Unit 6: Teaching productive skills: speaking and writing

What do we mean by speaking?

Controlled practice activities, where the main focus is on accuracy (in terms of grammar or pronunciation), are also not usually classified as speaking activities. They may include some limited communication. For example, a class of low-level students are asked to form a chain around the class.

The first student asks the second student:

• “Do you like…..dogs/dancing/English lessons/pop music etc.?”

The second student has to respond:

• “Yes I do/No I don’t“.

The second student then asks the third student a question etc.

In this case, there is limited choice of language and communication involved; the students decide how to complete the question and can respond in one of two ways, but the main purpose is to practise forming present simple questions and giving short answers correctly. This makes it a controlled practice (accuracy based) activity.

While a speaking lesson may include some controlled practice, you should not make the whole lesson accuracy focused. The overall aim of a speaking lesson is to promote fluency and the ability to communicate freely in English.

What do we do with language?

When we are thinking about what we need to teach in speaking lessons, it is helpful to think about what we do with language when we are speaking. What are you doing when you say ‘hello’ or ‘hi’ to someone?

Although 'hello' and 'hi' are the most common ways of greeting people in English, there are other words and phrases that we could use to do this, such as:

• Good morning.

• How are you?

• Good afternoon.

• How’ve you been doing?

• Good evening?

• Hey! Yo!

• How are you?

• Hiya!

• What’s up? Wassup? Sup?

• Howdy!

• All right?

• What’s new?

• What’s going on?

• How do you do?

• How’s it going?

• Nice to meet you.

• Pleased to make your acquaintance.

• Long time, no see.

• Pleased to meet you.

Obviously, there is a wide range in the level of formality here and some of these phrases would be totally inappropriate in certain situations. Some would only be appropriate for someone you had only just met and others only for good friends. In terms of style choices there are probably some on the list that you would never use.

What they all have in common, though, is that they all perform the same function of greeting people. The different things we do with language, such as greeting people, are known as functions.

Making a request

Another example of a function in English is making a request. 

To help understand this concept better, it’s important to think about why we use language. Many linguists have suggested that language is a tool that we use to perform tasks. For example, when you go to get a coffee, you need to choose language that will allow you to perform the intended task. The language here could then be viewed as the tool, and the getting of a coffee, the task. The function then would be the verbal communication - in this case, ‘ordering’ - to complete this task. This may still seem a little bit abstract, so let’s look at the example of getting a coffee in a bit more detail.

Let’s imagine that you choose the following language to order your coffee:

• Give me a coffee now!

This sentence is grammatically correct, and although you might get a coffee, this isn’t what you’d normally say in a cafe. The question then is: why would this sentence, although ‘correct’, probably not achieve your purpose? You could say, ‘Well, clearly, it’s just a bit rude!’ but let’s put our language teaching hats on to understand why this is the case.

Case Study: Why is ‘Give me a coffee now!’ not appropriate?

First, we need to think about the situation and the task that we need to complete. At this stage we are not thinking about the tenses or the meanings of individual words, but how the structure we have chosen will function in a particular situation.

When we look at our sentence, we might think that the choice of the imperative ‘give’ is too direct in this situation and it might be better to use something less direct, such as: ‘Could I get a coffee?’, or ‘Can I have a coffee?’. From there we might also think that it would be good to start with a greeting, ‘Hi’ or ‘hello’, for example. And finish with something more polite like: ‘please’ or ‘thanks’.

Another example might be asking someone to open a window for you. There are multiple ways to frame such a request. 

• I wonder if you'd mind opening the window?

• Would you mind opening the window?

• Could I possibly ask you to open the window?

• Would/could/can/will you open the window, please?

• Open the window, will you?

• Open the window.

• Open the window, please.

• It's a bit stuffy in here, isn't it?

• Does anyone else want a bit of fresh air?

Again, all the different ways of saying this can be seen to perform the same function - in this case, making a request.

Functional exponents

he different ways of expressing the same function are called exponents.

As with the different greetings we explored previously and the window example, the greeting you choose would probably depend on where you were and how well you knew the person you were asking to open the window.

Notice that the more formal requests tend to be longer and more grammatically complex. With people we know well, we can use the simplest form: the imperative - that means just the verb without the subject e.g. 'Open the window' - but this could sound impolite in a different situation.

• I wonder if you'd mind opening the window?

• Would you mind opening the window?

• Could I possibly ask you to open the window?

• Would/could/can/will you open the window, please?

• Open the window, will you?

• Open the window.

• Open the window, please.

• It's a bit stuffy in here, isn't it?

• Does anyone else want a bit of fresh air?

The last two suggestions are indirect ways of saying that you would like a window to be opened and are specific to that particular situation. But notice that for all the other exponents, we could substitute 'open/opening the window' with another request, for example 'pass/passing the salt', 'give/giving me a lift home', etc.

Thinking about functional English is helpful when you are deciding what to teach in speaking lessons. 

Language Function	Exponent
Offering something	Would you like some (cake)?
Refusing an invitation	I’d love to, but (I’m working).
Promising	I'll (be there).
Warning	(Look out), or you’ll (fall).
Inviting	Would you like to (see a movie)?
Asking for information	Could you tell me (where the station is)?
Giving advice	If I were you, I’d (get a new phone).
Making suggestions	Let’s (get something to eat).
Giving opinions	I’d say (it’s a great idea).
Agreeing	I totally agree with you.
Disagreeing	Yes, I see what you mean, but (it’s too expensive).
Prohibiting	Sorry, you can’t (eat in the classroom).
Making logical deductions	He must have (forgotten about the meeting).

To help cement this idea of functions further, think about the following question. 

• How does understanding functions help us to help our students?

Functions are a way of describing how language operates. Unfortunately, there is not a recognised finite list as there is for the tenses. Notice that some functions overlap. For example, is 'I think you should see that film' a piece of advice or a suggestion? It doesn't really matter exactly how you describe the different functions; they are simply a useful way of thinking about language.

