The second language writing

The trends in teaching of writing are similar to those of teaching other skills especially Listening and Speaking. Since 1980 teachers have learned more techniques about how to teach fluency and not just accuracy. Also they have learnt about how to use authentic texts and contexts in the classroom, how focus on the purposes of linguistic communication and how capitalize in learner's intrinsic motives.

The trends above mentioned applied to advances in teaching of writing in second language contexts.
Decades ago writing teachers were interested in the final product: The essay, the report, the story, etc., and how they should look like. In this way, students had to based on an special model in order to produce their own projects.

However, in due the course of time, teachers have paid more attention to the advantage given to learners when they are seen as creators of language so, teachers began to develop what is now name the Process Approach to Writing Instructions and this approach aims that teachers should:

• Focus on the process of writing which leads to the final written product
• Help Ss writers to understand their own composing process
• Help Ss to build strategies for prewriting, drafting and rewriting
• Give Ss time to write
• Pay more attention on the process  revision
• Let Ss discover what they want to say as they write
• Give Ss feedback while the composing (not just the final product)
• Engourage feedback peers.

Being asked to write something means that you have to put your ideas down on paper to transform thoughts into words and give them structure and coherent organization.

One disadvantage of the development of this skill is that learners may feel anxiety, while composing, because of the pressure to write something that learners know will be graded and judged by their teacher and also it will be returned withouth chance to improve it.

On the other hand, writing skill is unlike speaking since the first one can be planned, write and rewrite before it is ready. So, writing gives students the chance to think what they want to express.

According to Peter Elbow we have to think of writing as natural process. We have to start writing at the very beginning before we know our meaning at all so that, out words are going to change and envolve.

Even though we have to pay more attention to the process we have also to balance since emphazing process could disminish the product and product is, after all, the main goal of writing.

Robert Caplan aims that the differences among cultures and languages make different patterns of written discourse. An example of that is that Wnglish follows a straight line of development so that parragraphs often begins with a statement of its central idea meanwhile spanish's line of thougth is sometimes interrupted.