CHAPTER :05 TEACHING OF COMPOSITION
CHAPTER:05
Teaching of Composition
This Chapter Deals with
Introduction
Meaning of composition
Definition of composition
Prerequisites of Teaching Composition
Characteristics of Teaching Composition
Components of writing composition
Aims and objectives of writing composition
Principles of teaching composition
Types of composition
Oral Composition
Written Composition
Guided Composition
Free Composition
Conclusion
Introduction: One of the aims of teaching English
is to enable the students to express themselves correctly in spoken and written
form. Development of writing skill is one of the major aims of teaching
English. Hence, teaching of composition occupies a prominent place. It enables
the students to describe incidents in written form. The teaching of composition
is an integral part of teaching English at the earlier stage, middle stage and
senior stage. It is a process of collecting thoughts and arranging them in
particular sequences. It needs a careful and systematic practice in speaking,
writing and reading. To be a free speaker and writer is the main purpose of
teaching composition. A good composition must grow out of ones personal
experiences. According to Thumpson and Wyatt, “The power of expression depends
on the skill rather than knowledge.” To develop the skills of expression,
teaching composition is of great value.
Meaning of composition: Composition
means to express one’s own ideas and thoughts through words and sentences. Expansion
of a line or a sentence into a few sentences and reduction of a few lines into
one are important ways of doing composition. Composition is a advance state of
learning to write on some topics of interest in a systematic way. Simple story writing,
essay, letter writing, dialogue writing can be some of the form of composition.
Etymologically the word composition has been derived from the word “compose”
which means to put together. So, composition means the act of putting together words
and sentences. Composition is oral as well as written. An old dictum, “the more
you write the better you will write” was prevailing. Nobody took composition
seriously. Teacher either gave spoon feeding to the students or they left the
students on their own. However, the scenario has changed today the shift is on
the composition based on day-to-day life and expressing the views in their own
words. Students find use of their skill in composition in real life.
Definition of composition: The following are the definitions of composition which are given by the
eminent scholars -:
Composition as,
“It is the expression of child’s thoughts, his own ideas, feelings and
observations. It includes both the process and product of composition. It
refers to the process of collecting thoughts, arranging them in a rational
sequence and ultimately expressing them in accordance with recognized standards
of form. The product may take the shape of a letter, an application, a
paragraph, a story, an essay, a descriptive or narration, a poem etc.”
Bhatia and Bhatia
“The facility
for expression must grow out of the earliest mechanical activity of sentence
making the use of words.”
A.W. Frisby
“The power of
expression in a language is a matter of skill rather than the knowledge, to
develop the skill of expression, teaching composition has a great value.”
Thumpson,
Prerequisites of Teaching Composition: A teacher should keep the following points
in mind while teaching the art of composition -:
v The topic for
composition must be well selected. It should be according to the age group of
the students and should be in conformity with the students’ interests.
v Proper
situation should be created by the teacher.
v Freedom should
be given to the students to speak freely and their mistake should be corrected
carefully.
v If necessary,
the teacher may allow the students to use mother tongue.
v Teacher must
remember the fundamental principles of language learning, hearing before
speaking, speaking before reading and reading before writing.
v The students
should have the sufficient knowledge of English language regarding vocabulary,
structures and sentence patterns.
v They should have
sufficient ideas, thoughts and feelings so that they may in the position to
compose these thoughts and feelings in his/her creative writing.
v The students
should have their mental development to that level in which they can arrange
their ideas, thoughts, and feelings in sequence of writing composition.
v They should be
capable of ordering their ideas and facts in chronological or logical sequence.
Characteristics of Teaching Composition: The following are the main
features/characteristics of composition -:
v It is the
fourth or last stage of writing composition-: structuring, copying,
transcribing and composition.
v Composition is
an advanced stage of learning or writing process even without any help of the
text.
v Composition is
the expressions of students’ thoughts, ideas, feelings, observations and
experiences in written form.
v Composition is
the process as well as product. The product may take the shape of a letter, an
application, a story, an essay, a description, a poem or narration etc.
v Composition
means to write on some topic of his own interest in a semantic way. Simple
essay writing, story writing, letter writing, dialogue writing, writing a poem
etc are some of the forms of composition.
v In composition
the main theme is communicated in a organized and systematic order.
v Composition
refers to the process of collecting thoughts or information arranging them in a
sequence and expresses them in accordance with recognized standard forms.
