Teaching Writing and Vocabulary to

Young Learners

Fátima Daniela Molina Rodríguez

WritingWhen you are teaching to children from four to seven years old , you must consider two thing. Fist if they know how to hold a pencil and second, if they have the cognitive skills to formulate ideas.

As teachers, we face the task of teaching them how to actually print letters, write words and capture their ideas to put on paper.

Children enjoy experimenting with writing and putting their ideas down on paper.

Process Writing It helps native English- speaking children as

well as EFL or ESL young learners to develop English language writing skills.

The process writing involves the process-steps necessary to produce a good equality final piece of paper.

The process writing steps are:

•Pre-writing: In this step the children have the opportunity to write and collect their thoughts and ideas.

•Write: The children write down all their ideas. They don’t have to worry form or correctness or even order.

•Revise: The initial piece of writing is examined so the ideas are logical and flow together.

•Edit: The students, with the help of the teacher, read their work to make sure that there are not any error.

•Publish: The writing piece is rewritten in a published or presentable form in a student book or special paper so that can be displayed and shared.

Classroom Techniques and Activities

Children should be given the opportunities and encouragement to jot their ideas down and this techniques and activities can help them.•Writing Models.

•Group Writing.

•Talking and Writing Box.

•Writing Center.

•Writing Conferences.

•Inventive spelling.

•Word Walls.

Writing in the classroomMore and more young learners' course books are including a writing component .The children often have English-language writing activities related to the content that learners may be studying in English or in their native language.

VocabularyVocabulary is the collection of words that an individual knows. It is important to help young learners expand their vocabularies through formal and informal instructions.

It is important to use formal and informal vocabulary instruction that engages students´ cognitive skills and give opportunities to the leaners to actually use the words.

Teacher should facilitate vocabulary learning by teaching learns useful words and by teaching strategies to help learners figure out meanings on their own.

Principles for teaching vocabulary

•Emphasize both direct and indirect teaching.Direct instruction refers to teaching the words and their meaning. Indirect instruction refers to helping children learn strategies so they can figure out the meaning.

•Teach vocabulary words before a new activity.When vocabulary words are taught before a new activity, students benefit in to ways, they will understand the activity and acquire the target vocabulary.

•Teach how to use context clues appropriately.Students can benefit from learning how to use context clues and guessing the meaning from the context.

•Present multiple exposures to new vocabulary items.Young students make educational gains when they are exposed to vocabulary in a rich context.

•Give opportunities for deep processing of vocabulary items.Deep processing means working with information at a high cognitive or personal level.

•Teach students to use dictionaries.Dictionaries are used.

•Have students keep vocabulary notebooks.Vocabulary notebooks provide students with opportunities to develop a variety of vocabulary.

Classroom Activities and Techniques

Some examples are:

•Connecting vocabulary to young learners ´lives through personalization.•Word of the day.•Categories.•Scavenger Hunt.•What´s missing.•Mystery Words.•Concentration.•Vocabulary Basket.

Many different approaches and activities can be used to help children develop their vocabulary.