TEACHING WRITING – TEACHING WRITING TO

INTRODUCTION BEGINNERS –
Of all the different language skills which
FOUNDATIONS
you’ll cover as a teacher, writing will Beginner ESL classes can often dislike
most likely fall towards the bottom of writing lessons. They may associate
your priorities. writing with assignments, with trying to
Speaking and listening abilities are copy vocabulary over and over, and with
imperative for face-to-face making lots of mistakes.
communication. Reading abilities will Part of your job as an ESL teacher is to
enable students to further their own show them that writing doesn’t always
learning and to interact with real-life have to be boring and difficult, as
situations. Writing, however, will most otherwise they will be reluctant to
often be used informally and rely on practice and improve their skills. Your
basic or even pre-existing skills. challenge here will be to show them that
writing can be both easier than they
Despite this, there are still some
think, and an interesting activity.
instances where formal writing
skills may still be important for What your students should
your classes: know
 For specific examinations. Before you start teaching writing, there
 When applying to study at are a number of things that your
overseas universities. students should already know.

 For business emails and letters. First: they should be aware of the
basics of punctuation; that sentences
 When learning specific grammar start with a capital letter and end with a
patterns. period. More advanced punctuation
such as commas and colons can follow
Such situations may come around
later.
infrequently, or may only apply to certain
types of classes, but without the proper Second: you should make sure that
practice of writing – and feedback from a your students understand and can
teacher, students will likely struggle to identify the most basic parts of speech,
take their thoughts and put them down as covered earlier in this course. They
onto paper. will probably have a limited vocabulary
at this point, but it will help if they can
recognize which words are nouns,
verbs, and adjectives. This will help
them to understand and be able to
reproduce the simple sentence
structures which you give them.
Once your students are comfortable with  Students might not remember to
the points above, you can start to use a double letter in
introduce writing activities to their “communicate”, “well” or “putting”.
lessons.
 “when” could be incorrectly
TACKLING SPELLING written as “wen”

DIFFICULTIES  “speaking” could be incorrectly

written as “speeking”
For many students, the most difficult
 “draw” could be incorrectly written
part of writing is remembering how to
as “dror”
spell the words needed to convey their
ideas clearly. They might be able to It can help to give students certain basic
communicate relatively well when spelling patterns that can guide their
speaking, but when it comes to putting spelling for many common situations:
pen to paper, their minds can draw a
blank. Examples could include:
While those fluent in the language can  i comes before e except
often work out how to write a word by after c (ceiling, receive)
hearing it, for new students it can be a  when a vowel is short, the
much more difficult task. The English consonant is doubled
language can be quite complicated, and (hop/hopping, pin/pinning,)
over hundreds of years, a large number
of spelling conventions have evolved,  when the vowel is long, the
and words are not always written how consonant is single (hope/hoping,
you might expect. pine/pining)

Let’s take a look at this example However, relying entirely on

remembering spelling patterns could
sentence:
make students detract from writing, and
“They might be able to communicate would make for rather dull lessons.
relatively well when speaking, Instead, a mix of approaches would
but when it comes to putting pen to usually be recommended.
paper, their minds can draw a blank.”
An alternative approach could be to
There are a range of potential mistakes encourage your students to keep a
here: personal notebook where they can
write down words that they’ve struggled
 “might” could be incorrectly
to spell. You could highlight words that
written as “miyt” or “mite”.
your students have misspelled and then
 “able” could be incorrectly written have them write these words into their
as “abull” books with the correct spellings,
perhaps even adding several other
examples of words that might fit the
same pattern.
Over time, these books can also be categories. This will help to remind
useful to help students see the progress students of the meanings of words
they’ve made through your classes. they’ve already learned and also give
them a deeper understanding of
TEACHING WRITING sentence construction.

