful of

the kind of programs on the market that can serve as practical tools for student learning. Some of

the best programs available today involve word processors and the internet.

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 Videos
Videos are another potentially valuable tool for language learning. Gersten and trusty (1998)

explored whether video exchanges between peers (grades 8-12) learning EFL in different

countries would have a positive effect on their students’ performance and participation. Their

study looked at a cultural video exchange project between volunteer students from Prague and

their counterparts in Regensburg, Germany. Members of the two groups communicated through

letters written in English and then met to exchange the videos each had made. The students did

the research, wrote the scripts, made revisions, rehearsed and acted out various scenes,

interviewed people, and produced and evaluated their videos. The Czech students focused their

video on the city of Prague. They included information about history of the city; its historical

monuments; famous artists, politicians, musicians, and writers; architecture; and food. Shooting

locations included a school, Saint Vitus Cathedral, the national theatre, Prague Castle, and local

restaurants. The video also featured excerpts from a well- known Czech play and interviews with

a range of people including English- speaking tourists and the director of the National Theatre.

Finally, the students performed historical reenactments and told stories.

Interviews with students afterwards revealed that they found the experience helpful in

developing English proficiency and in using English to communicate in an international setting.

The authors noted that the success they discovered seemed to be due to the students’ motivation

to communicate in English for authentic purposes, the pride they took in sharing aspects of their

culture with a real audience, and their treatment of video as an effective tool for communication

and self- evaluation. Such videos can be transferred to a computer with a video capture card and

then clipped to Web page to become part of a Web site by using a hypertext transfer protocol.

Commercially produced videos can also be used in variety of ways as the focus of classroom

lessons. Lessons can be built around all kinds of available videos including music videos,

documentaries, sports highlights, television talk shows commercial, soap operas, and situation

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comedies. In addition, they can allow students to experience various countries from around the

world and explore global issues. Kip Cates (2007) stated,” Video provides an exciting way to

have students travel the world, learn about its cultures, engage in global issues and practice

language skills- all while seated in the classroom.” Simple question and answer sessions,

discussions, or writing assignments based on what students have seen can compromise the follow

up. Tracy Cramer (2008) developed a year long, learner centered unit for young adults learning

English at Kansia Gaidia University in Osaka, Japan, based on the documentary series”Families

of the world”. The child narrators in the thirty minute videos to take viewers on a journey

through a typical day in the lives of two families (one Urban and other rural) in several countries

around the world including Brazil, Canada, China, Egypt, France, India, Thailand, Ghana, and

many more. The narrators talk about home, school, and community life; religious traditions;

agriculture; and so forth. Students are asked to research the countries and share what they learn.

They may research such topics as the form of government, politics, economics, and preservation

of traditions, roles of men and women, and so on. The teacher presents brief lectures on various

topics and uses handouts, pictures, maps music, and other realia to help the students understand

and appreciate the various cultures. Students are involved in group discussions as well as

activities to further their development of basic skills and vocabulary. Tracy calls the materials “a

work in progress” and modifiers them frequently using student feedback.

Interactive video, which combines the benefits of both video and computer, can also serve as

an excellent tool for developing communicative skills in a language. Requirements for using

interactive video include a DVD player and a computer with monitor and key board. The benefits

of interactive video can be great. Chief among these is the ability to show real people in

compelling scenarios that allow students to contribute input. For example, a video may show a

mom and dad arguing about whether their teenage daughter should be allowed to take a weekend

trip with several friends, including her boy friend.

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After we hear the parents’ opinion, the characters turn to the camera and ask for help in

resolving their dispute. Several piece of advice flash on the monitor, and students are asked to

read these and then press buttons representing their choices. After one character comments on

the advice that has been given, the scenario continues. In some interactive videos, the

continuation is based on student input. Finally, the video characters seek help from an “expert”

who is part of the computer program. Similar current programs can be found by using a search

engine to look for topics such as “interactive video for language teaching” or similar terms.

Interactive video can also be used to teach the listening skills necessary for academic success.

For example, while watching a lecture on some topic of interest, students may be asked to press

keys whenever they hear main idea. At the end of the lecture, all the main ideas may appear on

the monitor, and students are asked to type questions referring to these ideas. After each question

is formed, the speaker on the video answers it. An inherent problem with this kind of program is,

of course, that students may ask questions for which the speaker has no answers.

Interactive video dictionaries are also available. A student types a word; the computer

provides a definition and checks for spelling. If it finds an error, it presents the student with the

correct spelling. A speaker on the screen then pronounces the word and demonstrates its use in

context. The word may also appear on the screen in a sample sentence.

