Writing in a foreign language (18/01)

The process of learning to write in a foreign language should be started in Primary Education and it really never ends.

3. What do we mean when we refer to writing?

• Academic: writing is the production of a sequence of sentences arranged in a particular order and linked together to form a coherent whole called text. 
• From a communicative perspective, we could understand writing as “the ability to communicate with each other and express our own ideas in written form”
• Writing is clearly a complex process requiring the ability to manipulate many sub-skills simultaneously.
• “Involves being creative, spelling, grammar, punctuation, choice of appropriate words, sentences linking and text construction.”. 

3.1. Graphic or visual skills.

• Spelling: difference between pronunciation and spelling in the English language.
• How can our students improve their spelling?
• We advise them to:

                    a) Select priority words to learn.

                    b) Get plentiful, regular practice.

                    c) Know about the language. 

                    d) Learn techniques. 

                    e) Develop an interest in words.

                    f) Check their work.

                    g) Have confidence in themselves.

• Punctuation: learning how to use punctuation correctly is a slow and laborious process. It should be started from the very beginning.
• Layout: there are certain conventions on how to write a letter, construct a paragraph, organise a written text and so on that are culturally determined. 

3.2. Grammatical skills

• This refers to the students’ skill in making efficient use of grammatical structures and constructions. 

3.3. Expressive or stylistic skills

• This includes the learner’s capacity to select the most appropriate meaning in a range of styles and registers.
• Sociolinguistic competence. 

3.4.Rhetorical skills

• It refers to the ability to use linguistic cohesive devices – what we call “connectors” and “modifiers” – in order to link parts of a text into logically related sequences. 

3.5.Organisational skills

• The organisation of pieces of information into paragraphs and texts. 

4. Relationship between the four skills

• It is an obvious fact the languages are spoken before they are written.
• There are people who communicate perfectly in the spoken language without being able to express themselves in writing. 

When introducing the skills we should know:

• What stage the learners are at in the acquisition of their first language skills.
• To ensure that we do not interfere with the learning process of their own language.
• Only when children are confident with reading and writing in L1 can we begin the task with L2. 

At beginner levels in particular, writing practice should be aimed at:

• Reinforcing the learning of linguistic elements which have been practised orally.
• Without forgetting to introduce our pupils to vocabulary practice and the structures of written language itself.