Best Method to Learn Writing in English

This post focuses on Year 4/10 year old pupils. It is targeted for Malaysian children learning their second language. They have weak proficiency in English be it objective questions or writing. It also is applicable for other children whose mother tongue are not Malay, Chinese or Indian. It also is  applicable for adult trying to learn a new language.

Children are amazing on their own. They have the

same personality as all human just that all those personalities will come out by following their stages of development.

I've did and done some test and asks questions to my pupils concerning their English development. My main concern is, why are there pupils who are good in writing in English and why some are not?
I've made a conclusion.It is because of their reading time. What I meant by this is their exposure to English words be it complicated or not, through reading, writing, listening or speaking.
I've found out that the good children shared the same intervention while they were growing up.

They were exposed to the words by many ways.
1) Have been sent to kindergarten or education organisation be it private or public that focused on English language.
2) Their parent/s talked with them in English for any given day or certain times.
3) They like to read certain English books. This may be because of parent/s' influence or natural tendency.
4) Their parent/s told them stories before they sleep.
5) Their parent/s talked in Manglish with them.
6) They lived overseas.

As for the not so goods, these are the things that I have identified:-
1) They do not like reading be it in English or Malay.
2) They have not passed certain stages of language development be it English or Malay.
3) They hate English at its pure core.
4) They learnt no English in their past kindergarten.

Based on all these findings, it seems both categories have their own theme.
For the goods, the shared theme is they were exposed to English at young age, as such they have completed each language development stages.
For the not so goods, the shared theme is they were not expose to English at young age, as such they have not completed certain language development stage/s.

As teachers, our role is making sure each child is able to complete each language development stages.
It's not that teachers are not able to do so, but there are certain constraints that make it hard for teachers to complete these stages for the language development of children. They are time, money, guidelines by the experts and
resources.

What's worse is that these constraints are not in parent/s' knowledge. Even tuition cannot cover their children's missing knowledge because they do not have the time to do so.
Worrry not. It's still not too late to ensure children complete each stages of language development. These are the things that parent/s' can do. They do not require money, just time.

 Problem: No money to buy books.
 Solution: Borrow books from library.

Problem: No one at home know English.
Solution: Make sure parent/s and children master beginner (kindergarten) phonetics, a-z.

Problem: How to choose books suitable for the children?
Solution: Go to the library and ask the person at the counter. They are very courteous and friendly if you are.

Problem: What are the steps to improve reading if the parent/s' and the child are very bad (0) in English?
Solution: You will need books and an English-Malay dictionary. That is all.
         Complete each step as described. Do not proceed to the next step without completing the  previous step. Let them:

1. Master phonetics for beginners, a-z
2. Read a beginners' book (only one book). Beginners' book means there should be only 5 words that your children do not know with pictures for each page in the book. If there are more, it is not a beginner book. This means you have to ask them the meaning of each word in   Malay before they start reading.        
3.  Read the same book till they look like they can read with no uncertainties whatsoever.
4.  Let them listen to simple kindergartens' song and follow along. Make sure they are able to memorize 3 songs. Understanding of the words does not matter at this point.
5.  Choose another story book or pick a story from a collection of stories. Repeat step 2-3.
6.  Repeat step 5 only this time, improve the level of the book.
7.  Do this until your children are able to read and understand their English textbook. 
8.  At this point, let them read lots of books or collection of writings in Malay. Ask them to summarize after each reading. Remember. Summarize not retell the whole story/composition.
9.  Practice writing by giving them random topics to write on.

Problem: Aren't children learn through playing?
Solution: That is right. However, this post focuses on children who have not completed the required
                 stages of language development at the required time per se. Playing may burden the
                 parent/s' if it's not done correctly.
Each step has their own function.
Step 1  : Teaches sound.
Step 2  : Teaches routine.
Step 3  : Improves their confidence to let them know hard work pay off themselves.
Step 4  : Creates both left and right brains' storages to store English knowledge later on. Remember. We start from zero. So, we need a storage to keep things.
Step 5-6: Complete each stages of language development themselves.
Step 7  : Ensuring they are at the correct stage of language development.
Step 8  : Creates mind experiences' storages. You do not know what you do not know, right? Writing is all about context.
Step 9 : Now, they have knowledge and confidence. It's time for them to reorganize and categorize all those mind        experiences.

Why do these steps work?
1. Create the brain and physical's memory for English.
2. Each language development stage has been taken care of.
3. Motivate children to learn.
4. Teach children life skills.
5. Do not teach grammar directly which make children hate English in the first place. Instead, they will learn sentence pattern and vocabulary suited for them following their pace of learning.
6. Each completed step give a deep and sweet satisfaction to the children.
7. Hard to start but its worth last forever.
8. Improve the mother tongue language, Malay.
9. They follow Lev Vygotsky's theory/technique of language development which is scaffolding.

How to make these steps work?
- Be consistent. If you want to do it 30 minutes a day, make sure you do it 30 minutes each day. No more no less.
- Be an assertive parent/s. Be confident with what you want your children to do and train them to do it the first time you said it.

What if my child/ren do not want to listen to me?

1. Use complement for small things that they did. There is never too much when it comes to complement for children. Just make sure you are specific.
2. Reward them. Anything that they like, use them only for rewards not for hobbies. Just make sure the rewards become better each time and not the other way.
3. Take them to a quiet place and talk with them. Do not talk more than 10 minutes or it will only become a nag. Ask questions rather than you said what you want.
4. Give them times where they should be somewhere to do something beneficial. 
5. Train them to think that your voice is powerful. Go figure.

Problem: Do you have other interesting methods?
Solution: My method require no money, just a short period of time each day.

When your children do what they have been asked to do for the first time, you can consider your children LISTEN to you.

p/s: I can explain all the unexplained points above, but I chose not to, since that is not my main objective. BTW, this post has not been proofread. I'll do it when I have the time. Do correct me if I am wrong.