Many publishers produce videos to accompany their classroom materials. These ranges from

videos keyed directly to multilevel programs to videos licensed from network television. As with

software, video materials should be evaluated before classroom use. Do they serve a useful

pedagogical purpose for the intended audience?

Hollywood-type films recorded on DVDs can also be used in the classroom. Carefully

selected films can form the center of lessons for language learners, providing experience with

authentic listening and practice in speaking and writing.

Films based on classic literature can provide connections between the printed word and the

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screen. For example, Herman Melville’s Billy Budd, Jane Austen’s sense and sensibility, pearl

buck’s the good earth, William Golding’s lord of the flies, Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Catol,

and E.M. Forster’s Room with a view are a few from British and American literature that are

available. Instructors teaching in other cultures may be able to find other films reflecting the

culture of the learners. Sometimes the book may be available in a language translation and the

film may be dubbed in that language.

Hess and Jasper (1995) described a particularly interesting approach of using scenes from

great expectations to complement reading assignments from the novel.

The process included these steps:

 Students viewed the film segments with the sound off.

 In small groups, they wrote what they thought was being said.
 Students were assigned a character and asked to write down that character’s words as
they watched the same scenes again, this time with the sound on. The scenes were played
repeatedly, so students could check for accuracy.
 Students regrouped and recreated the dialogue, using their transcriptions.
 Students approximated the dialogue without their transcriptions.
 Finally, students watched the scenes once more and then moved on to the next reading
assignment.

Interspersed with reading, viewing, and recreating dialogue were discussions about cultural

and personal issues, including the students’ reactions to the film segments and how they

might relate to their own lives. A culminating activity was to compare the book and the film

after viewing the film in its entirety.

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 A Genre- Based Approach to Developing Materials for Writing
Linguistic Contrasts between Speaking and Writing
Whether the level of the students we are working with, there are some fundamental

language facts that teachers have to take into account when preparing materials to support

EFL writing development. The most important of these is the difference between spoken and

written language. Over time, these two modes have changed as a response to their contrasting

social purposes. The writing system has become our preferred medium for recording

permanent accounts of what people own, what is legal, what is held to be scientifically true.

Speaking, in contrast, has been at the heart of our human relationships, our need to persuade,

to move, to entertain. Because of these differing social purposes, writing and speaking

display different characteristics:

Talking and writing, then, are different ways of saying. They are different modes for

expressing linguistic meanings. Speech and writing are in practice used in different context,

for different purposes- through obviously with a certain amount of overlap (Halliday, 1989).

Because of the role of written texts in the efficient recording or reporting of facts, writers

in English have tended to concentrate information into noun phrases, and to put important

information at the beginnings of clauses and sentences. In written communication, the noun

phrase, therefore, tends to be where the action takes place in text development, and this

grammatical unit has become the most highly elaborated aspect of written texts. Halliday

refers to this phenomenon when he discusses the lexical density of written communication. In

contrast, because spoken communication is primarily urinated toward establishing and

maintaining relationships, speakers make extensive use of the verb system in order to

establish how “I” and “you” relate to one another. This results in the syntactic intricacy and

relative lexical sparseness of spoken communication (Halliday, 1989).

Kress (1993) said that the textual structuring of speech and that of writing proceed from two

20
distinctly different starting points. The structure of speech starts from the question: “What can I

assume as common and shared knowledge for my addressee and myself?” this question, and its

answer, are at the basis of the structure of speech. Writing starts with the question: “What is most

important, topically, to me, in this sentence which I am about to write?” this question and its

answer, are the basis of the structure of writing.

Learning how to achieve this shift in emphasis can be a major challenge for learners-

especially for those whose main reason for engaging in language learning has been spoken

fluency. For their part, teachers need both to be aware of these contrasts and also to be able to

integrate this understanding into materials that they prepare. In this way, they can help

learners extend their capacity to write effectively for relevant audiences.

The Role of Written Language in Society

We have already noted some of the ways in which written languages has a developed

special characteristic as a result of uses to which it is put. We also need to be aware that

learning to write in the first or additional language has an impact on the writers themselves.

Kress observes:

Command of writing gives access to certain cognitive, conceptual, social and political

arenas. The person who commands both the forms of writing and speech is therefore

constructed in an entirely different way from the person who commands the forms of speech

alone.

