Development of writing skills: Email writing by young language learners

Research suggests that second language learners benefit from explicit instruction in writing formal email correspondences to fulfill real-life, communicative purposes. In this session, I will talk about the response characteristics of an email writing task produced by secondary-level students in the Netherlands, Finland, and Denmark. I will discuss the developmental patterns of the students’ writing abilities and the distinctive features exhibited in the students’ email writing. Teachers’ perspectives on the usefulness of email writing tasks for classroom instruction will be summarized. Pedagogical implications will be discussed with the workshop participants.