If you look at the contents pages of many English language teaching course books, you will usually find a functional language component. This is often called ‘Everyday English’ or 'Conversational English’ or something similar. A lesson of this type is based around one or two functions, e.g. invitations - accepting and refusing invitations. If you were giving a lesson on giving advice, for example, you would not tell the students all the different possibilities at once, just as you would not look at all the uses of the past simple in one lesson.

At lower levels we teach grammatically simpler functional language. When the students are at a higher level, they return to the same functions, but more complex exponents are introduced, so that students gradually build up a wide range of ways in which they are able to express functions, such as giving and asking for advice.

Notice that a lot of functional exponents use verbs such as would, could, will and should. These are known as modal verbs.

What functions should we teach our students?

We always have to keep the needs of our students at the centre of any decisions we make. For this reason, the functions we focus on should reflect our students’ real-world needs. 

• Do they often catch public transport? Then we need to help them learn language that will enable them to make requests and ask for information. 

• Are they young people who want English to travel? Then they may need to learn language for asking for information, inviting or refusing an invitation.

• Or do they use English in an office? Then they may need functional language for speaking on the phone, taking part in discussions, agreeing and disagreeing and giving opinions.

The bottom line is we need to know our students and focus our teaching of functions on what will help them be successful in their everyday lives.

Let’s make a list of the different ways of giving advice, e.g. Why don’t you...?

• Have you thought about...?

• How/What about...?

• You should...

• Why don't you...?

• It might be a good idea to...

• It would be good if you...

• If I were you, I'd...

• Perhaps you could...

• You could try...

• Have you tried...?

• You ought to...

• I suggest...

• I'd recommend...

• I advise...

• When talking to friends, we often just use imperatives, 'Go to the doctor'.

Now let’s look at stronger ways of giving advice:

• You really should...

• You must...

• You've got to...

• You have to…

The rest of this topic will take you through the planning of a functional language lesson.

If you were going to give a pre-intermediate (A2) group of adults their first lesson on giving advice, which two of the forms from the list above would you choose? Have a quick think about that before moving to the next page.

Selecting the 'target language' for an A2 lesson on giving advice

The language that you teach in the lesson is referred to as the target language. 

Let’s use a process of elimination to narrow down the suitable target language. 

EX:

1. Suggest, recommend and advise are less suitable for pre-intermediate students because the structures that follow them are quite complicated. For example:
   

   • I suggest…

   • I'd recommend…

   • I advise…

   • It would be good if you…
     

2. Exponents that use the 2nd conditional are not suitable because students will not yet have been introduced to that form. For example:

   • If I were you, I'd…
     

3. Imperatives and stronger ways of offering advice are not suitable because there is a risk of lower-level students sounding rude when they use these forms (they may not yet have a very good sense of the effects of intonation). For example:

   • Go to the doctor

   • You must...

   • You've got to…
     

4. Could try is NOT really suitable because it involves using three verbs together, which is complicated. For example:

   • You could try going…
     

5. Ought to is NOT suitable because unlike other modal verbs, it is followed by 'to', which makes it potentially confusing. For example:

   • You ought to go…
     

6. Exponents that use the present perfect are NOT suitable because a pre-intermediate group will not yet have been introduced to that form. For example:

• Have you thought about...?

• Have you tried...?

So, what does that leave us with? Any of the following would be suitable target language for students' first lesson on giving advice.

• How/What about...?

• You should...

• Why don't you...?

• (Perhaps) you could...?

Possible context for the target language

Let's now use the scenario where you have decided to give a lesson on presenting advice using the form:

• You should… 

• What about...?

You need to think of a context in which this language would occur.

Case Study:

Imagine someone tells you they have a terrible headache. Let’s look at some examples of the advice you might give using the forms You should and What about...?

Possibilities include:

• You should... take a tablet/call a doctor/lie down/turn off the light/not read/drink plenty of water etc.

• What about... taking a tablet/calling a doctor/lying down/ turning off the light/not reading/drinking plenty of water etc.

Look carefully at the language that follows You should… and What about...? How can we present the form in a formal way (S + should + ...), so that students would know how to form the sentence correctly whenever they used these phrases?

This is how the form is presented.

S + should + infinitive (without to)

You should go to the doctor

You (S) + should + go (infinitive) to the doctor

What about + verb + ing ?

What about going to the doctor?

What about going (verb + ing) to the doctor?

If students understand the form, then they can generate their own sentences, not just repeat the examples they saw in the lesson.

In lessons presenting functional language, teachers often follow the same procedures as for grammar lessons.

PPP procedure - selecting a context

1. Presentation of the new language (target language)

2. Practice – controlled practice of the new language

3. Production – freer practice of the new language

This is the 'body' of the lesson – there would also be a warmer/lead in and a closing stage. We will consider how you could apply this procedure to a low level lesson on giving advice.

For the presentation stage of the lesson, the teacher needs to think of a suitable context in which to present the target language (You should... and What about...? for giving advice).

Some possible situations in which you might give or ask for advice are:

• asking for advice about relationship problems

• problems at work

• a failing business

• looking for/applying for a job

• health/weight problems

• bringing up children, etc.

You would choose one which you thought was relevant/entertaining for your students and could generate some fairly simple advice using familiar language starting with ‘You should…/What about…?’

Using the context to elicit the target language

1. Introduce the context

The teacher starts the lesson by beginning to set the scene.

Claudia: 'I'm a bit worried today. This friend of mine phoned me yesterday.'

2. Use pictures to illustrate the situation

'This is Dave - he's the one who phoned me. We went to college together. He works in restaurants. He's a cook. Look, here's a picture of Dave from last month. How does he look?'

Students suggest unhappy, sad etc.

'OK. Yes, he is. I'll tell you why he's so unhappy.’

3. Develop the situation

'Dave worked in restaurants for years. He worked for other people - he always had a boss. He saved all the money he could… can you guess what he wanted to do?'

4. Show a picture of a cafe

Students make suggestions (hopefully appropriate - a teacher can steer them in the right direction by emphasising that he didn't like working for a boss, pointing at the picture etc.)

