The purpose of this study is to analyze the writing activities presented in the English textbooks, Practical English I, which were developed under the 2009 revised national curriculum, and to suggest ideas for more effective writing activities. Writin...
The purpose of this study is to analyze the writing activities presented in the English textbooks, Practical English I, which were developed under the 2009 revised national curriculum, and to suggest ideas for more effective writing activities. Writing activities were investigated in terms of achievement criteria, types of writing activities, and genre-based writing activities. In order to accomplish this purpose, a total of 5 textbooks were selected for the study, and every writing task in each textbook was analyzed. The results of the analysis are as follows: Firstly, the writing activity materials generally satisfy the achievement criteria in the 2009 national curriculum in terms of proportions, but they are not balanced. Secondly, the textbooks contain mostly controlled writing activity, and lack free writing. On the basis of Rivers’ five writing instruction stages, the frequency order was found to be recombination, guided writing, and then reproduction. Lastly, the textbooks include various genres of writing activities. Based on these results, I make the following suggestions about writing activities. First, the textbooks should contain all achievement criteria. Second, it should gradually decrease the amount of controlled writing activities and increase guided and free writing activities considering EFL situations appropriate to Korea. Third, writing activities with different genres should be provided so that students could experience all kinds of writing activities through the textbooks.