Writing in Classrooms: Missing Voices and Reflections

Kunwar, Nidhi (2013) Writing in Classrooms: Missing Voices and Reflections. Language and Language Teaching, 2 (1). pp. 25-28. ISSN 2277-307X

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Abstract

Writing is a medium to express our thoughts, ideas and views. It is a kind of communication in which a writer must be able to convey her/ his views to the readers. We write because we want to share and discuss. However, the shape which writing takes in our classrooms is in stark contrast to these ideas. We equate writing with ‘copying’ and ‘handwriting’. In a typical Indian classroom, one can find students religiously writing on topics such as ‘Ideal Student’, ‘Visit to Delhi’, ‘Our Dear Chacha Nehru’ and ‘Benefits of Libraries’. Students copy content from different guidebooks and spend hours producing beautiful handwriting and error-free work. Teachers encourage children to use help material and produce perfect writing in the first attempt. Writing, thus, gets reduced to a purely mechanical skill where there is no place for expression. We demand ‘perfection in the first attempt’ at any cost. Failure in achieving these standards results in criticism, lower marks and sometimes even punishment.

Item Type: Articles in APF Magazines
Authors: Kunwar, Nidhi
Document Language:
Language
English
Uncontrolled Keywords: Language, Multilingualism, Multilingual Education, Learning Classrooms
Subjects: Language
Divisions: Azim Premji University > University Publications > Language and Language Teaching
Full Text Status: Public
Related URLs:
Note: Published twice a year in January and July, Language and Language Teaching (LLT) reaches out to language teachers, researchers and teacher educators on issues and practices relevant to language teaching. The primary focus of the publication is language pedagogy in elementary schools. LLT proposes to establish a dialogue between theory and practice so that practice contributes to theory as much as theory informs practice. The purpose is to make new ideas and insights from research on language and its pedagogy accessible to practitioners while at the same time inform theorists about the constraints of implementation of new ideas.
URI: http://publications.azimpremjiuniversity.edu.in/id/eprint/1209
Publisher URL: http://apfstatic.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/s3fs-...

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