I was taught writing from parts to whole and at the same time, be creative!

Before I started school, I remember that my parents taught me how to write my ABCs and eventually, my first and last name. Then, when I started school, my teachers taught me writing the letters of the alphabet, then to words, spelling, then to sentences, and eventually stringing sentences together to form paragraphs. I attended schools that used two official languages for instruction, and we were given opportunities to be "creative" in expressing ourselves in each of the languages. Examples were writing poems, songs, plays and essays (in high school). Knowledge of the two languages enabled me to see the similarities and differences and look for patterns.

In Freeman and Freeman (2004), two views of writing have been discussed. One is called the Learning View and the other is called the Acquisition View. Below is a table (p. 29) that will differentiate the two views of writing:

Learning View: Traditional                                                
Goal: learn how to produce a good piece of writing.                                                                        

Method: begin with the parts and build up to writing a whole text.                                                

Teacher directly instructs the students in how to form letters, then words, then how to combine words into sentences, and then sentences into paragraphs.

Approach to correctness: Writing product must be conventional from the beginning.                          

The teacher corrects each piece of writing.                                                                          

Acquisition View: Process Writing
Goal: produce good writing knowledge of the writing process

Method: begin with a message and develop the skills needed to produce the message.

Teacher creates conditions for authentic written responses and then helps students express themselves in writing.

 Approach to correctness: Writing moves natural from invention to convention.

Classmates and others, including the teacher, respond to drafts.

So, my writing learning experience has been traditional and acquisitional all the way. I am very blessed, indeed. I know that up to now, there are still debates concerning the theories on how a second language is "learned" and/or "acquired." Having been raised in a bilingual home, and having attended schools that used two languages for official instruction, the two views raised in Freeman and Freeman were valid viewpoints in my own learning experiences. Based on my own experiences, the two viewpoints were naturally intertwined, and there is no one point of view that supersedes or dominates. This is one theory that I am trying to discover as I teach adult ELLs.

REREFENCE:
Freeman, D. E., and Freeman, Y. S. (2004). Essential linguistics: What you need to know to teach reading, esl, spelling, phonics, grammar. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.