ABSTRACT
In historical perspective, the early years of the 1970s may well seem a period of marking time in the teaching of writing, after the rich but wayward energy of the creative writing era had been all but exhausted. Writing is still dominated by reading; literacy for most people invokes the first 'R', with concern for writing a very distant second. If the full force of the argument for writing is accepted, these two modes of language use need to be taken together, as equal and complementary processes. Working against a more exalted position for writing it is possible to list the belief in a decline in the reign of print before the irresistible advance of audio-visual media. New movements in linguistics have rightly asserted the primacy of speech. Much of the exploratory research into ways of learning and teaching is now directed at the processes of verbal interaction and at the part to be played by technology in education.
