Writing in a New Language: Language Learning Goal 6 - Steve Kaufmann

Writing is an effective way to improve language skills. You have time to look things up: words, verb and noun forms, conjugations, declensions, phrases, etc. You have more time to work on your output than when you’re engaged in an oral conversation.

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I feel I still qualify for the very beginning stages of output. At least of anything beyond the typical A1 stuff…greetings, ordering food, basic how do you do. I’m starting to get into more meaningful stuff, or at least attempting to either by mostly speaking to myself or writing. So I don’t personally have a lot of evidence to go off of other than some anecdotal information, but I really think writing has got to be a fantastic way to help activate your vocabulary (and to increase it somewhat, although not as efficiently as reading and listening).

You can write about things you know and that have happened to you. This would help solidify and practice things you might say in everyday conversations with someone. Or you could write about your thoughts and feelings about certain topics…events in the word or other news, or hobbies you enjoy. Also, being able to look up how to construct what you want to say can help with grammar. Submitting writing and getting feedback can also help. I think more so than Steve lets on in either this video or one of the other ones he pointed out to.

Even in my native language, I feel like writing has helped me immensely. Particularly as an introvert, it’s allowed me to take part in conversations and debates I might not otherwise have. It allows me to have time to think and solidify my thinking so that I feel I can take part in more conversations about certain topics. I believe it would help this in your target language as well without the anxiety of trying to formulate how you might say something on the spot. Because your vocabulary is much more limited than your native language you have to come up with your own “target vocabulary” that you can use with ease, that may not be a one to one match with words you may be thinking in your native language. Writing I think could help sort that out prior to eventual conversations.

Write about something that’s happened to you. A daily journal. Write about a special vacation or event. Read an article and summarize it in your target language. The article could be one in your native language or one in your target language. Write a review for a book you read. Take part on message boards.

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It would be helpful to me as well. Because it will help me to express my thoughts intelligently. In the meantime, it helps me Qualitative Research Paper Help - CustomWriting to write my assignments well. I hope very soon I will be able to do it on my own.