Design Principles
We use writing for a variety of everyday communicative purposes, from making a shopping list to writing essays for school or creating reports for a presentation at work. In this computer-mediated age, being able to write is an essential skill in any language.
Before you watch this video clip, jot down a few ways you use writing in your everyday life.
A brainstorm of ways in which we use writing in everyday communication.
Duration: 00:55
Common Uses of Writing
| Shopping Lists | Essays & Term Papers | Poetry & Song Lyrics | Prose, Short Stories, Novels |
| Notes | E-mail & Text Messages | Letters & Postcards | Personal Journals & Blogs |
These uses of writing should guide the development of writing tasks in the L2, both when setting up the curriculum and when designing individual tasks.
Specifically, there are several design principles to consider when planning for L2 writing:
- Language activities should reflect plausible, real-life communication.
- L2 writing can have the same wide range of purposes as L1 writing.
- L2 writing should be taught systematically, not as a random thing used here and there only as a support task.
Explores notions of what L2 writing is often used for in the foreign language classroom.
Duration: 01:05
After watching this clip, compare the real-life uses of writing to the way you and the language teachers may use L2 writing in the classroom. What are the discrepancies and why do we have this practice? How could you change the tasks you offer in the classroom to make them more aligned with everyday uses of writing (i.e., to help learners use writing for realistic/authentic tasks)?