English Language Teachers' Views on Teaching and Assessment of Writing Skills

Abstract

This research investigates the techniques used by English language teachers for teaching and assessing writing skills in their classes at secondary school level. In this study, both quantitative and qualitative data collection methods were used. The data were obtained from 97 English language teachers working in public and private secondary schools through two different surveys. The first survey aimed to measure the teaching writing techniques and the second one aimed to investigate the teachers’ assessment techniques for writing. Beside the surveys, 6 randomly selected teachers were interviewed to collect more detailed information. The analysis results of the quantitative data collected through the surveys demonstrated that teachers preferred teacher-centered and direct instruction methods for teaching writing. When it comes to assessment, teachers’ scores were higher in more mechanical, exam-oriented and paper based assessment techniques. The quantitative findings also revealed that gender, teaching experience and the school type do not significantly influence English language teachers’ preferences of teaching and assessment techniques. The qualitative findings of the study revealed that teachers’ choices of teaching and assessing writing techniques were affected by time, lack of motivation, course book contents, lack of in-service training and grading.