'That's right! He bought a restaurant last year. He's the boss now.

But it's not as good as he hoped. Look...'

5. Provide more detail

Introduce Dave’s Dining Room. 

'Here's a picture inside his restaurant...'

6. Move towards need for target language

'...and this is Dave's kitchen! What do you think? Would you like to go to Dave's restaurant?'

Students say no, it is dirty and horrible etc.

7. Pose questions to prompt target language (TL)

Claudia tells students what to do.

'...so, you can see why I'm worried about him. It's terrible for his business. No one wants to go there. He's afraid he will lose his money. He's really unhappy. I'm going to phone him later. What can I tell him? What do I say?'

8. Elicit (or give) target language (TL)

Students call out suggestions. Hopefully, someone will use the TL. If anyone produces a sentence with 'should,' grab it! Ask the student to repeat it, then get the whole class to repeat it, and write it on the board.

If no one produces the TL, then the teacher takes one or two suggestions the students have made and puts them into the TL:

'OK, thanks. Some good ideas here. You said, 'Clean the restaurant', but that doesn’t sound very nice: CLEAN YOUR RESTAURANT, DAVE!! Poor Dave! Look, he's unhappy. How can I sound nicer? Any ideas?'

MFP

In Unit 2 we said that when presenting new language, the teacher should always cover MFP. Can you remember what these letters stand for?

MFP: Meaning, Form, Pronunciation

How does MFP apply to teaching You should… and What about...? for giving advice? 

Meaning:

The context helps with the meaning.

Form:

We saw earlier that the form of the language is:

S + should + infinitive (without to)

What about + verb + -ing?

Pronunciation:

What do the students need to know about the pronunciation of the target language? 

Well, the ‘l’ in 'should' is not pronounced. This is the most important point.

The sentence stress and intonation patterns will be more difficult for you to identify at this stage. 

(When you are teaching you do not need to worry about this; simply get the students to listen and repeat. You will be able to hear if they are doing it properly or not.)

Drilling to teach pronunciation

The teacher can drill* some example sentences to help students practise the correct pronunciation.

*drill - make all the class repeat – This is very controlled practice.

Controlled practice

After completing the drilling, you should focus on further controlled practice in order to develop accuracy. Accuracy at this stage means getting both the grammatical forms and the pronunciation correct.

Because, in controlled activities, the focus is on getting the form right, correction should be immediate. When a student gets it wrong, stop them and correct them. Where possible, lead the student who made the error to correct him/herself, or elicit the correction from other students.

Case Study:

Use the verbs below to complete the advice for Dave.

He should _______________ some new tables. (buy)

What about _____________ the kitchen? (clean)

He should _______________ the walls. (paint)

He should __________ the ceiling. (repair)

What about __________ sometimes? (smile)

What about __________ his clothes? (change)

He should __________ the floor. (wash)

Freer practice - role plays

In a PPP style lesson, controlled practice is followed by freer practice.

Freer practice (production) activities are most often speaking activities. The emphasis is now on fluency. Role plays make an effective freer practice activity. Let’s follow our teacher Claudia again as she plans a functional lesson using a role play activity.

Step 1: Provide the tools

Before doing a role play, you should have already presented and given controlled practice of the language students will need for the role play.

If you haven't done this, then the role play activity will be difficult and not very useful.

Step 2: Create a suitable situation

In advance of the lesson: Think of a situation that you could use in a role play that would require the students to either ask for or give advice.

Step 3: Produce role-play cards

In advance of the lesson: Make role-play cards for the students.

Each card should explain to the student:

1. What their role is.

2. The situation within which they are to perform their role.

3. Whether they will be asking or receiving advice from someone.

Step 4: Allocate roles and get students to prepare

In class: For this 'advice' role play, the teacher puts all the 'advice seeker' role playing students in one group and all the 'advice givers' in another group, then hands out the appropriate role-play cards and any other materials students need.

This technique allows the groups to discuss in advance the things they are going to say before you actually ask them to perform the role play.

This means they are less likely to run out of ideas and is particularly helpful for the weaker or less imaginative students.

Be sure to allow the students plenty of preparation time. The better prepared they are, the more effective the next stage will be.

Step 5: Perform the role play

Put the students into pairs: A - Advice seeker and B - Advice giver. Roles should then be played out with each student asking for or giving advice.

Correction: Because in freer practice the focus is on fluency, correction is delayed. Interrupting to correct inhibits fluency.

While the students are doing the freer practice activity, the teacher should monitor and take notes for a follow-up feedback and correction spot.

Creating role-play cards

We will now use the earlier scenario about Dave. 

Write out the two role-play cards you could give to (1) Dave and (2) the business consultant. Remember the students are quite low level, so the language should not be too advanced.

Dave's role-play card:

You always wanted to run a restaurant. Last year you bought a restaurant. Unfortunately, it is not very successful. You don't have enough customers. You are going to ask a business consultant to give you some advice. Plan the questions you will ask him/her.

Business consultant's role-play card:

Today you are going to see a man called Dave about his restaurant. Here are some pictures of Dave and his business. What advice will you give Dave? Plan what you will say to him.

Vocabulary pre-teaching

The students are unlikely to know the term business consultant. You might also check successful and customers. They would have learnt advice during the presentation stage of the lesson if they didn’t already know it.

You can see other teaching ideas for lessons on this function in the resources below. Note that the 'giving advice' lesson we have developed here is for an A2 class ('pre-intermediate' also called 'late elementary').

As we said in Unit 5, very low-level students (A1) need very careful support in free and freer speaking activities. This role play would be too demanding because the students would not have the language needed.

Free speaking - Focus on fluency

Aims

The aim of free-speaking activities and lessons is to activate language that students have been taught and to give them practice in using language freely and spontaneously.

The emphasis is on fluency, not accuracy, so the teacher should not correct mistakes when they are made, but should instead note them down for a correction spot at the end of the lesson or activity.

