Relevance in Writing Activities

Abstract

English language teachers in this country spend countless hours marking the never ending pile of exercise books. After about the seventh exercise book each book seems to take longer to correct, make greater demands on your energy and even your emotional stability … and the whole exercise seems debilitating. But the next day the marking parade goes on. Essay after essay, précis after précis, summaries, comprehension exercises, vocabulary exercises, grammatical exercises, manipulations, conversions, even grammatical gymnastics — only to reap a poor harvest of continued student distortion of the English language, as they struggle to stitch together a few tortured English sentences. Teachers are disappointed, dismayed, discouraged and sometimes dejected.