50 writing activities for the MFL classroom

Below is a list of common writing activites in the target language which can be carried out in a classroom or in some cases online. Most of these would be done within a sequence of activities, often following oral activities to improve comprehension, embed vocabulary or syntactic rules, and improve accuracy of speech and writing.

Writing in the classroom adds variety, can calm a lively class, especially when the activity is led by the teacher, or can give the teacher a breather in a busy day. Even in our era of an ever-improving Google Translate, writing is worthwhile as it combines with other skills to reinforce overall linguistuic competence.

Much writing will be done at home so as to maximise classroom time for listening and oral activity. Writing should nearly always be in the target language, although there will be times when using English makes more sense e.g. when taking notes on a harder spoken or written passage. The teacher will alsways need to adapt to the needs of the particular class.

• Copywriting from a book or the board to establish simple spellings
• Writing down words spelled out orally
• Writing down answers to oral questions
• Writing down answers to written questions
• Filling gaps (with options given or not given)
• Writing down corrected answers to false statements given orally
• Writing down corrected answers to false statements written down
• Writing down the correct one of two or more alternative statements provided orally
• Writing short phrase statements or just true/false on a mini whiteboard
• Taking notes to an audio or spoken source
• Completing an information grid based on a written source
• Completing an informatiom grid or transcription based on a spoken source
• Writing sentences or a narrative based on a picture or picture sequence
• Writing sentences from short notes (e.g. diary entries)
• Completing a sentence or text with the correct form of a given verb or adjective
• Transposing sentences or text from one person to another
• Putting jumbled words into a correct sentence
• Summarising from an English text
• Summarising from a target language text
• Writing down solutions to anagrams (either written ones or ones provided orally)
• Dictation: transcribing words, phrases, sentences or passages from audio or read by teacher
• Paired dictation e.g. running dictation"
• Writing a traditional discursive essay
• Translating into the target language from a written source
• Translating into the target language from an oral source
• Writing a passage from a template
• Writing lists e.g. shopping lists, desert island game, strip bingo game
• Word association - teacher gives a word, pupil writes first word to come into head
• Antonyms - teacher gives a word, pupil writes down opposite meaning
• Writing short accounts from a given word list. Every word must appear in the account
• Completing sentence starters from an oral source
• Completing sentence starters from a written source
• Starting sentence ends from an oral or written source
• Noting synonyms or antonyms in a written passage
• Writing poems or music lyrics
• Writing calligrammes
• Writing definitions of words
• Completing a crossword or acrostic
• Making up original sentences to show a grammatical structure
• Completing a vocabulary list e.g. finding words in a target language text
• Writing for a purpose e.g letter, news article, job application, obituary, diary
• Transforming a text message into full sentences (or the reverse)
• Underlining errors in a transcribed text and inserting the correct word or phrase
• Writing social network messages to a foreign speaker
• Writing words as part of a game (e.g. baccalauréat - find a word in each category beginning with a given letter)
• Writing sentences for a game of "consequences"
• Writing on the board or with a partner e.g. "Hangman"
• Code breaking games
• Writing "never-ending sentences"
• Writing nonsense or silly sentences