Idea — Collaborative writing tasks require genuine interdependence — each writer has a role (planner, drafter, editor) that the group needs. When any learner can write everything alone, collaboration is redundant. Example — Jigsaw writing:…
Idea — Dictation is often dismissed as old-fashioned, but it activates listening, spelling, punctuation, and grammatical knowledge simultaneously. Dictogloss makes it genuinely productive. Example — In dictogloss, learners hear a short text twice, note key…
Idea — Summary writing requires selecting main ideas and compressing them — cutting examples, repetition, and hedging. It is a separate skill from both reading comprehension and extended writing. Example — A learner who answers…
Idea — The five-paragraph essay formula produces predictable, weak writing at B2+. Teaching learners to argue — claim, evidence, concession, rebuttal — produces stronger thinking and stronger prose. Example — A body paragraph saying “Some…
Idea — Narrative writing requires coordinating past simple (sequence), past continuous (background), and past perfect (earlier events). Teaching these forms through narrative gives context isolated exercises cannot. Example — “I was walking home (past cont.)…
Idea — Professional emails follow a predictable structure: greeting → purpose → body → request or next step → close. Teaching the moves explicitly saves learners from burying the request or omitting the purpose. Example…
Idea — Informal register in writing shows through contractions, ellipsis, discourse markers (“anyway,” “so”), and first-person directness. Teaching register means comparing formal and informal versions of the same content. Example — Formal: “I am writing…
Idea — Academic writing requires hedging — language that marks claims as tentative rather than absolute: “suggests,” “appears to,” “it is possible that.” Over-claiming is a register error, not just style. Example — “Exercise cures…
Idea — Different genres carry different expectations for structure, register, and purpose. Teaching learners to read genre before writing it reduces the “wrong shape” problem in exam and professional writing. Example — A formal complaint…
Idea — Authentic writing tasks — real emails, review posts, complaint letters — motivate because the audience is real. The writing must work, not just be correct. This shifts the frame from accuracy to communication.…