Speaking & Writing

Speaking and writing in L2 are interconnected, which is clearly shown in the Chapters from The Oral – Literate Connection (2008) book. According to Williams (2008), writing can facilitate speaking because writing allows for more experimenting with less familiar forms, since it implies planning and is usually less threatening than speaking. Williams (2008) also discusses the research focused on how speaking can influence writing. The main idea in all three areas of research she covers (student-teacher conferences, peer review, and writing centers) is that "talking about writing improves the overall quality of writing" (p.17).T

he connections are also confirmed through my own experience of learning the literacies: Most of the secondary school classroom instruction was "from writing to speaking", i.e. students had to write grammatically accurate sentences or paragraphs or dialogs and memorize them for oral reproduction. At the university level, it was similar in the way that students were supposed to use certain vocabulary and grammatical structures, which could not happen spontaneously. Many students were fluent in speaking English, so it was natural to avoid unfamiliar or just learned structures, especially in speaking. It took thinking and elaborating sentences in writing to be able to produce the required structures in speaking. However, there was also the reverse process: "from speaking to writing". Prior to assigning a short essay, the teacher discussed it in class. Students would go through the whole required organizational structure, offering possible development of an essay, suggesting contextual / genre-appropriate use of connectors, vocabulary, and grammar structures.

Here, in the MA program, I also employ both processes. I often use "writing into speaking" when I want to ask a question during class or at the conference. I usually do it for two reasons: 1) writing (whether in L1 or L2) does help to focus thinking and put my thoughts into making-sense words and sentences (Hirvela, 2004); 2) seeing the words on paper helps to make sure that the sentence is "grammatically correct". The "speaking into writing" process has a slightly different role. It is similar to Seloni's (2008) doctoral students' negotiating the meaning among themselves. I usually try to talk to someone about the writing I need to complete. In the course of explaining the topic, I myself learn to understand it better, plan the organization of a paper, and get to answer questions that I would not think to ask myself or would disregard as self-explanatory. In other words, speaking with other students about my writing helps me to write.

 

Belcher, D., & Hirvela, A. (Eds.). (2008). The Oral-Literate Connection: Perspectives on L2 Speaking, Writing, and Other Media Interactions.

Hirvela, A. (2004). Writing to Read. In Connecting Reading & Writing in Second Language Writing Instruction, Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press, 71-109.

Seloni, L. (2008). Intertextual Connections between spoken and written text: A microanalysis of doctoral students' textual constructions. In D. Belcher & A. Hirvela (Eds.), The Oral-Literate Connection: Perspectives on L2 Speaking, Writing, and Other Media Interactions, Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press, 63-86.

Williams, J. (2008). The speaking-writing connection in second language and academic literacy development. In D. Belcher & A. Hirvela (Eds.), The Oral-Literate Connection: Perspectives on L2 Speaking, Writing, and Other Media Interactions, Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press, 10-25.

Discussion Questions on Hirvela, Chapter 3

1. 1. Hirvela (2004) discusses three models developed by Eisterhold (1990), which represent reading-writing relationships (pp.72-73), but he uses only directional model for pedagogical implications. How would you use other models?
2. 2. Which writing-to-read techniques (summarizing, synthesizing, and responding) did /do you use as a reader? Do you find them useful?
3. 3. Which techniques would you as a teacher use in your context with your students? Why? (Would a writing instructor choose writing-to-read approach? Is it common to see a student as a reader rather than a writer in a composition class?)
4. 4. Why do you think summarizing, synthesizing, or responding might be difficult for L2 readers/writers?
5. 5. Paraphrasing and quoting are described as complex processes of reading and writing as a student “locates and reconstructs or appropriates material from the source texts” (p.94). It has never been presented like that to me. Rather, paraphrasing and quotations were technicalities that were practiced on the sentence level. Could you share your experience as language learner and language teacher? Do you agree with Hirvela’s position regarding these two aspects of synthesizing?
6. 6. For me, the idea of writing as a facilitator / foundation for reading as active and meaning-making process is quite new. Hirvela (2004) lists many benefits of using writing-to-read approach with L2 readers/writers. What would be the limitations of applying writing-to-read techniques in the classroom?

Connections between Reading and Writing (Hirvela, Chapter 1)

Coming from EFL background, I found some assumptions about teaching reading and writing in English mentioned in the chapter not relevant. The author emphasizes the initial separation and disparity between how reading and writing were perceived and taught. Since I never had a writing course in school, I cannot really say that reading and writing were completely separate. They were two skills that were taught at the same time, within the same class sometimes.

However, while reading the chapter I realized that even though the two skills were never taught as separate courses, they were still treated as two separate skills. This becomes especially clear after analyzing Tiernye's tables on pp. 29-30. Even though writing and reading occurred in the same class (with writing usually being a home assignment or an in-class test), reading was indeed the way of receiving the information, while writing was (re)producing it. Reading was seen as a necessary skill preceding writing. Often the same text was used for reading (=getting the information and understanding it) and writing (=summarizing the understood information, sometimes adding something new to it). Reading was never seen as an "act of composing"; in fact, writing was not always composing either. Following the conventions of spelling and sentence structure was more important than the meaning.

So, there are a lot more connections between reading and writing than I thought would be relevant and applicable. I also believe that in EFL contexts, even more connections can be made, due to the differences in viewpoints about teaching English in different countries. This could lead to elaborating Reading-Writing Connections Models for every country or for every context. In this way, the absence of a single (=universal) model can be seen as an advantage.