Contents introduction chapter I methods of teaching writing in high school

1.2. Writing as a type of speech activity. Difficulties in mastering writing

Writing is a productive analytical and synthetic activity associated with the generation and fixation of a written text.

Writing arose on the basis of sounding speech as a way to preserve speech works in time, as a repository of human knowledge and accumulated experience, as a mirror of the culture and traditions of each country. Just as individual consciousness has its own memory mechanisms, collective consciousness, discovering the need to fix something common to the whole collective, creates collective memory mechanisms. These include writing.
When constructing a written text, the author follows, as a rule, a certain logical scheme: motive, purpose, subject, addressee. This chain of logical links is reflected in the semantic-syntactic and lexical-grammatical structure of the text.
The written fixation of information as a complex of complex speech skills largely coincides with the generation of oral statements [Voronina 2010: 15].
The writer goes from a thought realized in the form of inner speech to linguistic means. The selection of lexical units and their organization into grammatically formed sentences, paragraphs and text is carried out through the stages of selection, comparison, combination and control. The chain of consecutive speech actions is deployed in this case in accordance with the communicative intention of the author.
The mechanism of internal speech, i.e. drawing up an internal plan or a synopsis of the future text, plays a significant role in the writing process.
In the written expression of thoughts, as well as in speaking, the same transitions between externally expressed and internally pronounced language forms function. When writing, a transition is made from a word spoken aloud or to oneself to a visible word. In the process of speaking, there is a transition from a word spoken to oneself to a word spoken aloud.
The writer first imagines or perceives (when recording by ear) those sound complexes that are subject to fixation. Then he correlates them with the corresponding graphemes. When generating a written statement based on a printed text, the work begins with the perception of graphemes, after which they are associated with the corresponding phonemes. Internal speech has a different degree of intensity, which depends on the level of language proficiency and the complexity of the generated written text [Iskrin 2004: 19].
Of all forms of oral and written communication, writing and speaking are the most interdependent. The close connection between them is manifested not only in the proximity of generation models, as mentioned above, but also in the correlation of psychological mechanisms - speech hearing, prediction, memory, attention, as well as in the use of analyzers such as visual, speech motor and auditory, since first we write under the dictation of our own voice, then we view and we mentally pronounce what we have written, listening to the rhythm and intonation.
Along the way, it should be noted that in the process of writing, not only the analyzers listed above function along with short-term and long-term memory, but also the verbal-logical, figurative and motor types of memory that closely interact with them, contributing to the creation of supports and guidelines for the writer's speech-thinking activity.
The difference between oral and written utterance boils down to the fact that in the first case, communication ends with the transfer of information, and this process is characterized by a high degree of automation, in which the content of the text and its language design are transmitted synchronously. Writing as a distant form of communication is designed to be receptive, not related to the author of the written text by the commonality of linguistic means and the situation of direct communication, it is also devoid of paralinguistic means that greatly facilitate oral communication. In view of the above, the written text should be detailed, logical, accurate and consistent, with a more careful selection of lexical and grammatical means. The absence of a communication partner and, accordingly, gestures, facial expressions, etc., leaves an imprint on the choice of linguistic means and punctuation marks, which serve as substitutes for the real paralinguistic situation inherent in oral speech. Using punctuation marks, the writer draws the recipient's attention to those facts that he considers particularly important. Exclamation marks with brackets are most often used for this purpose - muffled exclamation [Solovova 2002: 21].
The exclamation mark has, according to some authors, similarities with lexical means, with expressions like: pay attention, I repeat (emphasize) again, etc. Different shades of additional information are transmitted using an ellipsis, two exclamation marks, a combination of an exclamation mark with a question mark, etc. All these means are used not to mark the grammatical structure of the utterance, but to facilitate an adequate understanding of the written text by the recipient, the text as a product of the letter should have the following features [Iskrin 2004: 38]:
1) compositional-structural completeness and logical-semantic structure;
2) the unity of the beginning, the central communication block and the final part;
3) the correlation of the title with the content;
4) an inductive or deductive form of presentation, which facilitates the probabilistic prediction of the writer and the recipient;
5) subject content;
6) communicative qualities;
7) monoobject or polyobject connections
