Edu 5.2 online assignment

Composition

                     Introduction:

 

One of the aims of teaching English is to enable the students to express themselves correctly in spoken and written form. Development of writing skill is one of the major aims of teaching English. Hence, teaching of composition occupies a prominent place. It enables the students to describe incidents in written form. The teaching of composition is an integral part of teaching English at the earlier stage, middle stage and senior stage. It is a process of collecting thoughts and arranging them in particular sequences. It needs a careful and systematic practice in speaking, writing and reading. To be a free speaker and writer is the main purpose of teaching composition. A good composition must grow out of ones personal experiences. According to Thumpson and Wyatt, “The power of expression depends on the skill rather than knowledge.” To develop the skills of expression, teaching composition is of great value.

          Meaning of composition 

Composition means to express one’s own ideas and thoughts through words and sentences. Expansion of a line or a sentence into a few sentences and reduction of a few lines into one are important ways of doing composition. Composition is a advance state of learning to write on some topics of interest in a systematic way. Simple story writing, essay, letter writing, dialogue writing can be some of the form of composition. Etymologically the word composition has been derived from the word “compose” which means to put together. So, composition means the act of putting together words and sentences. Composition is oral as well as written. An old dictum, “the more you write the better you will write” was prevailing. Nobody took composition seriously. Teacher either gave spoon feeding to the students or they left the students on their own. However, the scenario has changed today the shift is on the composition based on day-to-day life and expressing the views in their own words. Students find use of their skill in composition in real life.

  

Definition of composition 

Composition as, “It is the expression of child’s thoughts, his own ideas, feelings and observations. It includes both the process and product of composition. It refers to the process of collecting thoughts, arranging them in a rational sequence and ultimately expressing them in accordance with recognized standards of form. The product may take the shape of a letter, an application, a paragraph, a story, an essay, a descriptive or narration, a poem etc.”

Bhatia and Bhatia

 

        Types of composition

     There are two types of compositions-: (i) Oral Composition and (ii) written Composition and again they are sub divided into two types of composition in each type which is (i) Guided and (ii) free composition.

    1.  Oral composition

             : It is the most important aspect of teaching English. It is the natural and proper preliminary to written composition at the beginning of the language learning. It can not be ignored because through oral composition students are able to speak English fluently and write correctly. They can express their interest, feelings, ideas, needs etc through oral composition. Oral composition precedes written composition. According to Laurie, “The habit of oral composition should be kept off during the whole school period.”

Aims of Oral Composition: The aims of oral composition are as follows-:

v  To acquaint the students with the usage of English language.

v  To enable the students to express their feeling and ideas.

v  To express their knowledge of English language.

v  To promote thinking in the students.

v  To create suitable situation in the classroom

              

      Importance of Oral Composition: Oral composition has the following importance -:

v  Oral composition paves the way to written composition.

v  It develops spontaneity of speech among the students.

v  It creates interest among the students.

v  It helps in developing correct pronunciation.

v  It stimulates the thought of the students.

v  It teaches good spoken English.

v  It helps in developing vocabulary.

v  It helps in creating the classroom environment very lively and interesting.

v  It helps in developing confidence among the students.

v  It serves as a good diagnostic measure.

v  Language learning through this process is simple and more economical.

Teaching of Oral Composition: Teaching of oral composition in the early stage should be controlled be the teacher. The following methods can be used for teaching composition-:

v  Asking students to repeat the sentence.

v  Asking students a few questions by showing pictures, charts, models and regarding some objects or events.

v  With the help of substitution table.

v  Narrating a story and asking them to give a gist.

v  Through the discussion of simple topics.

v  The teacher may describe a picture and ask certain questions based on them.

v  By asking questions from the prescribed text book already taught.

v  The teacher can asked the students to play simple drama s or one act plays.

v  The teacher may have conversation with the students on various topics of general interest.

2. Written Composition: It helps the students to express their ideas in written form. It is the next step after oral composition. Written composition may be taught by transcription and dictation.

        

3.Guided Composition: Guided composition is also known as controlled and directed composition. It is usually introduced at the early stage as the students are not matured enough to write free composition. The teacher supplies the students with the necessary vocabulary and structures to be used for expressing the desired thoughts and ideas in writing. He guides the students what to write with the help of controlled vocabulary and structural words. Actually Guided Compositions are those written exercise in which utterances are already known to the students orally but they are asked to write them down. It should, however, be noted that the nature of the language control should be such that it would allow a gradual relaxation of control so that students could proceed from controlled composition to free composition.   The aim should be give direction. Guided composition can be done by the following methods-:

v  Transcription.

v  Transformation of sentence.

v  Reproduction of story, a picture description, a situation etc.

v  Completion of incomplete sentence.

v  Substitution tables.

4.Free Composition: It is called free composition because students are free to use vocabulary and structures of their own to express their views and thoughts related to a given topic. It is also called creative or imaginative writing. According to Champion, “The ultimate aim of composition is to enable the pupil to arrange his own way freely; to choose his own words; to express his own ideas freely.” French stated that, “ Free composition in which the child has to make up his own thought has no place in the first three years of a six or seven years course. If it is used, it will only result in a large number of most discouraging mistakes.”

Types of free Composition: The different types of free compositions are as noted below-:

v  Narrative writing.

v  Descriptive writing.

v  Story writing.

v  Essay writing.

v  Letter writing.

v  Application writing.

v  Precise writing.

v  Paragraph construction.

v  Paraphrasing.

v  Summarizing.

v  Dialogue writing.

v  Short paragraph.

v  Creative writing.

   

              Conclusion:

: The students need the guidance of their teacher at every step. Even if students are given to remove their own errors, it does not finish the responsibility of the language teacher in any way. He has to see how far he has been able to encourage the students to correct their own mistakes. He should not sit idle by leaving the responsibility of correction entirely on the students. Writing is the skill aspects which the student has acquired through practice. The fluency of language shows creativity of the students. It has been observed that the methods applied for teaching composition in our schools are very defective. When the pupils are required to write a piece of composition they are only passive recipient. They show their passiveness by following teacher’s lecture blindly, instead of thinking or expressing their ideas creatively. Actually the very aim of teaching composition is to develop creativity and imagination amongst the pupils. Composition makes a person to express his feelings, emotions and ideas clearly and freely, hence satisfies the basic urge of human being to give expression to their ideas. As Bacon stated that, “Writing makes a man perfect”. So, with the help of composition one is able to express oneself precisely, accurately and efficiently.