Background

The teaching of writing in a second language has normally focussed on expository, factual writing. However, in recent years, there has been an interest in encouraging students to write more creative kinds of text, such as stories and poems. Some people object that it is not realistic to expect students to be able to write this kind of text in a language which is not their own. Experience has shown however that it is eminently possible to do so. Creative writing has been shown to develop all language skills, to increase self-esteem and confidence, and thereby to foster motivation to go further in exploring the language. It is educationally valuable because it opens up the imagination of learners.  And it has positive spin-off value for more factual kinds of writing. 

The Asian Teacher-Writers Group has been meeting every year since 2003 to write creative materials for use in schools and colleges in Asia. The poems and stories they have produced have been published each year by Pearson Malaysia. The group members will be holding their annual workshop in Vietnam this year. Traditionally, the group always offers a conference to local teachers in the place they meet. So, this year again, the members will be offering a series of workshops on a variety of approaches to teaching creative writing.

~ to foster the use of creative forms of writing as part of the teaching of English, in the belief that the affective dimension needs development alongside the cognitive.

~ to produce published materials written by Asian teachers for Asian students, in the belief that all too much of what is available on the international market is culturally or otherwise unsuitable in Asian contexts.  We aim to publish the best of what we write in book form.

~ to share experiences across the wide range of Asian teaching/learning contexts.

~ A workshop is organised annually on a voluntary basis by a loose network of teachers of English in Asia. It was first run in Bangkok, Thailand, in 2003. Since then it has been run in Melaka, Malaysia (2004),  in Fuzhou, China (2005), in Hanoi, Vietnam (2006), in Salatiga , Indonesia (2007), Kirtipur, Nepal (2008), Jakarta , Indonesia (2009), Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam (2009), Dhulikel , Nepal (2010), Jember, Indonesia (2010).  Each year, we aim to find a different Asian country to host it.

~ During the workshop we experience new techniques for producing writing, and peer-edit our work.

~ We normally also run a 2-day conference or seminar for up to 200 teachers from the local area.

~ We also occasionally run 3-day workshops for teachers in a particular locality.  So far we have run such events in the Philippines, Cambodia, Oman, Nepal, Thailand and Laos. 

Membership of the group is by invitation only.  At the moment the total group is about 40 strong but usually not more than 12 members participate in any one event.