| Teaching writing skills to adult ESL students is one of | | | | without stopping and worrying about spelling, |
| the hardest skills to teach. Pre-writing skills makes the | | | | grammar and the like, which is often very hard for |
| writing process easier for writing an essay. | | | | them to do at first. Explain to them that writing is |
| English of second language students often feel | | | | also figuring out what you want to say, which should |
| inhibited by writing English and end up comparing | | | | have all of their attention at this early stage of the |
| themselves with their native speaking English peers. | | | | writing process. |
| For this reason alone, teachers prefer to use | | | | Another prewriting technique which is equally |
| brainstorming techniques (otherwise known as list | | | | successful is questioning using words such as: what, |
| making) to help students with breaking some of the | | | | when, where, why, and how. You can start the |
| preconceived notions about their writing. | | | | writing lesson by explaining to your students that |
| When enough classroom time is devoted to | | | | questioning means generating details about their topic |
| explaining the stages of the writing process and the | | | | by writing a series of questions and answers about it. |
| importance of brainstorming, students feel more | | | | After students freewrite, ask them to make up a list |
| confident to write a paragraph, let alone a paper, | | | | of details. This helps them with categorizing later on |
| which often makes them feel uneasy. | | | | their information and how they want to arrange their |
| Brainstorming Techniques | | | | paragraphs. One detail often leads to another as |
| Brainstorming is probably the most effective of all | | | | students expand their list. Slowly but surely, they are |
| the writing techniques because it helps ESL students | | | | surprised to find more supporting material emerging |
| think through their topics without having them judge | | | | that they can use to develop their papers. By the |
| what they write. With brainstorming, students simply | | | | time they have finished their list, they are ready to |
| write items up, one after another, without worrying | | | | plan an outline of their paragraphs and to write their |
| about putting them in any special order. Encourage | | | | first drafts. |
| students to accumulate as many details as they can | | | | In short, prewriting stategies should act as |
| think of. | | | | confidence builders which ESL students can use as |
| Other Pre-writing Strategies | | | | they begin to write about their topics and plan their |
| Another pre-writing strategy teachers can use with | | | | thoughts. Always encourage your students to look |
| their ESL students is freewriting. For instance, you | | | | for a point they can make, and make sure they have |
| can tell them to write whatever comes into their | | | | enough details to support it. |
| mind. Tell them to write for ten minutes on topic X | | | | |