Components of writing composition: The following
are the components of writing compositions-:
v Mastery over
four skills -: listening, speaking, reading and writing.
v Vocabulary and
its usage.
v Structures and
their usage.
v Correct
spelling and pronunciation.
v Correct
grammar.
v Punctuation
marks.
v Imaginative
ability.
v Creative
ability.
v Ability to
organize the ideas and thoughts.
Aims and objectives of writing composition: The main
objectives of teaching composition are as follows-:
v To develop
among students the power of expression and communication through oral and
written.
v To encourage
the students to arrange their ideas in writing at a reasonable speed and
accuracy.
v To enable them
to fix the structures and vocabulary already learnt by them.
v To develop
among students the communicative competence through writing.
v To educate
their thoughts and feelings.
v To enable the
students to express information in a way fit for grasp by the reader.
v To set
synchronization of thoughts and actual writing so that thoughts are not lost
while writing.
v To promote
thinking in the students.
Principles of teaching composition: Some importances of teaching composition are
given below -:
v Principles of proper selection- : Only such
topics should be selected which is of interest to the students. Topics should
be relevant, meaningful and experience based.
v Principles of proper gradation- : The topic
selected for composition should be according to the age, back ground, ability
and class of the students.
v Principles of group involvement-: The teacher
should involve the whole class so that they may exchange their ideas and views.
This will help in creating motivation among the students.
v Principles of utility-: The topic
selected for composition work should be related to day-to-day life of the
students.
v Principles of oral practice-: Oral
composition practice should be given to the students before asking them to
write anything. This will reduce the chance of doing mistakes in the writing
work.
v Principles of sequence-: the subject
matter of composition should have some sequence. It should not look
disconnected collection of ideas.
v Principles of timely correction-: It is
important that the teacher should correct the composition work immediately so
that the students will not commit the same mistakes.
v Principles of follow up-: After knowing
the difficulties and problems of the students, the teacher should find suitable
remedial measures to remove their difficulties and mistakes.
Types of composition: There are two
types of compositions-: (i) Oral Composition and (ii) written Composition and
again they are sub divided into two types of composition in each type which is
(i) Guided and (ii) free composition.
Oral Composition: It is the most
important aspect of teaching English. It is the natural and proper preliminary to
written composition at the beginning of the language learning. It can not be
ignored because through oral composition students are able to speak English
fluently and write correctly. They can express their interest, feelings, ideas,
needs etc through oral composition. Oral composition precedes written
composition. According to Laurie, “The habit of oral composition should be kept
off during the whole school period.”
Aims of Oral Composition: The aims of
oral composition are as follows-:
v To acquaint the
students with the usage of English language.
v To enable the
students to express their feeling and ideas.
v To express
their knowledge of English language.
v To promote
thinking in the students.
v To create suitable
situation in the classroom
Importance of Oral Composition: Oral
composition has the following importance -:
v Oral
composition paves the way to written composition.
v It develops
spontaneity of speech among the students.
v It creates
interest among the students.
v It helps in
developing correct pronunciation.
v It stimulates
the thought of the students.
v It teaches good
spoken English.
v It helps in
developing vocabulary.
v It helps in
creating the classroom environment very lively and interesting.
v It helps in
developing confidence among the students.
v It serves as a
good diagnostic measure.
v Language learning
through this process is simple and more economical.
Teaching of Oral Composition: Teaching of
oral composition in the early stage should be controlled be the teacher. The
following methods can be used for teaching composition-:
v Asking students
to repeat the sentence.
v Asking students
a few questions by showing pictures, charts, models and regarding some objects
or events.
v With the help
of substitution table.
v Narrating a
story and asking them to give a gist.
v Through the
discussion of simple topics.
v The teacher may
describe a picture and ask certain questions based on them.
v By asking
questions from the prescribed text book already taught.
v The teacher can
asked the students to play simple drama s or one act plays.
v The teacher may
have conversation with the students on various topics of general interest.
