Teaching Composition Writing through Semantic Mapping

Abstract

An integral part of ESL learning is composition writing. Raimes (1983) has this to say with regard to including writing as a part of our second language syllabus:

"First, writing reinforces the grammatical structures, idioms and vocabulary that we have been teaching our students. Second, when our students write, they also have a chance to be adventurous with the language, to go beyond what they have just learned to say, to take risks"

(Raimes, 1983: p.3)

Thus when we teach composition, we are actually reinforcing grammatical structures which the students have learned in class. For example, the simple past tense is taught and practised in class for the first week and the next week a topic is given to the students which requires them to use the simple past e.g. describing an accident. What exactly happens is that a simple past tense schema is activated during this composition class. There is a play on students' prior knowledge here. Semantic mapping is one such activity which can safely be said to activate existing schemata in a student in relation to a topic.