Planning a speaking lesson - the three Ts

When planning a speaking lesson, there are 'three Ts' to think about: topic, task and tools. 

Topic - what will they talk about? You need to choose something that is interesting and relevant to your students.

Task - what activity will you use to get them to talk about the topic? You need to think of a suitable activity within which the topic can be dealt with.

Tools - what language do they need to talk about this topic? Even if your students are interested in current affairs, if they were very low level, they simply would not have enough language to be able to do something like have a debate about immigration.

Reflect: Make a list of activities and games that you could use in speaking lessons. How many can you find?

1. Problem-solving

This could be any type of problem:

1. Working out the answer to a logic or lateral thinking problem.

2. Solving a practical problem such as what would be the best way to organise the new library? How can I deal with my very grumpy and unreasonable neighbours?

3. There are elaborate problem solving games for language practice, which are known as mazes. See for example, The British Council's Holiday Maze.

2. Ranking activities

   Any discussion activity which involves putting items in order of importance. For example, you could give students a list of professions and ask them which ones are most important to society. Or you could give them a list of items that might be taken to a desert island and ask them to choose the five most useful. Students need to explain the reasons for their choices.

   This sort of activity works well if organised as a pyramid discussion; students work in progressively larger groups (e.g. first in pairs, then fours, then 8s, then whole class). At each stage they need to reach a consensus.

3. Roleplays and simulations

   We looked at role plays in our section on functional language. Simulations are more elaborate role plays which involve the whole class in a discussion or task. For example, you might set the scenario of developers who want to build a new housing estate in a country village. The parish council is holding a meeting to discuss the proposals. Students would be allocated different roles such as local residents, councillors, builders, developers, etc., all of whom have their own views on whether or not the project should be allowed to go ahead.

4. Discussions

   For intermediate level students, you can organise discussions in groups or as a class on a range of topics such as music, places to visit, films, sport etc. according to your students' interests. You must ensure learners are familiar with the vocabulary and functional language they will need (tools) in order to take an active part in a class discussion.

5. Debates

   For more advanced classes, you could set up a formal debate with students arguing for opposing viewpoints.

   These take a lot of preparation and you need to choose a topic which will genuinely interest and engage the whole class.

6. Balloon debates

    Students work in small groups, each one takes on the identity of a famous person. They are in a hot air balloon which cannot carry all of them. One person must be sacrificed so the others can be saved. Each student has to argue why he/she should not have to jump out, then the group votes on who has to go.

   Not suitable for elementary classes.

7. Student talks/presentations

   These can be prepared for homework. You might get two or three students a week to give a presentation across the whole term. Make sure they do not last too long. Make it absolutely clear that students are not allowed to prepare a written script which they then just read aloud.

   Other students can ask follow-up questions.

   Again, this is not suitable for elementary classes, unless the task is very carefully set up, and the presentations are very short and simple.

8. Describing pictures

   This is a good speaking activity for lower levels (A1 and A2) and students who are reluctant to get involved in discussion-type activities. Students have to describe photographs, paintings or cartoon pictures.

   Students can also speculate about the situation depicted, express their opinion, guess which one of a number of different pictures their partner is describing, and so on.

9. Information gap

    Information gap activities encourage students to work together.

   One student holds a piece of information that the other student needs in order to complete a task.

   You can for example divide up the clues in a logic problem, so that students have to share the information they have in order to solve the problem.

   This activity can be used at any level, providing the language and the nature of the task is graded appropriately.

10. Storytelling activities

    Again, this is appropriate for students who do not feel comfortable with expressing opinions. The teacher can give them a list of words, and also pictures, from which they have to tell a story.

    Or students could tell personal stories about experiences they have had, for example, 'Have you ever had an accident? Tell your partner/the others in your group about your accident'.

    Can be adapted for all levels, but a lot of careful support is needed at elementary levels.

11. Instructions

    This can be a good pair activity, where students have to give each other specific instructions in order to complete an activity or task.

Tools - language needed and preparation time

As we saw when thinking about the role-play activity for giving advice, you may need to pre-teach or revise some language that will be useful for doing the task.

Unless the task is very straightforward, you should also give students time to think about what they want to say.

The language you need to look at in advance will often include some vocabulary specific to the topic and some functional language relevant to the task.

So, the simulation described earlier would need vocabulary on the topics of building, development and potential damage to the environment and functional language used at formal meetings: agreeing, politely disagreeing, putting forward a proposal, making a suggestion, etc.

In order to get the language that you are pre-teaching or revising to be used in a speaking activity, it is particularly important that the students practise pronunciation.

Here are the key points for a teacher facilitating students in speaking activities:

1. Although it can be quite tempting to give your own opinions, you should avoid this, especially on controversial issues, as it can be quite off-putting for students to find that you have very different opinions from their own - as far as possible you should remain fairly neutral.

2. Only express disagreement/disapproval of students' opinions if someone says something offensive that is likely to upset other members of the group.

3. Because the aim is fluency, you should not risk distracting students from their attempts to communicate their ideas by correcting their pronunciation or grammar while they are talking, unless it is so inaccurate that nobody else can understand them.

Speaking lessons - a useful procedure

Speaking lesson task types vary so much that it is not possible to give a procedure you can use for every speaking lesson or activity. 

The procedure that we will explore now, will work well for many speaking lessons. 

• Stage 1-Introduce the topic (T1)

  Introduce the topic that is going to be used for the speaking activity.

  This is the warmer/lead-in to the lesson. You need to get students fully engaged and motivated at this point to ensure the lesson is successful.

• Stage 2-Present the tools i.e. language needed (T3)

  Pre-teach any vocabulary and/or functional language students will need for the task.

• Stage 3- Provide drilling and other controlled practice activities

  Drill the language you have introduced for pronunciation and to help students memorise it.

  You should provide some other controlled practice activities after the drilling.

• Stage 4-Set the task (T2), and give students time to prepare

  In pairs/ small groups, students prepare what they are going to say (e.g. for a debate, role play or simulation), or discuss the first part of the speaking task (e.g. for a pyramid discussion). This means thinking about what they want to say - they should not write a text to read aloud.

