students can role-play an interview with one of the characters from the text for the local newspaper;
students can invent a dialogue between 2 or more of the characters from the text. iv You can encourage the students to deduce meanings from the text. Take a word
that is unfamiliar and that you think students can deduce from the context. You can give clues to help them out, e.g.
Is it a verb, noun, adjective or other? If verb: is it connected to movement, to thinking, etc?
If noun: is it found in the house? The street? Etc... Help your students to get at least an approximation of the meaning.
For example, if you want your students to deduce the meaning of the word “sideboard”, you could use the following sentence and questions:
Mr Jones came home, walked into the sitting room, took off his shoes and put his keys on the sideboard.
Is sideboard a noun, verb or adjective? Noun. Where would you find a sideboard? In a home, in a sitting room.
What category does a sideboard belong to: food, clothes or furniture? Furniture. Using the above, students can guess that a sideboard is a piece of furniture found in a
sitting room. At lower levels, or where students are not used to guessing meaning from context, you
can choose 5 or 6 unfamiliar words and write their definitions in disorder. Ask students to match the words with their definitions; they can use the text as a guide, but not their
dictionaries.
6.3 A final word on reading activities
The framework above can be used for reading or listening skills activities. If you’re using a course book, there will be activities and exercises to accompany the texts. I
suggest you analyse these activities and if one of the stages above is missing, design a task to make sure it is covered.
48
Copyright © Lucy Pollard 2008 All Rights Reserved This e-book may not be reproduced in part or in full without the express written permission of the author.
CHAPTER 7: WRITING
Writing is a productive skill and, as such, the way we treat it in class has some similarities with the teaching and learning of speaking. The focus of this chapter will be
longer written assignments and creative writing; we will not cover written exercises that are designed to practise a language point. Let’s first of all review what was mentioned
in Chapter 4 and apply the principles to the teaching of writing.
The key elements to consider in the teaching of writing are:
7.1 Language
It is essential to make sure that your students have the level of English required to do the task. Analyse any tasks for language required before deciding whether to use it in
class. If you are using an activity from an EFL resource, then there should be comments on the language required. If you don’t have any guidelines on the language
required, think about how you would do the task yourself and what sort of language you’d use. Check whether the level is suitable, and then decide how you will revise and
practise language items with your students. This language work can be done in the same lesson as the writing activity or in a previous lesson. At higher levels upper-
intermediate and above, this language review can be very brief. Depending on the type of written task, the language work might include analysis and practice of genre.
Genre refers to a type of writing, e.g. recipes, lonely hearts ads, newspaper articles that have similar organisation and language. Language study might also involve work
on linkers, for example: although, furthermore, alternatively. Students also need to be aware of the level of formality that is required; for example a business letter will be
more formal than a postcard or e-mail to a friend.
7.2 Time for preparation
Allow students time to prepare their ideas; they can do this individually, in pairs or in groups. You can also work on the topic as a whole class and integrate other skills work
before students start planning their writing. For example before planning a piece of writing about environmental issues, you could do some or all of the following: read a
text on the topic, listen to a recording and discuss the subject in class. If you don’t have time for lengthy preparation, you should at least brainstorm ideas with the class.
Once students have their ideas, they will find the actual writing easier.
7.3 Reason for writing
Students need to have a reason or purpose for writing, even if this reason is fictitious. If you identify the audience, i.e. who the intended reader is, you will add a sense of
purpose. For example, if you want students to write a description of their town, tell them it is for inclusion in a brochure or on a website for tourists to the area. You might
even decide to send their work to the tourist information centre
49
Copyright © Lucy Pollard 2008 All Rights Reserved This e-book may not be reproduced in part or in full without the express written permission of the author.
