编者按:英语写作是人们使用英语互通信息、交流思想的重要手段。因此英语写作课程是一门应用性很强的课程。而正是因为其应用性强，导致在课堂教学中操作难度加大。本栏目精选了三例国外教师训练学生写作能力的教学方案，从学习精确选用词汇意识、演习商务信函的写作以及进行课堂翻译实践三个角度探讨了提高学生写作能力的方法。

　　Narrative writing with exact words

　　Georgette Rush

　　学生在英语写作中经常遇到的一个问题是不能准确辨别、使用词汇，导致文章语言表达不清晰、不明确。本文旨在通过引导学生注意记叙文中动词的用法来提高学生对精准选用英语词汇的领悟能力，以改进学生的英语写作水平。

　　1． 第一步

　　教师首先向学生介绍在写作记叙文时，使用精确词的重要性，然后告诉学生下一步将要做什么。

　　2． 第二步

　　教师为学生朗读Frank B的Mortimer Mooner Makes Lunch一书的节选。读完后，教师把“went”“said”和“put”这三个词写在黑板上，然后把该故事再朗读一遍。教师每读一页，都应提醒学生把文章中表达以上三个词意义的精确词都写下来。

　　3． 第三步

　　教师和学生讨论“went”“said”和“put”与表达其意义的精确词相比在意义上都有哪些细微差别。然后，教师以一篇记叙文为例，让学生在此文中找出五个能够表达以上三个词意义的词。这些词的特点是可以在表达上更为精确些。教师再指导学生用第二步中所收集到精确词来替换此文中划出的五个词。

　　4． 第四步

　　教师布置作业，让学生写一篇记叙文。教师应指导学生在文中标出五个表达以上三个词意义的精确动词，以备下节课讨论。

　　The teacher aims to let learners recognize exact verbs in literature and then use more exact verbs when writing a narrative. It is hoped that after this class, students will try to use more precise verbs in their writing and write a narrative paper using a personal experience.

　　Step One

　　Discuss the importance of using exact words in narrative writing. Inform the students that you are going to read to them a short book that uses specific words for the verbs “went”, “said”, and “put”.

　　Step Two

　　Read the story Mortimer Mooner Makes Lunch by Frank B. Edwards. write on the board the words “went” “said”, and “put”. Instruct students that you are going to read the story again, and after each page you are going to stop and pull exact words from the story that fit one of these three categories of words.

　　Step Three

　　Discuss the variation in meaning of each of the precise verbs from the more common heading. Put a sample personal narrative on the overhead. Have students identify five vague verbs in the draft that could be more precise. Underline the five verbs. Using the list of precise verbs pulled from the story, substitute the vague verbs in the draft.

　　Step Four

　　Writing assignment: Follow the usual routine of writing a personal narrative in your class. Instruct students to underline five verbs in their rough draft for further discussion.

　　Writing business letters

　　Catherine Morley

　　英语写作教学面临的一个重要问题是如何引导学生运用正确的文体写作。本文作者通过设计如下教案探讨了此问题:教师首先要求学生把英文不规范的非正式文体商务信函改写成规范的、正式的信函，接着把改正后的信函同范本相比较，引导学生注意商务信函写作的惯用体例。教师最后布置写作任务，让学生运用所学知识撰写信函。此教案较适合英语水平较高的商务英语专业学生，对成人学习商务信函写作也有裨益。

　　1． 第一步

　　教师首先让学生思考为什么要写作商务信函，并让学生列举出原因。接着教师让学生两人一组讨论，最后进行总结。

　　2． 第二步

　　教师发给学生一封用非正式语言写成的商务信件，并提出一些问题，比如:以前是否接触过类似的信件?其主要内容是什么?此类信件在写作上有哪些不规范之处?教师应引导学生判断此信件是否符合商务信函的写作惯例，进而指导学生修改词汇、句型结构及格式上的不规范之处，使信件的语言更为正式。

　　3． 第三步

　　教师指导学生分组讨论如何使这封信的语言更规范，更正式。在此过程中，教师应指导学生尽可能使用自己已有的语言知识来进行写作。通过该练习，学生能够了解自己在语言运用上有哪些欠缺。

　　4． 第四步

　　教师发给学生这封信的范本，引导学生思考此范本与学生自己修改的版本相比有哪些可借鉴之处。教师接着指导学生进一步完善自己修改的版本。如此，学生就会加深对商业信函行文格式和语言的印象。另外，教师也要提醒学生注意商务信函中问候语和结束语的格式。

　　5． 第五步

　　教师让学生分组，模拟一个写信场景，分别从范例稿件和自己的修改稿中选择恰当的语言，协同合作来展开对应的商务信函写作练习。如果课堂时间比较紧张，此阶段的任务也可放到课下进行。作业收上来之后可供教师进行修改和评估，也可备同学间互相评定之用。

　　IN this activity, learners attempt to re-write an inappropriately informal business letter in a more appropriate, formal style. They then compare their version with a model text, helping them to notice the conventional formulae used in this type of letter. and incorporate some of this new language into another similar letter. This activity is particularly suitable for higher level Business English students, or adult learners who need to write formal letters in English in real life.