• Stage 5- Do the activityStudents do the main activity in larger groups or as a whole class (e.g. the simulation, debate or agreeing on a final conclusion to a problem).

  The teacher monitors and takes notes, offering support if necessary, but mainly not participating or intruding.

• Stage 6-Feedback and correction spot

  Teacher gives feedback on how well they did the task, and a correction spot.

  Find some things to praise in this stage, so that people are aware of the progress they are making. This motivates students more effectively than just pointing out all their mistakes.

  Remember the 'sandwich method.'

  
  Choosing the right activity for the right group of students is a crucial part of planning and delivering a successful speaking lesson. 

  Remember - students need certain tools to perform the task that is set.

  Imagine you’re teaching in France and are planning a speaking skills lesson for a monolingual B2 (upper-intermediate) level general English class on the topic of travel (chosen because it’s relevant to your students’ real lives!). 

What do we mean by writing?

We’ve looked at what we mean by speaking, so what do we mean by writing? Again, in the real world, people write for a purpose. This means we need to think about how we ensure students write meaningfully. Completing written grammar and vocabulary exercises, while important, is not ‘writing’. Writing involves conveying information, opinions and emotions to (importantly) a reader.

The word 'writing' obviously has quite a broad meaning, covering both the ability to form letters with a pen or pencil - handwriting - and, at a higher level, to produce lengthy pieces of meaningful text. Writing is the use of symbols to represent language. This is usually a visual representation, although Braille is a tactile writing system.

As we said in Unit 5, 'In some teaching situations you may find you are teaching adults who are illiterate in their own language or people who are not yet familiar with the Roman alphabet. With such students, the challenge for the teacher is much greater because you have to introduce students to the concept of visual symbols representing sounds and meaning.'

If you do find yourself introducing students to the concept of visual symbols representing sounds and meaning, you will need to start at the very beginning and show them how to actually form letters. They will then need to have substantial practice of copying letters, words and punctuation. 

This copying stage of writing is the first stage of learning to write. Learners then move on to guided writing, and then free writing.

How we teach people to write:

Stage 1. Ask them to copy.

Stage 2. Provide them with guided writing tasks.

Stage 3. Provide them with free writing tasks.

Although teaching basic handwriting and literacy skills is not often required in EFL writing, we have added links to websites which provide handwriting and copying practice activities in the Further Reading, References and Other Resources section.

Why teach writing?

1. Student needs

   The primary reason for teaching students to write in English is that it is a useful skill, which most students are likely to need.

2. Needs analysis

   Teaching students to write in English, rather than just speaking English, helps the teacher to assess students' progress and to identify problem areas which need further development. 

   Written work, which you can take away and study, is easier to analyse than spoken utterances in the classroom.

3. Confidence building

   Teaching students to write in English, rather than just speaking, provides students with evidence of their own progress. 

   Unlike in speaking activities, there is a tangible product that students can keep and compare with earlier work.

4. Language practice

   As with speaking activities, writing activities can be used to give freer practice of specific language items, and free practice, because in many tasks students need to employ a wide range of language and can choose what they are going to say. Free writing activities, like free speaking activities, provide an opportunity to 'activate' language that has been taught in lessons. It also gives students practice in communicating messages in English.

5. Free speaking practice

   If students work together to plan a piece of written work, it creates the need to communicate orally, so preparing to write can also provide speaking practice.

6. Reading skills

   In writing lessons, students look at model texts. Studying these and thinking about how they are structured helps develop reading skills.

   
   Why do ESL students struggle with writing?

   If we know why students struggle, then we can help them overcome the challenges they face by ensuring we prepare them well and set them up for success.

   Here are some of the most common reasons:

   1. Writing differs from one culture to another.  The way one culture thinks, and links ideas could be totally different of the accepted model of another culture.

   2. Writing can be seen as ‘boring’, especially schoolwork!

   3. Writing requires a good vocabulary lexicon that enables the students to adequately share their thoughts.  Make sure you have pre-taught the necessary vocabulary, word-families and conventions to enable students to express themselves adequately.

   4. Writing is a form of self-expression, often our culture and our personality are evident in the way in which we write.  In some cultures, there is less value on self-expression, especially for students who are still learning and thus not ‘expert’ enough to give input or an opinion.

Top TTA Tip!

Don’t underestimate the value of a needs assessment.  It can be filled in by the student themselves, or their parents.  If you know what your student’s needs are, you are more likely to meet them.  If you have taken the time to find out about your student (and filed the information for reference), then the student will know that you value them, will build a relationship with you and become more comfortable putting their thoughts on paper and learning from their mistakes in a rewarding environment.

Writing for freer practice of new language

Case Study

Look at these four writing assignments and make a list of the language (grammar and vocabulary) the students are likely to use when completing the assignments. 

• My first day at school

• Write about what you and your family usually did at celebrations when you were a child.

• My plans for the future

• How to cook my favourite dish

What ideas did you have for the four writing assignments in the case study? Check your ideas against our suggestions.

Assignment title	Language used
My first day at school	classroom and school vocabulary narrative past tenses
Write about what you and your family usually did at celebrations when you were a child	family members vocabulary narrative past tenses used to + infinitive to describe past habits celebration vocabulary food vocabulary possibly including cooking vocabulary too
My plans for the future	future forms
How to cook my favourite dish	food vocabulary cooking vocabulary imperatives

Coherence

When we talk about teaching writing in EFL, we are not usually referring to the very basic process of how to transpose the sounds of the language to written symbols. Rather, we are looking at how to help our students produce coherent pieces of written text.

Cast Study:

Task: You’re now going to take a look at two different texts and decide why we would say that Text 1 is a single text but that Text 2 is not.

