This article focuses on some important tips for teachers to follow in order to improve writing skills for ESL/EFL students. Brainstorming is an effective and the first step students should practice before they can start writing. The skill of outlining in writing helps students organize their thoughts, making writing more coherent. Then, Editing and revising come next which aims refining the students’ products. Another crucial tip for teachers is to reinforce the basics of grammar in order to build a strong foundation. Finally, teachers are encouraged to use online tools for added support, like grammar checkers and article rewriters, making the writing classes more successful and enjoyable.
1. Train your ESL/EFL students on ‘Brainstorming’ before they start writing:
Brainstorming is an effective technique that professional writers follow in the pre-writing stage. EFL/ESL Teachers play an essential role in this stage by encouraging students to freely generate their ideas without imposing any limitations on them . Brainstorming allow students to jot down any and all ideas related to the given topic. One of the widely used brainstorming methods by teachers is Mind Mapping.
Mind Mapping can be done individually or in a group. In the individual approach, students write the topic in the center, branching out with lines and words related to the topic. To add an element of excitement, teachers can introduce a time limit, turning the process into a friendly competition. Once students compile a set of related words, they are encouraged to refine their selection by choosing a limited number of the most relevant words. Transitioning to a group setting, the teacher writes the topic in the center of the whiteboard and elicits the related words from the students. The final step involves students crafting sentences on the whiteboard, utilizing the chosen words and providing an opportunity for the teacher to address grammar and vocabulary errors.
2. Develop the skill of outlining in your writing classes:
In the initial writing stages, students struggle with a confusion of ideas, facts, and notes. Outlining provides a structured solution, helping students visualize and organize their thoughts coherently. A simple outline of Introduction, Body, and Conclusion acts as a guide for incorporating initial notes.
Outlining is a learning process that enhances students’ understanding of genre-specific structures. It reinforces the fundamentals of storytelling or essay writing by emphasizing a broad introduction, progressively specific body support, and a concluding summary. This process also allows the students to identify their missing or underdeveloped components within the writing.
Outlining goes beyond mechanics; it’s a thoughtful process that requires students to consider where each idea fits best. Engaging discussions on idea placement reinforce the importance of structuring the body coherently, be it by topic, chronology, cause and effect, or from general to specific.
Teaching outlining is a powerful writing tool that equips students with effective structuring skills, enhances genre-specific understanding, and fosters a deeper appreciation for crafting compelling pieces of writing.
3. Teach your ESL/EFL students the art of editing and revising:
The crucial stage of editing and revising plays integral role in refining written work, offering students the chance to evaluate their content from a reader’s perspective. Through revision, one focuses on the overall piece, to enhance clarity and reinforce the main idea. This step involves a comprehensive examination of the writing, ensuring that ideas are logically organized and easily comprehensible. On the other hand, editing focuses on the details such as capitalization, grammar, punctuation, and spelling errors
To guide students through this process, it’s beneficial to provide them with a checklist that serves as a valuable tool for both revising and editing. This checklist becomes a structured framework, aiding students in systematically evaluating their work. Encouraging the habitual use of this checklist instills in students the these important skills: editing and revising.
4. Ensure proper grammatical understanding (Start with the basics)
Establishing a solid foundation in grammar is essential to enhancing your students’ writing skills. Before delving into advanced lessons, it’s crucial to ensure a thorough understanding of the basics of grammar so that students can address their potential writing issues.
There are various approaches to achieve a strong grasp of basic grammar among your students. Consider adopting a dedicated course or textbook that systematically covers key grammar aspects, including verb tenses, linking words, proper punctuation and capitalization usage, constructing indirect and direct sentences, and the rules governing writing dialogues. By starting with these fundamental building blocks, you pave the way for more effective and polished writing in the future.
5. Use online tools to reinforce your teaching of writing:
Using online tools in teaching writing enhances the learning experience for both teachers and students. For example, Encourage your students to produce a piece of writing and use an online grammar checker to analyze it. Afterwards, provide your feedback to the students regarding the errors and issues identified by the tool, guiding them to address these aspects. While you could manually review the content, employing an online tool offers the advantage of easily accessible and recordable results.
Online rewriting tools serve as valuable resources for enhancing the quality of students’ content. These tools, often referred to as article rewriters or rewriting tools, systematically modify the provided content to enhance its wording and clarity. You can have your students write something, and then you could run all the texts individually through an online paragraph rewriter. After that, you could highlight all the changes made by the tool and tell your students to write their future assignments following the same style and manner.
