Teaching the Written Word to Those Whose Words are Limited
Get your learners' pens moving by emptying their thoughts onto the page.
By Tom Duda
As I sit here with my hands on the keyboard getting ready to write my new article for Lesson Planet, I ponder the words that I always told my students. “Writing is easy” I would say, while looking over a classroom of bewildered and scared faces. The fact that I often said this, but then find myself procrastinating with computer games and YouTube videos, makes me wonder if my words were somewhat hypocritical. Even after motivation strikes me, I still fumble through my outline trying to take my ideas and eke out something worthy for human eyes. I am sure that many of my readers would be able to give me excellent motivational advice, and I speak English, so I would easily comprehend such guidance. English is my mother tongue, and still I struggle to write at times. What advice could one give to someone whose vocabulary may be under five hundred words? How can that limited student of English get started when putting pen to paper or fingers to the keyboard? In Turkish, as well as many other languages, the written word is not structured in the same way that English is structured. Not only the sentence structure is different, but the way ideas are organized in a document also varies. How does one introduce structure when a student has never heard of this concept before?
Teacher/Student Ping Pong
One of the schools I taught for divided instruction into sections: grammar, reading, writing, and speaking—in that order. The writing section was the most dreaded for both the students and the instructors. The textbook, for me, was too mechanical, especially for beginners. Therefore, during the first couple of classes of our writing lessons, I announced, “Leave your books under your desks.” I solicited a few smiles from my students, only to see them vanish when I asked them to take out a piece of paper. There is nothing more intimidating then a blank piece of paper waiting for your masterpiece to unfold. Artists and writers often mention this fact. Confidence begins to manifest itself only after one makes his first mark. Happiness abounds when I tell my reluctant writers that there are no mistakes that can be made, and then ask them to write down three topics they would like to write about. The important thing here is that their topics can be anything they want to write about, as long it is not too broad or too narrow. I always give some help by putting examples on the board. Here are some topics to get your writers' creative minds going:
- Family members
- Friends
- A trip they'd like to take
- What they would do if they went to another planet
- Their favorite day or holiday, etc.
Now have each person write his name on his paper, and hand it in to you. At this point, the paper has the person's name, and his topic ideas. That's all. This is where the fun begins for the teacher. The writing begins to be a form of Ping-Pong. As the papers go back and forth between me and my pupils, it gives me the chance to go over their writing and offer my input and comments. I like to have a back-and-forth written communication with my students in writing classes. I write to them and they write back for me. It helps them feel as if they are writing to someone; it also offers the opportunity for them to consider their audience while they write. Now, at this point in the project, I have only offered my comments on my students' topics. As I turn back the papers, we move to the next step: brainstorming.
The Brainstorming Phase
The next step is brainstorming, and here is where I differ from traditional teaching methods. My philosophy is to just get one's thoughts written down. Some people work well with flow charts, but this is not true for everyone. I don’t want anything to use up my pupils' writing brainpower. If writing on a paper towel, or even on toilet paper, lets them get their ideas written down, then so be it. When we are working in the classroom, the above-mentioned piece of paper serves well for getting the brainstorming ideas out of their heads and into writing. After all, students seldom think about writing when they are washing their hands or are in the bathroom. The main thing is to get their pens moving.
At this point, the chosen subject is not too narrow or too broad, and the brainstorming phase begins. Again, with me, neatness does not count. It's about getting words on the paper. I tell them not to think too deeply, but just empty their brains on the page. I again collect their papers and give them feedback. After my feedback is complete, I pass out the papers, and we begin to write.
The Writing Phase
The next stage is writing. This is a little more difficult as organization becomes an issue. I direct each person to take their brainstorming list, choose what they want to include in the actual paper, and then make a logical sequence out of these thoughts/ideas. Since most of my ESL students' first language lacked the organizational structure of English, I like to put some time into getting their organization on track. Some writers rewrote each idea in what seemed to be a logical order, while others simply numbered their ideas. In true Ping-Pong style, the papers were handed back to me for input. Once I offered my feedback, we moved to editing.
The Editing Phase
The next part, and the part I consider to be quite difficult, is editing. I love editors. Many a time I was saved by my editors, and here is where your pupils will learn to appreciate them too. I hand them a worksheet with all the common editing rules numbered. Then I let them try to find their own mistakes and correct them. Once this is complete, the papers come back to me. I edit and offer the editing rule number I used to make the correction. When they get the paper back with my corrections, they get to see the logic of the English after they have thought so hard about how it should be structured. Grammar, logic, spelling, and punctuation are paramount in this stage.
Then it is time to repeat the cycle, but this time we work on vocabulary. This is usually the first time my ESL learners are introduced to a thesaurus. I like to tell them that is a book of synonyms and antonyms. After I have taught them not to repeat themselves with the same words throughout the document, I show them how to make use of the thesaurus. Generally, their vocabulary acquisition goes through the roof! However, they also learn that just because a word is in the thesaurus, it doesn't always mean it is interchangeable with the synonym. To use one student’s writing as an example: when writing about a dirty restaurant, she wrote, “Insects browse the dish.” Of course, this made me smile, but it also offered the opportunity for me to point out that one must double-check a word's meaning and use. In this case, browse is something one does on the Internet or while shopping, not really applicable to a dinner plate. This hands-on learning offers a perfect lesson in the fact that, apart from finding the correct part of speech, word choice is not always easy. If you want one final round of Ping-Pong, you can have learners pass their papers to you one more time for final input and grading. If you simply wanted them to practice the process of writing, you can end the project after the thesaurus phase.
Lessons Learned
There are many kinds of writing: prose, the essay, writing about a process, to name a few. I first want to teach my students that writing is not that difficult when broken down into manageable tasks. I also want them to discover an interest in the art of writing. After that, I move on to the essay as it is good for modeling a writing structure. Once reluctant writers have tried this step-by-step writing process a few times, I find they are often transformed into prolific writers, even if their vocabulary is limited!
Ideas to Supplement Your Writing Lesson:
This is a great worksheet to introduce students to a thesaurus. Exercises are given for pupils to use synonyms and antonyms in several sentences.
Scholars work in pairs giving simple directions and other pupils try to precisely convey it to paper. Although this activity is geared toward younger learners, the concept can be used for ESL students.
Brainstorming is a technique that is very important, but every writer should use the technique that works best for him. Here, the learner is introduced to the method of brainstorming visually.