Enhancement of English writing skills

The way writing is done in our classrooms is very traditional, which means that teachers are the main source of knowledge while students are the passive recipients. This makes the classes teacher-centered in nature. Students face problems in ideas/vocabulary, as the topics given are not close to the real life situations. Most of the time, students are asked to write on experiences they have never had. According to Law and Eckes (1990), second language is learnt best when the setting is natural. When the writing is not relevant to the students\u27 lives, they will find it difficult. Thus, writing in our classes is usually product-oriented\u27. The students do not go through the process of thinking and sharing ideas, writing and re-writing in order to improve their work. The first draft is usually considered the final draft. The purpose of my project was to enhance teachers\u27 writing skills and to guide them to introduce process writing in their classes in order to make a shift from the product to the process, and to transform the students into independent writers. During the project, process writing was found to be a useful strategy, but it was time-consuming, which was the biggest problem in its implementation. It was difficult for the teachers to fit it into the existing situation, where the teachers are under constant pressure of completing the syllabus. However, apart from the inherent problems, the teachers learned a lot through co-planning, co-teaching, reflecting, and providing feedback to each other, thus showing that they also need opportunities and encouragement to enhance their teaching. Since I am a teacher of the same school, this project was a way forward for me as well for developing my own understanding in teaching writing as a process and working collaboratively with other teachers to sharpen their understanding. Through this project, I learnt that the writing process helps in developing learners\u27 writing skills, if sufficient time is allocated to it, which no doubt is a difficult task under the present educational system