An Appraisal of the Writing Tasks of Advanced Spanish Students of English as L2

Abstract

The communicative approach has based its teaching techniques on the division of the process of learning languages as L2 into four skills: reading, writing, speaking and listening. The importance attached to the spoken word has benefited the latter two at the expense of the reading and writing skills, which fell in a state of semi-oblivion. Course writers of the 1990’s have re-introduced the printed word as a fundamental part of the learning process, since foreign students will be required, sooner or later, to understand a written text or write an application or a letter. ELT specialists have also become interested in the written word and, thus, new books on the subject have recently been published while older ones have been revised and updated. This article aims at examining the importance of including the written skill in our syllabuses (from the evidence that correcting our students’s compositions provide) and at suggesting ways of making our students aware of the need to improve their writing tasks.