What kind of skill is writing ?

Writing is a derived skill. It cannot exist apart from reading and speaking. It must come after the student has had some experience with the production of language in the form of talk, and further experience in the form of reading. Like speaking, writing is an active skill, whereas listening and reading are passive. Writing is essentially “talk on paper”, a representation of sound. Just as one can learn to understand without learning to speak, so one can learn to read without learning to write. While committed to giving the student control of all four language skills, we necessarily recognize that the extent to which he will speak and write will be considerably less than the extent to which he will listen and read.

The English word “write” has two meanings. It means to spell in the sense of making the proper choice of letters in the proper sequence in response both to verbal and written stimuli. It also means to put down on paper what one wishes to express, using a style and vocabulary appropriate to the material or the occasion – informal or formal, literary or technical. It is this second kind of writing that is one of the vital, long-range objectives of second-language learning. Just as in the case with the three other skills, we may consider the development of the writing skill as a continuum. At one end we have the putting down of graphic symbols that represent language, and at the other – writing as self-expression. One can hope to attain this last objective only by proceeding deliberately through a series of steps which lead toward the ultimate goal. Learning to write, like learning to speak, depends upon habit formation, which requires extensive experience. It is clear that a student cannot proceed to reading and writing without gaining firm mechanical control of the way the sounds of the target-language are represented on paper.

Part I

english spelling

Graphical Representation of Some Consonant Phonemes

[f], [k], [C], [G]

The Phoneme [f] – (f, ff, ph, gh)

Rule I.The consonant phoneme [f] is represented by the letter “f” in the initial (a), medial (b), and final (c) position (sometimes followed by the silent “e”). In the final position it is preceded by a long vowel or a diphthong:

(a)	flag	(b)	perfect	(c)	half
	feeling		awful		scarf
	force		selfish		thief
	future		trifle		knife

Rule II.The constant phoneme [f] is represented by the double “f”

1. in the medial position either to indicate the short sound value of the preceding single vowel letter (a) or when the first “f” belongs to the prefix and the second one to the root (b):

(a)	traffic	(b)	offend
	coffee		effect
	office		sufficient

Exceptions:	Café
	chauffeur

2. in the final position of one-syllable words to indicate the short sound value of the preceding single vowel letter (a) and in some two-syllable words (b):

	(a)	stiff		(b)		tariff
		stuff				plaintiff
Exception:			if

Rule III.The consonant phoneme [f] is represented by the diagraph “ph” in the initial, medial, and final position in the words of Greek origin. In the corresponding Russian words we hear [ф]. Compare: E. phase – R.фаза;Е. sphere – R.сфера.

photo	alphabet	paragraph
philosophy	symphony	choreography

Rule IV.The consonant phoneme [f] is represented by the diagraph “gh” in the final position of the words “enough”, “rough”, “laugh”, “cough”, “trough”, and in the middle of the words “draught” and “laughter”. They ought to be memorized.