By Natalia Sofía Vindas Gutiérrez - Education Degree student
Most language classes are based on the ability to speak fluently. Students learn about grammar skills, reading, oral skills, to a certain degree to write. But are they learning the beauty that relays in writing? Are they writing pieces worthy of being published? Most importantly, they do not necessarily need to be publishing authors, but it is important for them to at least know how to write an email. Excelling writing skills is as important as it was ever. Teaching students how to make their writing more invading, elegant, and correct, is a lesson they will benefit for the rest of their lives.
Besides, the first truth students should acknowledge is the fact that writing is as essential as speaking. Whether they decide to become engineers, actors, or professional authors, they will need to have proper writing skills. To get the job they are aspiring to, they will need to write a cover letter. When their boss asks for a report or if they need to send a letter to the dean of their university, it will not only be about writing solely a mediocre piece but to differentiate the context, the formality, or the right vocabulary to make everything clear. If your students understand how vital is to write, they will have a desire to improve.
First, students need to learn to write with purpose. That purpose is going to be provided by the teacher. They can start by writing a letter to someone they love. Then they will need to write a fictional letter to the country’s president. Later on, the teacher can open a space where they write about something truly important for them, so then she can correct their papers, constructively pointing out what they need to improve. In that light, they can advance to write an article about a news report that caught their attention. This is providing them with experience in composing not only a wide variety of topics but prose.
Equally important, when teachers are advocates for writing, when teachers teach passionately about writing, it is contagious. If, as teachers, we let students write creatively, they will develop a daily habit. Those pupils are improving their lives, not just academically, without even noticing. Perhaps you are enlightening their hidden talents. Or they will start to write in a way of venting and for mindfulness purpose. Anyhow, even if your students never prioritize writing before, in teaching them the basics and gradually increasing their skills, they might start writing a letter to the editor, then they will write a column, to eventually compose a whole book.
Also, for students to legitimate, they will need to develop a habit of reading, as well as plenty of writing practice. Reading and writing are inevitably cohesive. In reading, students will unconsciously learn more vocabulary, they will see the first-hand example on prose, what is a great narrative, even how to tie ideas together. They will be able to have a better idea when they write their pieces. Likewise, having a good amount of practice will turn students into more proactive writers. They will spot their opportunity areas, also they will be more open to critique. When they write more and more, they will consciously identify what topics they have mastery over. Overall, they will feel more confident writing, leading them to write properly.
As noted above, having beautiful writing, or mastering writing is not the last century ability. It remains relevant in the twenty-first century. This is not one of those skills they will only need in the academic field but in their professional field, regardless of their expertise area. It will make the difference between astonishing people with their professionalism or their poor capabilities to communicate. When they are learning to write, at first, they will write with a clear objective, perhaps even boring, but then they will write with passion. Writing is something everyone thinks they have mastered. Are your students right to think so?