TO BEGINNERS – After this warm-up activity, you can write

several basic sentence structures on the
ACTIVITIES whiteboard. Use only the most basic
sentence structures at first, and give
At this level, most writing activities will
your students lots of examples so that
focus on practicing pre-learned phrases
they can see how the structures can be
and sentence structures, with minimal
used in a variety of ways. Finally, have
room for error. This helps to maximize
the students create some of their own
writing time, while minimizing the
using the words which they previously
potential for students to make frustrating
sorted into categories.
mistakes.
Below, we’ll look at some different Examples here would include:
activities which can be used to teach Subject + Verb
writing skills to beginners. You may find I eat
some of these to be more effective than The boy plays
others, depending on your class and
their previous experience with writing. Subject + Verb + Object
You may also find your own ways to I like bananas
adapt these lessons to suit your own She reads books
style. Subject + Verb + Adjective
I am mean
BASIC SENTENCE He is ugly
STRUCTURES As an extra twist to this activity, you
A good activity can be to have students could then show the students several
write out several basic sentences. This pictures which depict basic actions or
can help to both practice their writing scenarios, and have students write
skills, and reinforce their understanding down what they see. If they struggle,
of previously taught sentence structures. you can give them hints as to which of
the sentence structures they should use.
To start this kind of exercise, you can
warm-up your students with a quick WRITING A (SHORT)
sorting activity to recap previously
studied vocab. Divide the students into
STORY
groups, and give each group a list of Children love to create and listen to
words containing a mix of nouns, stories. It’s a natural way in which we
adjectives, and verbs. Then challenge communicate and will introduce the
them to sort the words into their correct students to conventions and structures
that are used in both conversations and students create written descriptions of
in writing exercises. As such, having people or objects.
younger students write their own stories
Before starting this activity, you may
can be a good way to introduce writing
wish to warm up the class by pre-
in a way that excites them.
teaching any vocabulary needed for the
To help your students in the beginning, exercise, such as words related to
restrict their choices so they don’t get appearance, for example:
confused or overwhelmed, and pre-
Tall/short, fat/thin, pretty/ugly and
teach any structures or vocabulary
old/young.
which they might need. You can start
with very short stories, three or four After this, they can start to write their
sentences in length, and give them a descriptions. For beginners, these
topic to write about such as an animal or descriptions could be as short as:
a hobby.
He is old.
For basic learners, these He is tall.
He has short hair.
stories could be as simple
as: To add an extra element of fun to this
activity, you could even turn it into a
I like football. Football is fun. We play game by letting the class guess what or
football at school. who the writer is describing.
Elephants are big and gray. Elephants
love to swim. I like elephants.
WRITING A (BASIC)
To give your students further
EMAIL
encouragement, you can put their While the previous activities are more
stories on display boards, have them geared towards younger learners,
read the stories out to the class, or even writing an email is an activity that could
use decorative paper and have them be used for teenagers or adults with
create something to take home and basic English skills.
show their family. With these kinds of
twists, you can easily turn potentially dull Practicing writing emails will give your
lessons into the highlight of a student’s class a useful skill that they will probably
day. enjoy trying outside of class, or may
need to learn for their work life.
DESCRIBING A PERSON To start the activity, give your students a
OR OBJECT topic to talk about, restricting their
options to help them focus on the
Some of the first vocabulary that appropriate language. Depending on
students learn will be around colors and your type of class and their own goals,
other basic adjectives. You can often you could have them write an informal
use these types of words to have your email to a friend or family member, or
you could have them attempt a more  Ordering paragraphs or
formal email to a colleague. sentences coherently
Finally, make sure that you teach them  Forming effective “topic
some basic email etiquette such as sentences” (sentences placed
greetings and salutations. near the beginning of a
paragraph to outline its overall
Example emails could look like thought/intention)
this:
 Creating cohesion using
Dear James, transition words (words that link
thoughts/phrases together)
Tomorrow morning I will go to the
dentist. Writing is all about having a message
and communicating it successfully to
Best regards, other people. To do this, learners need
to develop macro skills that enable them
Elissa. to form ideas, organize them well, and
then express these ideas in a suitable
If you’re teaching in a region where style.
access to the internet is widespread,
you could even make this task a part of To help more advanced students focus
your students’ homework, by on building macro writing skills, you’ll
encouraging them to send you an email want to encourage them to produce
about something they did after class. larger and more complete pieces of
work (1-page essays, larger stories,
ADVANCED WRITING short plays, advertisements, etc.) and
then help to assess these pieces in
SKILLS – MACRO VS terms of how well they transfer ideas,
meet the targets of the writing (eg. a
MICRO SKILLS motivational story), and how well they’re
To produce great pieces of writing, structured.
learners will need to develop a range of
different skills and competencies. These
MICRO SKILLS
can often be grouped into two overall Writing skills at the micro-level are
areas – macro skills and micro skills. related to promoting accuracy or using
the correct written form.
MACRO SKILLS
Such micro-skills include:
Macro skills are those that focus more
on content and organization.  Learning how to spell and
punctuate correctly
Examples of activities that
 Using correct grammar and
focus on macro skills would be:
structure.
  Selecting words and phrases them to practice writing. It’s common to
appropriate for the kind of writing find students who can speak English at
a very high level, and may even use it
With micro skills, learners would focus
without difficulty at work, or when
more on individual words and
studying overseas. However, when it
sentences. Exercises relating to micro
comes to emails, letters or assignments,
skills would usually be more controlled
their writing skills can let them down
and focus on accuracy.
drastically, and with writing, mistakes or
Some examples of such micro-level gaps in learning can be very obvious.
writing activities would be:
One of the main challenges for you at
 Substitution exercises (replacing this level of teaching will be creating
