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Chapter Five

Findings and Suggestions

 

This chapter examines the implications of the findings and offers some suggestions to the people involved with the teaching and testing of written English. The present study traces the developments in the area of teaching and testing written English, from ancient days to the present and devises effective techniques and materials, which are suited to our situation.  There is enough evidence to believe that the techniques used in the study (3.2.4.a to g) and the materials tried out (Appendix 7a and b) will be effective in secondary schools of Gujarat.  However to use these techniques and materials teachers may requires a certain amount of orientation and hence some of the observations made during the experiment are recorded in the following sections.

5.1 Implications for teaching writing
1. The present study reveals that in the teaching of writing as it is done today, learners are engaged in the writing activities for the sake of writing, in other words, there is no specific purpose (1.3.2 and appendices 4 and 6).  As against this when learners have to write for a specific purpose (3.2 and appendix 9) the task generates a more genuine response.

2. Composition work as it is undertaken today is mostly teacher controlled.  Teacher assigns the topic, asks a certain number of questions based on the topic, makes the learner practice the answers to these questions orally and then makes him write a composition (1.3.2.c).  Here according to the learners, the teacher is the intended reader.  They are also aware of the responses expected from them by the teacher.  The passages and even letters written by the majority of the learners match word for word (appendix 4a, b, and c).  As against this when learners made to realise that one message can be conveyed in a number of ways and are made to think more of appropriacy rather than accuracy      (3.2.4 f), they produce better pieces of written work (Appendix 9a).

3. When learners are assigned writing tasks like a ‘Visit to a Zoo’ merely because there is such a visit described in the coursebook, learners produce write – ups  which are reproductions of coursebook lessons (Appendix 4b and c).  They mechanically write sentences like ‘We enjoyed our visit to the Zoo’ even if they have not actually visited a zoo.  Writing activities become more meaningful when the learners are set realistic writing tasks within the constraints of the classroom situation, like working in pairs to collect information about each other and record it (Task 2) or writing letters to each other in class (task 6).  When learners are given a chance to express their own ideas and feelings they reveal their ability to produce better pieces of writing which bear the stamp of individuality (Task 7).

4. When learners are given questions in a particular order, the answers of which written in the same order go to make a paragraph (1.3) learners do not get practice in writing ‘texts’, wherein to form a meaningful passage, the graphic symbols, words and sentences need to be arranged properly and linked together.  When learners are given a chance to think about the order of sentences given in a jumped order (Task 1) and when they are made to jot down the points, organize them properly and write a paragraph (Task 5) they produce better paragraphs ( 4.2.2.e)

• Implications for Testing Writing
• Suggestions for Teaching and Testing Writing
• Researcher's Observations
• Problems Encountered
• Suggestions for Further Research