Kress draws attention to the personal and social construction that is implicit in the acquisition

of literacy. Stubbs, makes the point even more forcibly:

Written language makes a radical difference to the complexity of organization that

humans can manage, since it changes the relation between memory and classification, and it

allows many forms of referencing, cataloguing, indexing, recording and transmitting

information… The mere fact that something is written conveys its own message, for example

21
of performance and authority. Certain people write, and certain kinds of things get written.

(Stubbs, 1987).

As a teacher of writing, we need to be aware of what exactly we are asking of our

students. We may asking learners to take on role that they do not normally have access to in

their first language (this can be particularly the case in courses where English is being taught

as an additional language); or asking learners to engage with literacy practices that they

consider to be largely superfluous to their primary need to engage with the target language as

a medium for spoken interaction. In English for Academic Purpose programs, writing is, of

necessity, a central plank in the curriculum. In general EFL programs, getting learners to

engage with the roles that are implicit in extending literacy in the target language can be a

significant problem.

The Challenge of Teaching Writing in EFL

A second challenge for the writing teacher is that of balancing learners’ expectations of

their real world literacy needs with the literacy practices that are required of them in the

educational settings of the language classroom or the examination.

Tribble (1996) has discussed the contrast between learning to write and writing to learn.

In the former, an apprentice writer is learning how to extend his or her textual knowledge,

cognitive capacities, and rhetorical skills in order to take on social roles, which require the

production of certain kinds of text. In the latter, language learners are using the writing to

demonstrate this knowledge in the context of assessment.

One of the problems facing the writing instructor is the fact that all too often, learners’

main experience of EFL writing has been in writing to learn, and that they have had few

opportunities to extend their literacy in the target language and that they feel little or no

motivation to climb this particular learning curve.

An additional problem is that literacy skills established in their first language may clash

22
with or otherwise impede their development of writing skills in the target language. Hyland

comments:

L2 writers are unique because of their bilingual, bicultural, and bi literate experiences and

these can facilitate or impede writing in various ways.

L2 learners’ cultural schemata can impact on the ways they write and the writing they

produce.

Effective L2 writing instruction can make schemata differences explicit to students,

encouraging consideration of audience and providing patterns of unfamiliar rhetorical forms.

(Hyland, 2003)

This last point- the need to make “schemata differences explicit to students”- will be

stressed in the practical section of this chapter. Learning to write is not a single stage process.

Students may be able to write a perfectly adequate summary of a text, but can still have no

idea of how to go about writing argumentatively. They may be able to describe a personal

experience in a conversational style, but have no idea of how to write report that summarizes

the results of a survey. This goes back to my earlier comment on the socially constructed

nature of language. My position here is that when we teach writing in EFL, we are not simply

giving students access to the mechanics of writing in English. To help learners develop as

writers, we also have to help them understand that in the world outside the classroom, each

text has a job to do, and that each job requires the effective exploitation of different linguistic

resources. We are not only helping students to write in the foreign language, we are helping

them to engage with new roles and purposes.

Further, there is the implication that an ability to write an excellent essay on the causes of

the Second World War does not establish that one produces a passable report on a case in a

court of law. This is not because one piece of writing is inherently more difficult or

demanding than the other, but because one may have more experience of that particular

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 genre. (Halliday and Hasan, 1985)

The challenge that we face as a teacher is, then, to help our students gain experience of

genres that are relevant to their needs, and to ensure that they are able to draw on the

linguistic and cognitive resources that are relevant to the task they need to complete. We also

have to be able to recognize where learners have already established the knowledge and skills

that will support them in fulfilling a task, where there may be clashes between established

ways of working and requirements of new kinds of writing, and how to help learners- should

they have the need- to make the transition from writing “an excellent essay on the causes of

the second world war” to writing a business report, an academic assignment, or a lowlier,

but nevertheless important, examination essay.

Developing Materials for Writing Instruction

The Needs of Learners
As writing teachers, we should have a clear understanding of our students’ needs and be able

to develop programs that will enhance their capacity to write the texts which matter to them. We

also have to recognize the limits to what we can provide. Content knowledge can present the

greatest difficulty to many writing teachers- especially in content- based learning programs in

secondary education, or in courses for adults focusing on business or academic writing. A

commonly adopted response to this problem is to work cooperatively with experts from within a

particular industry or academic discipline and to develop programs that are co-taught, with

writing teachers supporting learning development alongside the specialist program taught by

subject specialists. (This is especially the case in courses designed to help learners gain access to

higher education courses.) Context, language system, and writing process knowledge fall more

obviously into the remit of the writing teacher.

