Perhaps they would like to tell their horror story with a more unlikely backdrop. More confident students can subvert this. Have them list some likely settings for a variety of genre, e.g. for the genre of horror they might come up with settings such as a haunted house, a cabin in the forest or an abandoned asylum. This is an excellent way to make explicit the importance of setting in story writing. Can you give them examples of the titles of different stories from their country in a variety of genres? Mine this fact! Especially if you’re working abroad and teaching students of a single (or majority) linguistic/cultural background.ĭo a little research. Your ESL students may not be overly familiar with English language stories yet, but they will be familiar with a wide variety of stories in their native language. Telling Tales in Class: 6 Writing Activities for the ESL Classroom 1. But what elements should our writing frames be built around? Well firstly, we’re unlikely to be dealing with a James Joyce or Raymond Carver just yet, but there are some basics to consider when planning for a short story. The tried and tested scaffolds of writing frames can be particularly useful at this stage. Knowing the heart of the problem is structure, there is much we can do to support our students in their first attempts at writing short stories in English. And much of it involves imparting an understanding of how the structure of the short story works. So what can we gnarly old wordsmiths do to help? Thankfully, plenty. The real problem behind all these worries? Their confidence. The single biggest hurdle before you when getting your shiny new intermediate level students to put quill to vellum is their ability to believe in themselves. How to start? Which words to choose? Which grammar patterns fit the tone, style and meaning of the content? So there’s still one big issue facing us teachers: Writing can be intimidating for students. “Blank Page, How I Quake Before Thy Pristine Barrenness.” Once Upon a Time in a Classroom Far, Far Away… Cross-pollination with their mother tongue can inspire some truly fresh turns of phrase and original images. In their striving for freshness in their writing, their native language can prove to be a great source of inspiration. Your students may well already have been introduced to figurative uses of language such as metaphor, simile and idiom. They go straight to the well of the mother tongue Words that the students seek out themselves and use in their writing are much more likely to stick in their memory. This makes for a great opportunity to increase your student’s active vocabulary.Įncourage them to use a thesaurus to add to their vocabulary. It will soon become apparent to the student which words they overuse. The process of writing will place great demands on the student’s active vocabulary. Writing short stories is an excellent way to develop the student’s productive skills in particular. While listening and reading can be classed as receptive skills, speaking and writing are productive. We consider comprehensive language fluency to be based on the 4 distinct abilities of reading, writing, speaking and listening. If a student is going to progress to the advanced fluency stage, developing their writing skills is essential. They get students on the road to advanced fluency (Download) Why ESL Writing Activities Are Important This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that youĬlick here to get a copy. There are several key reasons why story writing is an important skill to develop in our students. The ESL activities we’ve provided for you here are focused entirely on not just writing any old thing, but story writing. Luckily, we’ve got the perfect strategy for you and your students to reach this level. To process all the English information loaded into their brains during class time, your students will need to overcome their fear of writing and put pen to paper with confidence. Well, writing in English (or any language foreign to you) is scary because it really puts your language skills and knowledge to the test. Needless to say, this was a long way from the “Dead Poets’ Society”-esque afternoon I had planned.Īs any of us with writing aspirations know, the tyranny of the blank page is a true terror to behold.Īnd, of course, this is true even more so for the ESL student. No matter how I implored, cajoled, inspired, encouraged-not a word was written in our first free writing session. They were ready to write, I was sure. They, however, were not so convinced. Once upon a time, I was teaching an ESL class full of teenagers in a quiet, northern Thai town. DecemStorytelling 101: 6 Engaging Writing Activities for ESL Students
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