Activity 8: Promoting fluency writing using Chat

Aim: Help students improve their ability to get their meaning across quickly through writing

Moodle modules: Chat

Extra programs: none

Ease of setup: *

Most of the activities in this chapter have been about providing frameworks for students to improve the accuracy of their writing in one way or another. There is something to be said for just letting students write without being corrected with the aim of getting their meaning across as efficiently as possible. The Chat module is perfect for this. It encourages students to use strategies such as back-channeling (showing the other speaker that you're following what they're saying), paraphrasing, reformulation, and asking for clarification so that they can write a meaningful conversation with others.

As in Chapter 4, Speaking Activities, Activity 7 and Chapter 3, Vocabulary Activities, Activity 7, be careful not to include too many people in your chat session. If you have more than six people, for...