1. Working with expanding or condensing texts
The expansion exercise aims to further elaborate a sentence by adding additional elements (adjectives, phrases, clauses) to it. For example: “The woman sings” → “The young, well-dressed woman, who studied voice in Rome to become a …
Read more2. Exercises for linking and unlinking of sentences
Exercises of linking and taking sentences apart further the students‘ linguistic competence in terms of syntax, stylistics and language repertoire. These exercises should be conducted repeatedly to further understanding and consolidation. The terms “conjunction/combining words” …
Read more3. Integrated stylistic exercises with paper strips
The following training exercises combine different aspects of style with action-oriented intensive learning. Procedure: a) The instructor displays a picture. Each student receives 3–4 paper strips (A3 paper cut horizontally into 4–5 strips) and writes a sentence …
Read more4. Experimenting with formal styles and text types
Attractive and witty stylistic exercises involving whole texts are possible in various forms. However, these types of experiments require a certain level of feeling for the first language and its stylistic facets. Where this feeling …
Read moreTable of Contents
- Preface to the series “Materials for heritage language teaching”
- Introduction
- I. Introduction: low-threshold level writing examples and activities to promote motivation
- 1. Preliminary exercise: shared story telling by turns, sequels or chain stories
- 2. Writing collectively: alternating, continued, chain or folded stories
- 3. Texts with a colon: picking words, and who, where, what stories
- 4. Skeleton stories, emotive word stories, scaffolding stories
- 5. Imaginative writing in different social forms
- 6. Short artistic and creative tasks with language (see also # 22)
- 7. Language riddles
- II. Techniques and strategies for the various phases of the writing process
- 8. Finding ideas, pre-structuring the text
- 9. Planning the structure of the text (see also #16, Suggestions for text building)
- 10. Using titles, subtitles and paragraphs to structure and design a text
- 11. Techniques for revision and self-correction
- 12. Writing for the target audience; designing and presenting attractive texts
- 13. Guidelines for the students: worksheets WS 1 + 2
- III. Ideas to further partial aspects of writing
- 14. Suggestions for vocabulary building I: working with word fields and expanded language tools
- 15. Suggestions for vocabulary building II: working with gap-fill exercises and alternative word tests, etc.
- 16. Suggestions for text building and structuring (see also # 9)
- 17. Suggestions for improving writing style I: practice with acting and discovering style
- 18. Suggestions for improving style II: writing and summarizing in a precise, clear and exciting manner
- 19. Hints for improving syntax and morphology
- IV. Ideas for specific writing contexts
- 20. Writing occasions that are particularly suitable for heritage language education
- 21. Suitable projects for cooperation with mainstream education classes
- 1. Multilingual poetry collection (eleven poems, etc.)
- 2. Multilingual picture books or adventure books
- 3. Multilingual student papers or wall boards
- 4. Contributions to project weeks or exhibitions, like “our cultures”, “where we come from”, “great vacation destinations”, “our languages” etc.
- 5. Multilingual recipe collections
- 22. Artistic-creative design projects with language
- Bibliography