College Instructors’ Focus in the EFL Writing Classrooms: An Exploratory Study

Abstract

EFL is one of the two most liberally funded academic streams in Saudi Arabia after science and technology. Universities across the country are replete with faculty that boast of enviable national and global exposure. Even so, learner standards, especially in writing skills, are way below those expected which highlights the need for rigorous research into what it is that drives the EFL teachers’ choices in the classrooms. This study carried out a systematic evaluation of teachers’ focus in the writing classes at Qassim University, with four parameters isolated for data collection: (i) writing approaches; (ii) writing performance; (iii) writing strategies, and (iv) writing skills. The study tool is a survey with 46 teachers engaged from undergraduate to research studies at the University. The findings showed that writing approaches were the highest focused variable among the EFL faculty followed by writing performance, writing strategies and lastly, writing skills. The findings showed the tendency of EFL teachers to focus on areas that do not directly help in developing their learners' ability in writing and hence, EFL teachers/ instructors’ need to focus on the practical side of the writing skills and providing adequate exposure to their learners in group, pair and individual tasks to master the writing skills. Finally, assessment needs to focus on measuring the practical side of the learners’ knowledge rather than blindly testing them on their ability to reproduce their learning.