【Abstract】As a main language skill like listening, speaking or reading, writing is a valid and expressive form to reflect how well a student of English, especially a student who learns English as a foreign language (EFL), has mastered that language. This paper will explore the nature of writing as compared with the other three basic language skills, particularly speaking, discuss the purpose of teaching writing in the EFL context, and introduce requirements of EFL writing for Chinese college students.
【Key words】writing;language ability; EFL writing requirements
1.Nature of writing: compared with speaking
It is widely recognized that there are four main modes in which a language is used. The four modes, generally referred to as the four basic language skills in language teaching, are listening, speaking, reading and writing. Of them, reading and listening are called the passive or receptive skills and speaking and writing, the active or productive skills.
It goes without saying that the demonstration of language ability relies more on the active or productive skills like speaking and writing. As for the two active or productive skills, speaking is of course primary to language since human beings speak before they learn to write. It does not mean, however, that speaking reflects one’s language ability better than writing. In fact, many people, especially teachers, think otherwise. We can understand why writing is at least an equally, if not more, valid and expressive means to display one’s language ability by answering the question of what is the nature of writing.
As R. Neufeld said,
“It [Writing] is thought transformed into a visual form. In other words, writing is a visual expression of ideas. …Writing is the process of taking an idea from inside of one’s head and putting it in a code so that it can be shared with others ”(Neufeld: 4).
So, writing covers speaking in that it is more than speaking by pen to someone not present. In other words, the nature of writing is two-fold: the expression of ideas by means of a written “code” that calls for more careful and more exact demonstration of the mastery of vocabulary, grammar and even phonetic knowledge of the language in which one is writing.
Another reason that writing is a more valid and more expressive form to display one’s language ability is that writing can rely on nothing other than pure language itself to express one’s meanings. Speaking, on the other hand, can take advantage of the speaker’s facial expressions, gestures and, most of all, tones for communication.
Empirical facts also show the close relationship between writing skill and language ability (Yang Huizhong & C. Weir: 148), and that is why many important tests adopt writing as a means of judging learners. Take CET for example. If the score for the writing part is 0, then a candidate will fail no matter how high his total score is. No such penalty exists for other parts like listening or reading.
2.Purpose of teaching writing in the EFL context