For Examples:
T- whose are sitting in the garden?
S- Dogs are sitting
in the garden.
T- How many dogs are there?
S- There are four dogs.
T- How they look?
S-They look beautiful.
Substitution Table-1
He
|
Takes breakfast
Reads
Takes bath
|
every
morning
|
Substitution Table-2
I
They
He
She
Ram
|
were
are
am
|
going to school
|
Teaching of
oral composition in the later stage should be controlled be the teacher. The
following methods can be used for teaching composition-:
v Through
dramatization.
v Through
conversation.
v Through dialogues,
debates, speeches and extempore.
v Descriptions of
incidents.
Merits of Oral Composition: Oral composition has many advantages. They are-:
v It is
economical. It saves time.
v It enables the
students to think clearly.
v It develops the
speaking ability in the students.
v It develops
interest in the students.
v It lays the
foundation for written composition.
v It stimulates
the imagination of the students and helps them to reproduce stories.
v It develops the
power of concentration among the students.
Demerits of oral composition: It criticized due to the following demerits
v Classroom
environment becomes noisy.
v It does not
help in writing ability.
v It is not suit
for those who are of shy nature or have inhibitions to speak.
Written Composition: It helps the students
to express their ideas in written form. It is the next step after oral
composition. Written composition may be taught by transcription and dictation.
Aims of written composition: The aims of written composition are -:
v To develop
communication power among the students through writing.
v To enable the
poet to write legibly.
v To encourage
students to arrange their ideas and thoughts in a logical sequence.
v To give them
practice them in the use of language structure.
v To enhance
their vocabulary.
v To motivate the
students to express and write when put in a given situation.
v To draw out the
creative thinking of the students.
Importance of written composition: The importances of written composition are
as given below-:
v It develops
spontaneity of expressing ideas in a written form.
v It creates
interest among the students.
v It stimulates
the thought of the students.
v It serves as a
source for development of vocabulary.
v It teaches the
skill of writing English.
v Language
learning through this process is simple and more economical.
v It develops
self confidence among the students.
v It enables the
teacher to diagnose the weakness of the students individually.
v The teacher has
enough time to rectify the mistakes of the students.
v A written
composition benefits those who are not good orators but can express themselves
well in writing.
Teaching of written composition: In the early stage written composition can
be taught by the following methods-:
v By asking the
students to copy from the blackboard.
v By giving
certain words and asking the students to make sentences using those words.
v By asking them
to write short stories in their own words.
v By describing a
picture, charts or model.
v By asking the
students to answer the questions related to their text book.
In the later
stage written composition can be taught by the following methods-:
v By giving them
précis writing.
v By asking the
students writing to form sentences using idioms and phrases.
v By writing an
essay on a given topic.
v By writing
formal and informal letters.
v By asking them
to relate an incident.
Merits of written composition: The merits of
written composition are as follows-:
v It is useful
for learning spellings, punctuations and language structure.
v It develops
writing ability of the students.
v It develops the
vocabulary of the students.
v It helps the students
to write essay, articles, and stories etc.
v It enables the
students to express their ideas and thoughts through written composition.
v It develops the
writing speed of the students.
Demerits of written composition: It suffers from
the following disadvantages-:
v It is lengthy
process.
v It is time
consuming.
v Written
composition is a headache for the teacher who has to do a lot of correction work.
Guided Composition: Guided
composition is also known as controlled and directed composition. It is usually
introduced at the early stage as the students are not matured enough to write
free composition. The teacher supplies the students with the necessary
vocabulary and structures to be used for expressing the desired thoughts and
ideas in writing. He guides the students what to write with the help of
controlled vocabulary and structural words. Actually Guided Compositions are
those written exercise in which utterances are already known to the students
orally but they are asked to write them down. It should, however, be noted that
the nature of the language control should be such that it would allow a gradual
relaxation of control so that students could proceed from controlled
composition to free composition. The aim should be give direction. Guided
composition can be done by the following methods-:
v Transcription.
v Transformation
of sentence.
v Reproduction of
story, a picture description, a situation etc.
v Completion of
incomplete sentence.
v Substitution
tables.
