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Analysis and Interpretation
Analysis of Teaching Sessions
4.2 Teaching Sessions
The materials used for the conventional and experimental techniques of teaching writing were based on the grammar and vocabulary of the
coursebook lesson in units 4 and 5 (Appendix 5). For the experimental groups the same language ‘content’ was presented and practiced using
the new techniques and they were asked to work on tasks, which involved the use of these structures and vocabulary in speech and writing.
The controlled groups were taught the coursebook lesson and then were asked to write compositions, which were normally assigned to them in their
regular school work. The conventional way of teaching is explained in the first chapter. Here an analysis of the classroom procedures
used in the experimental class and an analysis of their written work will be taken up.
4.2.1 Analysis of Classroom Procedures
(a) Progress Step-by-Step
The experimental group worked on a number of tasks, which are explained in detail in the third chapted (3.2.4). Four definite stages of
development could be identified in the overall plan of work. In the first stage the main emphasis was on developing the learners’
competence in the language by involving them in a number of activities which were within their capacity, and which were interesting to the
learners. In the second stage, learners’ confidence in their own ability to express their ideas, opinions and feelings had to be
strengthened. This was necessary because they were not used to writing free compositions. Hence a framework had to be given with some
choice of expression, in the beginning, to ensure success by setting limited goals. Very slowly and gradually they had to be encouraged to
attempt more and more difficult tasks.
During the third stage, they were asked to write letters and brief notes to a particular reader and get his or her reply,
thereby making them aware of the need to keep the reader in mind while writing something. The last stage of development was to enable them
to read their own written work from the point of view of a reader and edit and revise it to make it better. For this they were made to work
in groups and pairs to correct each other’s work.
(b) Who is in control?
Looking at the overall pain from a different point of view, it could be
observed that learners progressed from completing a given framework, to expressing their own thoughts and feelings and from writing for a
particular reader to a general, unknown reader. Another aspect of progress was from a completely teacher controlled activity to individual
work with very little guidance from the teacher or group members. For example, the initial tasks had a lot of teacher input in terms of
materials used and all that the learners had to do was to rearrange the given sentences in a proper order to make it read as a unified
paragraph. Then they worked on notetaking activities based on reading passages and dialogues listened to, where they had to produce atleast
parts of sentences on their own. Still compared to the input their contribution was very little. After this, they read a letter and wrote a
reply for the same, where both comprehension and expression were given equal importance. Finally they wrote
descriptive paragraphs where there was no guideline given by the teacher. Even checking of the written work,
editing and revision were undertaken by the learners themselves and hence the activity became completely learner – centered.
(c) Learning to Question
Another important point
which was kept in mind while preparing the overall plan, was to find out what method of working the learners were used to, what would interest
them, and how they can be familiarized with the new way of working. The problem of familiarizing them with patterns of interactions in group and
pair work activities had to be tackled first, since they were not used to asking questions, collecting information, participating in a
discussion or using the language for functions like agreeing and disagreeing with their partners. In a normal classroom situation, the
teacher asks questions and the bright learners supply the answers which are repeated by the weak learners. Learners were not used to even
asking questions and hence both the form and the purpose of asking questions had to be learnt.
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