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 The Needs of Teachers
Alongside the complex and sophisticated personal resources that teachers and learners bring

to the writing classroom, other materials are needed to stimulate writing and to enable learners to

develop contextual, language system, and writing process knowledge. At a general level, these

resources “can be classified into texts, libraries / media, realia, student generated resources,

activities, and discussions” (Grabe & Kaplan 1996: 256).

Drawing on earlier work by Hutchinson and waters (1987), Hyland summarizes the resources

that a teacher needs to bring to the classroom as input, content focus, language focus, and task

focus. In a writing class, input is typically a text, although it may be a dialogue, video, picture, or

other realia. This provides:

 A stimulus for new thought, discussion, and writing.

 Opportunities for information processing.
 Opportunities for learners to use and build on prior knowledge.
 New language items or the re-presentation of earlier items.
 A context and a purpose for writing.
 Genre models and exemplar texts.
 Reasons to using (and to develop) writing process skills such as prewriting, drafting,
editing.

The content focus of the class will include specifications of topics, situations, information,

and other resources, which can lead to communication between students; the language focus will

create opportunities for students to analyze texts and to draw on new knowledge as they develop

a writing task; and the task focus should establish the grounds for communicative activities that

will enable learners to use the content and language of the unit, and ultimately write an

assignment.

Clearly, these materials can be realized as learning resources in many different ways, but the

one that we will draw on in this chapter is the teaching-learning cycle proposed by feez (1998)-a

25
 cycle that draws on well-established, genre-informed approaches to writing instruction (cope &

Kalantzis 1993; Grabe & Kaplan 1996; Tribble 1996). Feez’s cycle consists of five stages,

namely: (1) building the context; (2) modeling and deconstructing the text; (3) joint construction

of the text; (4) independent construction of the text; and (5) linking related texts.

This teaching-learning cycle provides a coherent framework in which materials can be

developed, and will be the basis for the demonstration of approaches to materials development

that I will present in the remaining sections of this chapter.

The Needs of the Learner

The guidance notes for the teacher stress that candidates need to be able to:

 Express opinions and suggestions on the subject.

 Agree or disagree with the statement in the task, or discuss both sides.
 Write in a formal or natural register.
 Ensure that the flow of ideas in the writing is logical and easy for the reader to follow.
 Not write simple sentences throughout, but to use more complex language.
 Use a variety o f linking words.

The challenges we face as a teachers lie in finding out how to engage learners in the process

of developing these competences and skills. The first issue we have to bear in mind is that four

of six areas summarized above focus on the demonstration of language knowledge- the writing

teacher has to remain a language teacher. The second is that we remain educators helping

students to pass an examination is only part of our task. We should also enable them to deal with

new kinds of writing once they have finished addressing the immediate needs of examination.

26
 Developing Materials for Writing Instruction

The five stages of the teaching- learning writing cycle can be described as:
 Building the context
 Modeling and reconstructing the text
 Join construction of the text
 Linking related texts

Each stage requires a range of distinct resources.

The Impact of the Computer in Second- Language Writing

The computer in its many guises as writing tool and communications medium is changing the

way we interact with information and with each other. Whether in the form of a word processor

installed on a personal computer, a group of PCs inked in a computer lab or university network,

other the Internet connecting people and electronic information sources around the globe, the

computer is having a profound effect on literacy practices in the present age. It is, at the same

time, contributing to an ongoing expansion of information and communication resources that has

put English in the hands of more and more people around the globe.

These trends have created a great demand for literacy in English as a second language as well

as for literacy in computer writing tools, issues that are sometimes hard to separate. Many of our

literacy practices in education, work, and social life have moved off the page and onto the

screen. More and more people are doing the majority of their writing and reading on computer

and transmitting messages electronically rather than on paper (Warschauer, 1999).

As the communicator of the present day and especially of the future is inevitably linked to

electronic media, those charged with instructing ESL students in writing cannot afford to remain

outside these developments, teaching without regard to the communication technologies that are

increasingly at the center of their students’ world; teachers should be prepared to bring

computers into the center of their own pedagogical practice. The modern ESL writing teacher

27
needs to understand the nature of electronic writing media, the kinds of impacts these media have

on students’ writing, and the ways they can best be employed in the teaching of writing.