Merits of guided composition: The merits of
Guided Compositions are as follows-:
v It paves the
way to free composition.
v It lays a
strong foundation of grammar.
v Students learn
structures too.
v Students learn
vocabulary too.
v The mistakes of
the students can be corrected in the initial stage.
v The guidance
provided by the teacher can make composition writing very interesting.
Demerits of guided composition: The demerits of
Guided Composition are as given below-:
v Guided
composition is mechanical for the students.
v Unless the students
understand what he is going to write, it is likely to result in an incorrect
composition.
v According to
Allen and Campbell, “Guided composition is not a panacea for all the problems
of teaching composition to foreign students. There is still much that needs
further exploration and experimentation.”
Free Composition: It is called free composition
because students are free to use vocabulary and structures of their own to
express their views and thoughts related to a given topic. It is also called creative
or imaginative writing. According to Champion, “The ultimate aim of composition
is to enable the pupil to arrange his own way freely; to choose his own words;
to express his own ideas freely.” French stated that, “ Free composition in
which the child has to make up his own thought has no place in the first three
years of a six or seven years course. If it is used, it will only result in a
large number of most discouraging mistakes.”
Types of free Composition: The different
types of free compositions are as noted below-:
v Narrative
writing.
v Descriptive
writing.
v Story writing.
v Essay writing.
v Letter writing.
v Application
writing.
v Precise
writing.
v Paragraph
construction.
v Paraphrasing.
v Summarizing.
v Dialogue
writing.
v Short
paragraph.
v Creative
writing.
Importance of Free Composition: Teaching of
free composition is important due to the following reasons-:
v Free
composition helps in logical thinking.
v It explores the
creativity and imagination of the students.
v It enables the
students to select, arrange and present their ideas freely.
v It does not
restrict the use of mother tongue. The child may first think in his mother
tongue before he translates his thoughts in English.
v It helps the
students at the higher stage of learning.
Suggestion for effective teaching of Composition: The following
suggestions are given for effective teaching of composition-:
v The teacher
should motivate the students for composition writing.
v The teacher
should help the students to remove their grammatical weakness.
v The teacher
must emphasize on clarity of ideas.
v The topic
selected for composition that should be related to the lives of the students.
v The teacher
should provide relevant ideas and also discuss it orally in the class before
giving it to write.
v All the
principles of teaching composition should be followed.
v The teacher
should prepare the students before they write composition. P. Gurrey suggested
the following preparations for writing a compositions:
A-: Oral
composition
B-: Using
picture
C-: Reading
aloud
D-: Short
speeches and lectures and
E-: Silent
reading.
P. Gurrey
further suggested the following devices for encouraging pupils to write
composition:
A-Energetic energy focused on well
known details.
B- Reading aloud to pupils from
interesting books.
C- Encouraging pupils to collect
information in various ways.
D- Acting and Puppet-plays.
E- Encouraging pupils to read more.
F- Having general knowledge period
once in a week.
G- Having occasional talks on interesting
topics.
Conclusion:
The students need the guidance of their teacher at every step. Even if
students are given to remove their own errors, it does not finish the
responsibility of the language teacher in any way. He has to see how far he has
been able to encourage the students to correct their own mistakes. He should
not sit idle by leaving the responsibility of correction entirely on the
students. Writing is the skill aspects which the student has acquired through
practice. The fluency of language shows creativity of the students. It has been
observed that the methods applied for teaching composition in our schools are
very defective. When the pupils are required to write a piece of composition
they are only passive recipient. They show their passiveness by following
teacher’s lecture blindly, instead of thinking or expressing their ideas
creatively. Actually the very aim of teaching composition is to develop
creativity and imagination amongst the pupils. Composition makes a person to
express his feelings, emotions and ideas clearly and freely, hence satisfies
the basic urge of human being to give expression to their ideas. As Bacon
stated that, “Writing makes a man perfect”. So, with the help of composition
one is able to express oneself precisely, accurately and efficiently.
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