Why is writing so difficult to master for English learners?

• Limited vocabulary

• Grammar issues

  • e.g. verb tense problems

  • "Yesterday I eat fish for dinner."

• Nervous about sharing and/or peer editing

• Not as intuitive: what sounds “right” or “wrong”?

• Not used to English writing conventions

  • e.g. levels of formality

  • "Hey Professor Chen, what's up?"

Four general guidelines for teaching writing

1. Use models / examples

   • The more examples your students read, the more they'll improve on their own writing!

   • Review relevant vocabulary and phrases

     • e.g. review common greetings and closings before teaching how to write a letter to a friend

2. Spend time on pre-writing

   • Have your students brainstorm / list / outline their thoughts

   • Ask them: Who is the audience? What is the main idea?

3. Build in time for revision

   • Writing is a process

   • Revision is central to improving all types of writing

4. Avoid "translated writing"

   • What is translated writing?

     • When you write everything first in Chinese, then translate it into English

   • Why avoid this?

     • English doesn’t match Chinese / other native languages!

     • As a result, this will actually lead to more strange errors and mistakes that are difficult to fix!

     • Therefore, even though writing in English might be slower at first, it's more effective for improving writing in the long term

Writing process overview

• Pre-writing

  • Showing models / examples

  • Teaching vocab / phrases

  • Brainstorming / outlining

  • Could be in pairs or groups

• Drafting

  • Writing the first draft

• Initial feedback

  • Can be instructor and/or peer

  • However, peer feedback may not be as effective if your students are lower-level

• Revising

  • Writing another draft based on feedback

• Final feedback

  • Finishing the work of writing

Remember, the writing process is flexible -- you may only need one round of drafting, or you may need three or five or more. If you're teaching freewriting, you don't need drafting or revising at all!

As always, you must think about the type of writing you are trying to teach and your students' skill levels. What kind of writers are they? What is going to work best for them?

Giving writing feedback

Teaching controlled writing

What is controlled or guided writing?

• Controlled writing is when you, as the teacher, are providing a structure for the writing activity

• In other words, you are guiding students in a more step-by-step way through the writing process

When might you want to use controlled writing?

• To focus on specific grammar points

• If your students are lower-level and need more support

Examples of controlled writing activities

• Paragraph tense alteration

  • Teacher presents a paragraph; students must change all present tense to past tense

• Fix the misspelled words

  • Teacher writes several words on the board; students must correct the misspellings

• Complete the dialogue or letter

  • Teacher presents a writing with blanks or missing sections; students fill in the blanks

• Dictation (more basic level)

  • Teacher reads a paragraph at normal speed 2-3 times

  • Then, teacher reads the same paragraph with pauses and/or at a slower speed

  • During the pauses, students write down exactly what they hear to the best of their abilities

• Answer questions in writing

  • Teacher shows a video and asks comprehension questions; students write down answers

Scaffolding controlled writing

• • As always, the teacher should try to scaffold their controlled writing activities for students of different skill levels

  • e.g. provide word bank and free response options

  • e.g. read the paragraph more times

Teaching self-writing

What is self-writing?

• Self-writing is when the writer is the only audience of their own writing

When would you use self-writing?

• To encourage creativity

• To boost writing confidence in a less stressful, non-graded context

Examples of self-writing activities

• Freewriting

  • Writing down anything that comes to mind for any amount of time; mistakes don't matter

  • Could be part of a pre-writing brainstorming session

• Journaling

  • Writing consistent "entries" -- e.g. could be random thoughts or a response to a prompt

  • Could be a dialogue journal -- i.e. the teacher responds with their own thoughts in writing

  • Can overlap with freewriting

  • Journaling still counts as self-writing because the primary audience is just the writer!

Scaffolding self-writing

• You might not want to use self-writing if your students are at a lower level and require more structure before they can freely write

• You could scaffold journaling by providing a variety of prompts and letting students choose what they want to write about

Giving feedback on self-writing

• Self-writing feedback should be content-based (not accuracy-based!)

• Therefore, instead of focusing on correcting grammar or spelling errors, try to comment on what the student is actually writing about

Teaching different types of writing

• It's important to teach a variety of writing types and activities

  • Whenever possible, balance between academic, professional, and personal writing (see below)

• Why teach different kinds of writing?

  • To help students improve their writing skills in many formats and contexts

  • To give students real reasons to write -- not just for class, but for authentic contexts and purposes outside of the classroom

  • To keep class interesting!

• Work in opportunities to give your students options; let them choose topics and prompts!