Writing Ensures Mastery of Words

May 20, 2019 Educator's Corner Opinion

Writing words, phrases, and sentences is a powerful way of ensuring mastery of words. When pupils write, several factors are in active operation.
Their muscles work as they produce the letters, their ears are sharpened by listening to the words dictated, their imaginations work as they try to picture the words in their minds, and their eyes
work as they see the letters join to form words.
All these activities help one another in instilling in the minds permanent impressions of the words. What is the importance of writing? It helps to express one’s personality; foster communication; develop thinking skills; make logical and persuasive arguments; give a person a chance to later react on his/her ideas and re-evaluate them; provide and receive feedback; and prepare for school and employment.
As Walsh says, writing is important because it is used extensively in higher education and in the workplace. If students don’t know how to express themselves in writing, they won’t be able to communicate well with professors, employers, peers, or just about anyone else.
Much of professional communication is done in writing: proposals, memos, reports, applications, preliminary interviews, e-mails, and more are part of the daily life of a college student or successful graduate.
Writing has a unique position in language teaching since its acquisition involves a practice and knowledge of other three language skills, such as listening, reading and speaking.
Moreover, it requires mastering of other skills, such as metacognitive skills. One of the best ways to attract learners to writing is to let them write at the beginning of the learning process as freely as possible and evoke in them the feeling of creativity.
Creative writing can play a crucial role in the development of writing skills emphasizes the following benefits of creative writing. It aids language development at all levels: grammar, vocabulary, phonology and discourse.
It requires learners to manipulate the language in interesting and demanding ways as they attempt to express uniquely personal meanings.
There is a dramatic increase in self-confidence and self-esteem which creative writing tends to develop among learners. Learners also tend to discover things for themselves about the language
and about themselves too, thus promoting personal as well as linguistic growth.
When a learner writes a word down, he has a more impressive way of remembering how letters combine to form a word. Thus, writing must usually come after the reading exercise.
by Jovelyn P. Tomilas
Camp 4 Elementary School