| Reading, Writing, Listening, Speaking | | | | essays or advert-style formats and writing. |
| If your English as a Foreign Language learners are | | | | Depending on the level of the learners, I may |
| anything like mine, then many of them don't like to | | | | precede the writing lesson with a class on order of |
| write in English. But since we wish to empower our | | | | adjectives, paragraph structure, the basic |
| foreign language learners with all four of the basic | | | | five-paragraph essay or a brief study and analysis of |
| language skills, writing needs to be included in our | | | | travel ads and travel articles or columns from an |
| class lessons. So, how can writing be introduced in | | | | English language newspaper. |
| such a way as to inspire interest and facility to our | | | | To Be or Not To Be |
| EFL classes - that is the question. | | | | For a different type of approach, your English |
| One approach that has worked for me is to have | | | | language learners could write a poem about their city, |
| my EFL learners write a "travel" piece about the city, | | | | region or country. Often these prove to be both |
| region or foreign country we are living in. This | | | | insightful and humorous. |
| exercise is usually called something like, "A Perfect | | | | Consider this slightly "tongue-in-cheek" example: |
| Day in Bogota". For a longer written piece or an | | | | "The Feria de Cali" |
| assignment, you could use, "Three Perfect Days in | | | | Waves of December heatare here to meet and |
| Barcelona" or "A Perfect Week in Quito" or wherever | | | | greetthose "Gringos" who dareour Feria to |
| it is that you live. | | | | share,while dancing to a Salsa beat. |
| Generally, learners love to brag about their city. By | | | | Parades of slender, bronzed beauties abound,as |
| allowing them to boast about their favorite activities | | | | classic antique cars are found |
| and places in the city, you can not only get them to | | | | In ten days the Feria endswith sugar cane sweet |
| write with enthusiasm, but glean some insight into | | | | tastesand aguardiente-filled friends |
| their personal likes and preferences. I've even gotten | | | | You'll sadly leave less heavythan a pink and green '57 |
| more than a few "hot tips" on unique places or | | | | Chevy. |
| events that eventually panned out into some of my | | | | Okay, so Shakespeare it's not, but the poetry writing |
| own haunts. | | | | process worked for the learners. |
| Procedure at a Glance | | | | The next time you'd like to "squeeze in" a bit more |
| The learners write a description of their favorite local | | | | writing into your English class, try a variation of these |
| hotels, restaurants or places to eat, interesting sites | | | | ideas. You may be more than pleasantly surprised at |
| to visit, unique slants on local festivals, holidays and | | | | the attitude of the learners and what they ultimately |
| other events. Preferred night clubs or discos, and | | | | produce. Don't forget to read aloud and post the |
| types of music along with days and times to go, help | | | | more interesting examples. If you give the writing as |
| to round out the writing. | | | | an out-of-class assignment, your learners can include |
| Instead of insisting on a particular "format" or style, | | | | photos, graphics and perhaps "realia" in their writing |
| I've found it useful to allow a variety of expression in | | | | as well. |
| this area. Learners can use "bullet points", narratives, | | | | |