The teaching sequence is intended to help learners (1) in writing short answ

The teaching sequence is intended to help learners recognize and solve problems in writing short answers. It consists of three stages: the presentation stage, the practice stage and the production stage. In the presentation stage, the language teacher first introduces the topic of short--answer writing and its importance. The teacher also asks learners what they think makes a good "short answer" : what points would they look for and why? The the teacher a prepared handout with a brief list of things that might be expected in a good short answer. During the opening stage of the presentation, the teacher can quickly note, on the board, points that learners make, and the teacher should link these points to the prepared handout. Some teachers may prefer to use only the blackboard instead of the handout. During following practice stage, the language teacher should prepare a handout that contains three or four question items from a recent test or from a student assignment, several selected answers for each question item taken from students’ work, with a list of points to look for. When marking, and marks to use, and information needed to answer each item. The marking scheme should be simple and it should remind the class of points to look for. Learners in the class may be divided into groups of four or five and they need to compare marks and try to reach agreement. When an item has been finished by all groups, the group judgments are compared. The teacher may also tell groups how the answers are marked by the examiners. In the last production stage, learners will need three or four short-answer question items for each written assignment. The language teacher may set four or five assignments of this kind during the course or for each semester. The language teacher may find the job of marking such written assignments quite demanding.