Unlike speaking or listening, writing is a slower process, since when generating a text, the writer can change the original idea, correct the content, supplement or modify it. Due to the possibility of returning to the text in order to control and correct what was written, many authors consider writing to be an easier speech activity and in some cases, as was the case in the audiovisual method, recommend switching from listening and speaking not to reading, but to writing, seeing in the latter a reliable means for improving the forms of oral learning.
The connection between writing and reading is explained by the fact that both forms of communication are based on a graphical communication code, although they pursue different goals.
Learning experience shows that writing is not only a way to control what you read, but also a means of teaching reading. Automation of sound-letter correspondences, consolidation of material of different levels of the language with the help of written exercises improve the reading technique and contribute to the successful development of the ability to extract and record information from printed text.
Difficulties in teaching written speech in a foreign language arise in connection with the formation of skills that provide both mastery of the grapho-spelling system of the language being studied and the construction of a written utterance.
When making a coherent written statement, when the attention of students shifts from the graphic and spelling form of words to the semantic side of the statement, difficulties increase. In this case, students should make a plan-program of the utterance (in internal or external speech), identify the logic of the utterance, select from long-term memory the linguistic means peculiar to written speech, make the necessary substitutions, combinations, make a whole of parts and then expand the utterance into the structure of the whole text in external speech, if necessary, make transformations, both at the level of individual structures and at the level of the whole text, compare with the plan-program of the utterance. Performing all these operations causes students great difficulties. Overcoming these difficulties, as practice shows, requires specially oriented training for these purposes.
To develop methods of teaching written foreign language speech, it is necessary to take into account, on the one hand, the complex nature of this skill, on the other hand, the fact that the skills that provide written utterance are based on the skills of proficiency in the graphic and spelling system of the language.
The problems of students with a low level of training are quite clearly manifested in the results of tasks in addition to the "Writing" section of the "Grammar and vocabulary" section. Those tested skills and abilities (recognition and use in speech of the main morphological forms of a foreign language and various grammatical structures; knowledge of the main methods of word formation and skills of their application; recognition and use in speech of the studied lexical units with special attention to lexical compatibility); knowledge of spelling rules and skills of their application), which are directly related to productive types of speech activity, are better formed among graduates with a high level of training.
As the analysis conducted by L.G. Kuzmina shows, when performing examination papers, students most often make mistakes of the following nature:
1. replace the communicative functions of informing with similar argumentation functions and vice versa;
2. they do not observe the required level of formality of the letter, which is expressed in the wrong choice of address or completion of the letter, in the wrong choice of vocabulary (sometimes too colloquial, and sometimes unjustifiably stilted or definitely stylistically colored);
3. they do not know how to fill out questionnaires, trying in each case to give a detailed answer to the question;
4. they do not always understand what is the difference between an autobiography and a resume and other documents accepted in modern business communication practice;
5. do not demonstrate a variety of means of ensuring the coherence of written speech (at the level of introductory phrases, conjunctions, etc.);
Typical mistakes when writing a letter are:
1. spelling mistakes;
2. violation of logic when expressing thoughts in writing;
3. stylistic errors when writing an informal letter;
4. lexical and grammatical errors (individually).

The patterns of youth psychology are determined by the need for a personal approach to high school students. With all the commonality of their situation and life tasks, high school students differ significantly from each other. Training should be focused not on the definition of individual characteristics, but on the formation of students' individual style of activity.

The older and more mature a teenager is, the more his upbringing turns into self-education. This requires the teacher to be very flexible, tactful, understanding, and willing to take the pupil's personality seriously.
From a psychological point of view, the writing process is the most complex, conscious form of speech activity. Perception, memory, attention, and thinking are of great importance when learning a foreign language, which determine the success of educational activities.
Considering written speech in three planes: execution (graphic image), expression (speech) and content (thinking), learning writing involves mastering spelling and performing training (language) exercises in writing, i.e. learning to write, as well as speech exercises for learning how to compose a written message, writing and speech exercises in working with printed text, exercises due to the process of reading, listening and oral communication.