Hello, everyone! Studying writing and speaking is essential for students to develop their language
skills. The following information I've found in one of the Internet resoursers. It seems to me rather useful. More information at www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2.../fulltext..


2.1 Methods for writing
Several methods can be used to improve students’ writing. I will not bring up every
single method there is since that would take too long. Instead I will focus on a few
methods that I think will be useful in a classroom, but of course all the methods will
be taken from certain sources that I have chosen.
In many cases, the hardest thing for a student concerning writing is to get started with
the entire writing process. According to Cowley, there are different reasons why
students have trouble with this. One reason could be that the students are afraid of
failing and that they are under pressure to perform. The teacher must calm them down
and persuade them that if they do make mistakes, it is not a disaster. They will just
have to correct them afterwards. There could also be other methods. Cowley mentions
warm-up exercises, rewards and challenges for the students to increase their
motivation (S. Cowley 3-5).
What to write about is a quite common problem. The process of collecting
information and coming up with ideas is not easy for everyone. Making mind maps is
a recommended option. If you have the topic Christmas, the teacher tells the students
9
to close their eyes and think of all the things they can come up with that are connected
with Christmas. This is an efficient method and Hedge maintains that this works with
almost any topic (T. Hedge 30-31).
Brainstorming is a second alternative where the students gain information by
discussing in groups. White and Arndt write that both the teacher and the students
have important roles in this session. One example of brainstorming is that every
student starts by writing down their own ideas about a certain topic. After a few
minutes they join a partner and they discuss their ideas. Some time later the two
students become four and they elaborate their ideas. At the end of this activity the
discussion stops and each group suggests at least three ideas that are written down on
the board by the teacher. It is, according to White and Arndt, crucial that the teacher
goes through all these ideas with the students before the writing starts so that
everyone understands what the ideas mean. After this session the writing can start,
with the students’ minds filled with ideas (R. White, V. Arndt 18-21).
Besides these different methods for writing, Cowley mentions in her book that the
teacher should give students inspiration and create an atmosphere for writing. One
idea is that the students could write a letter to their favorite person or to pretend that
they are producers of a TV-documentary. In order to create an atmosphere Cowley
claims that if certain students work best when they are listening to music they should
be allowed to have a Walkman while writing. Dramatic sounds like wind or maybe
owls howling could be a good inspiration if the students are supposed to write for
example ghost stories (S. Cowley 8-10).

From my teaching experience I can conclude that students can be much more successful in IEE tasks performance being experienced not only in doing a lot of tests while preparation but also in making similar tasks by themselves. For instance, working with a text for reading, they with/without their teacher’s assistance can choose a number of words for making a multiple-choice cloze.