Teaching writing to pre-beginners

Question

Hi everyone. This is my first post and I'm not even sure if this is the right place to ask this question. However I would really appreciate the help of some other ESOL/TEFL teachers who are more experienced than me!

I'm currently teaching ESOL to a group in Liverpool and they are desperately in need of some writing practice. We've done loads of listening/speaking/vocab classes recently, but no writing. Do you have any suggestion for a reading/writing-based class we could do?

Thanks in advance!

Mister Micawber · Accepted Answer

I presume that they know the alphabet and can write in their native language. In that case, start off with what they know-- request a simple paragraph about their daily life, hobbies, family, etc. That is all you really need to do to work on writing: give them the opportunity to write. But make it homework. Don't waste valuable classtime with the native speaker in silently writing. Reading also should generally be confined to outside activity-- this also gives them English practice time in addition to classroom hours.

I have a lot of my students writing me weekly emails before class now, and I can either correct it and return it with explanations in class, or send the advice by return email.

Estrella De Mar · Answer

Thanks, especially for the comment about not doing it in classtime. I was tempted to do that, especially since many of them have wildly differing levels of understanding. Most are refugees from countries such as Kurdistan, Pakistan, Iran etc, and many have never been to school, even in their own countries! We have done alphabet and spelling work, but some catch on more quickly than others.

Teaching writing to pre-beginners

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