This is an activity which is really useful for helping learners to write more fluently and can also help you to diagnose problems with your students' written work and ability to formulate questions.
Using postcards in class can be a motivating writing task and add a level of stimulation for students. My students have always been very fond of this activity as they don't have to write too much and it involves a level of communication and imagination.
This activity would follow input work on writing in a particular style - for example, an informal letter inviting a friend to visit your home town for a holiday.
This activity can be used with intermediate and upper-intermediate students and practises fluency as well as story-writing skills. It offers free practise of narrative tenses and sequential linking words,
Writing can be much more motivating if you give the writer a chance to play a role. In this activity the students will have the chance to write to an imaginary romantic partner.
The present perfect is a tense that many students have problems with. Most course books provide only controlled grammar sentences where students choose the correct tense.
I like using songs in the classroom as I know the students enjoy it a lot! This activity is really good and involves group work and the four main language skills. The students respond to music and write a story.
Many of our teenage students now have mobile phones and enjoy sending text messages to each other. This activity introduces them to some English text messages that they could start to use with their friends.
