Knowledge about the Writing Forms (Genres):

Kress (1994) argued that teaching writing is not merely teaching writing skills such as spelling, handwriting and punctuation, it is spread over the process of the language system. Writing must be considered in ways that develop productive and creative writers. This is because most students will need, to some extent, write productively in their future life. Wilkinson (1986b) emphasised the necessity of teaching students various genres and their formal characteristic to suite special social and cultural demands. In addition, Hyland (2002) considered teaching genres as a very useful way to provide students with writing skills to be creative writers. This is because genres provide students with obvious insights about the community, which help them to communicate with their society, and easily convey their experiences and perspectives.

It is recommended that when creating an atmosphere for writing, teachers need to consider how they can encourage reading (Wray & Medwell, 1991). This is because reading various genres in the writing classroom provides students with some ideas, information as well as knowledge about the structure of different types of texts (Kress, 1994 and Wilkinson, 1986a). However, some teachers use this view in a very limited way as they guide their students to read in order to collect the needed information and some do not mind if their students copy the text as they read it. These types of teachers usually seek accuracy for

schooling purposes rather than guiding students to be creative in their writing or guiding them to learn different genres as it is used in the social life. So what types of genres have researchers identified? And which genres are recommended for the primary stage?

By reviewing the literature I found that there is a similarity in forms of writing that were mentioned by most researchers in both Arabic and English literature. However, the only difference between them is in the terminology of these forms that are used to identify types of writing. The majority of Arabic literature (e.g. Albajjah 1999, Al- Hashmi, 1995 and Madkor, 2000) divided writing into two forms of written composition: functional composition and creative composition. Functional composition refers to type of writing that students do in their everyday life and in their official needs, and it includes forms such as: letters; application forms; reports; taking notes; summarizing books and articles and writing memos. On the other hand, creative composition refers to type of writing that aims to transfer individual’s ideas, emotions and senses which usually are written in literary style and creative writing, and it includes forms such as: stories, novels, articles and poems.

These two forms of writing appeared in some English literature, (e.g. Murray, 1972). However, the majority of English literature mentioned two main forms of writing which are, fiction and non- fiction writing (Collins, 1998). Collins divided pupils’ writing into six forms of non- fiction genres: recount, report, procedure, explanation, persuasion and discussion. Non- fiction writing has several advantages including: enabling pupils to live in their societies easily, giving them access to join the culture surrounding them, helping them to think in different ways and providing them with a special linguistic expression that suits their culture and society (Wilkinson, 1986a and Wray & Lewis, 1997). This type of writing

is equal to functional writing in the Arabic literature.

Fictional writing is the second basic type of writing that includes forms such as stories, narrative and poems. Fictional writing is considered as one of ways that may help to develop pupils’ writing ability and create writers if it is utilised in an appropriate way. This is because children usually like to retell stories that they hear from others or watch on the television or create from their imagination. Fictional writing parallels creative composition in the Arabic literature.

Hedge (2000) has summarized most types of writing that come under fiction and non- fiction writing and divided them into six forms of writing.

- Personal writing (e.g. diaries, journals, shopping lists, and reminders) - Social writing (e.g. letters invitations, telephone messages, and instructions) - Public writing (e.g. letters of enquiry request and form filling)

- Study writing (e.g. making notes while reading, summaries, essays and reports) - Creative writing (e.g. poems, stories, drama and songs)

- Institutional writing (e.g. agendas, minutes, memoranda)

All these forms of writings were considered as important forms that should be taught to primary school students. In the Arabic literature, Albajjah (1999) for example, has stated that both functional and creative composition should be taught for all schooling stages. Similarly, in the English literature most researchers recommended teaching of both fiction and non-fiction writing for children.

the evidence from research claims that schooled literacy is narrow in its conceptualisation of writing and that it inducts students into very limited range of writing (Bunting, 1998 and Czerniewska, 1992). Similar evidences were found in the Omani context as the study of Al- Hashmi (1995) stated that students in the Omani schools were limited to particular topics and forms of writing, that are repeated every year without extending them in a way that help students to write more socially relevant forms of writing, so that writing becomes meaningful for them.

Riley and Reedy (2000) identified various factors that influence the form and structure of the text: the purpose, the situation and the culture. Since this study deals with Arabic writing I will explain how the culture influences the forms of writing that are taught in the Omani context. This is to help the reader to be familiar with some cultural aspects in this study context and its influence on teaching writing. I mentioned in chapter two that Oman is an Arabic and Islamic country. These two socio-cultural factors have a significant influence on writing topics and the structure of writing forms that students are required to write in schools. On one hand, the topics of writing are strongly linked with the Omani society and Islamic culture, For example, most stories that are included in the Arabic language curriculum are preferred to be Islamic stories such as, stories about the prophet Mohammad and other Muslim characters. In addition, there are some topics that became common writing for all grades, such as writing about Oman national day and about the two Islamic holy festivals (i.e. Eid Alfitr and Eid Aladha). On the other hand, both official and personal letters should be started with the phrase (in the name of god). In addition, official letters should include the Islamic greeting phrase, which is (peace up-on you).

Although these types of writings link students with their society and Islamic culture, it narrows their creativity in writing, imagination ability, and their knowledge about other forms of writing. It, on the other hand, deprives students of their freedom in choosing writing topics and forms of writing that they like. Limiting students to particular forms of writing probably is a consequence of the limitation of curriculum professionals’ views, which can be described as 'one- sided view' of writing that merely teaches writing for schooling purposes. Therefore, writing is restricted to expository or essay –type of writing in which the text can be assessed according to its structure and information included in it (Czerniewska, 1992). The evidence from research indicated besides the type of writing done in the schools, students need opportunities for their own writing; free writing that is not controlled and marked by the teacher’s red pen (Casey & Hemenway, 2001). In the free writing activities students can develop their writing talent and explore life through their own language and experiences which is one major concept of learning theory (Dewey, 1938). The limitation in writing forms taught to school students in Oman led me to consider this issue as one of the aspects that needs to be explored from different perspectives.

Again it is not only the forms of writing that is basic for writing but how to write is another issue that attracted a number of researchers (e.g. Graves, 1983, Murray, 1972, and Nuser, 1998). They believed that training students to go through particular processes when writing helps them to develop their way of thinking as well as their writing. So what processes are recommended for teaching writing and how do these help in developing students’ writing? This is what will be explored in the next section.