Creative ESL Writing Activities for Students That Everyone Can Use

ESL Writing Activities

If you’re an ESL teacher, keep the following points in mind while choosing ESL writing activities for your students:

• You must choose tasks that can be completed quickly online because you and your students will communicate via online video conferencing software. As a result, games that demand outdoor activities may not be as successful.
• As each online class will only have one student, you should avoid choosing group activities. If you choose games that involve more than one student, you risk confounding your students rather than assisting them in improving their writing skills.
• The digital platform offers teachers their teaching materials. The games you choose for your students must be related to the information you’ve been provided; otherwise, you won’t be able to make any progress.
• The ESL Writing Activities you choose should be according to maturity level, which means you should choose games based on your students’ ages. Choose easier-to-understand exercises that teach English writing at the most basic level for your younger children. Older students with a basic command of the English language may benefit from slightly more difficult activities.
• ESL Writing Activities must be included in both in-class and homework assignments. This will provide students additional opportunities to practice, allowing them to grow and improve their writing talents.

Knowing which activities will help your ESL students reach your lesson’s learning objectives is the key to using writing activities as a teaching tool. For example, if you employ only fun and games in your activities, your students may not learn anything useful.  

Writing assignments for ESL students are crucial because they teach students how to express themselves and utilize arguments in English to defend their points of view. As a result, ESL writing tasks should be done as homework and as a classroom activity. Certain academic writing services also provide online guidance regarding ESL writing tasks.

In this article, we’ll go over a few fun ESL writing tasks that can be used in a classroom setting or while teaching ESL online.

Some of the most effective ESL writing exercises

The Internet era has made writing duties more enjoyable. As a result, there are several opportunities to showcase one’s talent and sharpen one’s writing skills. The ten finest alternatives are shown below.

1. Emailing 

People use Gmail, Yahoo, and other email exchange services in school and business. Letters have specific formatting and construction requirements. Writing emails is a valuable talent in the twenty-first century. Most businesses use chat, messenger, and email to communicate with their customers. This type of exercise allows students to distinguish between formal and informal writing.

2. Using Twitter

This social media network was designed solely for a message. It is now the ideal virtual space for influencers who want their followers to hear what they have to say. Students might envision themselves as influencers as well. Teachers can hold a competition to choose the best tweet. Furthermore, because the post must not exceed 280 characters, it is a fantastic opportunity to manage words. As a result, each word must be concise.

3. Rectification of Errors

This job may need technology or the use of old school papers and red pencils. A student’s responsibility is to look over a post, article, or piece of writing for grammatical and stylistic problems and mark them with a pencil. Online writing tools can help you do the same thing. Because of its Comment feature, Google Docs is ideal. To make faults more evident, different colors might be used to underline them. These kinds of assignments help students enhance their grammar and language skills. 

4. Creating Catchy Ads

Hundreds of advertisements are broadcast every day in all movies, periodicals, television channels, and radio stations. Students can attempt to design an advertisement by either following a sample or crafting their product promotion concept. If the task is to be completed at home, a student might create a decent visualization by including self-made photos, headings, fonts, and other important information. Furthermore, when students present their projects to others, it entails speaking. As a result, it’s a creative and beneficial task.

Apart from writing, a person learns how to capture a reader’s interest. For example, the purpose of an advertisement is to sell a product or service. Therefore, people consider which words make the best impression or elicit good associations in a situation.

5. Write in a Step-by-Step Manner

This task necessitates the assistance of an excellent tutor. A student prepares paperwork for beginners and sentence by phrase for A2 students with the help of an instructor. The primary purpose of this activity is to teach pupils how to think and articulate themselves coherently about a certain topic. Students learn how to write compositions in various styles due to this. They also learn how to style papers and use citations.

6. New Every Time

This task is the ideal way for students to see how different essays differ. Every year, college lecturers assign students to write essays. The following are the most common essay types: 

• narrative
• contrast and compare
• descriptive
• expository
• the relationship between cause and effect
• definition
• argumentative
• analytical
• persuasive

A student’s task is to compose an essay in any style. Then they should change the writing to match a different style of essay. A teacher, for example, might instruct students to write a narrative school essay. Then, students must transform a narration into an argumentative composition by adding a discussion. The following task will be to turn an argumentative essay into a cause-and-effect essay, and so on. As a result, students’ academic writing skills improve, and they master a language from several angles.

7. Explanatory Writing

When learning new techniques or hobbies, everyone consults a guide. On the one hand, writing instruction is simple. Beautiful expressions and stylistic elements are not require for a person. On the other hand, precision is required, and long sentences should be avoided. Furthermore, a person must understand how things work.

One might create a guide on how to make a 3D toy. Then students can identify different types of material, fillings, details, and sewing techniques. It is preferable, to begin with, simple instructions and work your way up to more difficult jobs.

8. Image Description

One should make an effort to describe all that surrounds them. The pictures must be chosen at random. Writing on the spur of the moment strengthens our brains and tests our language skills. Next, the students should write a tale. Learners, for example, examine a photograph of two children. By answering simple questions, they attempt to think about a story. What are their names? What are these kids up to? Who are their biological parents? What is their pastime? Why are they on their own? This type of activity boosts one’s imagination and writing abilities.

9. Short-Long ESL Writing Activities

Making writings longer or shorter is the focus of this exercise. It teaches pupils how to determine which components are necessary and can be eliminated. Students learn how to transform official writing into non-official writing due to this. Take a narration full of lovely expressions and artistic elements, for example, and turn it dry and lifeless. The same pupil then fills the rudimentary writing with magnificent, complicated sentences.

10. Collaborative Writing

A group of pupils is given an assignment and begins to complete it. They collaborate to come up with the best concept. Following that, partners begin writing and debate the best words to use, the best style to employ, and how to convey everything. Another option is to write interrogative terms on a sheet of paper. One student begins a story, while the rest attempt to carry it on with the help of prompts.

Sample:

• Who is it? (A man in a white T-shirt)
• Take action (Was crossing a street)
• What is the location? (In New York)
• When (on a Sunday Morning, for example), and so on.

An activity like this elicits new thoughts and requires a person to utilize words to create an engaging story. 

Last Thoughts ESL Writing Activities

Many activities can help in the learning of a language. To avoid boredom, one should engage in engaging activities. Messengers, social media platforms, and group activities serve as excellent stimulators and practice aids when used effectively. It is up to the individual to select the activity that best matches their needs.

 

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