Investigating the washback effects on improving the writing performance of Iranian EFL university student

Because of the complex nature of writing as a social, cultural and cognitive phenomenon, and the variety of challenges faced by both learners and teachers, learning and teaching writing in EFL context, this study aimed to investigate the washback effects on improving Iranian EFL students' writing performance. Two research questions were addressed. The first was whether the test-oriented writing classes provide teachers with a taxonomy of more common errors in university EFL learners' scripts or not. The second aimed at investigating the significance of the difference in the writing performance of university EFL learners receiving washback treatment and those taught by the traditional method. The subjects of the research were ninety Iranian university EFL students, making up two intact classes of thirdyear majors. There were forty-five students per class, which consisted almost entirely female. The control group continued the traditional way of practicing writing in the classroom. The experimental group received washback–based instruction. The instructional program was then steered toward improving the areas of difficulty and focusing on the aspects that require more practice. The study showed that the rate of grammatical and lexico-semantic errors was more than errors in keeping cohesion, coherence and rhetorical organization.The diagnostic instructional program based on washback effect was satisfactory in improving the students' writing performance

Developing and Improving EFL Writing Skills

Learning a foreign language is a process that entails the development of four basic skills: Listening, Speaking, Reading, and Writing. According to the Common European Framework, such skills can be grouped into productive and receptive. Reading and Listening are categorized as receptive skills, while speaking and writing are productive skills. Students’ and teachers’ experience along with research findings suggest that most learners of English as a foreign language (EFL) find productive skills more difficult to develop than receptive skill, and writing skills the hardest to acquire and improve. Learning to write is a complex process that calls for a wide range of cognitive and linguistic strategies to be used, most of which EFL students are not fully aware of. The purpose of this talk is to help EFL college majors become aware of the factors that make EFL discourse sound stilted and foreign. Good writing results from rational thinking, logical organization, and appropriate use of language. Sample texts will be looked at identify the strengths and weaknesses in each case.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

Perceptions of Kuwaiti EFL Student-Teachers towards EFL Writing and Methods of Teaching and Learning EFL writing

This thesis focuses on the perceptions of Kuwaiti EFL student-teachers to methods of teaching and learning EFL writing in Kuwait, and the extent to which their perceptions of EFL writing may be affected by these methods. It draws on the finding of ten interviews with student-teachers from one of the higher educational colleges in Kuwait. Students were asked to describe how they perceive EFL writing and methods of teaching and learning practices in their EFL writing classrooms. They were invited to discuss the nature of their teachers’ role in their classrooms and assess the extent to which that role enhanced or undermined their attitudes to EFL writing. Students discussed how they felt about EFL writing and their teaching practices. They discussed ways in which their perceptions of EFL writing could be enhanced and explained how their teaching practices influenced their views of themselves as writers. In the literature, there are no theories for L2 writing to date and L2 researchers have tended to assume that the models of L1 would apply equally to L2 writers, with appropriate modifications. This, it is argued, is not necessarily the case as cultural and language differences between L1 and L2 create difficulties that are not accounted for by L1 research, as L2 writers use their identity and their way of making meaning when they write in L2. The study addresses the gap in L2 writing literature, and more research is needed to understand how to support L2 writers in achieving writing fluency. This research suggests that change is needed in pedagogical practices in the teaching of EFL writing. EFL writing teachers in this study demonstrated little awareness, both of how to acknowledge their students’ out-of-school experiencs of writing and of writing as a social practice. The study recommends that the teaching of writing takes more account of the ‘writing process’ approach, with attention given to pre-writing activities and to revision processes, and that more attention is paid to genres in writing, as socially-constructed forms of meaning-making. It also recommends that teacher feedback is developed to be more purposeful and formative. Writing needs implicit learning and intensive practice and it cannot be acquired like speaking. Through learning EFL learners will be more familier with the structure of EFL language and they will understand how use this structure to acheive different social purposes in particular context of use. Well-rained EFL writing teachers will have the ability to help EFL learners write more efficiently. Thus, this research suggests that the students’ pre-service training programme and teachers’ in-service professional developmental programme for EFL writing need to be seriously improved to cope with the social needs of their students, the needs of their society and the needs of developing education internationally. EFL writing needs to be viewed as a vital communicative medium and students should be taught in a way that helps them interact with others by that medium. This research recommends further studies to explore methods of teaching and learning EFL writing and EFL in general to develop a strong voice in debate, to listen to the voice of EFL students, to enhance the methods of teaching practices, and to increase students’ self-efficacy in their ability to be efficient in their EFL writing in particular, and EFL in general.The State of Kuwait/ Public Authority for Applied Education and Training

