Hey everyone, I'm Oliver and welcome back to the Easy English Podcast.
And today we are going to be asking the question, is writing important in language learning?
Often I would say that speaking and listening are people's favorite parts of learning a language.
So with English, people prefer to practice speaking and listening.
And often even reading.
But how often do you practice writing?
So writing in English.
This could be writing a message or a comment.
It could be typing something in English on your computer.
Or it could be actually writing something down on paper.
So today we are going to look at how important actually is writing with learning a new language and how can we do it if it is important.
So I can tell you that writing plays a significant, so an important, role in language acquisition, language learning, and it offers learners the opportunity to practice and reinforce their skills.
So the main reason why reading is important is it helps to solidify what you have learned.
So it helps to put what you have learned into your mind more deeply to help you remember and use it.
So this can help to solidify vocabulary, to improve your grammar and to enhance overall language proficiency, so to improve your level of language.
Everything from making sentences to crafting or writing essays.
Writing allows learners so you guys to express yourselves and communicate effectively in a new language.
The way I like to think about it is Whenever someone asks you a question in English, you have to think about your answer very quickly and almost automatically reply immediately.
And that reply is not always the best version of your English.
Maybe it doesn't have perfect grammar.
Maybe you used very simple words and you would have rather expressed or used more complicated words that better answered the question.
And this is fine.
It is perfectly fine to speak more simply than you write.
And the reason for this is we have less time to think of an answer and to create our sentence.
That is the beautiful thing about writing.
You can practice sentence structures and grammar structures with no pressure for time.
No time pressure.
You can sit and think about what you want to write.
You can think about how do I write this word?
What is the correct grammar tense?
And what is the best words to say what I want to say?
And this will not only help improve your writing, it will also help improve your speaking.
When you practice writing sentences, you can learn new and help to learn new sentence structures so that when you speak you can use sentences that you've already written before.
So if we look at one of the main reasons why writing is important, this is memory and retention.
Retention is the amount of information or new information that you retain or keep in your mind.
So you remember it and you learn it.
So research suggests that writing can improve memory and retention.
When a learner writes by hand, they engage differently in different cognitive processes compared to, for example, typing on a keyboard or speaking.
The act of physically forming letters and words can strengthen neural connections, so the connections in your brain, and this can result in a better recall, so a better memory of vocabulary and grammar rules over time.
So what this article is saying is it is saying that writing with a pen and paper can really help to improve your memory of the words and grammar and sentences that you're learning.
But of course, i also think that typing is very useful.
Typing and texting on your phone in english is great for practice too, and that's why i am going to ask you guys if you are watching or listening on youtube, write a comment down below, tell me about your day or something that you have done and just let me know how are you, how is your day and how is your english learning going.
This is practice.
So some writing practice and i will love to see and reply to your comments.
And if you're on Spotify, you can reply to the question on the Spotify episode.
Okay, so how can we practice writing?
Often in a digital world, we write a lot less now.
And you might wonder, why should I practice?
Well, besides all of those other reasons I've given...
Writing is just another different way to learn English.
We don't want to do the same thing all the time and having a varied approach.
So lots of different ways of learning English will really help your brain to continue progressing with English language.
So some ways that I recommend you to write to practice English.
The first is to have a journal.
So every day it can be on the notepad in your phone.
It can be on a piece of paper.
Write some sentences, like a diary, about what you did that day and maybe about your feelings and emotions, some thoughts that you had.
It can be about anything, but the most important bit is to try to make it daily, so that you do it every day.
That will be the most helpful part.
Another great way to practice is if you want to know English for work or for an academic purpose, so for education, you can practice writing some short essays.
So try to answer a question.
You can look up IELTS practice questions so the essay questions and you can practice answering them.
This can help to develop vocabulary in different themes or topics and I think it's a great way to practice.
Another great way to practice is to try writing stories.
This is a great option if you are a creative person and you like to come up with new ideas and stories.
Try to tell a story about something you are interested in, about something which isn't real from your imagination.
So your thoughts.
And this can be a great way to remember some of those new words.
You can pick some words which you have just learnt or are learning and write a story using those words or based around those words.
And I can guarantee you will never forget those words again, because you will remember the story and the images which you have created with them.
And finally, a great way to practice writing is to engage online.
So, like I said, to write a comment on YouTube, to reply to people, to send messages to friends or language exchange partners.
There are a million ways to practice your English writing online in the digital era.
So is writing important for language learning?
Yes, I think it is.
It might not be the most important part, but I think it is very important for language learning.
And if you aren't currently utilizing or using this skill, you should.
It will really help to make your English language journey more interesting and better, more efficient.
So thank you for listening to this episode of the podcast.
I hope the rest of your day is amazing.
Have a fantastic day and I will see you in the next episode.
Goodbye.
