Teaching Writing Skills and Strategies in the Algerian Secondary School Syllabuses and Textbooks

Abstract

The following research seeks to analyze the process dimension of the writing syllabuses and their corresponding secondary school textbooks, namely At the crossroads, Getting Through and New Prospects. It starts with the literature review of the nature of writing and of the learning theories dealing with writing instruction. These two aspects are developed in two separate chapters forming the theoretical part. The major paradigm of analysis is borrowed from the theories which support the teaching of writing as process. Our choice of using process as category of analysis is not made at random. It is principally determined by our realization that it informs the preparation of the syllabuses. The second part of our research is practical in nature. In its first chapter, it investigates how the syllabuses designers have implemented their view of writing as a process in the preparation of their instructional plan. The fourth chapter, for its part, is devoted to the decision made by the textbook writers always with respect to the skills and strategies of writing as process. The final finding of the research reveals that the secondary school program supports the process dimension of writing. Yet, the syllabus designers failed to confirm it. As such, the flows of the writing syllabuses are reflected in the textbooks.