certain words in sentences to interesting activities so that your
alter its meaning) students don’t mind the continued work
on this potentially unpopular English
 Sentence extensions (trying to skill.
expand example sentences)
 Reordering exercises (adjust the
order of words in a sentence to
produce a certain type of result)
ADVANCED WRITING
 Spelling or punctuation exercises
SKILLS – ACTIVITIES
By helping more advanced students to Here we’ll cover a range of activities and
focus on these different areas – both approaches that can be used with more
macro and micro skills – you’ll enable advanced students, to help them
them to create more natural and continue developing their writing skills.
effective pieces of writing.
REINFORCING
ADVANCED WRITING SENTENCE
SKILLS – GETTING STRUCTURES
OVER THE HUMP No matter how advanced your students
get, sentence structures will continue to
Once your students have more than a be a challenge. English sentences can
basic understanding of how to write in be difficult, and without an intuitive
English, they may become reluctant to understanding of how they are put
keep practicing the skill. They may even together, your students may struggle.
think they’ve learned everything they This is especially true as the sentence
need to know, and can just focus on structures they learn get longer and
their speaking skills. more complex. For these reasons, no
While it’s true that your students may matter how advanced your students get,
spend most of their time communicating you should continue to emphasize and
through speaking, it’s still important for teach this skill.
Once they are at an advanced level, structure of their writing and ensure it
your students should be more involved flows well.
in their own learning. When examining
and explaining sentence structures, ask FORMAL AND
your students ‘why’ continually, such as
why a certain word is in a certain
INFORMAL LANGUAGE
position, or why it can’t go in a different Teaching your students the difference
position. The idea behind this is to make between formal and informal writing will
your students think about what they are give them an edge when they come to
doing, and why it’s right or wrong. This professional or academic situations.
can eventually help them to self-check Writing emails to friends and writing
and correct some of their own mistakes. business emails require entirely different
language rules, and without an
WRITING STRUCTURES understanding of this students will
struggle in their professional careers
Writing structures refer to the
and may even unknowingly cause
overarching rules that govern how a
offense.
piece of writing is organized. Once they
have a good understanding of To avoid this, ensure that your students
sentences, help them to create longer understand what types of contexts
pieces of writing by teaching them how require formal language, as well as the
to write introductory paragraphs, the corresponding rules, such as:
main body of a text, and conclusions.
Formal language should avoid the use
These types of structures are vital in
of contractions.
academic writing, and without an
understanding of them, your students’ In formal writing, do not use slang or
writing will remain disorganized and idioms.
ineffective.
Formal language contains a number of
To give your students practice with these words and phrases that aren’t often
kinds of writing, you can give them a used in informal speech such
number of tasks such as: as Sir/Madam, therefore, due to, thus,
kind regards etc.
Assign your students an essay on a
subject they enjoy. Because students at this level are more
advanced, helping them to discover
Ask your students to write a letter to a
these rules on their own can be better
friend they haven’t talked with in a long
for their learning and understanding than
time.
simply telling them. For example, you
Get them to write a 1-page story. could give them two printed emails, one
formal and one informal that refer to the
Unlike the basic stories they will have
same subject, and let them discover the
written before, with advanced classes
language differences for themselves.
you can push them to work more on the
JOURNALING your students have been taught the
resulting sentence structures which
Asking your students to keep a journal they’ll need to use.
about their language learning can be an
This can require some extra planning on
excellent technique to accelerate their
your side, but is very important for
writing ability. By completing a short
students who will need to master these
journal entry after every lesson, they will
techniques for exams.
have a written record of their own
progress as well as a reminder of
previous work they have completed.
TEACHING WRITING –
This can also help with motivation, as it SUMMARY
allows them to see how far they have
come in their learning. The majority of ESL students have
difficulty learning to write well. Even
Additionally, as your students get more learners who speak with relative ease
advanced, you can encourage them to will probably write quite poorly in
go back and correct their own work in comparison.
the journal. This process, teaching them
to see and correct their own mistakes, Writing also tends to reveal
will help your students develop problems with grammar and word
independence and greater control of choice that go unnoticed in
their own learning. It may also make conversation, uncovering gaps in their
them more aware of gaps in their learning and understanding. As such,
understanding or writing ability. giving your students help with writing will
improve their language skills as a whole.
SENTENCE REWRITING With beginners, it can help to first build
Sentence rewriting is a very difficult but some positive connotations towards
essential skill if your students intend to writing. By teaching students
take any kind of ESL exam such that writing can be fun and interesting,
as IELTS. In these kinds of tests, you’ll help to convince them that they
students are required to examine a shouldn’t avoid practicing this skill.
sentence and then rewrite it without As your ESL students move to a more
changing its meaning. This skill also advanced level of English, attention will
helps to test their understanding of likely turn away from the fundamentals,
words and phrases, as it requires an in- and more towards applying these skills
depth understanding of the language in a professional or academic
being used. context. At this point, it will become
When giving these tasks to students, important for you to keep your students
you should make sure to start with motivated by showing the progress that
simple sentences, so that they become they’ve made and the value of the work
familiar with the purpose and techniques that they’re doing. Using journals and
involved. You should also make sure looking back at previous pieces of
writing are two useful techniques to help
with this.
While it will take a lot of work from your
students, and some careful lesson
planning from you, you’ll begin to
make gradual but significant
improvements over time. Just make
sure to keep including writing activities
in your classes, and if students grow
bored, don’t be afraid to experiment with
new activities.