M a education paper-v methods of teaching english

C. Guided composition and Free Composition 
Controlled or Guided Composition is initially used to reinforce speech. Learners are 
given sentence exercises, paragraphs etc. to manipulate grammatically for e.g. change 
present to past, questions to statements or combine clauses / sentences. Grammar, syntax 
and mechanics of writing are stressed to help learners develop composition skills. These 
tasks help learners to form correct grammatical sentences. The teaching of writing skills 
in this traditional approach perpetuates the belief that a focus on word usage and standard 
syntax would eventually improve learners’ writing. Moreover, it is widely acknowledged 
that the best way for learners to effectively acquire writing skills is by exposing them to 
analyse and imitate a given model of good writing. Thus, learners compose a similar 
paragraph by copying rhetorical structure and manipulating syntactic structure and are 
able to create a paragraph based on a given model with a large amount of comparatively 
error-free writing.
As soon as learners are capable of doing composition work by copying the model, they 
are geared to stages toward “free composition” in the form of narrative and descriptive 
prose. The writing activities include step-by-step techniques such as determining the 
main topic, making topic sentences, making supporting sentences, choosing the central 
idea, outlining and paragraphing. Free composition helps learners learn to focus on 
content and fluency. It believes that once the learners are able to put their ideas on the 
page, grammar, syntax and organisation gradually follow. Teachers therefore do not 
focus on correction of errors but allow learners to write freely as writing is essentially 
taught as an ongoing process and as a process of discovery. Continuous revision is the 
central concern and the teacher encourages the student to learn that writing is a process 
through which they can explore and discover their thoughts and ideas and organize 
content in accordance with the reader type. 

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