Text 1

Frozen shoulder, which is also known as 'adhesive capsulitis', is a painful and sometimes distressing condition. It involves stiffness and pain in the shoulder joint, making it difficult to raise the arm sideways, to reach backwards and perform many other everyday movements. If the sufferer makes the wrong movement, s/he experiences a sensation of extreme pain, lasting as long as 5 to 6 minutes. There is little one can do to improve the condition, except avoid the movements that cause pain. The disorder typically comes on quite gradually, reaches a peak and then starts to resolve itself. A whole episode usually lasts about 18 months.

Now take a look at Text 2.

Text 2

The new hedge trimmer arrived today. My cat is incredibly bad tempered. A change in the weather is known to be extreme. He always gets up late when he hasn't got school. She seems to be getting very forgetful. Kath made some delicious cakes the other day. God created the world in seven days. Charlie is going to see Savannah tomorrow. George has an irrational hatred of foreigners. Workers of the world unite; you have nothing to lose but your chains. The Mill on the Floss is one of my favourite novels. The purple flowers on Clare's front wall are in full bloom. Is it really necessary to make people who work in shops wear ugly uniforms?

Feedback:

The sentences in Text 1 about the frozen shoulder are all clearly about the same topic - it is a coherent text. There are a number of cohesive devices used to show how the ideas in each sentence link to other ideas in the paragraph. We will look at cohesive devices later. 

The sentences in Text 2 have no apparent relationship to one another. It is just a random collection of unrelated ideas. We do not consider a series of unrelated (incoherent) sentences to be a single text.

Types of writing

Depending on the type of work you do and your interests, your list might include:

• shopping list

• text messages

• filling in forms

• emails - personal, work related

• report

• letters, e.g. letter of application, letter of complaint

• message in a greetings card

• presentation

• postcard

• note to friend/family

• small advertisement

• a telephone message

• essay

• diary entry/blog

• ‘to-do’ list

• business correspondence

• poem/story

Which of these different types of writing would be relevant to your students depends on their needs, their language level, their interests and their reasons for learning English?

Cohesion - referencing

Cohesive devices are used to create links between different parts of a text or speech. Correct use of these devices will create a text that flows and feels unified. There are many different types of cohesive devices, such as linking words, discourse markers, connectors and transition markers.

Cohesive devices are used to create links between different parts of a text or speech. Correct use of these devices will create a text that flows and feels unified. There are many different types of cohesive devices, such as linking words, discourse markers, connectors and transition markers.

Practice:

Think about who or what the underlined parts of the text below refer to. 

Last summer my mum, my dad, my sister and I went on holiday to St. Just on the north coast of Cornwall. We went to that part of the country because the scenery is spectacular around there and there are lots of things that everyone in the family is interested in. We stayed in a little rented cottage, which was very pretty, but smelt damp. There was a really huge ginger cat that lived in one of the houses near where we were staying. My sister loves cats, so she made friends with it.

When we think about it, we can come to the following conclusion:

• my - refers to the 'I' who is writing the text

• We - refers to my mum, my dad, my sister and I

• that part of the country - the north coast of Cornwall

• there - that part of the country / the north coast of Cornwall

• everyone in the family - my mum, my dad, my sister and I

• which - the little rented cottage

• that - the really huge ginger cat

• she - my sister

• it - the really huge ginger cat

Take a look at the text again - this time without this kind of referencing.

Last summer my mum, my dad, my sister and I went on holiday to St. Just on the north coast of Cornwall. My mum, my dad, my sister and I went to St. Just on the north coast of Cornwall because the scenery is spectacular around St. Just on the north coast of Cornwall, and in St. Just on the north coast of Cornwall are lots of things that my mum, my dad, my sister and I are interested in. My mum, my dad, my sister and I stayed in a little rented cottage, the little rented cottage was very pretty, but the little rented cottage smelt damp. In St. Just on the north coast of Cornwall was a really huge ginger cat. The really huge ginger cat lived in one of the houses near the little rented cottage. My sister loves cats, so my sister made friends with the really huge ginger cat.

What do you notice?

"They said it again, and again, and again!"

You probably noticed that the text sounded unnecessarily repetitive! The use of these devices makes the text more varied, shorter and more cohesive.

Notice that these referring words usually refer back to something that has already been mentioned in the text; we refers back to my mum, my dad, my sister and I. That part of the country refers back to the north coast of Cornwall. This is called anaphoric reference.

Sometimes we can make a reference forward to something that is specified later in the text, for example, 'Because she was feeling really tired, Annali decided to have an early night'. Here, she refers to Annali. Forward referencing is called cataphoric reference.

Cohesion

Referencing is when something in one sentence refers to something in another sentence (or occasionally outside the text). 

Technical Terms:

• Cataphoric reference - referring forward to something in the text

• Anaphoric reference - referring back to something in the text

• Exophoric reference - referencing to something outside the text

  This chart will help you remember the difference between anaphoric, cataphoric and exophoric referencing in an easier manner:

  

Take a look at an example:

"We tried some local foods, such as pasties and cream teas, which I liked, and stargazy pie."

• ‘some local foods’ refers forward to ‘pasties, cream teas and stargazy pie’.

Writers sometimes use pronouns to make exophoric reference to something outside the text, which the writer assumes the reader will understand. 

Examples in this text are:

• The use of ''I'; the writer does not explain who he is.

Although there isn’t an expectation that you will use these technical referencing terms in your teaching, it may be useful for students to have an awareness for when they do exercises to check that they understand what pronouns and other similar words in the text refer to. This kind of activity also raises their awareness of these devices and will help them use them in their own writing.

Categories of conjunction

There are 3 main categories of conjunctions:

Coordinating:

How it works:
Connect equally important elements that are related.
Examples:

• and

• but

• or

• nor

• for

• so

• yet

Subordinating:

How it works:
Connect dependent clauses, a clause that completes a thought.
Examples:

• because

• although

• while

• since

• unless

• if

• when

Correlative:

How it works:
Work in pairs to maintain a structure.
Examples:

• either... or

• neither... nor

• both... and

• not only... but also

• unless

• whether... or

Here are some types of conjunction: 

Can you add any other words or phrases to the examples given? 

