3 the contexts within which texts are composed and read that give them
meaning. Belcher and Liu, 2004:21
2.5.1 Reasons for Teaching Writing
According to Brown 2000:219 ―there are many reasons for getting students to write, both inside and outside class.
Firstly, writing gives them more ―thinking time‖ than they get when they attempt spontaneous conversation. The other reason
is ‗real life‘ reasons for getting students to write such things as emails, letters, and reports. This will include not just appropriate language use, but also text
construction, layout, style, and effectiveness ‖.
It is clear that the way we organize our students‘ writing and the way we offer advice and correction will be different, depending on what kind of writing
they are involved in.
2.5.2 The Tasks of the Teacher in Writing
When teaching writing, teachers have a number of tasks to help the students to become better writer. They help the students where they may be reluctant to
express themselves or have difficulty finding ways and means of expressing themselves to their satisfaction. Here are the tasks which teachers have to perform
before, during, and after students writing based on Harmer 2004:41: 1
Demonstrating Students need to be aware of writing conventions and genre constraints in
specific types of writing, teachers have to be able to draw these features to their attention.
Harmer 2004:41 states that ―the important issue is that they
are made aware of these things are drawn to their attention. For example: Teacher brings miniature
of Borobudur Temple to build the students‘ knowledge‖.
2 Motivating and provoking
Harmer 2004:41 argues that ―students often find themselves ‗lost for words‘, especially in creative writing tasks. This is where the teacher can
help provoking the students into having ideas, enthuse them with the value of the task, and persuading them what fun it can be
‖. It means that sometimes teachers should give students the words they need to start a
writing task as a way of getting them going. 3
Supporting According to H
armer 2004:42 ―supporting closely allied to the teacher‘s role as motivator and provoker is that of supporting‖. It can be described
that students need a lot of help and reassurance once they get going, both with ideas and with the means to carry them out. Teachers need to be
extremely supportive when students are writing in class, always available except during exam writing of course, and prepare to help students
overcome difficulties. 4
Responding Harmer 2004:42 suggests that ―when responding, the teacher reacts to the
content and construction of a piece supportively and often but not always makes suggestions for its improvement
‖. In responding, the teacher will not
be grading to the work or judging it as a finished product. However, telling the student how well it is going so far.
5 Evaluating
There are many occasions, however, when we do want to evaluate students‘ work, telling both them and us how well they have done Harmer, 2004:42.
When evaluate the students‘ writing, the teacher can indicate where they wrote well and where they made mistakes, and may award grades.
2.6 Teaching for Young Learners
