Name : Yulistia Rahmi Putri

NPM/Class : 19040001/19A
Source : English For Young Learners (Reading Report Writing For Young Learners)
Date : Jumat, April 22, 2022

A. Concept Of Teaching Writing For Young Learners

Writing can be an engaging, interesting and inspiring activity for young learners. Children
are active learners and thinkers, learn through social interaction and learn effectively through
scaffolding by more able others who can be adults or peers. Collaborative and well-planned
writing tasks encourage the context for all of these characteristics to be fully exploited in the
young learner classroom. Writing is a complex skill to develop and master, focusing on both
the end product and the steps to arrive there. Writing skills only develop when young learners
are taught how to write and are given opportunities to practice these skills and strategies.

B. Background Of Teaching Writing For Young Learners

Writing tends to be somewhat neglected in the classroom, but it is an essential part of
language development. Good writing skills are based on good reading skills, you need to
recognize words in order to write and use them comprehensibly.
a. Many young learners will not have fully developed their own L1 writing skills, and
these strategies may not necessarily transfer to writing in English.
b. Writing allows young learners to practice new vocabulary and structures.
c. It allows for a high degree of personalisation and creativity.
d. It provides young learners to take risks and try out new language.
e. Writing skills equip young learners with a solid base for future development and
learning.
f. A focus on writing tasks in the classroom creates variety and caters for different
learning styles.
g. Teachers can diagnose learners‘ strengths and areas to develop in terms of vocabulary,
structure, spelling.
h. Focusing on this area can install the joy of writing from an early age.
C. Activities for Teaching Writing to Young Learners
When teaching writing to young learners, I try to keep a few principles in mind:

1. Draw on kids’ sense of play and imagination: We expect children to be serious, but
they like to play. If we design activities that allow them to learn language at the same
time as having fun, they will both feel more positive about the language and learn to
use it for communicative purposes.
2. Start writing from the beginning: Don’t wait until learners have mastered the
language before letting them write. Even low proficiency learners can do creative
things with a limited vocabulary and incomplete knowledge of grammar systems.
3. A little goes a long way: We don’t have to teach many different things in one lesson.
Instead, children learn through repeating. They even like to repeat the same activities
and games because it is familiar and because they can gain skill—each time, they can
do better.
4. Focus on progress, not perfection: Children should not be expected to create perfect
texts. Instead, we should value their ability to make progress and get better at what
they are able to do. Provide feedback for development, and don’t grade based on error.

Writing Letters and Words

When they are just starting to learn a new language, especially if the language uses a
different writing system than their home language, low-proficiency young learners need
practice forming letters and writing individual words. These activities give them that
practice in ways that are more fun than just tracing letters with a pencil.

a) Tactile and tasty: The same letter-formation activities that beginning first-language
writers do can help second-language writers practice as well. These include finger
painting with pudding, creating letter shapes with licorice strips, or placing
chocolate chips on pattern—all of which not only allow for writing practice, but also
provide a sweet treat when the learners have completed their tasks.
b) Kinesthetic letter formation and spelling: If you don’t want to bring food into the
classroom, you can also have students form letters using ribbon or clay. They can
 play a game by writing words with their fingers or a chopstick on classmates’ backs;
the classmate has to guess what word was written.
c) Games and art: When students are able to write single words, they can play
hangman, which requires attention to the alphabet and spelling. Those who like to
draw may enjoy various forms of word art, forming images with the letters that spell
a given word (see examples of word art animals, or typography art objects). They
can also start writing acrostic poems in which you write a word vertically and then
choose a related word that starts with each of the letters.

Using Images
Incorporating multimodal elements allows lower proficiency writers to create meaningful
texts that go beyond what they are able to say in words. With technology resources, learners
can tell complex stories or illustrate their thoughts in more detail.

a) Picture stories using PowerPoint: Students select a series of pictures that convey
their story, and then draft simple sentences for each slide to add information. This can
also be done in a digital storyboard app or an e-book creator if you have access. The
point is that students are able to draw on their full imagination to tell their stories
rather than just on their limited second language vocabulary and grammar resources.
b) Make your own manga: Make Beliefs Comix and other comic-creation sites provide
structure and images, which students can use to put together as they wish; they then
add dialog to complete their stories. Even low-proficiency learners can make simple
dialogues using language they have learned in class; kids are often able to combine
everyday dialogues in humorous ways when they can put them together with pictures.
c) Postcard to a penpal: Using richly detailed pictures out of magazines or travel
websites, students write a postcard to an imaginary English-speaking friend about
their visit to that place. If each child has their own copy of a picture, they can start by
drawing themselves into the scene and then writing about what they are doing in that
place.

Grammar Games
Even learning the grammar necessary for writing can be turned into games. Because
learning structures requires practice and repetition, making the process fun instead of
tedious has the additional bonus of being something students will actually look forward to.
a) Silly sentences: If you’ve ever studied a language on Duolingo, you may be familiar
with such logic-defying sentences as “The elephant is in the sugar on the plate.” Kids
can make these kinds of sentences on their own. Make flashcards with vocabulary
words (be sure to have both nouns and verbs, as well as adjectives and adverbs if
relevant). Students can manipulate the cards to come up with the silliest sentences
possible, as long as they maintain grammatical order. You can either provide
additional cards with articles, prepositions, and other function words, or you can have
students fill those in when they copy their sentences onto the board to share with the
class.
b) Erase and replace: Write a paragraph on the board or project a text for the class to
see. Students take turns replacing one word with another that fits grammatically. They
can choose to maintain the logic or to change it to be humorous.