Foreign language teachers always emphasize the impact of writing on the language learning process. Students are mostly focused on speaking; thinking that it’s the only thing they need to learn to become fluent in a particular language.
Academic writing can help you deepen your mastery of foreign languages. If you plan to use them for work, studies, or official communication, you absolutely need to master your writing skills. Essays may seem like boring assignments, but they are a traditional way of inspiring the student to think and communicate in a foreign language effectively.
Writing Vs. Speaking: What’s More Important When Learning a Language?
We would never recommend academic writing over speaking practice. Both methods are great, and equally important. The problem is that today’s learners rely on language learning apps, which solely focus on speaking. They will ask you to write some of the words you learn, but that’s where they stop. No app requires essay writing, and that’s not a good thing.
If you’re not able to write, you’ll know the language only partially. That’s okay for travelers, who visit a foreign country for a brief period of time and want to learn how to communicate in shops and restaurants. But if you’re getting deeper into the process, you mustn’t avoid writing. Let’s see why it’s so important for your language skills.
What Makes Essay Writing Important for Foreign Language Learning?
1. Academic Writing Is a Learning Process
When you focus on speaking, you can become repetitive. You don’t care about nice expressions and new words; you use the ones you know. Even body language helps during your speech.
Writing is different. An essay has to follow a precise format that expresses arguments. If you check some of the free essays at https://eduzaurus.com/free-essay-samples/, you’ll notice that they maintain perfect grammar and style. The writers aren’t repetitive. They collect resources and learn new concepts during the process. When writing papers in foreign languages, you’ll encounter many new words and phrases during the research. You will use those words in your content, so you’ll have a better chance of learning them for the long term.
2. Writing Helps You Recall Information
Researchers Hopkins and Edwards established the theory of the “production effect” in 1972. It took several decades for the scientific community to get interested in the concept, but it’s quite popular nowadays. This theory says that people are more likely to recall any information that they actively produce when compared to the details they silently read or hear.
This is why so many students prefer studying aloud or through writing. They reproduce the information, so they can recall it more easily later on. The same theory works for language learning. When you write words and phrases in logical sentences, they are more likely to stay in your long-term memory capacity. Writing also helps you to remember grammar and syntax rules. By putting things on paper, your mind gets focused and ready to memorize.
3. Essay Writing Inspires You to Analyze
When completing academic papers, you’re also required to analyze that information, think about it, research a bit deeper, and produce your own arguments related to it. Essays require a deeper level of analysis, which will help you to improve your language processing skills.
Most learners notice that it’s harder for them to create long, solid sentences while speaking. Writing, on the other hand, gives them more time to focus on the process. They have enough time to be mindful about grammar, words, style, and every other aspect of expression.
4. Essay Writing Turns You into an Advanced Student
When speaking with someone, you focus on maintaining the conversation. You’re required to think quickly and react to the other person’s comments without delays. Academic writing provokes a so-called elegant expression, which elevates your skills and mastery of the language. When you write your first academic paper in a foreign language, you can consider yourself an advanced learner.
Essay Writing Doesn’t Have to Be Boring
Many students don’t like writing because they approach it from the wrong angle. They are convinced that it’s a boring process that doesn’t bring any excitement whatsoever. They are wrong! When you dig deeper into the topic, you’ll find fun aspects to it. You’ll do the research and you’ll write in a foreign language, so you’ll learn through the process.
Focus on the results: why are you doing this? The paper will help you become a more advanced learner and memorize the words, grammar rules, and natural form of the language.
BIO: Cody Dawkins is currently learning two foreign languages at a time. He experiments with different studying methods. So far, he realized that academic writing is one of the best ways to learn and memorize foreign words
