Creative Writing: Bringing the English-Speaking Countries' Model to Russian Schools

Anna Levinzon - Senior Teacher, The Fundamental and Applied Linguistics Division of the Faculty of Psychology, National Research University Higher School of Economics. Address: 2/8, Khitrovsky lane, Moscow, 109028, Russian Federation. E-mail: anna.j.levinzon@gmail.comMost people of the mid-20th century gave up on extensive writing after leaving school. Now, with the rise of Internet communications, writing skills have become one of the key factors facilitating successful social integration of an individual. Analyzing the fundamental principles of mass-scale writing skills teaching used in Great Britain, Canada and the US, the author suggests changing the writing skills development pattern that has been established in Russian schools. First, these changes should address the texts that serve the basis for student essays. The most impor tant features of such texts appear to be a conflict, an emotional state easily recognized by children, and a strong author's presence. Second, it is necessary to revise the forms of writing students do in class or at home. In particular, Russian teachers are advised to learn from Graves' method of teaching children to make contents that would be meaningful for themselves and not predetermined by their teachers. Sample compositions included in language development course books is another area that needs revision. The paper gives the grounds for providing the tools consistent with the author's conception and not restricted to literary language, instead of merely teaching norms. A good source of exercise could be the Russian National Corpus, the electronic database reflecting all the current trends of contemporary writing. The author believes that implementing these ideas would promote, inter alia, association of different social groups based on acknowledging the importance of cultural raditions.