Approaches and Strategies to Improve Writing Skills

I believe and, I hope others believe that writing well is not only a personal accomplishment but also a valuable form of social participation and leadership. After reviewing the literature, this work tries to identify the problem and to identify the key issues to EFL writing so as to suggest a remedial procedure that may help the learners to express themselves better in English. It aims at finding areas of difficulty in the writing skill among the students and to work out remedial procedures to help them overcome their weakness. A survey carried out on 12th grade students, regarding their comprehension, shows that organizing idea on paper is one of the factors which influences their ability to write. It also shows that students feel the need to be instructed on strategies of writing success and consequently improving their writing. There are a lot systematic approaches and methods for discerning which skills and type of writing teacher should focus on and meaningful classroom activities and strategies that teacher can use to help students improving their writing.

Three Continents, one Language: Studying English in a Portuguese Landscape (Brazil, Cape Verde and Portugal)

Unlike other languages, English has spread to all continents and become a truly global language, a process observable in countries, like Brazil, Cape Verde, and Portugal, located in three different continents, and sharing a common official language: Portuguese. This relatively recent development has contributed to the wide exposure to English and the growing influence of the language in their societies, being used with lingua franca communicative purposes, which raises pedagogical issues. Our aim is to map the exposure and use of English as a Lingua Franca in these Portuguese speaking countries through a comparative study of the results from three case studies (Berto 2009, Cavalheiro 2008 and Nunes 2010). By taking into consideration the findings from questionnaires answered by students and teachers of English, it compares and contrasts the respondents’ opinions on the profile of English teachers — native vs. non-native —, the varieties of English to be taught, and the language teaching resources available. In addition, it explores the learners’ interests, motives and purposes in relation to English and the potential communicative interactions between all speakers, so as to better understand ELF in English language education, and how these factors affect or should affect pedagogical practices in a Portuguese environment.