By Abi | Home Star Tuition

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It is one of the most common conversations I have with parents. Their child is bright – clearly bright. They read well, they contribute confidently in class, they hold their own in discussion. And yet when they sit down to write in English, something does not quite translate. The ideas are there. The words, somehow, are not.

This is not an unusual situation. It is, in fact, one of the most predictable patterns in the education of children from internationally mobile families. And understanding why it happens is the first step towards addressing it.

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Speaking English and Writing English Are Not the Same Skill

This is the thing that surprises many parents most. A child who speaks English fluently – who has been in an English-medium school for years, who converses easily with teachers and friends – may still find written English genuinely difficult. Not because something is wrong. But because speaking and writing draw on different cognitive resources, and fluency in one does not automatically transfer to the other.

Written English, particularly the kind expected in British independent schools and entrance exams, has conventions that are not acquired through conversation. It has a register – a particular tone, a particular level of formality, a particular relationship between writer and reader – that takes time and exposure to absorb. It has structural expectations: paragraphs that develop a single idea, arguments that build logically, narratives that have shape and momentum. These things are not instinctive. They are learned. And they are learned most naturally through years of immersion in the British educational tradition.

Children who have moved between countries and educational systems – who may have studied in French, Chinese, Arabic or German for significant periods – often arrive at this kind of writing without that accumulated exposure. They have not spent years being asked to write stories and essays in the British way. The conventions feel unfamiliar, even when the language itself does not.

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The Specific Challenges Expat Children Face

In my experience working with children from internationally mobile families, the difficulties tend to cluster around a few specific areas.

Register and tone. Many expat children write in a register that is either too informal or too rigidly formal – neither of which is what British examiners are looking for. Finding the right tone – measured, precise, engaged, with a genuine voice – is something that takes time and deliberate practice to develop.

Structure. Essay and story structure varies significantly between educational traditions. A child who has been educated in a system that favours a different organisational logic – or one where extended written work is less common – may produce writing that feels circular or undirected to a British reader, even when the content itself is strong.

Vocabulary in context. A child who has learned English vocabulary from textbooks or classroom instruction may have a broad vocabulary in theory, but find it difficult to deploy that vocabulary naturally in their own writing. The words are known, but they do not yet feel owned. They have not been encountered often enough in real reading to sit comfortably on the page.

Confidence. This is perhaps the most important factor of all. A child who is uncertain about whether their written English is “right” will often play it safe – short sentences, simple vocabulary, cautious choices. And safe writing is rarely the writing that impresses an examiner or earns the top marks in an entrance paper.

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What Does Not Help

I want to be direct about this, because I see it often: drilling grammar rules in isolation does not help. Completing endless worksheets does not help. Being corrected constantly – having every error marked in red – can actively make things worse, because it teaches a child to be afraid of the page rather than engaged with it.

These approaches treat writing as a mechanical skill to be fixed. It is not. Writing is a thinking skill. The goal is not a child who can avoid errors. It is a child who has something to say and the confidence to say it well.

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What Actually Helps

Reading the right things, consistently. I have written before about the connection between reading and writing, and it bears repeating here. A child who reads widely in English – fiction and non-fiction, old and new, challenging and pleasurable – absorbs the structures and rhythms of written English in a way that no amount of instruction can fully replicate. For expat children who are not immersed in an English-speaking environment every day, a carefully chosen reading list is one of the most powerful tools available.

Writing regularly, with a real audience in mind. Writing improves through practice – but only the right kind of practice. Writing for a real purpose, to a real reader who responds with genuine interest, is far more effective than completing exercises. In my lessons, children write things that matter: stories with real characters, arguments about things they actually care about, descriptions of places they know. The writing has to feel worth doing.

Explicit teaching of structure and convention. Unlike a child who has grown up in the British system, an expat child may need certain things explained directly that other children have absorbed by osmosis. How a paragraph works. What an examiner means by “voice”. How to plan a piece of writing before beginning. These things can be taught clearly and specifically – and when they are, children often make rapid progress, because they are intelligent and motivated and have simply been missing a framework.

Patience and the long view. The families I work with who see the best results are those who start early and approach the process steadily. Writing confidence is not built in a half-term. It builds over months and years of regular, thoughtful practice. Parents who understand this – and who resist the temptation to cram – give their children the best possible chance.

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A Note on Bilingual and Multilingual Children

Many expat children are also bilingual or multilingual, and it is worth separating these two things. Being bilingual is not what makes writing difficult. In many ways, as I have written about elsewhere, bilingualism is a genuine advantage for a writer – it develops sensitivity to language, an awareness of register, and a flexibility of thought that monolingual children do not always have.

The challenge for bilingual expat children is specific: they are often being asked to write in a particular tradition – British academic and creative writing – that neither of their languages has fully prepared them for. That is a navigable challenge, with the right support.

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Where to Start

If you are an expat parent and your child is struggling with written English – whether in their current school or in preparation for a British entrance exam – I would encourage you not to wait.

The gap between a child’s spoken English and their written English can close quickly, with the right kind of support. But it closes most easily when it is addressed early, before the habits of cautious, uncertain writing become entrenched.