I have been an English teacher for two and a half years. There are a few things I have found useful to my students. Most of my students are at a beginner level, and only have limited exposure to English.

One of the teaching methods I used to help my students improve their writing is through translation. Basically, I provided an interesting and short text in Chinese and English and had them translate it into English without looking at the English one. There were three attempts for them to translate the same text, and all the attempts had different instructions. What I have learned from this method was teaching methods always need to be revised to meet student needs, so I adjusted this teaching method over time. Such translation practice was of particular benefit to my students because most of them were in the initial phase of learning English, they gained familiarity with the most common structures of English more quickly and easily. All the grammar and sentence structures students learned were learned subconsciously. While doing translation, students made an effort to retrieve what they had read, and this process really helped them to retain what they learned. Being able to translate a short text gave my students a feeling of accomplishment that encouraged them to try writing simple sentences on their own.