Dear English Learner… How do you feel about writing in English?
I think I know the answer… but wait!
When I speak, I pay less attention to what I say and how I say it, than when I write. When I write — even in English, my first language — I am more careful.
The written word generally lives longer than the spoken word.
When it comes to writing in French, my second language… it’s even worse. While I can write in French, I’m not as confident as I am when writing in my first language.
Sound familiar?
For those of you who are learning English… writing in the language has a lot to offer… if you can get over the fear factor.
First though, let me do a quick review of the four language skills.
4 Skills Review
This is the third of four articles in which I discuss each of the four basic language-learning skills (#1 was Reading, followed by Listening). Becoming comfortable in all four will lead you to becoming a confident (& competent) English speaker.
As a reminder…
Passive vs. Active Language Skills
It is helpful to think about the four skills in terms of whether they are
(a) written English or spoken English
(b) a passive skill or an active skill
Here you can see the groupings
The first two stories were about the passive skills of reading and listening. Today, for the first time, I’m quoting every movie director who’s getting ready to film…
“and… Action!”
Writing is an active language skill as opposed to reading and listening where you need only take in the language that comes to you. With an active skill… you are producing the language, and that can be stressful, because you’re asking the brain to do a LOT at once! …you’re asking it to remember:
- Vocabulary
- English syntax (placement of verbs, nouns, subjects, prepositions in the sentence) which is often different than in your own language.
- Verb conjugation rules
- Register conventions (is the context formal or casual — & what is appropriate for either context?)
When you sit down to write, your brain does just exactly what it did a moment ago when you read my list. It starts to panic just a bit, and THAT’S NORMAL. It’s not easy to go from passive language comprehension to active language production!
Pros & Cons
I don’t think I have to tell you about the cons of writing in English. I think you’re sufficiently aware of those. So can we skip right to the pros?
Disclaimer:
I’m personally a big fan of writing by hand. I know it’s quite old-fashioned, but I’m over 50… “old fashioned” is where I live. HOWEVER handwriting has a few advantages…
- Handwriting forces you to think about the language as you’re creating it. When writing on a keyboard, there is almost always a spelling-checker or a grammar checker enabled. It will help you produce a good result… but I’m talking about writing for learning, not writing for result.
- When you handwrite, you’re engaging in kinetic learning.
The very fact that your brain has to send signals to your hand to hold a pen, and compose the letters, words and sentences, means that your brain is more engaged with language production. The more your brain is involved, the more it records & anchors the new information… The more you learn. - You can balance composing and copying.
If you are intimidated by the idea of composing in English (starting from nothing and writing), don’t panic! There is another way. Try copying sentences or paragraphs from a book or article that’s at or a little bit above your current language level. - Writing gives you tangible evidence of your progress.
Over time, as you look back on your earlier writing, you’ll be able to clearly see the difference and that improvement will encourage you to continue, perhaps even accelerate, your language-learning. - Better overall communication.
Ultimately, writing is a form of communication and by practicing it, you are improving your ability to communicate in real-life situations.
Have I sold you on the idea that writing is something that could help you improve your English?
I hope so.
Now the question is… “How do I begin?”
Tips to get writing in English
- Try copying sentences & modifying them.
- Change the subject pronoun & re-adjust the verbs.
- Change the object & see if any changes have to be made.
- Change the time: put present sentences in the past / future.
- Put the sentence in a negative or an interrogative form. - Start small:
One of the things I’ve done, since moving to France is to write all of my Instagram posts in both English (for folks back home in Canada) and French (for my local IGers). We’re usually talking about 1–2 sentences… so it’s small and manageable. It forces me to think about how to be concise and how to translate certain expressions / words. - Start a Daily English Journal:
This can be a place where you write a few sentences, every day, in English, to summarize your day. The more regular you are, the greater the benefit. If you’re unsure where to begin… search for simple, daily journaling prompts online… you’ll find a LOT! ** - Vocabulary expansion.
Start with a list of new vocabulary that you’d like to learn and try to put them in sentences. Set small, manageable goals… for example 5 words per day… which will become 5 sentences. If you don’t think you can do it daily, set yourself a reminder to do it every other day or, 3–4 times per week. - Find an English text-pal.
I’m of the pen-pal era myself, but times have changed. Find someone with whom you can regularly exchange in English. It doesn’t necessarily have to be long or complicated sentences, but short, regular exchanges would be great. Be sure to ask that person to help you by correcting mistakes or suggesting better ways of saying something. - If you’re someone who likes to focus on grammar…
Ask Chat-GPT to generate short paragraphs, for your learning level, which includes mistakes (poorly conjugated verbs, improper prepositions, incorrect use of adjectives or adverbs) then see if you can recognize and correct the mistakes.
- ** NOTE: even if you have to begin by writing in your native language, running it through an online translator, and re-copying the English translation… that’s not cheating. Whatever it takes for you to be able to copy grammatical English is good. You’re exposing yourself to, and interacting with, the langage… and that’s never a bad thing.
Now… Be brave!
Want to be really brave? Start writing in English right now by leaving me a comment below… in English of course. 😉
If you don’t know what to say, simply finish this sentence:
“I’m excited to write more in English because… ”