Word Processing
The basic writing tool provided by the computer is a word processor, with most word

processors including a spellchecker and many including a grammar checker as well. Most people

agree that word processors are useful for writing because they facilitate the mechanical processes

of putting words on paper; revising text by substitutions, deletions, additions, and block moves;

and producing attractive and readable finished copy. The word processor is not only a convenient

tool combining an automated typewriter, editor, and printer; it is also a composing medium that

with time and practice can significantly change the writers’ process and product. Many studies

have shown that beyond their facilitating effects, word processers have an impact on student

writers’ attitudes, the characteristics of their texts, their revising behavior and the attention they

pay to form and mechanics, and the order and the type of writing activities in which they engage.

Student Attitudes
Most students have a good initial reaction to the computer and feel that it can help them in

their work, though some users, especially older students, may be uncomfortable with the

technology or may even be “computer- phobic”. Another minority of users may have their

enthusiasm dampened if they experience technical problems early on, have difficulty typing or

mastering computer commands, or have limited access to computers and experienced users who

can offer assistance when things go wrong. As a result, a few who try word processing will give

up in frustration. Typically, however, after a period of weeks or months spent improving their

keyboarding skills, most students persist and become regular computer users.

The mechanical capabilities of a word processor are especially valuable in a second language

context, where the physical processes of putting words on paper and revising text to a finished

product, and the cognitive processes underlying these, are more effortful and less automat zed

28
than when writing in the first language. Not only the actual capabilities

of the machine but also the students’ view of these as helpful for their writing are significant for

L2 writers, who may, even more than inexperienced L1 writers, lack confidence in their writing

ability (Betancourt and Phiney, 1988). Word processors can relieve the anxiety some L2 writers

feel about the L2 script, about producing academic work in their L2, and about writing in general

(Pennington,1999).

Many studies conducted with L2 writers report positive attitudes associated with word

processing. For example, in their comparison of word processing and pen- and- paper composing

in English by Turkish university students, Akyel and Kamisli(1999) report that the use of the use

of the computer improved student attitudes toward writing and built up their confidence. In a

longitudinal of a group of mature ESL writers in Hong Kong who were able to use the computer

as much or as little as they wished in their written work for a course (Rusmin, 1999), the

majority of the students were positive toward the computer and adopted it for their writing from

the beginning of the term or increasingly as the course progressed. On the basis of the different

patterns of attitudes and computer use, Rusmin(1999) classified the 27 students in the class into

six categories, which she labeled “devotees”,”enthusiasts”, “rededicates”, “positives”,

“converts”, and “skeptics” categories that may be applicable to a host of students in a wide

variety of locales.

Textual Properties
Also related to attitude is self- consciousness. The student writer in a computer medium is led

to write in a less self- conscious way and with greater engagement, thus writing with a freer mind

and less “rewriting anxiety”. As a result, the student’s greater involvement may lead him or her

to write for longer periods of time and produce longer texts. Several studies with L2 writers

document that longer texts are a general effect of word processing.

In addition to the production of longer texts, the physical easing of the writing process that

29
results in a less constrained, more relaxed writing process may produce texts that are in a sense

also “more relaxed”. Written products generated on a word processor “are often unconstrained

and experimental, being more likely to be in a non- generic form that sometimes amounts to

what has been called “train of thought” or “spaghetti writing”- long strings of loosely connected

strands of ideas” (Pennington, 2000). In some cases, computer- produced text represents an

unfinished, intermediate work that given sufficient time for continued development will result in

a high- quality product. In other cases, it may represent a new type of work, as when writing in

hypertext- for example, for a Web page or in an e-mail context.

Revision Strategies and Accuracy Concerns

Surface- level editing for spelling and mechanics is encouraged in a word processing

environment, where the small size of text visible on one screen may engender an especially

focused type of revision at word, phrase, and sentence level (Pennington, 1996). At the same

time, the ease with which individual words can be searched and whole sections of text deleted,

added, or moved suggests that word processing may have value as a macro- level revision tool.

Rather than being a separate activity following the generation of a draft, revision in a computer

context is closely linked to text generation. Pedagogical intervention aimed at increasing

students’ awareness of and ability to apply revision strategies in their own writing has

demonstrated the value of the computer medium for helping learners increase the type and depth

of their revisions.

In other research, L2 writers have been found to revise more when writing with a computer

than when writing by traditional means; to revise more dynamically and continuously; and to

spend more time revising in a computer context, where they may “continue revising after

planned changes have been made”. Writers also make more revisions beyond the surface level.

There is some evidence that word processing is more effective in stimulating meaning- level

revision when aligned to a process approach to writing than when used without process support

30
or with other computer writing aids such as grammar checkers (Broke and Pennington, 1999).

The research thus supports an approach that teachers the writing process in the context of

learning to write and revise using a word processor.

