Teaching Writing

Ingles y su Enseñanza I
2014
Writing
 Communicating a
message by making
signs on a page.
 We need something

to communicate, and
usually someone to
communicate it to. Have you written
 Difficult skill:
anything in the past
◦ It has to be learnt /It is week? What?
not acquired as speech.  Make a list of text types.
◦ Absent audience
Each text type has different
characteristics:

 Words only /short sentences/long sentences

 Degrees of formality
 Layouts
 Ways of ordering information
 Levels of complexity of grammar
 Register and range of vocabulary
Subskills

 Accuracy (spelling- punctuation-legibility)

 Using correct layout
 Choosing right vocabulary and grammar
 Using paragraphs
 Appropriate functions to express meaning

(narrating, complaining, requesting,

thanking, summarizing, concluding)
A writer goes through a number
of stages of writing:

 Getting or developing ideas

 Planning/organizing ideas
 Writing the first draft
 Editing
 Proof-reading /checking for mistakes in

accuracy and correcting)

 Writing the final version
Activities to practise accuracy:
labelling, copying, sentence completion,
gap filling, sentence transformation,
dividing texts into paragraphs, putting
punctuation, correcting errors.

Activities to practise communicating

through writing:
story completion, jumbled picture
stories, writing birthday cards/e-
mails/invitations.
Guided writing
 Helping learners with the questions: what
have I got to say? How can I organize my
ideas? Some ways you can do this:
 Giving a series of pictures that tell a story and

asking the learners to write the story.

 Providing outline notes or key words.
 Giving a “model text”, pointing out language

that is commonly used in that type of text.

Provide a stimulus

 Stimulate learners´ imagination with pictures,

music, realia.
 Contextualize the writing task using listening

or reading input.
 Hold a class or group discussion that can

help learners develop ideas and rehearse

them ins speaking before they write them
down.
 Cooperative  Tasks should …
writing ◦ Be interesting and
motivating
◦ Be appropriate to the
  learner´s level
 Interactive ◦ Be appropriate for the
writing activities kind of learners you are
teaching
 Process writing
approach
Remember:

 Free writing is developed very slowly.

 Do not expect students to write freely what

they cannot say freely.

Bibliography

 House S. (1997) An Introduction to

Teaching English to Children, London,
United Kingdom: Richmond Publishing.
 Hadfield J. and Hadfield C. (2008)

Introduction to teaching English, Oxford,

United Kingdom: Oxford University Press.
 Thornbury S. and Watkins P. (2007) The

CELTA Course, Cambridge, United Kingdom:

Cambridge University Press.