Here’s a look at the power of giving students a ‘real reason’ to write, and the reeling negative effects of teaching too many ‘exam classes’. Some years ago, I was working with an upper-intermediate level exam class here in Greece, composed primarily of young teenagers who would attempt to take various C1 (advanced) level exams that year, and to be honest for no good reason, except that it was a ‘certificate’ plastered bump on the way to C2 (proficiency) level exams.

Now in all actuality my role was limited as I was mainly asked by the school’s director to sit in with the class once a week and help develop their oral skills… of course, for test purposes. As I recall, the students were fairly sharp and most concerned about passing the upcoming exam, albeit less concerned about learning the language to use in any real meaningful way. Nevertheless, motivation is motivation no matter how small. As I always say, never look a gift horse in the mouth.

What was interesting was that these students had expressed to their boredom with the coursebook the school had decided upon for them. I couldn’t imagine any fourteen or fifteen year old that would be interested in content designed for older high school graduate or university age students. It turns out that the school’s choice of a text was based less on students need, and more on the financial need for the school owner to get a kickback from the publisher for using only its books. That’s the way it goes it sometimes. In another post, I’ll rant about the ‘industry’.

The truth is the coursebook they were using offered no real assistance. It did, however, contain what was described as an “advanced level exam related writing task review for all C1 exams” section. What a redundant mouthful! And, please note the marketing blurb: “all C1 level exams”.

The coursebook itself was a prime example of ‘certificate exam skewered’ ‘one size fits all’ publishing in which students end up with nothing much that actually fits their interests. The ‘practice test’ based writing section of this book was basically a collection of suggested outlines for articles, informal/formal letters, discursive essays, reviews, proposals, competition entries, information pamphlets, etc. This was useful mainly for the students’ quick reference, not for any real teaching purposes.

Upon entering the class one day, I was bombarded with student pleas for ideas to help them focus more intensively help with their “exam” writing tasks. I asked them why they hadn’t demanded as much from their main teacher. They responded that they had, but that she was more concerned with ‘getting through the weekly planned material’ and needed more time to explain all the answers to the practice test tasks and other tasks found in the coursebook, workbooks, companion book, and some other skills based books she was instructed to ‘teach’.

OK, so I agreed. “Everyone put away their course and practice-test books take out a piece of paper” I suggested. They complied. I smiled. Yes, I had something in mind.

Initially, my plan was to organize a project that would run for a few weeks, and which we could focus on for about fifteen minutes in each class, but that as a project, the students could follow-up on in an extracurricular fashion. I had in mind a collective task-based project in which everyone could produce something personal, in a related exam format, under some common theme. After some discussion, a “hypothetical” magazine format was agreed on.

I suggested they organize an editorial meeting and select an editor to run the meeting and delegate the writing tasks (and obviously so the teacher could take two steps back!). The students met. After several minutes of indecision on who should be the chief editor, the students insisted I fill the position. Reluctantly, I agreed – but then immediately appointed an “assistant editor” to carry on. Yes, good leaders delegate! If you can, always throw the ball back into the students’ court. That seemed to work and the students moved onto discussing some real “teen” type magazines (both Greek and English) they enjoyed. They even worked out the overall title, “Teens in Touch”, as I recall.

I suggested that for the next class that the students bring in some teen type magazines to help them decide on a format, type of articles, and more specifically to establish who would write what. When they did, I brainstormed with them how the various exam related writing tasks could be tweaked for inclusion in their magazine.