Implications for Planning

In pen and paper composing, writers often spend a lot of time in intensive planning before

writing to avoid making mistakes or changing their minds about what they want to say and then

having to undertake the tedious chore of rewriting or recopying text already written down. Under

such conditions, pen and paper writers may habitually write a paper without any revision or with

only a minimum amount of revision to avoid producing more than one draft. In sharp contrast to

this paper- based mode of composing, the automated text- generation and revision tools provided

on computer, coupled with the malleability of text on screen or disk, encourage a very different

computer- based writing mode. In contrasting “computer writing style”, the writer generally

begins writing immediately, soon after a topic is decided- or even before it is decided.

Instead of writing to fit a plan, computer writers plan as they are writing (Hass, 1989), an

effect also documented for L2 writers (Akyel and Kamisili, 1999). Planning thus becomes more

of a middle stage than a beginning stage activity, and the time and intensive cognitive activity

that would have been involved in pre-planning is instead involved in writing itself. The sharp

division of composing into the three stages of planning, writing, and revising breaks down in a

computer context, in which planning as well as revision occurs as part of the writing process. In

the computer engendered approach to writing, cognitive effort is distributed throughout the

writing process and writing is developed more on the basis of concrete text already generated

than on an abstract plan; this procedure would seem to be especially valuable for L2 writers, who

have less cognitive capacity available for writing than do L1 writers.

31
 Expanding Peer Response
Communication in networking environment can change some of the dynamics of peer

feedback sessions as found in traditional classrooms (discussed by Ferris, 2003). Sullivan and

Pratt (1996) discovered that the communication that occurred as peer feedback over the

computer network was of a type that might have been especially valuable for students in

improving their writing.

Moreover, the networked feedback from more than one student tended to reinforce the same

points and the same suggestions for revision, thereby perhaps focusing the writer’s attention on

certain points for revision. However, in a study carried out with EFL writing Hong Kong, Braine

(2001) reports that the feedback given in a networked environment did not result in better written

texts. He found that final draft essays written by students who engaged in traditional face to face

classroom peer interaction received higher holistic scores and showed greater gains than final

drafts written by students who carried out peer discussions via a LAN (Braine, 2001). Thus,

networking student writers electronically does not guarantee better writing.

Enhancing Writing through Electronic Media

Contemporary writing theory continues to recognize the value of thinking of writing as a

process of constructing meaning. There are a number of recursive phases in this process:

 Modeling the genre

 Demonstrating the process
 Brainstorming and researching
 Drafting
 Conferencing and revising
 Editing and publishing

A well-designed writing program will lead the writer through all phases of the writing

process, providing as much support as needed along the way.

32
 Modeling the Genre
When writing a text, the writer needs to consider the purpose. Depending on the purpose

for writing, the text will be structured in a particular way and will have characteristic

language features. Electronic media can be used to introduce L2 writers to the genres of the

target culture and language.

The Tele Next project, for example, provides a bank of texts covering a range of genres

(stories, procedures, recounts, explanations and so on) for teachers of primary L2 learners,

each analyzed in terms of generic structure and grammatical features. The purpose of

recounts, for example, is “to tell what happened”. The organization of the text, therefore, will

be based on a chronological sequence, with an orientation stage and then a recounting of a

series of events, with a possible reorientation at the end. This is illustrated by the use of

rollovers- when the cursor rolls over each stage of the text it is highlighted in color and a

window appears providing information about the function of that stage. Subsequent files deal

systematically with the grammatical features of the genre. One file, for example, might

demonstrate how pronouns are used in a recount. By rolling over a list of pronoun types,

these features are highlighted in the text. In this way the learners are receiving input on the

nature of the type of text they are being asked to write before they have a go at writing one

themselves. They can see how such a text is structured and they can be reminded of key

grammatical resources in context. If they want to know more about any particular

grammatical feature, they can follow a link to another area of the database that provides them

with information on that feature, examples of its use and interactive exercises to practice it.

33
 Demonstrating the Process
Before writing a text, it is useful for students to see how such a text is created. This could

be done on the computer through an animated tutorial. However, it is preferable that the

students participate in the writing experience in collaboration with co-learners and a teacher.

In this case, the teacher can profitably use a computer with a projection facility to construct a

text jointly with the students. As drawing on the students’ input, the teacher can then

demonstrate how these ideas can be shaped into a written text, drawing students’ attention to

the structure of the text, its grammatical features and the strategies used by proficient writers

such as drafting, revising and consulting.