• Addition: and, also,

• Cause/result: because,

• Time: then, before that,

• Condition: if, unless, 

These lists do not include all possibilities. If you have other words or phrases, they are not necessarily wrong - check them by looking in a grammar book or doing an Internet search.

• Addition: and, also, furthermore, moreover, what's more, in addition, etc.

• Cause/result: because, thus, so, consequently, therefore, as a result, due to, etc.

• Time: then, before that, next, in the end, first, finally, earlier, as soon as, first of all, later on, now, etc.

• Condition: if, unless, if not, provided/providing that, as long as, even if, in case, assuming.

Defining and non-defining relative clauses

Relative clauses are commonly used in more complex sentences. They are much more frequent in written English than in spoken English.

Top TTA Explanation

What is a relative clause?

A relative clause gives extra or additional information about a noun and can change the meaning of the whole sentence. They are introduced by a relative pronoun, e.g. 'that', 'which', 'who', 'whose', 'where' and 'when'. 

Relative clauses come directly after the noun they are referring to. This might be at the end of a sentence or right in the middle of a sentence. If it is in the middle of a sentence, the relative clause is usually surrounded by commas.

Case Study:

Look at these two sentences:

A) The students who had finished the exam were allowed to leave the room.

B) The students, who had finished the exam, were allowed to leave the room.

What is the difference in meaning?

A) The students who had finished the exam were allowed to leave the room.

• Sentence A means that some of the students had finished the exam, and those students were allowed to leave.

B) The students, who had finished the exam, were allowed to leave the room.

• Sentence B means that all the students had finished the exam and were allowed to leave.

The underlined part of each sentence is a relative clause.

• In sentence A the relative clause is a defining (or identifying) relative clause. It tells us which students we are talking about (so it defines or identifies them). 

• In sentence B the underlined clause is a non-defining (or non-identifying) relative clause. The clause inside the commas gives us some additional information, but this is not necessary to our understanding of the sentence. 

These two types of relative clause are also referred to as essential and non-essential, and restrictive and non-restrictive.

Sentence B could just say 'The students were allowed to leave the room'. Note also that in defining relative clauses the relative pronoun can often be omitted, e.g. “The man (who/that) the ambassador spoke to was not very polite.”

Defining relative clauses	Non-defining relative clauses
We have known the girl who's just arrived for years.	Greville, who lives next door to us, is a kind old man.
The cat which didn't cost us anything is much better natured than the cat that we paid for.	This cat, which cost us £25, is the most neurotic cat I've ever known.
The man who I spoke to this morning was incredibly unhelpful.	My mother, who was a policewoman for forty years, thinks that prison usually does more harm than good.

Relative clauses can give us information about either the subject or the object of a clause. It is easy to recognise non-defining relative clauses because of the commas.

Notice that if you say the two sentences with the same wording below, they are said differently; the commas used in written English are marked by tiny pauses in spoken English:

A) The students who had finished the exam were allowed to leave the room.

B) The students, who had finished the exam, were allowed to leave the room.

In sentence A the whole phrase 'The students who had finished the exam' is the subject of the sentence and so this is said as a single chunk.

Sentence B is broken into three 'chunks': The students/who had finished the exam/were allowed to leave the room.

The most common relative pronouns in English are who, which and that. We can also use whose and whom:

• Will the person whose red Peugeot is parked in front of the entrance please come to reception immediately?

• The man to whom I spoke this morning...

To most people whom now sounds old-fashioned and unnecessarily formal and it is falling out of use. Most speakers would prefer to use who in this location, as in the third example in the table two pages back.

When and where, which in this location are relative adverbs, behave in a very similar way to relative pronouns:

• The town where I was born is rather a dull place.

• Do you remember that day when we went to the races?

Implications for teaching

Relative clauses, pronoun use, and conjunctions are all important features of written English. Your students will need to learn how to use them in order to produce more sophisticated pieces of writing. You will, therefore, need to teach them and we have provided links in Further Reading, so you can do your own research on this area.

Lexical cohesion

The types of cohesion we have discussed so far: 

• different types of referencing using pronouns, possessives and demonstratives

• the use of conjunctions, are types of grammatical cohesion. 

Let’s move on now to look at lexical cohesion.

Lexical cohesion is the glue that holds good writing together. 

‘Glue’: the words and phrases you use to order and link sentences and writing together.

Two of the examples we looked at -that part of the countryto refer tothe north coast of Cornwall, andeveryone in the familyto refer tomy mum,my dad,my sisterandI -are types of lexical cohesion. 

(Remember, lexis means vocabulary.)

There are two main types of lexical cohesion:

• The first is reiteration - the repetition of the same word or synonyms for that word throughout the text. 

• The second is collocation - the use of words and phrases from the same lexical field (i.e. topic). 

Although lexical cohesion is referred to as a device, it is perhaps more useful to see it just as an obvious feature of a coherent text. A text on a particular topic will obviously include a lot of words and phrases related to that topic.

Implications for teaching

We can help our students improve the quality of their writing by including vocabulary revision and introducing new vocabulary in our writing lessons. Not only will their essays be more interesting and varied if they use a wide range of vocabulary, the process of writing will also provide freer practice of the new language and help them learn it.

We also need to encourage students to use the various cohesive devices looked at earlier in the unit. The final part of this unit takes a closer look at how to teach writing.

Just as we would not often ask students to sit and silently read long texts in the classroom, it is not a very good use of class time to get students to actually do written assignments during lessons. Writing lessons, therefore, usually focus on the process of constructing a piece of writing - students plan their written work in class but do the actual writing for homework. This approach is known as process writing.

Process writing versus product writing

Writing in any language is complex, from the language required to the conventions of a particular genre. This means that students need guidance and feedback. It’s better to do a whole lesson about writing than just trying to add it on to the end of a lesson. However, the focus should be on ‘how to’ put together a piece of writing, rather than the writing itself. 

This is why writing lessons usually focus on the process of constructing a piece of writing. Students plan their written work in class but do the actual writing for homework. This approach is known as process writing.

