Job Discussion Forums

buzzing · Joined: 25 Nov 2010 Posts: 42

I have a Saudi student he wants to improve his writing, which is crap. His speaking is good though. I gave him 5/10 mins to write on a subject he liked- which was why the American government is evil, sat and waited then read and checked for spelling, grammar and other mistakes- writing sp for spelling mistake and gr for grammar mistake and tried to get him to work out why it was wrong. Is this a good strategy for improving writing? Anyone know a good TEFL forum

spiral78 · Joined: 05 Apr 2004 Posts: 11534 Location: On a Short Leash

Asking him to work out the 'whys' is a good strategy. But it might be more useful to focus on one or two important types of errors, rather than an entire range of them at once!

It's also useful for such students (I've taught Saudis in Europe and Canada for a few years now) to use models.

You might consider taking a good example of a standard five-paragraph essay and erasing one paragraph. Let your student read the whole essay, and then write the one missing paragraph, using ideas and language he/she thinks fits well.

You can even use the same essay over and over, erasing a different paragraph each time. You can also usefully point out the different important features of different parts of an essay:
Intro, Body sections, Signalling language, Conclusion.

It's often helpful for them to consider in advance what ideas would appear in an essay on, for example, 'Should governments impose gun control,' or some other common topic. Because native speakers of arabic languages are likely to wander from a given topic (culturally appropriate for them), it can help if they realise that it's done differently in English - that we tend to stick firmly to the topic at hand and haven't time for the beauty of the two-sided argument or the poetry of whatever's being considered in the work.
Once you've worked out, together, what ideas could logically appear in an essay on ABC, then your student can try writing the essay, and you can focus on details of spelling and grammar, and the larger issues of sentence and paragraph construction.

Geronimo · Joined: 11 Apr 2007 Posts: 498

Hello buzzing,

Try to get hold of a copy of the "Keep Writing" books by Richard Harrison....
http://www.eflbooks.co.uk/book.php?isbn=0582030226&continue=%2Fbr.php%3Fcode%3DSKWREL%26amp%3Bdate_ord%3D%26amp%3Bno_show_im%3D
as these texts tackle the most typical errors produced by writers
with Arabic as their L1.

Harrison has also produced "Better Writing" for stronger learners.

Sorry, but I'm afraid that I can't point you towards "a good tefl forum".

We're stuck with this one! Sad

Geronimo

desertdawg · Joined: 14 Jun 2010 Posts: 206

Good topic. Hope some more replies are posted.

In a similar vain to spiral78 I can suggest a bit of Blue Peter work. Prepare a paragraph then cut up the sentences. Hopefully the student can see the topic sentence and body sentences perhaps with some signaling words to assist in the order of the body sentences. It might even be possible to mix up two or three paragraphs worth of sentences and see if the student can make sense of them.

"Guided" writing can make things easier for the learner. I'm not exactly sure what it means but in effect it's providing scaffolding for the building of a written piece of work. It could be a gap fill with either vocab or conjunctions. Or more could be required from the student. For example a series of pictures/diagrams/prompts which guide the writer to produce.

I've used the Keep Writing books and thoroughly recommend them.

posh · Joined: 22 Oct 2010 Posts: 430

Good reply from Dawg.

Even start at the very beginning and explain exactly what a sentence is. Then cut up sentences and get Ss to piece them together.

Once they've cottoned on, write on the board a capital letter then elicit a sentence. Throw in full stops/and/verbs/nouns and do the same.

You could also PTV or feed/elicit vocab to make sentences. Then get them to use their own imagination.

It's like building a house - start at the bottom.

Skyblue2 · Joined: 04 Sep 2007 Posts: 127

desertdawg · Joined: 14 Jun 2010 Posts: 206

Some things I have used in the past:

punc. punctuation

NP new paragraph

pl. use the plural

sing. use the singular

^ you have missed something out

Un Uncountable noun

WO word order

WW wrong word

WF Wrong word form. Use an adjective or adverb etc

art. article

prep. preposition

?? needs rewriting: not quite right, ungrammatical or meaning unclear

vt wrong verb tense

g grammar

sp. spelling