Teaching English as a Foreign Language for Dummies (26 page)

Putting Pen to Paper

By the time you start getting into writing, your students should have had a chance to listen, speak and read the language to some degree. They have also copied information down, but actually writing in their own words is more of a challenge. After all, proof of progress (or not) remains there in black and white for the world to see. So, teach your students what it takes to make a decent sentence. This will be the foundation for future written texts.

158
Part III: Teaching Skills Classes

Paying attention to basic writing skills

Most EFL teachers are fortunate enough to have students who can already wield a pen and form all the letters of the alphabet in English. You may take this ability for granted. However, if you encounter students who either have a different writing system in their home country and have had no opportunity to learn the English one, or are illiterate in their first language, you need to start teaching writing skills with the alphabet itself.

It could be embarrassing for students to admit that they are having difficulties starting out, so be vigilant. Students who make no effort to write anything down at beginner level may need special attention.

Right from the first lesson, give your students opportunities to copy from the board. This allows you to start snooping from the outset. Whether you talk to the students directly about their notes or discreetly lean over their shoulders as they write, make sure that they are all able to copy what you have written legibly and accurately.

Point out the errors or else they may become engrained (especially poor spelling) and if a student’s handwriting may cause a problem for native English speakers, let the student know. I mention this because national styles vary and the formation of particular letters could be interpreted differently with a foreigner’s eye.

Completing sentences

The problem for many students is that they don’t understand what a sentence actually is. Without a basic grammar rule they tend to come up with

‘sentences’ like these:

✓

The blue bag there.

✓

Chicken, fish and pork, for example.

✓

Is very nice here.

With the exception of short
imperatives,
the little action based phrases you tend to yell at people – ‘Shut up!’ ‘Look!’ or ‘Sit!’ – a good sentence needs a noun and a verb at least. You may have learned this rule as ‘subject + predicate’ at school, but basically the idea is that there is a person/thing doing something or being something. Applying this principle, I made complete sentences from the phrases in the first list:

Chapter 11: Write or Wrong? Teaching Writing Lessons

159

✓

The blue bag is there.

✓

I like chicken, fish and pork, for example.

✓

It is very nice here.

After they know to join a noun and a verb, you need to check that students understand the rules of punctuation. For example, have a lesson or two on using capital letters, not just at the beginning of a sentence but for days of the week, months, place names, people’s names and all other proper nouns.

(I talk about punctuation marks in Chapter 10.)

When students have the hang of basic sentence construction, they can start working on the content by using a wider range of grammar and vocabulary.

They can incorporate more adjectives and adverbs to create interest. In addition, you can practise various expressions of opinion such as ‘I think’ and ‘in my opinion’ to make their expressions sound more natural.

Higher level students have a problem identifying what a sentence is as well as lower level ones and many make the mistake of having one ginormous sentence where two or three shorter ones would be far better.

Moving on to paragraphs

Your next task after your students can write a good sentence is to show the class how to build sentences into a paragraph and convey the basic rules and tips for doing so.

Each paragraph should contain a separate idea. One sentence sums up what the whole paragraph is about and is generally called the
topic sentence.
It’s easiest to teach students to put the topic sentence at the beginning of the paragraph although in other texts they read they might find it in the middle or at the end. The following sentences should support the idea in the topic sentence and/or give examples.

Once you have several sentences for the paragraph, they need to fit together well. For this students need to know
linking words
like the ones listed in Table 11-1 and what kind of punctuation goes with them (some follow a comma, some a full stop and others need nothing at all):

160
Part III: Teaching Skills Classes

Table 11-1

How to use linking words

Some lower-level linking words

so

You generally use a comma before these words

when they join two sentences together. Some people

and

leave out the comma when the two sentences are

very short.

but

Patrick had two bags but he gave one to Nasreen.

because

When these words are first in the sentence use a

comma before the second clause (part of sentence

when

which is itself like a sentence with a subject and

verb ).

before

Because I like him, I bought him a gift.

You don’t need a comma when these words are

between the clauses.

I greeted him when I saw him at the party.

Examples of linking words for intermediate level and above

however

Use a comma after this word when it links sentences

and clauses.

I had a nice day. However, the weather was poor.

in addition

You use
in addition
or
in addition to this
with a comma then a clause.

There are several styles of dress on display. In addi-

tion to this, there are many nationalities costumes.

consequently

You begin a new sentence with these words and a

comma to link the sentence with an idea you have

already mentioned.

I liked the cuisine. Furthermore, the museums were

very good

When your students know how to master a sentence and build sentences into a paragraph, they are ready to tackle a more substantial task where they write a complete text.

Chapter 11: Write or Wrong? Teaching Writing Lessons

161

Structuring a Writing Lesson

For a writing lesson to be successful, you need to set the writing task up so that students are clear about what they have to do and how best to tackle it.

A wide variety of tasks cover various sub-skills too, for example using register, which means the right formal or informal style, and adapting to different kinds of texts.