It’s one of two main approaches to teaching writing: 

• product writing

• process writing

Product Writing:

In this approach students look at a model of the type of text the class is about. For example, a postcard - students analyse what the model consists of, for example:

• format

• level of formality

• useful language

• linking expressions etc.

They then work together to produce a piece of writing of the same type.

Process Writing:

In process writing, the emphasis is more on collaboration and the creativity of the writing process. In contrast, product writing focuses on being able to produce a ‘copy’ of the model, or a good version of that genre.

How to polish product writing … until it shines.

To do a product writing lesson, you still need to scaffold and structure the lesson from when students walk in not knowing what the lesson is about, to being able to achieve the aims and objectives of the lesson!

1. It always helps to get the students interested in the lesson, get them engaged and motivated and on track to shine.

2. Show the students what they are going to succeed at doing.  Let them look at an ‘end result’ of the writing you want to do and analyse it according to their age and level of English spoken.

3. Test the students individually and see it they can produce the final outcome just from their analysis.  Now the students know what they can do, and what they need to work on.

4. Create a collaborative atmosphere and get the students to work in pairs or groups, using their analysis and their writing experience to prepare a first draft using the sample text as a model.

5. Swop first drafts with a peer and constructively analyse and offer advice on how to improve.

6. Students then set to work aiming to produce the polished product.

If the polished product is achieved, the students feel a sense of accomplishment. If not, the students know more than they did, and they can work on the ‘polish’.

In practice, many teachers will use a combination of these two approaches, using features of both, and their lesson may look something like this:

1. The class looks at a model text.

2. Students identify typical features of that type of writing.

3. The teacher sets a task requiring students to produce a piece of writing in the same genre as the model.

4. The class brainstorms useful language to include in their writing.

5. In small groups students plan the organisation and content of their work.

6. Students do the writing individually for homework.

7. The teacher marks homework and highlights mistakes.

8. In class students work in pairs/groups to correct their errors.

9. Students do a second draft of their individual writing for homework.

How to use a correction code to mark students' writing

Writing in English can be tricky for your students to learn and for you to teach. 

As teachers, we are trying to help our students make progress in English. When they get feedback on their work, they want an indication of how well they have done and what areas they need to work on.

Often teachers are presented with a piece of writing from a student and do not even know where to begin with corrections. To be fair, we don’t want to overload the writing with red pen, but we also need our students to understand their mistakes and where they have gone wrong. So how do we do it?

The first thing to do is to put down the red pen. Before you begin underlining mistakes and adding in corrections, think about what your aim for the corrections is going to be. You cannot correct every mistake in all writing, so consider whether you want to correct spelling, sentence construction, grammatical accuracy or linking devices. 

Clarifying what you are going to correct will mean fewer corrections for you and less red ink for your student. Establish a code for your corrections so that you don’t need to spell it out every time. Create a set of symbols that your students will get to know so that when they see the symbol they will know what the problem is, but you won’t necessarily have to show them how to correct it. 

You can make up your own set of symbols, but here are the most commonly used ones:

WW	Wrong word
T	Tense
SP	Spelling
?	Not clear
WO	Word order
^	Missing word

There are numerous correction codes available that you can use to mark your students’ work. Decide which one you are going to use and be consistent with it so your students can become familiar with it. Using a correction code will help you cut your marking time down substantially. Remember that you don’t need to provide corrections for your students’ mistakes but rather point out where the error is and the nature of the error - your students should be able to do the correction themselves.

Correction Code
T	wrong tense
W.W	wrong word
Vb form	wrong form of the verb
Wd form	wrong form of the word
^	word missing
art	wrong article
prep	preposition needed/wrong preposition
Sp	spelling
Sub/vb	subject-verb agreement
Pl	word should be plural
Sing	word should be singular
W.O	wrong word order
punc	punctuation

In summary, correction should:

• Let students know how well they have done and what areas they need to work on.

• Point out where the mistakes are but require students to correct them for themselves.

• Be done in a different colour pen to your student’s (singular possessive) writing. Ask your class how they feel about using a red pen, in case they find it off-putting.

• Not focus on ALL of the mistakes because it can be demotivating; even advanced students make a lot of mistakes in writing. You might choose to just focus on particular areas, such as how well they are using a grammatical structure they have recently learned. (If you do this, make sure you tell students that you have not corrected all the mistakes to avoid anyone accusing you of not bothering to mark properly!).

• Help a student with words or phrases they do not yet know how to express. 

Unit wrap-up and assessment

• Now that you have reached the final section of Unit 6, it’s time to reflect upon everything that you have explored.

  Key takeaways:

  • The aim of the speaking lesson should be to promote fluency.

  • Drilling and controlled practice tasks are not usually considered speaking tasks.

  • When we are speaking, formal requests tend to be longer and more grammatically complex.

  • The language being covered in the lesson is known as the target language.

  • Writing is a useful way of giving students free and freer practice of new language. It is also helpful for the teacher as it provides a way of assessing students' progress and identifying problem areas.

  • Planning a writing lesson is often similar to planning a speaking lesson in that students need an interesting topic and task, and the tools (language and information about the genre) to complete an assignment successfully.

  • Get students to work together in small groups to plan assignments in class and ask them to do the writing individually for homework.

  • When you are planning a written assignment, think about your aims. What style of writing is it and what language do you hope the students will practise? Provide at least one model so students can see what they are trying to achieve.

  • When you are marking, focus mainly on the aspects of the writing that reflect the aims of the task.

  • Use a correction code so that your students have to think about the corrections themselves, rather than the teacher telling them.

  • Avoid demotivating students by pointing out every single mistake. Use a correction code and during the next lesson get students to work in pairs on correcting the mistakes they have made.

  • If students have made an error because they do not already know the language they need, then provide the correct form.

  • As well as the broader tasks of using appropriate vocabulary and genre, you will also need to focus on some of the details of writing, such as writing complex sentences and constructing paragraphs correctly. Include work on these aspects in writing and grammar classes but generally do not spend too long on them at any one time.