Teaching EFL writing in Montenegro: Perceptions and approaches of elementary and high school teachers

This project examines perceptions and practices of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) K-12 teachers in Montenegro regarding their teaching of writing. To collect data the researcher utilized a researcher-created online questionnaire. Participants’ responses were analyzed and compared in order to examine their perceptions of importance of EFL writing instruction for their students, the extent and quality of professional training on teaching EFL writing they receive, the approaches to teaching EFL writing they practice, and perception of their competence in teaching EFL writing. Findings showed that the 27 participants would feel more confident teaching EFL writing if they had more training, time and practice using different approaches. It is hoped that the findings of this study will inspire future research, inform EFL teacher education authorities in Montenegro of the needs of K-12 EFL teachers and encourage taking actions directed to the advancement of the EFL writing instruction

THE IMPORTANCE OF NOTICING IN IMPROVING EFL STUDENTS’ WRITING SKILLS

The role of noticing in the second language acquisition has been increasingly considered by some researcher in L2 acquisition. Previous studies of the effect of noticing on EFL students’ task performance have shown that noticing has significant roles, especially on students’ grammar acquisition. However, the problems concerning how noticing does have something to do with the improvement of EFL students’ writing skills still need to be explored. As known that Writing skills has become one emerging factor in second language acquisition. Therefore, this study tries to seek whether noticing can give positive effect on EFL students’ writing skills in terms of five aspects, namely: (1) content, (2), organzation (3), Language Use, (4),Vocabulary, (5), mechanic. Noticing is proposed to lead students achieve an accurate use of L2 writing skills in an appropriate context of communication by making them aware and notice the form of certain features which can help them reconstruct their interlanguage. Therefore, Noticing does not only promote the students’ accuracy and explicit knowledge, but also provide them with opportunities to communicate and negotiate meaning to improve fluency and achieve implicit knowledge on their written work

The Influence of Home Atmosphere and EFL Interest on Students’ Performance in Writing Final Project

This study examines the influence of Home Atmosphere and EFL Interest on Students' Performance in Writing Final Projects. The research aims to understand how these factors contribute to students' success in academic writing within an English as a Foreign Language (EFL) context. A sample of 150 EFL students participated in the study, completing surveys measuring their home atmosphere, interest in EFL, and writing performance. The study employed a quantitative approach, utilizing correlation analysis and multiple regression. Results indicate strong positive correlations between Home Atmosphere and Writing Performance (r = 0.68), and between EFL Interest and Writing Performance (r = 0.75). Multiple regression analysis revealed that both Home Atmosphere (β = 3.2, p < 0.001) and EFL Interest (β = 4.1, p < 0.001) significantly predict Writing Performance. The model explains 72% of the variance in Writing Performance (R-squared = 0.72). These findings suggest that both a conducive home environment and a high level of interest in EFL play crucial roles in students' ability to write effective final projects. The study contributes to the understanding of factors influencing academic writing in EFL contexts and provides implications for educational practices and policies aimed at improving students' writing performance.

