Writing in a second language is a complex process. Learners are expected to develop an idea that may or may not be their own into a fully articulated product while paying attention to linguistic features of the target language that they might not yet possess. Often they are asked to do this on their own without the guidance of their instructor, who expects a polished piece of writing to be turned in later. This article presents several ideas to help jumpstart the writing process; providing students much needed support throughout. These ideas can be used at any level of second language writing instruction to produce more focused writing pieces and aid in making writing more communicative in nature.
Though pre‐writing tasks vary, the following guidelines are recommended to lay the groundwork for most types of pre‐writing sessions:
• Emphasize that pre‐writing activities deal with the word and phrase level of writing and that students need not be overly concerned with mechanics and syntax.
• Students write the topic of the writing assignment on the pre‐writing handout or paper as a constant reminder.
• The initial pre‐writing session can narrow a broad topic into more manageable chunks.
• Further pre‐writing sessions can generate global ideas based on the manageable topic and supply supporting details for the topic.
• A time limit needs to be given for a pre‐writing activity to encourage the students to focus their thoughts on the topic at hand. The time limit depends upon the type of activity and is generally short (i.e. 30 to 90 seconds) with some important exceptions detailed below.
• Stress to students that by providing as many details as possible in this stage of the writing process, they form a strong foundation upon which to complete the writing task.
• Depending upon the level of the students, the use of the L2 needs to be encouraged, but not necessarily used exclusively. The higher the level of the writers, the more the L2 can play a significant role.
Types of Pre‐Writing Tasks
For the L2 classroom, there are several options for pre‐writing activities. Some of these include: brainstorming, clustering, drawing, dyad and triads, free‐writing and graphic organizers. This final category consists of, for example, narrative strips, KWL, four column chart,
and flowcharts. The following sections provide examples of each of these activities. Unless otherwise noted, all of these pre‐writing activities can be performed individually, in small groups or as a large group or a class; and the goal of the pre‐writing activity should be considered when determining grouping configurations. Such considerations may include identifying the characteristics of the audience for the paper; generating vocabulary that is useful to the entire class; narrowing a general topic so that each student will be able to discover their individual connection to it; or small groups coming up with ideas for a group writing task or individual tasks that are similar in nature.
Brainstorming
This is a good beginning pre‐writing task for L2 writers, as it does not require any special handout or much practice. During a brainstorming session, students are given a topic and they generate a list of words or phrases in a group. This can be done either in small groups at the students’ desks or as a whole class activity (Sebranek, Meyer & Kemper, 2000; Williams, 2005). In a brainstorming session, it is easy to guide students, if necessary, by steering students towards ideas and vocabulary they may not have otherwise considered by asking specific questions, like ‘who’ or ‘what’ or by providing words or phrases with which they may not yet be familiar. For instance, to generate or review vocabulary through brainstorming for free‐time activities, the instructor writes the phrase on the board or projects them on the screen via an overhead projector and allows the class to offer any item that they may think of related to the topic. The teacher can, if necessary, guide the students by asking, “When do we do our free‐time activities?” or “With whom do we do them?” Conducting a simple brainstorming session can move beginning students beyond basic, simple sentences to more personal sentences that better express what they feel about the given topic. Remember that accepting words from the students’ L1 is a viable option at this point in the writing process.
Clustering
Vacca, Vacca and Mraz (2010) suggest that students begin a clustering activity by writing a key word (or phrase) related to their topic in the middle of a piece of paper. Student writer then enclose the topic with a shape, such as a circle or box. Ideas related to that main point can be connected to it are then added around the main idea. However, another effective use for clustering allows students to consider their audience and their needs; a crucial step met by pre‐writing activities.
