Speaking and writing are the ‘productive skills’.

Writing

Today, there is very little need for long, formal written assignments in the classroom. With the advent of email and word processors with spell checkers, most people do very little written work except for short notes to friends and colleagues. However, students may have very specific needs, such as those preparing for exams where written work is still of great importance. Writing gives students enough time to process information, while speaking does not. Writing is also an avenue for those students who have limited confidence to speak in front of the class. In addition, writing allows the practice of grammar rules and examination techniques. To convey a similar amount of information, a written text is shorter than a spoken text because the student has time to be more specific.

Remember that students learn to read and write faster when they have real reasons to communicate. This could be in the form of journal writing or letters. Also, it can be a good idea to create situations where they need to write actual invitations, requests, thank you notes and letters to penpals, special occasion cards, morning news, commercials, and opinions. You can even have students take surveys and interviews or make their own books by drawing or cutting out pictures, writing captions and word balloons. It is important to be clear about the objectives of the writing assignment before the lesson. Are you promoting fluency or precision? A good starting point is to start with a fluency activity and focus solely on accurate use of language at a later stage.

Guided writing

Guided writing is an extremely helpful way to prepare students for a writing assignment. The effective use of patterns as learning tools removes the mystery of learning. This is much more useful than simply giving students a writing topic and telling them to get on with it. It is extremely overwhelming for students to face two tasks: writing and content.

Tell the students exactly what you want! If you are writing a letter, give it the format and information you need in each paragraph. Try to focus on useful language models. List and review the step-by-step instructions. Provide frequent summaries of lesson highlights. Develop and maintain routines that will help students anticipate what will happen. This careful preparation will eventually culminate in students preparing a draft that can be discussed with the teacher and others before preparing a final text.

Writing genre

Students will explore typical examples or models of different writing genres before embarking on writing on their own. This is done in order to know the format, the distribution, the audience, the register, the style and the appropriate language to use. When writing a letter, for example, students will decide whether the letter is formal or informal. Then, they will select the correct format to use in a business letter or personal letter. This, in turn, will determine the register and general tone of the language to be used. This approach to writing is extremely helpful for students preparing for school tests in English and other subjects.

Writing structure

As mentioned in the section on guided writing, it is extremely helpful to provide your students with useful patterns as learning tools. There are many different ways to write an essay, but most standard essay forms follow the same basic patterns. Teaching your students these patterns will lay the foundation for solid writing principles and structures. It is surprising how many students, who have been studying English for several years, are still not sure how to write an introduction, a paragraph or a conclusion.

Writing

Students who come from diverse cultural backgrounds may find English letter formation (spelling) somewhat difficult. Students experiencing such difficulties will need specific help to improve letter, word, and text formation. Assistance can be offered in the form of extensive practice exercises that focus on the formation of individual letters. This could perhaps involve the teacher writing letters, words, or sentences in an orderly fashion and leaving enough pacing underneath for the student to copy or imitate the writing.

It is important to note that it is essential that you encourage students with problem handwriting to try to improve it. Handwriting is an important skill required for testing purposes and a student should not be unduly disadvantaged due to poor writing. This problem can prevent the student from getting your message across.

Orthography

Incorrect spelling can often give the reader the impression that the writer is careless and uneducated. One should try to remember that spelling is often very difficult for students studying English due to the lack of correlation between the sound of a word and how it is actually spelled. This is more than often, not so obvious!

Punctuation and format

The punctuation and formatting conventions differ from language and culture to culture. Business and personal letters are presented very differently and follow specific formats just like emails. Punctuation conventions can often be specific to a particular language and may not be transferable from one culture or language to another. Successful application of punctuation conventions in the English language will help students get their message across and communicate effectively.