10 subskills for i

teaching writing

Writing lessons don't always have to involve the students writing full-length texts. You can 7 Layout
also devote shorter sections of a lesson to developing specific subskills, depending on the have very specific layouts' You. can exploit
age, level and needs of the students.
Soi" t"rt.
and rnvrtrng tne
this by drawing the 'shape' of the text
of expressions and.phrases
'1. Forming letters .iri"it,. to sai what kinds
of the layout
go into *ni.f, part. So, in this example
Young learners who are also learning to write their own first language will need help with box
forming letters. The same can also be true for older students whose first language uses a
iiu t.tt.r., the students could say what is in eachetc')'
äo. .""aär'. address, date, receiver's address'
script that is very different from their own - Arabic or Chinese, for example. You can ask of
Äri"r.*,'.rv, they could choose from a selection
young learners to try drawing the letters in the air with a finger or making large, colourful fr.orn the letter and place them
.*or"..ion. tut
posters of each letter of the alphabet. Older students will need practice in copying the 26 "n
I"'in. .o"".tbox. For example Dear Sir or Madam
letters of the English alphabet if they need to write by hand in English.
would go into the fourth box'
2. Punctuation
8. ParagraPhs
lfyou have been teaching punctuation rules, one wayto practise is to take a text and more academic
EspeclallY when writing essaYs and
remove all the capital letters, commas, full stops and any other types of punctuation. Give to work on this skill is to take a text with
texts, students need to use ParagraPhs One waY
a copy to the students and get them to rewrite it with the punctuation in. on your comPuter by making the fi rst sentences
paragraphs and edit out the Paragraphs
straight on from the Previous sentence- Give out the block o{ text
3. Conjunctions 1
of each ParagraPh run
and ask the students to try to decide
where the origina I paragraphs would have started
Ito compare. This can ead on to a discussion
At lower levels, you will want your students to join sentences with conjunctions such as
and ended. Then show them the origina l-t
5
I

and, but, because and so. Give the students pairs of sentences and ask them to rewrite reasons for paragraphs-
about how they decided and the
them with a conjunction. For example: I live in England. I work in France. : I l[ve in
England but I work in France. 9. A wider variety of vocabulary
E
For
by widening the range of their vocabulary'
Students can often improve their writing
4. Conjunctions 2
exampte, some students tpiftr "alto''"""s
lik" 'nic"t or. 'good' when they could use more
At higher levels, your students will need to make their writing more cohesive, with words interestingandexpressivewords.Onewaytoraisetheirawarenessofthisistogivethema
such as Howeve r, Although, Neverthe/ess, Fortunately, etc. Try to find a text with a few of text like this:
these types ofwords and create a gapfill exercise where the students have to choose the each room has a (3) big balcony' Every
Our (1) nice hotel is on a (2) nice beach an.d for a (5) nice
correct one and write it in the text.
morning you can *utr:n1Äl rise over the (4) nice blue ocean and go
gZ"J'unuÄ"w"st in the hotel restaurant. tf you like (7) old
5. Spelling swim before eating a oi
town which also has a (9) good
buildings and (8) otd ;1":;;;;t can visit the local
English spelling is notoriously difficult. One approach to dealing with it is to take a selection sä*u presents for friends at home'
market where you can buy 00) nice
of words that your students commonly misspell and base parts of a lesson on them. interesting words' There is obviously
They have to replace the ad.lectives in bold with, more
For example, write 10 words on the board. Spell five of them correctly and five of them
i; each case' so the students can comPare their ideas' The
more than one correct
incorrectly. Get the students to discuss in pairs which five they think are wrong. Another way ";;;;
aim is to make them aware of how a wide variery of
vocabulary makes their writing more
is to write some of the words twice and ask the students to tick the correctly spelt word. on those in the text:
interesting. Here! a lisi of suggested words to imProve
For example: accommodation / accomodation x (3) (4) dystat (5) refreshing (6) hearty (7) historic
(1) beautiful (2) stunning huge
6. Register and formality (8) ancient (9) great (10) wonderful

Students need practice in identifying the correct level of formality or'register'when 10. Accuracy
writing. For example, a report for work will use more formal language than an email to an for mistakes' However'
Students need to develop the skill of checking their own work
old friend. An exercise such as the following raises this kind of awareness. Students have correction code can be an
they will initially rely ." vlrr."*i"9 and coÄctions' Using a
to match the less formal words in group A to the more formal synonyms in group B: more autonomy'
effective wav to approach this as it encourages
Group A: Tell, change, get, try, give, stop
Group B: Amend, terminate, receive, endeavour, donate, inform
(Answers: tell/inform, change/amend, geVreceive, trylendeavour; give/donate,
stop/terminate)

and Media Ltd and its licensors 2014' 125

ETpedia: 1,000 ideas for English language teachers O Pavilion Publishing
24 ETpediar l,000ideasforEnglishLanguageteachersOPavilionPublishingandMediaLtdandits icensoG2O14.