Moving Student Foreign Language Writing from Novice to Intermediate

At the novice writing levels, students write with single words and lists initially, then move on to chunked phrases.

Novice Low/Mid:

green
apple, banana, orange
Josué
soccer, football
movies, restaurant

Novice High:

My favorite color is green
I like apples, bananas and oranges
My name is Josué
I play soccer and football
On the weekend I like to go to the movies and to a restaurant

As students move up to the intermediate proficiency level they begin to create discrete sentences on their own that move beyond chunked phrases. This can be challenging for students because they are no longer relying on memorized phrases to chunk together. We can help scaffold this process for students by supporting them in creating sentences. Students often don’t knowhow to add details to a sentence to make it their own, particularly when writing.

I have found that using question words with students is a simple and effective way to have students add details to their sentences that move from memorized, chunked phrases to discrete sentences that are created by the student. The more they do this the more they will grow in confidence and begin to do it on their own when writing.

Here is an example of an activity that has been effective in showing students that they can in fact move up the proficiency ladder by creating their own sentences. I call it “Staring with a Verb” (A Partir d’un Verbe, A Partir de un Verbo).

I created these activities in Google Slides so that students and type their sentences directly in the slide and then submit the document when finished. This is particularly useful when using Google Classroom and ideal during distance learning.