Learning by writing a story

[xTinx]

Yes, although I tried to combine it with reading. Reading, writing and learning - they go simultaneously. If you add interacting or telling your story to someone else, you get have better memory retention too.

[OddVisions]

I remember a teacher doing something akin to this in high school with our vocabulary worksheet. To this day, I will never forget the Spanish word for cow 'vaca' thanks to that. I agree it's a good idea to help teach a lot of the more easy to learn words in other languages this way.

[zabina12]

I have not tried that method on other languages aside from the English language.

Several times I have written some stories, poems and other articles using the English language. Mostly as part of school requirement for the English subjects.

[Baburra]

I agree. I think writing is good practice and it even encompasses all lessons you would or should learn like grammar, sentence structure, as well as punctuation. It's definitely a lot more effective than just reading since you are doing the work ur self instead of just passively enjoying what is presented to you.

[btripp2]

One of my favorite Spanish teachers had us do that. It made me way more engaged in learning the language. I highly recommend it for anybody at any language level, though you may find yourself less frustrated at a higher language level.

[Verba]

Here's a fun method of learning/teaching a language: Let the student learn by writing on any topic of his/her choice. That way, he/she can work on words that he/she wants to learn. This method actually worked for me. Have you tried doing this?

My 10-year old daughter tried this. On her own, without me and her dad telling her, she made a dialogue using Filipino, our native language. Now, she's more used to speaking, writing and reading in English because we left the Philippines when she was just 2 years old. But I want her to also learn how to speak Filipino. She can understand maybe about 80% of it because I talk to her in our language most of the time.

The skit was hilarious! We had so much fun watching and hearing her read it. The words used and accent may be funny and awkward to hear but she learned so much from it. I have yet to follow her up on doing another one. Thanks for your post I was reminded about it. 

[primalclaws1974]

I haven't tried, but it sounds like a smart idea. If someone is working with what they are familiar with, they are going to be more relaxed. Being more at ease makes it easier to learn. All stress is going to do is frustrate people, and hinder their learning.

[RedRose]

I've done that before, and it's a very helpful method. My Spanish teacher in high school would start us off at the beginning of the school year by writing stories of about 250 words, and then by the end of the year, she'd have us write stories of about 600 word within a half hour to forty-five minutes. She would give us a picture and make us write a story about it. By writing stories, it helps you practice grammar and vocabulary immensely. I learned a lot of important Spanish verbs, such as 'decir' and 'sonreir' by writing stories. I would recommend doing this.

[booklover22]

That is actually really smart. I like that idea and think it would be a great tool. That way you will know where their strong points are, and their weak points. If I was thinking about tutoring online for English, then that would be a good tool.

[CorieHens]

Pardon me but I don't think writing a story using a foreign language is easy. It actually would give the learner a harder time. But in fairness to the idea, I agree that it is fun and not as tedious as learning the ABCs of a foreign language. But I would prefer that the story is a short one like a legend of myth.

[lushlala]

This is definitely a plus, but will depend on where you are in your learning process. When I was learning French, we had Oral skills, Listening Comprehension, Reading and Written Skills and I found this combination very suitable to my way of learning. I actually preferred writing to speaking, because I always wrote better than I spoke.

[missbookworm]

I think this is a fun way of learning a new language. It would definitely teach you a lot, including vocabulary, sentence construction, and grammar. Of course, you need to do a lot of research first about a particular language before you put them all into writing.

[C_Decora]

I have actually tried this for my conversational English class a while back. I would remark that I found it a good idea and the outcome was better than expected. However, it really only works if the student is wiling to learn the language.

I believe this is a good strategy when you are teaching students that are willing to make mistakes and learn from them, just as how children learn language. Making mistakes, recognizing them, and correcting them with a bold outlook is really the key to any success.

[lushlala]

This is a great idea, but probably too advanced for new learners. I think once they've learnt the basic and have laid the foundation to their language of choice, it's then easier to get them to write stories, or compositions as we used to call them in school. In fact, when I was in school, this was a part of your language learning anyway. You had writing, reading, oral and listening skills and comprehension. The writing also involved writing short texts on a selection of topics. It was good because the teacher would then mark it and tell you where you went wrong and what he/she liked about it, how to improve etc.

[kurdapia]

Blogs are not yet popular when I was learning the English language. I made my personal hand written journals back then using the foreign language and I am glad it helped me. Now, I have my own blogs and continue using this language. I am planning to create another blog to document my learning experience using another foreign language.

[Tyrell]

I haven't tried the method, and I don't think it's going to work for me. I've always had a passion for writing but I can't see myself writing a story in a language that I just started learning and/or only know the basics in. I think it's mostly because I prefer writing novels, so having to struggle with grammar and the language in general to write it would shift my attention from the story line way too much, which would result in me being turned off by it.  If it works for you though, good for you, keep doing it. 

[freebd]

My English is very bad, how do I get better 

[linguaholic]

My English is very bad, how do I get better 

Hi freebd

Please share some more information about your English level. How long have you been studying English? What is your goal? How did you study English? With textbooks? Speaking to people? Immersion? Like this we get a better idea how we can help you to improve your English level!

Best wishes

L