When deciding on a writing task to set, ask yourself some questions as an initial checklist.

✓

Is it appropriate for the class in terms of level, relevance and interest?

✓

Is it clear what the purpose of the task is?

✓

Is it clear who the imagined reader is?

✓

Do the students have sufficient information to complete the task (vocabulary, layout, background, examples)?

If you have a task which seems to fit the bill, you now need to build a lesson around it.

Energising the class with pre-writing tasks

As writing is often a quiet, solitary activity, a
pre-writing task
is usually necessary because such tasks energise and prepare the students. They allow for collaboration and help students put together ideas which will make the actual writing task more successful.

Fostering discussion

A class discussion is a good way to generate ideas on the writing topic.

To begin the discussion provide an example of the topic. Tell a story, use a visual image or provide a text which gets students thinking along the right lines. You could also put some keys words on the board and ask students what they have in common. Then, ask students to add some more relevant words to the ones you have presented.

If the task you intend to set is a composition about an interesting experience while on holiday, for example, you can begin the lesson with a personal anecdote about one of your holidays and then open the topic up to the students to tell each other similar stories, which should get the creative juices flowing.

Alternatively, a short reading about a trip, an exotic piece of music or stimulating photograph from a far away land can stimulate conversation which leads in the direction of the writing topic.

162
Part III: Teaching Skills Classes

Save vocabulary or key points which come from the discussion and are relevant to the task by writing the words on the board. This gives you something to do and prevents you from hogging the discussion.

Brainstorming tends to raise energy levels as well. Once students are used to the idea of calling out all their ideas on a topic and benefiting from other people’s contributions, they can easily do it in small groups with no help from you at all. The class may offer vocabulary or perhaps questions that they think a reader would like the final written piece to answer. Once the groups have something down on paper they can compare with each other for more input.

Some possible topics to brainstorm are:

✓

How many words can you think of which are connected with the topic?

✓

If you read an article on this topic, what information would you expect it to include?

✓

Are there different characters or locations in this piece of writing? What vocabulary do I need to describe them?

✓

Does this topic include pros and cons? What are they?

Building structure

Another approach is to focus on the structure of the written work, helping the students conform to the layout needed and remember the expressions that link ideas together. In each case students ought to think through the text beforehand by writing a plan. There should be an outline of each paragraph and the ideas associated with each one. In Appendix A I show examples of formal and informal letters, a review, a report and an essay. I show a template and an example.

Letter writing

All letters need an address, date, opening greeting, paragraphs which each have a main point, a closing greeting and signature. Letters divide into formal and informal, as follows:

✓

Formal letters:
At the top of a formal letter you usually write two addresses. The first is your own address and the second is the address of the person you intend to read the letter. You can’t use contractions (shortened forms of words) in formal letters. That means you need to write
do not
instead of
don’t
, for example. The purpose of writing the letter must be clear from the first paragraph and you have to stick to formal language with no slang. At the end, you write
Yours sincerely
(if you mentioned the reader by name) or
Yours faithfully
(if you started with
Dear Sir/Madam)
and under your signature you print your name and job title (if relevant).

Chapter 11: Write or Wrong? Teaching Writing Lessons

163

✓

Informal letters:
The difference between formal and informal letters is that you only need your address at the top. You can use contractions and informal language. You still need to write in paragraphs, but at the end of the letter you use friendlier closing expressions like
See you
and
Take care.
Finally you sign your name, perhaps just your first name, and you don’t need to print it clearly below.

Essays

When students give their opinions in writing there are different ways to set out the essay. You can state your opinion in the introduction and proceed to explain your view. You could also have a general introduction, explain both sides of the argument and give your opinion in the conclusion. However, there should always be an and introduction, paragraphs highlighting main points in each, along with examples and ideas which support the point and finally a concluding paragraph which sums up the essay. The language should be formal.

Stories

A story requires creative language in the form of descriptive adjectives and adverbs, and direct speech quoting what the characters say. It is not so important for the students to have great plots in their stories, as time is limited in EFL lessons. Rather, they should be able to describe events, people and places well. Usually, students need to be accurate in using the past simple, continuous and perfect tenses (according to their level) and they also need linking words which show the sequence of events such as
and then, after
that
and
finally.

Reports

A report is a formal presentation of information so it requires formal language. There should be clear headings and subheadings including the divi-sion of
Introduction
(followed by the purpose of the report)
, Findings
and
Conclusion/Recommendation.
Students should avoid writing their opinions throughout report and restrict their own ideas to the
Recommendations
section.

Reviews

Depending on how many words the review includes, the text might include several paragraphs or just one. However the text should say what the is being reviewed, the good and bad points and a recommendation for readers.

The degree of formality that the students use depends on the kind of publication or the reader the student is writing for.

You can provide the students with a kind of template of how the work should look. Ask the students questions about how the piece of writing should look and set out the format on the board. Figure 11-1 shows the template for an essay on having a holiday in your own country. Figure 11-2, meanwhile, is an example of how a student might structure an informal email.