Study Writing to Improve
Conversation
By: Sean
Savoie
In the past, when people ask me how to improve their reading
skills, I would answer, "Read more! And read more often!" People have also asked
me how to speak with more skill. I have told them, “Read more! And speak with
people more often!” Now, however, I see writing as an essential tool for
developing speaking skills. Allow me to explain.
Conversing with people and writing are both very active
processes. And, although in previous articles I mentioned that reading is more
active than watching television, speaking and writing are the most active,
requiring the brain to push information out into the environment. This is why
many students of English as a second language claim that they are able to read,
listen, and take a test, but they cannot speak well. The analysis of information
while reading and listening to people is a “left brain” activity, whereas
writing and speaking are creative processes that use more of the “right brain”.
Writing and speaking both involve using grammar and
vocabulary in an accurate and active way to make a meaning clear. There are
numerous ways to express one single point, and the practicing of expressing
ideas in many various ways is essential for the development of good writing and
speaking skills. The major difference, of course, is that speaking requires one
to express an idea relatively quickly, whereas writing usually takes more time
or allows more time for a person to express an idea. Therefore, taking time to
create ideas in writing allows a student to practice a variety of ways to
communicate them.
Writing and speaking also both involve putting various modes
of development to use. Modes of development are the forms of writing or speech
that communicate ideas for a specific function. For example, the function may be
to make a friend, gain the trust of people, sell products, influence the
opinions of people, report a crime, give instructions, etc…The modes of
development, or forms, are description, narration, persuasion, argumentation,
comparison and contrast, cause and effect, analysis, etc… In other words, modes
of development are the ways that a person may communicate an idea. When writing,
a student of English has the ability to slow down and carefully choose the mode
of development for expressing. Writing well is not easy, yet the procedure for
developing writing skills improves conversation in a very direct way. It works!
Writing practice also improves grammar skills when speaking.
In conversation classes I often tell my students to completely forget their
grammar when they are having a conversation. When using a foreign language,
speaking requires organizing extremely large amounts of information, and the
brain can only work so fast. Reaction speed is important. Consider a fight
situation. Even a person who studies kung fu at a high level understands that,
when fighting, one must react immediately, without thinking. Using up the time
it takes to think, the reaction is too late. This is why a trained fighter must
practice reacting to the same situations again and again to create an automatic
response. This is very much like writing. Whether struggling with verb tense,
subject verb agreement, singular or plural, or the passive voice, students of
English must develop their skills in a slower way first so that, when in a
conversation, the grammar is expressed automatically and naturally, allowing the
speaker to concentrate on the intended meaning instead of the mathematics of the
construction.
When in a group writing class with an excellent teacher, the
learning process is much more like a private lesson. No two students have the
same language problems. And, although learning from the mistakes of other people
in a class is useful, focusing on one's individual problems is essential. If a
language student is lucky enough to have an excellent writing teacher who
carefully revises the grammar and usage mistakes in every paper, that student
has the opportunity to examine his or her own particular misunderstandings. This
is equal to, if not better than, a one on one conversation lesson. I tell my
writing students, “Study your mistakes! It helps you to make mistakes. This
helps you learn. But don't make the same mistakes again and again.” After making
grammar errors while speaking, there is no time to analyze the mistake; however,
writing provides this opportunity.
Practicing writing with a good teacher improves the usage of
vocabulary. A writing student should often use a thesaurus, a book of synonyms
and antonyms, to develop vocabulary. When an English language student studies a
new word and learns it from a dictionary that translates from the native
language of the student, there is often a subtle difference in meaning. For
example, speakers of Chinese, when looking up the words “participate” and
“attend”, will find that they have the same meaning in Chinese. However, these
two words have significantly different meanings in English. An attentive writing
teacher will point out whether a word is used well in an essay and suggest other
words that may be more appropriate. Remember that English has more words than
any other language in the world. This is a fact. There are very many words,
especially adjectives and verbs, that have similar yet
slightly different meanings. Practicing conversation does not afford an English
student the opportunity to experiment with words so easily, but practicing
writing does do this, especially when working with an excellent writing teacher.
There are many other reasons for developing English writing
skills other than that of simply improving language skill. If you are reading
this article now, you are most probably living in the