Some Pedagogical Suggestions in Working with Exercises in Teaching to Write

The exercises in teaching writing are divided into: reproductive and productive. Learning graphics involves mastering two skills: the correct image of the letters and the correct combination of them in the word (calligraphy). Learning spelling due to lack of time is not, as a rule, an independent course in the study of a foreign language. The mastering of spelling largely occurs involuntarily, due to the complex presentation of the material.

There is another classification of exercises for teaching writing: preparatory and speech; speech are divided into conditional speech exercises and genuine speech exercises. Speaking about learning to write, we mean writing technique that takes shape:

1) from mastering graphics, calligraphy. Examples of exercises: write a letter several times, and both capital and pro-letter, arrange the letters in alphabetical order and write them down;

2) mastering spelling: find the sound and the corresponding letter combination, write down and read them; select from the list of words that are not read by the rule, insert the missing letters, write down the text.

When teaching written speech, it is necessary to give support, for example, how to make an abstract correctly: we explain what it is, then we present the finished sample, we work with it (we single out the cliché, temporary forms, lexical units, etc.). We read the algorithm, compose the «fish» (removing what is connected with the text itself), and please fill in the algorithm with other text, then the students write their annotation.

Dictation — the most reliable means of control, as well as learning the technique of writing. Dictation can be:

– auditory;

– visual (first, the text is recorded on the blackboard and analyzed, then erased, the students write under the dictation, based on visual memory);

– visual-auditory (simultaneously written on the blackboard and dictated to students, then compared);

– self-dictator (students write a text or poem memorized, which must be warned in advance);

In teaching writing preparatory exercises are also used, which teach the skills and abilities underlying the written statement: transformations (first verbally in the classroom, then at home, as a written task), compression and expansion exercises, equivalent substitutions (lexical and grammatical), constructing sentences (making sentences from phrases, situations, education, and recording dialogue), question-answer (for example, write five questions to the text in writing), translation (from the native language to the foreign one).

A distinctive feature of speech exercises is the focus of attention on the content of a written statement.

As written exercises there are used presentation. Depending on the degree of modification of the text, the presentation is divided into three types: expanded, compressed and free.

Deployed, or close to the text, the presentation is one of the effective means of developing writing, although, compared with other types of presentation, it is less creative.

Compressed presentation is associated with the ability to highlight the main point in the text and exclude the minor, which requires simultaneous concentration of attention on the content of the text (original) and its form.

Cutting the text, the student works creatively. This type of presentation may include elements of critical analysis or personal evaluation, comparison or comparison of individual facts, expansion or addition content, etc.

For a detailed, or close to the text, presentation preferred samples narrative or descriptive.

Free presentation is connected not only with the transformation of the language side of the text, but also with a certain modification of the content.

The most common form in teaching writing and writing speech at school is writing. Formation of the ability to compose different types of messages involves knowing the ways of expressing thoughts (description, narration, reasoning) and the ability to combine them depending on the target orientation of the written message and its type.

The writing belongs to the most difficult type of written work, since it involves the independent selection of facts or events related to the expression of others' and one’s own thoughts in writing. To do this, you must have the ability to freely operate on the letter of significant volume language material.

Descriptive writing is a text in which the subject, landscape, furnishings, etc. are verbally characterized. Descriptive writing requires more words than writing an oral narrative, since the description focuses on the characteristics and properties of the described object or phenomenon.

A writing-narrative is a development of an action or event in time. Narration is considered to be a simpler way of presenting thoughts as compared with description and reasoning, primarily because the sequence of narration in a narrative text usually corresponds to the actual course of events; here the author’s point of view does not stand out, there is no analysis of the facts. In the narration, it is necessary to catch the causal-temporal sequence in the unfolding of events and show the sequence in the change of actions, which is most often associated with the correct use of time.

The peculiarities of the narrative as a story about an event include its composition, which may have the following options:

1) the beginning of the event, the development of the event, the end;

2) the introduction, the start, the nodal moment, the denouement, the conclusion.

Writing-reasoning is the unfolding of parts of the whole in their logical sequence, and the deployment of thought occurs according to a certain pattern.

Writings-reasoning can be written in the genre of writing, school newspaper articles, reviews or reviews.

Varieties of epistolary writing are: texts of congratulations, telegrams, invitations, announcements (for example: about the time and place of the circle, school meeting), the texts of statements (about loss etc.).

The letters combine all forms of expression of thought: presentation, description, narration, reasoning, etc. One should start learning the letter from lighter forms, for example: writing a note to a classmate / friend with a request to bring a book, call, go to the cinema and etc. In letters, it is customary to adhere to a certain sequence: after a greeting, refer to the information concerning the addressee, then inform what concerns others and, finally, the letter’s author himself. The final part of the letter is composed depending on who it is addressed to and for what purpose.

Writing as an exercise in writing has, on the one hand, communicative value, since the content of the letter, its language form is determined by the author himself. On the other hand, correspondence serves as an important factor in the development of interest in a foreign language.

1. Demyanenko M. Y., Lazarenko K. A., Melnikov S. V., Fundamentals of the General Methods of Teaching Foreign Languages / — Kiev: Vita school, 1984. — p. 180–189.
2. Gribanova K. I. Learning writing at the initial stage / Foreign languages in school. — 1999. — № 2. — p. 18–20.
3. Milrud R. P. Methods of teaching foreign language writing / Foreign languages at school. — 1997. — № 2. — p. 5–11.