The teacher of bilingual students can avoid many pitfalls by evaluating the student's ability to understand, speak, and read, as well as his ability to write, and by giving written assignments that are realistic in terms of ultimate writing objectives. The basic goal of learning English--for self-expression--can be achieved only by proceeding through a series of steps. Therefore, teachers of bilingual students must plan a program that develops writing habits through sequential exercises based on material which is familiar to the student and which emphasizes the main structures of the English language. Such a plan would guide students through many exercises from copying and taking dictation through writing answers to oral questions and constructing sentences from cue words to writing resumes and letters, and, finally, constructing compositions that are several paragraphs long. All writing should be corrected by the student under the teacher's direction, and oral discussion should be preliminary to any writing assignment. (JM)