Writing skill

Teaching writing
The nature of communication

Spoken language

Receptive Understanding Speaking Productive
Skills Reading Writing skills

Written language
Questions for you
1. Do you enjoy teaching writing? Why? Why not?
2. What type of writing activities/ tasks do you do with your students?
Pre-writing Activities
Using a drill
Using a listening text
Using a reading text
Using a survey
Using picture dictation
…
While-writing Activities
Write it up
Transformation
Substitution tables
Substitution boxes
Gap-fill
Questions and answers
Ordering
Brainstorming
Post-writing Activities
Correction
Sharing and comparing
Exhibition
Controlled writing task

Guided writing task

Free writing task
Examples of controlled writing tasks
Jumbled sentences
Copying with corrections
Find and copy
Dictation
Sentence combining
Transformation
Gap-fill
…

Examples of guided writing tasks
Guided sentence building
Picture description
Picture stories
Summary
Half dialogues
Story completion
Substitution boxes
Questions and answers
…

Examples of free writing tasks

Writing a deliberating passage
Writing a speech
Writing a story
Writing a letter
Exchange writings
Some examples of writing tests
Write a passage about :
Some advantages and disadvantages of wearing uniform to school.
The benefits of the Internet (English 9,P44)
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Some problems of writing from students
Unknown what and how to write
No idea to write
Mistakes in using vocabulary, grammar structure, verb tense/form, syntax
Miswriting genre and topic
Some examples of vocabulary, grammar mistakes
Some examples of vocabulary, grammar mistakes
We went to (see/saw) them yesterday
We went and (see/saw) them yesterday
He can (goes/ go/ to go) there today
He could (went/ go/ to go) there yesterday
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What students need to do in order to write
Know the aim - why they are writing
Know the audience - who they are writing to
Know the genre - what type of text they are writing


Solution(1)
Have enough time for:
- thinking about the topic
- brainstorming ideas
- planning ahead carefully
- drafting as many times as they can
Have constant feedback from teacher as well as their partners during the writing process
Solution(2)
Solution(3)
Give more exercises about verbs/tense, syntax, parts of speech.
Teachers need to train students from mistakes
Give out sample mistakes for students to avoid.
Consolidate the language ability
Lead carefully to write correctly for each genre (a passage, a speech, a letter..)
Encourage and make students interested in writing
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