Resources to help improve English writing (outside the classroom)?

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

My Thai wife is pretty fluent in spoken English, and has become even better since we've been together. But, her English writing skills are much weaker than her speaking, and she has a full-time job that is increasingly requiring her to write communications (emails and such) to farang co-workers in English.

I'm not a teacher, but I am a good writer, and my wife doesn't really have time to enroll in some classroom program.

So, the question is, can anyone recommend any (hopefully not-boring/stuffy) English writing learning materials/resources appropriate for adult learners that we can use at home together to help her gradually improve her English writing skills?

Thank you!

Edited September 2, 2015 by TallGuyJohninBKK

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

Bump....

Really??? Thailand is chock full of English teachers for Thais, and not a single suggestion for a Thai adult to improve their English writing skills outside of the classroom?

[Scott]

The best thing she can do is to read. Read novels, read books, read news articles, magazines anything. You can't really write unless you read. It helps to build vocabulary and it helps to use words in the correct context.

It is best if she reads stuff which interests her -- lots of different magazines that cater to females.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

Scott, I do understand and appreciate what you're saying about the connection between reading and writing. Unfortunately, she doesn't seem particularly oriented to reading, either in Thai language or English.

Even so, her issue is not really English vocabulary, in terms of not knowing the English words. She's not bad at that, particularly in terms of her work oriented vocabulary.

Her issue is not knowing how to correctly write the words she knows into a proper sentence. For example, tenses of verbs, singular vs plural, not adding articles before nouns, etc etc.

I'm thinking there ought to be some kind of workbook aimed at English writing that would help with those kinds of things. I'd surely be surprised if there isn't such a thing.

Edited September 3, 2015 by TallGuyJohninBKK

[lostinisaan]

Bump....

Really??? Thailand is chock full of English teachers for Thais, and not a single suggestion for a Thai adult to improve their English writing skills outside of the classroom?

I suggest you have a look at the CEFR website and I'm certain that you'll find the right material for her.

Please see and check:http://www.examenglish.com/CEFR/cefr.php

You'll find plenty of great material and she can do all online. Good luck.

P.S. Please check Bangkok Post online, there's also an English learning section.

Edited September 4, 2015 by lostinisaan

[slipperylobster]

Here you are...This is for reading..but I think studying written word is useful for writing. I suppose her grammar is ok, as she speaks correctly? Might be a spelling problem? Anyways..good to have reading material and somebody reading along. She may want to pause and write her own sentences, as she follows a story. Nothing like learning to write from an actual writer.

http://www.gutenberg.org/

Project Gutenburg online...google it.

Free reading at all levels....full of classics.

Fiction, and fact, biography and poetry.

Download both the text and the reader. She can follow along on a text editor one line at a time while the recorded reader reads. Pause and continue...as she successfully repeats.

It's all free..and

You are welcome

I Do not usually download the text, I just download the audio recorded reader, a volunteer, and play a chapter just at bedtime. All the classics. I try to get a recording with a soft, female voice. You find a volunteer who sounds good, and stick with them.

Edited September 4, 2015 by slipperylobster

[Farma]

This is another website with plenty of content suitable for various ages. It has little videos with everything from childrens storybooks to music videos all with english subtitles.

http://www.stopmemo.com/

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

Thanks to everyone for the various suggestions. I'll check them out!

[slipperylobster]

one more...

http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/first-draft-3-5/

you might get lucky with that...its a free download for writers..but I haven't tried it yet.

giveawayoftheday.com has free software daily...it varies in quality... it is only available one day...tomorrow, there is something new

[ldnguy]

The best thing she can do is to read. Read novels, read books, read news articles, magazines anything. You can't really write unless you read. It helps to build vocabulary and it helps to use words in the correct context.

It is best if she reads stuff which interests her -- lots of different magazines that cater to females.

The best thing to improve your writing is to write not read. Get her to write 1,000 words every day. In a month or two she'll vastly improve. It's just down to needing more practice.

[BKKdreaming]

Has anyone used ESL - English as a second language books from the USA,

Are any of these books good for Thai self learners of English ?

[Scott]

Best of luck. I just haven't run into anyone who learned to write well and correctly unless they did a fair amount of reading.

It may be possible, but in the past 20+ years, I've only worked with a handful of people who wrote really well and they all did a lot of reading.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

I do think there's a value in practice, perhaps not making perfect, but certainly leading to improvement.

Up till now, when she's got something she's unsure of, she's been forwarding her written draft to me via email, and I'll correct it for her and email it back. But, I've been doing that alone (obviously I'm not at her workplace), so she's not really seeing and understanding the whats and whys of the corrections I'm making. And that, while it solves her immediate issue, doesn't really lead to much ongoing improvement in her writing skills.

