How To Practice Writing In A Language

Practicing your writing is something you need to do. It can really make the difference to your progress in your new language. It is going to force you to think and recall things and basically the more you do this, the better you will get.

However, it’s easy to just say “go and practice” but what does that mean, and what does that actually look like?

I will go through some of the ways I like to practice and it will hopefully give you some guidance for what you can do.

Practice Means Writing

In its simplest form, practicing writing means you just need to write in your new language. Get your pen and paper out or open a word document and just start writing.

The problem with this is you will ask what do you write about? …It really can be anything. There are no rules and anything you do will help.

It can be as simple as writing down some single words, phrases or full long winded explanations of things.

I have even been known to just write verbs out in different tenses, this can end up a little bit like school verb tables, but I find writing them out this way is a good way to test my memory, especially for irregular verbs.

(You can read more about – How To Overcome The Fear Of Writing In A New Language)

Language Exchanges

Personally I find language exchanges to be the best way to practice your writing. This is basically when you talk to native speakers online and become friends while helping each other learn languages.

You can do this through calls and practice your speaking, but you can also send a lot of messages, which makes it more like you are just texting a friend. This is real world practice, which is why it is so good.

You are literally corresponding with a real human and are using the language in its true form, as communication. You are going to get so much practice talking about daily life and yourself.

It’s just a great way to practice and is a lot of fun.  

(You can read more about – Language Exchange Partners)

Social Media

Social media can be okay, but I use it more for inspiration. If you join some sort of group or forum talking about a subject you like it can be pretty interesting. There is always something you can comment on or discuss and you will always have something to write about.

However, I usually just like to get topic ideas from here then go away and write my own thing about the topic and don’t post it to social media.

I also like to read all the other users replies, which are usually very different to the text books, but these are real natives, speaking naturally, so it’s very interesting to study how they actually say things. 

(You can read more about – Can You Learn A Language From Social Media?)

Langcorrect

Langcorrect is a great website where you can write about things, post them and then have them checked by natives.

This website is designed to have your work checked; it is set up to help you practice your language writing so it is just fantastic.

I like to post things here, rather than on social media, as I know I will get a correction on this site, where as social media my post will probably be ignored if it’s full of mistakes.

I use social media for inspiration then write a little paragraph about the topic on Langcorrect, although you don’t have to do that, you can write about anything on here.

Journaling

I don’t really journal, but if I do, I do it on Langcorrect. As I said above you can write anything on the website and it does encourage you to write daily, which is why journaling can be great on Langcorrect.

I wouldn’t get to personal with a journal, so that you can actually share it online or send it to a friend to check. Your goal is to practice the language, so it’s fine to keep it really simple and just talk about what you did during your day and other simple things like this.

Transcribing

If you are really looking for a challenge you can practice your writing though transcription.

This is actually really good for your listening too, and it’s a straight forward task. You just need to listen to some audio or watch a video and simply write down what you hear.

It sounds easy, but it’s quite difficult and this will really give you a good mental workout.

You need to either use something that has a transcript available, so you can check afterwards, or you need to ask a native speaker to check if what you wrote matches up with what is being said.

(You can read more about – How To Develop Your Listening Skills Through Transcription)

Replace Your Usual Writing With The New Language

An easy way to practice writing is to just change anything you would normally write into your new language. 

You probably don’t have many opportunities with this as we don’t write too much anymore, but even small things like your shopping list can all add up and help.

Remember this need to be things you write down for yourself, not for other people. You can’t start emailing your boss in German or texting your mum in Spanish, this is going to confuse them, even if it would be good practice for you.

(You can read more about – Frequently Asked Questions About – Writing In Your New Language)

Read More

While reading is not writing practice, it can be in a way. The more you read, the better you will get at writing.

Reading shows you what the language should look like when done properly, so the more you read, the more you are telling your brain how things should be.

I usually try and match the amount of time I spend writing, doing some form of reading. You have to see all the areas of language learning as important and focusing on them all can make the difference.

Conclusion

As you can see there is a number of different ways you can practice writing. So long as you are doing something, it’s all helpful.

Writing can be a slow and time consuming thing to practice, but it really is worth the effort. There is just something extremely beneficial about writing something out. It makes it so much stronger in your mind and your understanding just feels so much more solid.

Practicing your writing is worth it, don’t avoid it!   

(You can read more about – How Important Is Writing When Learning A Language?)