　　Step One

　　In order to get students think about business letters, ask how many reasons they can think of for writing this type of letter. Give a couple of examples, then get students to brainstorm in pairs, before feeding it back to the class.

　　Step Two

　　Give learners the inappropriately informal letter. Ask a few simple comprehension questions:

　　(1) Have they been in contact before?

　　(2) What’s this about?

　　(3) What are the problems with the

　　system?

　　Then ask what’s wrong with the text (too informal, doesn’t follow letter-writing conventions). Elicit some of the kinds of things they will need to change it to make it more formal (vocabulary, sentence structure, layout, paragraphing, greeting and close).

　　Step Three

　　In pairs, students re-write the letter to make it more appropriate as a formal letter. Don’t help them too much at this stage-the idea is that students write the best letter they are capable of by using their existing language resources. This creates a need for the conventional letter-writing language which may be “missing” from their current knowledge.

　　Step Four

　　Give students the model letter and ask them to compare it with their letter. Ask them to identify language from the model that they could use to improve their letter. In this way, some of the conventional sentence frames which are so common in business letters are “fed in”. At this stage you might also wish to draw attention to the conventional greetings and endings for formal letters.

　　Step Five

　　Students choose a situation, brainstorm in pairs, and select appropriate language from their own letter and the model letter. They then write the letter, working collaboratively. This stage could also be done individually for homework if class time is short. The letters can be collected by the teacher for assessment / correction purposes. These letters can also be used for a peer-evaluation activity. The teacher then summarizes the main points of this class.

　　Improve writing style by translation

　　Kenneth Beare

　　互联网能够激发起学生的学习兴趣，为英语教学带来新的途径和方法。具体应用到英语写作教学中，教师可以把本族语言网页译成英语，或者把英语网页译成本族语，并在翻译实践中揣摩写作技巧。这一过程还可以同时扩大学生的英语词汇量。以下是作者运用此方法进行英语写作教学的教案设计，旨在提高学生的词汇量以及分析写作风格的能力。

　　1． 第一步

　　教师把学生分组，让每组学生分别找出自己喜欢的本族语网页，并要求学生按照规定的步骤把网页翻译成英语。

　　2． 第二步

　　翻译完毕后，教师应让学生把文档存入电脑，以备参考。学生接着在教师指导下根据在翻译过程中收集到的生词制作出自己的词汇表。

　　3． 第三步

　　教师指导学生找出自己的翻译手稿中英语表达不恰当之处，并让学生尝试用简单易懂的英语来表述。在此过程中教师要引导学生思考这一问题:究竟是本族语言中的哪些用法造成了蹩脚的英文表达？

　　4． 第四步

　　教师组织全班学生讨论他们在翻译时感受到的两种语言在表达形式上的差异。

　　The Internet offers some truly unique opportunities that can give teaching new push and be quite a lot of fun for students. One of these new opportunities is the ability to translate an entire Internet page from English into a target language, or, vice-versa, translate from another language into English.

　　These pages can then be used as basis for students to improve their vocabulary quickly, without having to check the dictionary for each new word. This lesson outlines one use of this great technology in an ESL or EFL classroom, whose purpose is to improve vocabulary and writing style analysis.

　　Step One

　　separate students into small groups and ask them to find an Internet page in their own native tongue that they would like to translate into English. Ask students to follow the procedure outlined in the worksheet to translate the Internet page into English.

　　Step Two

　　Once students have their translations, make sure they save the document or text extract onto the computer for future reference. they then use this translation as the basis of the activity. Have students create a vocabulary list using the vocabulary gleaned from the translation.

　　Step Three

　　The third part of the exercise consists of the students identifying language from the translation that they feel is expressed poorly in English.

　　Students should underline these sections if they have printed the document. Ask students to put the underlined sections into more comprehensible English. Help groups focus on the mechanisms that are inherent to their own language which translate poorly or differently into English.

　　Step Four

　　As a class, have students discuss the various patterns of difference that the groups have discovered during the course of the lesson.