Different Approaches to Developing Writing Skills

Writing has traditionally been a neglected area of foreign language teaching, and most probably the least popular skill to acquire among students. However, it has lately emerged as an important element of the communication dyad, which also involves speaking, i.e. the oral manifestation of social interaction and exchange of information. When explaining writing in practical terms, the focus falls on showing that there should be a link between real-life needs and instruction, both from the perspective of the language and from that of the task. Understanding writing systematically not only guarantees successful writing outcomes, but also leads to the acquisition of a secondary set of language-related abilities: an informed selection of grammar and lexical structures; a logical pattern of organization in the development of ideas; an appropriate choice of register and style; an overall better approach to writing tasks and contextualizations. This article aims to discuss writing as a productive skill while proposing six different approaches that successfully marry both the linguistic dimension and the task-related awareness students need to acquire in order to successfully express themselves in written forms.