hello when did you last write in the
language you're learning maybe you're
feeling a little guilty right now
don't worry writing is often ignored or
left to last or we think yeah it's not
the thing I need to be fluent right now
maybe that's right maybe you just need
to learn a bit of a language to speak
when you're there and you don't need to
worry about writing but writing can play
a really important role in language
learning in general not just to become
the next Shakespeare so in this video I
want to talk a little bit more about the
role of writing in language learning now
if we start by considering the four key
areas and key skills of language
learning there's some real crossover
here first of all what are those four
skills we're talking about we're talking
about writing listening reading and
speaking so these can be divided into
written and oral skills and input and
output skills and this is where the
crossover comes in so we can think of
reading for example as a written in poor
skill it's something that we're not
producing ourselves but it's we're
taking it in its inputs and it's a
written form of language writing on the
other hand is an output skill is
something we're producing ourselves and
it's written just like meeting us but
it's not input like meeting it then on
the other side of things we have
speaking and listening listening being
the input side of things and speaking
being the output but before we go any
further I do just want to make it clear
that there are many languages in the
world
that are oral only aka they don't have a
written form according to ethnologue
estimates there could be over 3000 of
the world's seven thousand plus
languages that aren't actually written
down this means almost half of the
world's languages may not have a written
form at all that said if the language
that you're learning does have a written
form stay with me because for the other
three thousand or so languages in the
world writing plays
the important role in the language
learning process I want you to take a
moment now to think about when the last
time you used writing was for the
language that you're learning maybe it
was to make some brief notes possibly in
your native language maybe it was a
message to a language exchange partner
but probably not much else I read a
great article when I was researching for
this video by Jessica Williams no
relation who said this
in the introduction to a piece writing
has often been seen as the result of
acquisition rather than as a
facilitating factor now think back again
to how you use writing in your own
language learning is it as a result of
acquisition language learned through
other input methods such as reading and
listening or is it actually used as a
facilitating factor to that acquisition
because the great thing about writing is
that it can play a role at any stage of
the language learning process to
facilitate aka
make it easier to learn and acquire a
language yeah another thing that Jessica
Williams mentions in her article is the
processes of second language development
as proposed by Hewson and Pierre rod
this involves three key stages number
one knowledge internalization aka
noticing stuff and taking it in number
two
knowledge reconstructing okay giving a
go and getting things corrected and
number three knowledge consolidation aka
remembering and using language IRL like
Pro and a good news for us is that
writing can play a key role at each of
these stages so let's take a look at how
this fits together firstly in the
knowledge internalization process
writing could be involved in terms of
copying down new words and vocab that
you learn and making notes in the
language as well during the knowledge
restructuring process writing can be
useful to begin writing your own
sentences and experimenting with new
things that you learn and finally during
the knowledge consolidation process you
write your proper like so why then when
writing can be so useful and helpful but
every stage along the language learning
process is it so often ignored and
forgotten about until later on well
there are two key things to note about
writing number one is slow and number
two is permanent especially when we
compare it to the other output skill of
speaking speaking is instant and often
temporary meaning that what we say and
how we say it is easier to be forgotten
than writing this makes mistakes feel
less impactful because we make a mistake
we just move on let's say something else
quick unless it's recorded of course
like now you don't want to see how many
times we tried to say that last sentence
and easier to be forgotten is that make
sense easier to be forgotten Vicki it's
easily easier easily forgotten is more
easily forgotten speaking is instant
writing being permanent makes you want
to make it better and the fact that it's
slower means you have the time to do so
all you need to bring writing into your
language learning is a little patience
because it does take more time to write
them to speak a place that you can sit
and write in peace and something that
you can write in or on I can help you
with the last one the line' today's
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you can go for hard bound or
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notebook today and take the time to
bring writing into your language
learning process which ever stage you're
at so how do you do this how do you
bring writing into your language
learning process I'd love to know more
let me know in the comments below and as
always remember to subscribe for regular
language learning videos I will see you
very soon thank you bye
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