Teaching writing to second language learners

Adjusting lesson content to the contexts in which writing is needed

These fall into four main categories:

1. Within the school, instigated by the teacher
   • Note-taking (involves copying)
   • Coping with various types of homework
   • Examinations/major tests (predominantly written)
2. Outside the school in the UK
   • Form filling (especially cheques), registration, giving feedback or evaluations, and surveys
   • Writing messages and notices (changed family, gone on excursion, 3rd person wanted for car share to London)
   • Writing personal résumés
   • Filling out application forms for university and CFE
3. Within a place of work, study or the context of a personal hobby or interest
   • informal and formal communication: messages, letters, emails, notes, memos, orders, receipts
   • secretarial: taking dictation, notes, minutes of meetings, summaries, précis and paraphrases
   • pedagogical: essays, compositions, assignments, theses
   • hobbies: keeping diaries and personal records, exchanging recipes, posting on web forums, selling on eBay
   • artistic creation: dialogues, plays, stories, poetry
   • graphic displays with text: signs, posters
4. In future life
   • Postcards to old friends
   • Business letters

Two views on writing tasks

• Modern academic - Never ask a student to write something that they won't be called upon to write in real life. Meaningful tasks only. Why should they write a diary in English? The importance of writing depends on students' specific needs.
• Practising teachers - students enjoy dictations and compositions. Why shouldn't they write them? There is a need to observe students' wishes to some extent. The pedagogical purpose is just as valid as others. Writing is founded on oral work and also in activities such as reading, summarizing and note-taking.

Most students will not seek out possibilities to exhibit their written ability in English. Don't assume that students will have to do more writing than they really will. However, consider the importance of e-mail today (often used in preference to the phone: permanent record & reliable way of leaving a message). Similarly, websites (eBay) are often used for transactions and sellers need to post in written English to advertise to the widest market. Do not neglect the revival of writing through email and web forums.

How we teach students to write

Problem 1 - too much teaching is at Q&A level. Students tend to wait for teachers to provide stimulus. This may be necessary at low levels to ease the memory load that beginners have to bear. However, rarely does this "question and answer approach" allow us to witness sentences totalling more than 20 words.

Problem 2 - writing doesn't have the fillers, repetitions, hesitations, incompletions - i.e., the redundancy that oral speech has. We cannot go back and qualify our meaning.

Actual writing - a model

1. Language ability is exercised, not imagination or literary talent
2. Should be grammatical
3. Should be guided and organised according to accepted patterns cf. Jupp & Milne: "Paragraph Writing"
4. Written exercises should be appropriate stylistically: formal/informal, spoken/written, friendly/business.
5. Very controlled at the beginning and very short.
6. Within their interests/experiences
7. Within their intellectual maturity.
8. Linking and transitional expressions (markers, etc.) should be practised.

Exercises offering a fair degree of control while keeping writing meaningful

1. Fill-in
2. Question-and-answer exercises
3. Substitution tables
4. Transformation exercises
5. Translation exercises (where appropriate)
6. Dictation
7. Compositions
8. Postcard & letter-writing
9. Reports and reviews
10. Advertisements and publicity material
11. Note-taking and official minute-taking
12. Dialogues
13. Summarizing
14. Informal notes: messages, etc.
15. E-mail and fax

Five suggestions - Help in evaluating writing material

1. Giving models: don't over-control, i.e., give too much help
2. Don't concentrate on grammar at the expense of organisation and appropriateness.
3. Written exercises should communicate something.
4. The grammar of the paragraph can be more important than the grammar of just one sentence.
5. Functional training: persuading/complaining.

Training writing skills

1. Copying (as many sentences as possible from a substitution table in 2 minutes); Sorting tasks (cards with one word on each)
2. Spelling (little and often): Hangman; Kim's game, word families, relationship between pronunciation and spelling.
3. Punctuation
4. Dialogue writing (e.g., one side of the dialogue is given. Students write the other half after they have practised it. Open dialogues)
5. Summaries and note-taking (expand notes in telegram form). Make notes on books, tapes, group discussion.
6. Letter-writing: Business/informal: groups can write to each other. Help them to organise their paragraphs. What they did last weekend; describe their own house. Paragraph from a travel brochure.
7. Composition: paragraph cues, diagrams & pictures.