Brainstorming and Researching

Before writing, the writer needs to have something to write about. These ideas can come

from brainstorming, drawing on previous experience or from researching. The process of

researching is made much simpler by the accessibility of information on the internet. Finding

websites appropriate to the language level and age of the students is not straightforward,

however. Electronic materials designed to teach writing should include information on how

to find, select and evaluate information sites. For novice learners, the developer should

already have identified a number of sites relevant to a particular task and provided activities

for the students to do before they enter the site, while they are there and after they leave.

These activities might include the development of research strategies and critical thinking

skills. Once the students are taking notes, for example, they can use of ‘mind-map’ program

such as Idea Fisher or start organizing their ideas coherently. Carlson and Larralde (1995),

for example, advocate the use of ‘visual thinking tools’ to facilitate the active visual

construction of ideas. Some of these programs encourage students to organize their notes

according to the demands of the genre (e.g., compare/ contrast; problem/ solution; whole/

part; class/ subclass; point/ elaboration).

34
If done in pairs or a group, brainstorming and researching around the computer has been

shown to foster purposeful oral interaction, though with L2 students the value of this

interaction will depend on their level of proficiency in the target language (Meskill, 1996).

Drafting
Once the student starts to draft a text, the computer becomes a powerful resource. The

advent of word processing has revolutionized the writing of text. And yet it is still

surprisingly underexploited in the L2 classroom. The ability to jot down embryonic ideas, to

change your mind, to make mistakes, to take risks, to cut and paste contributes greatly to the

learning of the target language. It is in the process of developing, manipulating, refining and

synthesizing information in a written text that learners deepen their knowledge of the

language. Using a word processor, students are more motivated to write and tend to produce

longer texts. The availability of aids such as an on-line thesaurus and dictionary also

contribute to the success of the draft and extend the language of the student. The Longman

multimedia dictionary, for example, provides graphics, sound and video clips to help learners

hear a word and see it used in context.

For novice learners, the materials developer can include greater guidance in the drafting

process by, for example, providing templates or sample texts that they can use as models or

to innovate on. Students writing a recipe for making pizza, for example, might draw on a

similar recipe for making toasted cheese.

Conferencing and Revising

An important element of the writing process is receiving feedback from others during the

drafting stage. It is difficult, however, for a teacher, especially with a large class, to have on

the spot, individual consultations with students. This is where the computer comes into its

own as a medium for communication. Writers are able to seek help from their teacher, their

classroom peers, from students in other classes and in other locations and from unknown

35
others. By using the “comment” facility in the word- processing program, students can be

provided with feedback at specific points in their text from any number of people, each

identified by a code letter. In some programs it is possible for the student then to click on a

comment, e.g.” use present perfect here”, which links to an interactive, multimedia lesson on

the present perfect tense and when to use it. Connected to this might be a grammar chat room

with students and tutors who discuss and answer questions about grammar (Tanguay, 1997).

Some sites in interpersonal feedback facilities as a major feature. The journal of

interactive media in education, for example, is an electronic journal where contributors can

post their draft articles. Alongside the draft, in another frame, reviewers and other readers

give feedback about particular sections of the article. There is often interaction between

reviewers and between the author and the reviewers. The articles are available on the site in

various stages of publication, with visitors to the site able to observe the process involved in

the drafting, reviewing and revision of journal articles.

It is not only in the receiving of feedback that the learner benefits from such interaction, it

is also the participation in the interaction itself. The type of communicative writing that

surrounds the completion of a task in highly conductive to learning. It is generally

spontaneous, fluent and unselfconscious, with the learner more concerned about the task

itself than about the accuracy of the language.

Lamy and Goodfellow (1999) argue that there is a place for conscious reflection on

language during asynchronous computer- mediated exchanges. Such interaction and

reflection is an important factor in second language acquisition, providing opportunities for

students to produce “comprehensible output”, to be helped to notice their errors and to take

steps to correct their linguistic output (Chapelle, 1998).

36
 Editing
Tools such as spell-checkers, syntax alerts and auto formatting assist at the editing stage.

Feedback from grammar checkers is usually in the form of an underlining of an error. More

helpful, however, are the programs that give rich feedback on the nature of the error (e.g.,

correct grammar, right writer, Grammatik, CorrecText, reader, power edit). The Grammatik

parsing engine, for example, was designed to detect and provide feedback on 45 error types

in the writing of EFL writing students. The teacher is able to track class or individual student

progress.