THE USE OF COHESIVE DEVICES IN RELATION TO THE QUALITY OF THE STUDENTS’ ARGUMENTATIVE WRITING

The ability to compose an argumentative text is important for ESL and EFL learners. In terms of the communicative nature of writing, cohesion is regarded as an essential textual component, not only to create organized text but also to the comprehensiveness of the text. Therefore, the use of cohesive devices is really important. Based on Halliday and Hasan Cohesion theory (1976)this study is intended to investigate the use of cohesive devices and also the relationship between the frequency of cohesive devices using and the quality of argumentative writing. An analysis of 30 students’ argumentative writing showed that the students were familiar with various cohesive devices and used them in their writing. Among the cohesive devices, reference had the largest percentage of the total number cohesive devices, followed by lexical devices and conjunction devices. Furthermore, it was found that there was no significant relationship between the number of cohesive devi ces used and the quality of writing. The findings of the study have some important implications for EFL writing teachers and learners

In-Class versus Out-of-Class Flipped Classroom Models in English as a Foreign Language Writing

A flipped classroom model is an indispensable part of the English as a foreign language (EFL) writing courses as it helps the instructor to advance the learners’ writing proficiency levels (Pavanelli, 2018). However, EFL students’ attitudes toward the in-class and out-of-class writing models in a flipped classroom process are unknown. Understanding these issues have a vital importance as these will help educators arrange their writing classes based on the flipped classroom models in order to have an effective writing course in line with EFL students’ needs (Abaeian &amp; Samadi, 2016). Therefore, this study purposed to investigate the EFL students’ attitudes toward in-class and out-of-class writing models in a flipped classroom. A quantitative research design was employed through the use of a questionnaire which was employed to 30 EFL students studying at a private university’s English language teaching department. As the findings showed, although the EFL students had positive attitudes towards both flipped classroom models for writing, they preferred the out-of-class model and the majority of them stated that they prefer to produce their written work out-of-class settings. As a consequence of these, EFL educators should use an out-of-class  flipped classroom model for writing, if they give priority to their EFL students’ attitudes towards the writing models on account of having an effective writing course

In-Class versus Out-of-Class Flipped Classroom Models in English as a Foreign Language Writing

A flipped classroom model is an indispensable part of the English as a foreign language (EFL) writing courses as it helps the instructor to advance the learners’ writing proficiency levels (Pavanelli, 2018). However, EFL students’ attitudes toward the in-class and out-of-class writing models in a flipped classroom process are unknown. Understanding these issues have a vital importance as these will help educators arrange their writing classes based on the flipped classroom models in order to have an effective writing course in line with EFL students’ needs (Abaeian &amp; Samadi, 2016). Therefore, this study purposed to investigate the EFL students’ attitudes toward in-class and out-of-class writing models in a flipped classroom. A quantitative research design was employed through the use of a questionnaire which was employed to 30 EFL students studying at a private university’s English language teaching department. As the findings showed, although the EFL students had positive attitudes towards both flipped classroom models for writing, they preferred the out-of-class model and the majority of them stated that they prefer to produce their written work out-of-class settings. As a consequence of these, EFL educators should use an out-of-class  flipped classroom model for writing, if they give priority to their EFL students’ attitudes towards the writing models on account of having an effective writing course

EFL students’ responses to learning basic reading and writing skills

This research presents the responses from Indonesian EFL students to teaching-learning basic reading and writing skills in the context of Indonesian higher education. The 120 respondents, who completed questionnaires, were students enrolled in Writing 1 and Reading 2 courses in the English Education Study Program of the Teachers Academy in West Sumatra [STKIP PGRI Sumatera Barat]. There were four findings from the survey, namely: 1) EFL students preferred studying reading (37%) more than writing (27%), 2) EFL students read about the same amount of literary texts (25%) as they did popular texts (23%) and academic texts (22%), 3) grammar and spelling are the most difficult aspects for EFL students to learn with 33% having difficulty with basic reading skills, and 53% with basic writing skills, and finally 4) EFL students prefer to open a dictionary when they encounter difficult words in reading a text (62%) and do the same when they have difficulties in expressing their thoughts in writing English (38%). These findings show that EFL students have a variety of responses in terms of learning basic reading and writing in EFL English. In addition, the findings show that the tendency of EFL students to prefer reading to writing is relatively high