So, the other day, I got her set up at her work to be able to do Google Docs real time online collaboration, where she can be working on a document, and then I can sign into my Google account and we can work on a shared document together. And she can actually see on her PC screen what I'm doing/changing in real time. And, an added nice part is that Google collaboration approach includes a side window with Google Hangouts chat, so we can be having a chat conversation in Hangouts at the same time where I can explain why something isn't right or why I'm making a particular change.

If we can move toward doing that consistently for the future -- in addition to other things -- I think that should begin to benefit her more than what we've been doing up until now.

BTW, the suggestions here did make me think I might try another thing with her, and that's that we begin a new habit in our life of say 30 mins English reading time every night at home. I'll let her pick the material, whatever she wants, but she'll have to read out loud to me... before we sleep at night. Haven't suggested it yet, but I'm planning to.

LORD!!!! There's only so many hours in the day that any sane person can spend watching lakorns...

Edited September 6, 2015 by TallGuyJohninBKK

[gerryBScot]

I agree with the suggestion made here about reading and I think your plan to get her to read aloud for 30 mins is an excellent one. Can I suggest you preview the reading material and devise some concept check questions, simple yes or no questions that will help you gauge her understanding. SO if she was to read a sentence like: "She went to Chiang Mai on Tuesday", you might ask her: "Is she still there now?". As you become better at this you might then ask her how she would say this sentence if the person was still there. You might also help her comprehension and entertain her by rereading the passages she reads to you but by using opposites and she then reads the corrected sentence back to you. She might benefit also from using an upper secondary school series like Solutions published by Oxford University Press. Good luck to you both.

[lostinisaan]

I do think there's a value in practice, perhaps not making perfect, but certainly leading to improvement.

Up till now, when she's got something she's unsure of, she's been forwarding her written draft to me via email, and I'll correct it for her and email it back. But, I've been doing that alone (obviously I'm not at her workplace), so she's not really seeing and understanding the whats and whys of the corrections I'm making. And that, while it solves her immediate issue, doesn't really lead to much ongoing improvement in her writing skills.

So, the other day, I got her set up at her work to be able to do Google Docs real time online collaboration, where she can be working on a document, and then I can sign into my Google account and we can work on a shared document together. And she can actually see on her PC screen what I'm doing/changing in real time. And, an added nice part is that Google collaboration approach includes a side window with Google Hangouts chat, so we can be having a chat conversation in Hangouts at the same time where I can explain why something isn't right or why I'm making a particular change.

If we can move toward doing that consistently for the future -- in addition to other things -- I think that should begin to benefit her more than what we've been doing up until now.

BTW, the suggestions here did make me think I might try another thing with her, and that's that we begin a new habit in our life of say 30 mins English reading time every night at home. I'll let her pick the material, whatever she wants, but she'll have to read out loud to me... before we sleep at night. Haven't suggested it yet, but I'm planning to.

LORD!!!! There's only so many hours in the day that any sane person can spend watching lakorns...

No idea if you've already upgraded your system to Windows 10. There're some nice features, for example TOEFL Grammar tests, a lot of reading involved.

Then she'll not just get better in reading and writing, also her understanding of grammar will be enhanced. Tried some with my son and it's really great.

But nothing beats reading books. Good luck and a lot of fun. Please see image, a program that comes with W 10.

Edited September 6, 2015 by lostinisaan

[jaiyenyen]

I agree that reading more will help her improve. Try Oxford Bookworms series, available at SE-ED bookshops, and only around 80 baht each.

[janejira]

I would recommend the book "English for Emails" from Oxford University Press (Express Series) (I'm using this in one of my classes now)

It covers both formal and informal language for emails. Many of the chapters have "assignments" for extra practice. Since you are looking at email writing for her work, you could probably skip the informal assignments.

You may ask her to type out and "email you" the assignments as practice, then print them out and go over areas that need to be adjusted.

The book provides enough information / structure that it can be used for self study (if you don't feel comfortable teaching). However, it's probably more interesting and motivating for her if you work through it together. Every couple is different though. My Thai partner hates to be "taught" by me. He is more into self-study and asking me for clarification if necessary.

Good luck!

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

No idea if you've already upgraded your system to Windows 10. There're some nice features, for example TOEFL Grammar tests, a lot of reading involved.

Then she'll not just get better in reading and writing, also her understanding of grammar will be enhanced. Tried some with my son and it's really great.

But nothing beats reading books. Good luck and a lot of fun. Please see image, a program that comes with W 10.

Thanks very much for that suggestion. I've already downloaded that to my wife's Windows PC, which I had just upgraded to Windows 10, so good timing about that. And it looks like it will be very useful.

Just to be clear though: I'm not sure that "app" comes with Windows 10. At least in our case, I had to go search for it and download it from the Windows 10 online app store. But it's free, and easy to pull down.