Even more helpful is the ability to modify such programs to respond to the common errors

of a particular group (e.g., Cantonese speakers) (Brock, 1990). Using QBL tools, Chen(1997)

found that supplying students with detailed, customized computer-generated error feedback

resulted in lower error rates for the test groups, more editing activity, time savings for the

teachers and detailed data on the types of errors made by students.

For more advanced learners a concordance tool can be useful at this stage. A concordance

can be requested to supply examples of specified vocabulary items, phrases or grammatical

structures from a corpus of native speaker text. The concordance providers data showing how

a particular vocabulary item is used in context, or the linguistic environment in which the

item generally occurs or regular collocations of that item with other items. In this way,

students can check their language usage with that of native speakers.

37
 Discussion

Scientists emphasize that materials should teach students to learn, that they should be

resource books for ideas and activities for learning. According them text books are too

inflexible to be used directly as instructional material. We must know that materials may be

suitable for students’ needs, even if they are not designed specifically for them.

Theoretically, experienced teachers can teachers can teach English without a text book.

However it is not easy to do it all the time, though they may do it sometimes. Many teachers

don’t have enough time to make supplementary materials, so they just follow the text book.

Text books therefore take on a very important role in language classes, and it is important to

select a good text book.

Material is anything which is used to help to teach language learners. Though students

should be the center of instruction, in many cases, teachers and students rely on materials,

and the materials become the center of instruction. Since many teachers are busy and also

don’t have the time to prepare extra materials, text books and other commercially produced

materials are very important in language instruction. Therefore, it is important for teachers to

know how to choose the best materials for instruction, how to make supplementary materials

for the class, and how to adapt materials. Content English books should be useful,

meaningful and interesting for students.

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 Conclusion
According to this monograph whatever that I got that writing is a part of our daily life that we

use it for communication. It is the job of the teacher to teach students’ writing in a way which

they can learn better and never forget, so it is applicable if the teacher use materials in his/ her

teaching, In order to make the lesson interesting and evoke the students’ attention toward the

lesson. So, for an English writing teacher, it is very important to know the materials’

characteristics and how to get materials, which kind of material is effective and applicable and

how to develop materials for teaching writing.

As technology developed, it influenced to humans’ life, even to materials that teachers select

for teaching. Computer is a tool which is very effective for teaching writing. Computer programs

which are especially designed for writing skill, computer games and videos are examples of

these materials. The basic writing tool provided by the computer is a word processor, with most

word processor including a spellchecker and many including a grammar checker as well.

Many studies have shown that beyond their facilitating effects, word processors have an

impact on student writers, attitudes, and the characteristics of their texts, their revising behavior

and the attention they pay to form and mechanics, and the order and type of writing activities in

which they engage. So for every professional teacher, it is very important to have effective

teaching material for teaching writing and use them correctly.

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 Suggestion
In preparing of this monograph, I faced with some problems and that was lack and small

amount of sources for finding information about the topic. As this topic is a little specific and

narrow, so finding information for that was difficult. But fortunately, by guiding of teachers and

seeking many times, I could reach to those sources and I could to get enough information, in

order to prepare this booklet. Another problem which I faced with was the lack of electricity. If I

hadn’t that problem, I am sure that I could finish and present this monograph very fast than now.

As this booklet is about the need of material for teaching English writing, so I hope that by

using it, the second language teachers will know why do we use materials in teaching writing,

how should we use these materials in our teaching, how can we get materials for teaching

English writing, and the most important point is that, how we can develop materials for teaching

writing. Teachers should select effective teaching materials and they must be able to solve some

problems that they may face with during applying these kinds of materials in their classes.

40
 Reference

Barkley,E. (2005). Collaborative Learning Techniques. San Francisco,:Market Street.

Bowers, R. (1990). Writing For Study Purposes. New York: Combridge University.

Dubin, F. & Olishtain,E. (1984). Developing programs and materials for language learning.

New York: Cambridge University press.

Harwood, N. (2010). English Language Teaching Material. USA: Cambridge University Press.

Matsuda, B. (2009). Second-Language Writing in the Composition Classroom. United States of

America: Boston.

Particia, A. & Amato,R. (2010). Making it happen. United States of America. Carlisle

Publishing Services.

Richards, J. & Renandya,W. (2002). Methodology in Language Teaching,. New York:

Combridge University Press.

Smith, M. & Greenberg,W. (2000). Every day Creative Writing. United States of America:

Contemporary Publishing Group.

Tomlinson, B. (2003). Developing Materials for Language Teaching. London: York Road.

Tomlinson, B. (2011). Materials Development in Language Teaching. USA: Combridge

Language Teaching Library.

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