In most of the cases, a written composition activity
is the most hated task for students. That is the reason why teachers have a
huge responsibility: keep students motivated and on task. As an English teacher
who works with teenagers in high school, I have witnessed students’ highly
reluctant attitude towards written tasks. Before thinking of the reasons why
they do not like writing we may start by mentioning that the mere idea of
having to write a paragraph instead of isolated sentences seems to be the worst
thing that could have happened to them ever. Now, moving to the reasons it must
be said that students do not like to write about topics they do not feel
related to, they do not want to use formal ways to express their thoughts and
what is more, they feel too frustrated to continue when they face vocabulary
issues or lack of knowledge on how to conjugate a verb or use a word.
Keeping those aspects and others in mind, some of the
things I have done to help my students in their writing process include:
- Let students create stories about a topic of their
choice as long as they use the target vocabulary and structures.
- Have students work in small groups so that they do
not have to think of the whole idea of the text, but continue with what the
other classmate started.
- Show students a picture that they can use for their
written composition, as sometimes they assure that it is hard for them to start
writing something without something inspiring.
- Give students very clear instructions of what the
writing must include and also the approximated number of words.
- Have students start their writing compositions
brainstorming.
- Ask students to hand in drafts and talk to them when
I give them feedback so that I can help them clarify their ideas before they
finish their product.
In conclusion, I would say that we need to help our
students see writing as a process. My students feel easily frustrated as they
have many knowledge gaps and this makes writing even harder. What I have been
working on the most is trying to make them realize that writing is something
that they can modify, restate and improve rather than a reason for a bad grade.
I also invite you to read my post: what should we expect from our students' writing outcomes?
Great blog!!! Good writing doesn't happen by accident. I do believe that successful writing relies on varied tools and strategies. I am glad to find you have a clear profile of your students. In this way, things get a little easier and you help these learners be fond of writing.
ResponderEliminarSometimes, writing is regarded as a very difficult skill as it demands a lot from writers in terms of content and structure. As pointed out by Georgiou & Pavlou (2003), “writing in a foreign language is difficult as it presupposes mastery of language areas such as spelling, grammar and vocabulary, as well as skills like handwriting and punctuation”. However, considering students background and preferences might make much easier the process of writing.
TOP STUFF.
Georgiou,I., & Pavlou, P. (2003). Assessing Young Learners. Newyork.Oxford.
University Press.