In short, here’s what was discussed by the students:

• Informal letters: An advice column including both the problem letter and a reply on the topic of exam stress.
• Formal letters: a “letter to the editor” in complaint form about a local restaurant with lousy service that regularly advertises in the “hypothetical” magazine. The student would like to see the magazine stop advertising the restaurant.
• Proposal / report: a combined report & proposal on improving the selection of the Greek representative for the ‘Eurovision Song Contest’.
• Competition entries: the winning entry for a hypothetical competition for free tickets to the next FIFA Championship. Students would have to write on what their country’s winning the championship meant to them.
• Information pamphlets: something on Greenpeace, the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF).
• An advert for a summer sleep-away camp (sigh..)
• Articles: various themes on science/technology, mobile phones, disaster relief, and fashion: what to wear when ‘clubbing’ or cleaning up local beaches or neighborhoods.
• Discursive essay: point-counterpoint articles: an opinion essay on the artistic value of graffiti and an opposing view supporting that graffiti is an act of vandalism Basically the students were motivated enough to conjure up their own topics and agree to produce them in a related “exam task” format, albeit tweaked for the “hypothetical” magazine. The one semi-problematic exception was writing reviews.
• Reviews: a book review, movie review and another form of review.

Most students had suggested ideas for content, they were interested in. However, concerning the reviews a problem arose. The book and movie reviews were snapped up within seconds by some eager students. Yet, no one could think of a third ‘exam related’ item to review. Some students began leafing through their practice test books for ideas. Suddenly, one of the quieter girls in class (I’ll call her “Kiki” here) piped up and requested to write the third review. She offered to write a ‘car’ review.

Pandemonium ensued. Students immediately began to object on the grounds that reviews are only written on various forms of entertainment. Kiki countered that she found going on trips in her parents’ car very entertaining and enjoyable. The other students strongly objected that, “you CAN’T review a car”. She disagreed. In fact, she claimed she had seen many car reviews in magazines. While some students began to acquiesce in theory, they also volleyed in principle “yes, but that’s in the REAL world!”. They insisted that they had NEVER seen a “car review” in a coursebook or ‘past-paper’ practice test book as a writing task. Moreover, they offered that the point was moot because “you don’t have to write a car review for an advanced exam!”. Apparently, they were led to believe this “appeal to authority” by the other students who claimed “so says the publishers of practice test books”! Needless to say, Kiki was quite disheartened. In fact the whole atmosphere of the class became rather sullen for a time. A request was put into the “editor in-chief” (me) for a judgment call.

Embarrassingly, after years of the conditioning effects of teaching exam classes, my very first flinching thought was, “A car review? Nice idea, but…”. Thankfully, the good thing about temporary insanity is that it often passes quickly. A little distraction was in order, I decided. Opting not to make a judgment call, I slyly commented to the class in passing “you know, I could take all your articles and really lay them out into a real magazine with pictures and so forth. Then we could photocopy it for the other classes in school. REALLY!” Shock. The hypothetical magazine, suddenly became a real item and writing opportunity. The class reacted so enthusiastically, that they heartily agreed to accept the car review. In fact, even some of the boys grudgingly suggested that “writing a car review is really something a guy should do..”. I commented, as the school bell rang,”hold that thought for next class!”. And so they did.

At some point, the main teacher approached me to ask me about this ‘special project’ I had implemented. After explaining things, she thought it was a good idea, but expressed anxiety over what the school director might think of the idea, especially in that I was ‘supposed’ to only work on oral skills. I explained that I was taking an integrated skills teaching approach, and that the project indeed supported speaking and writing skills in a real and meaningful way. I talked it over with the school director. I suggested that this project not only served the interests and needs of the students, but was also something that could be shown to parents … or in the school director’s words “marketed to prospective clients”. He loved the idea.

The above is just one example of getting students motivated to write in a meaningful fashion. In the case of my students it was my suggestion that their work could be published to some extent. The point here is to give students a real reason to write to ensure participation and excitement. Rarely, can we energize students to autonomy by just relying on bland coursebook content or practice test content that was written for the masses or, in worse cases, to just meet the specifications of certificate exams… certainly not the interests of your students.

(Author’s note: Adapted from an article of the same title that first appeared in ELT-Vista periodical, and based on an original post I had submitted to the DOGME ELT e-mail discussion list: (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/dogme/)

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