The students write, “Who will read this piece of writing?” in the middle of the paper, then draw a shape around it, where they can answer the question and keep the idea connected to it. Although the main reader of a paper is the teacher, this is not always the case and students can use this time to consider both the primary and/or secondary readers of the paper, depending on the level of the class and the complexity of the writing. The student can further consider the characteristics by listing ideas that describe the target audience. This can include ideas such as the audiences’ age, gender or educational level. Another vital idea to determine what the audience already knows about the topic. This will help the writer to realize the amount of background details that need to be included. For example, will the writer need to define key terms or will the audience already have that knowledge? The third box can include an examination of why the audience will read the piece that they are writing. Here the student can look at the type of writing, such as persuasive, informational or entertaining. A fourth box can examine the expectations of the audience members. Different types of writing may conform to certain structures, which the audience may anticipate. For instance, if the piece is a compare/contrast piece, the audience can expect the two points to be presented in a highly structured fashion. It is also with audience expectations in mind that student writers can determine if the writing needs to be formal or informal. By determining ideas like these before writing, many of the concerns of students as to how the piece should be written will be addressed and students’ stress levels will decrease. Students can be given up to five minutes per box, depending on the amount of information that needs to be included and the level of the students.
Drawing
This technique is particularly useful for beginning students, since it requires little or no vocabulary in the beginning. On a sheet of blank paper, students draw a picture(s) relating to the assigned topic, using stick figure drawings, if necessary, and providing as much detail as possible, such as location or time elements. For instance, when generating ideas about dining, students can draw a picture showing who is participating, where the meal is taking place, what foods are being eaten and so on.
A drawing activity that focuses on the past includes a larger sheet of paper that students fold into eight sections. The teacher then asks eight questions, such as “What did you do last weekend?” or “Where did you go on vacation last summer?” and allows the students time to draw a detailed picture answering each question in a separate section of the paper. In this
Who will read this piece of writing?
Character‐istics of my audience
What do they know about the topic?
Why will they read this?
What do they expect?
Determining audience
manner students create eight ideas upon which to draw for the topic of their paper. Later, usually as homework, students do a second pre‐writing activity, such as brainstorming, focusing on one of the drawings.
Dyads and Triads
Sometimes students need the opportunity to talk about their ideas before they begin their writing task (Freeman & Freeman, 2001). Dyads and triads are small discussion groups that allow students to express themselves verbally in order to bring out ideas and details. Students are grouped together in pairs or sets of three. The small grouping forces the students to talk, since participation is mandatory and they cannot ‘hide behind’ the larger number of students found in a full‐class discussion. In these small groups, students talk about the topic of their writing, whether from a reading or an original writing topic, using as much detail as possible. If others in the group do not understand a certain point or would like more information, they can ask for help. After everyone in the dyad or triad has spoken, students quickly write the details that they remember from the discussion. Others in the group can be encouraged to take notes to help the writer record his/her thoughts as they are spoken aloud.
Dyads and triads are a natural pairing with the drawing activity listed above. After the student writers have completed their drawings, they come together in these small groups and describe verbally what they have included in their picture. Again, the other members of the group ask for more details or explanations about the content of the drawing. They finish the activity by writing down the details that they have discussed in their groups.
Free Writing
This pre‐writing task works quite well for more advanced L2 writers and generally needs to be conducted for a minimum of five minutes (Vacca, Vacca & Mraz, 2010; Williams, 2005). By ‘forcing’ students to write for a minimum of five minutes, ideas and connections can emerge from their long‐term memory because students are concentrating deeply on the assigned topic (Martinez, 2010).
Traditionally, to provide focus, students write the topic at the top of their paper. Next, students write, non‐stop, generating ideas for their topic, while disregarding spelling or grammatical errors. If the writers cannot think of a new word or phrase, they simply re‐write the last idea they had until they are able to move on to another idea or concept. After the writing period is finished, the students closely examine their free write papers. They determine what specific ideas occurred; which ones occurred multiple times naturally; and try to connect threads of ideas that interlink throughout. Based on these tendencies, they can ascertain what ideas can be used as details for their writing assignment.
KWL
The KWL chart is an excellent tool to help students find where they stand in regards to their knowledge of a topic (Vacca, Vacca & Mraz, 2010). In the first column the students write whatever they know (K) about the assigned topic. Based on the information generated in the first column, students produce questions to fill in the second column to fill in the information that they do not already possess, or what they want to learn (W). The students are then encouraged to discover more about the topic before they begin writing. Any information that they learn or still need to learn (L) is written in the final column. This is an effective method to guide writing ideas for topics that are fairly new to the students. By discovering what they do not know, they have a direction to go for further research.
