Hyland - Second Language Writing

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Ken Hyland 2003, 2019

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The first edition of this book appeared back in 2003. That seems, and indeed is , a long time ago the same year as the invasion of Iraq and the release of the final film in the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Those events seem historically remote now and second language writing has moved on too. While I was pleased with the original version of this book, I didnt expect it to be still available 15 years later so I welcome this opportunity to update it and the support of Rebecca Taylor at CUP for pushing the project along.

Some things havent changed, of course. Writing remains among the most important skills that second language students need to develop and the ability to teach it is still central to the expertise of a good language teacher. What we know about writing and how we might best teach it also remains much the same, but the field has certainly changed. Research has extended what we know about how people use new electronic genres and identified the features of specialised discourses, both of which have enriched writing instruction. English has also continued to expand its influence into more corners of the planet and writing to establish itself as a key metric in the life chances of millions of people around the world: a measure of educational success, academic competence, professional advancement and institutional recognition.

Teachers, too, it seems to me, have realised the importance of research and of the need to innovate their practices and embrace new ones, turning to a range of electronic, online and social media resources as well as making greater use of corpora and what the web has to offer. The field is becoming more professionalised with teachers gaining higher degrees and other qualifications and more schools and countries requiring teachers to be qualified, ensuring that standards increase. The days of gap-year travellers earning food money for teaching in Macau or Venezuela are numbered. Teachers are also finding themselves working in new contexts, both at home and in far-flung parts of the world as, for now, the spread of English marches relentlessly on. We find ourselves teaching not only in state schools, private language institutes and universities around the world, but also in migrant reception camps, new arrival centres, corporate training divisions, evening classes for second-generation migrants, TV studios and prisons. All these contexts present us with different challenges and opportunities, but thanks to the web and research, there is a developing sense of community, experience and research to draw on.

So, second language writing has changed considerably over 15 years and this edition attempts to bring things up to date, offering a synthesis of theory, research and practice to help teachers of language become teachers of writing . This book, like the first edition, is written for practising teachers and teachers in training who have little or no experience of teaching writing to students from non-English-speaking backgrounds. More specifically, it attempts to meet the needs of teachers who are teaching or are about to teach students who speak English as a second or foreign language in the contexts mentioned above. I have tried to pull together the theory and practice of teaching writing to present an accessible and practical introduction to the subject without assuming any prior theoretical knowledge or experience of teaching.

The book is founded on the premise that an effective teacher is one who is able to make informed choices about the methods, materials and procedures to use in the classroom based on a clear understanding of the current attitudes and practices in his or her profession. A strong teacher is a reflective teacher; and reflection requires the knowledge to relate classroom activities to relevant research and theory. The books practical approach towards second language writing attempts to provide a basis for this kind of reflection and understanding. In the text the reader will find a clear stance towards teaching writing which emphasises the view that writing involves composing skills and knowledge about texts, contexts and readers. It helps to develop the idea that writers not only need realistic strategies for drafting and revising, but also a clear understanding of genre to structure their writing experiences according to the demands and constraints of particular contexts. This emphasis on strategy, language and context is followed throughout the book.