Page 6 - Revista AXIOMA 23
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Mónica Raquel Tamayo Maggi, Diego Christian Cajas Quishpe
INTRODUCTION morphology, semantics and syntax of the target language. Consequently,
due to the Spanish language influence, learners start to confront serious
limitations in using the target language (Afrin, 2016). In a similar vein,
Writing in English is becoming increasingly important in today’s world, Brown (2014) mentions that language competence, which deals with lear-
particularly in education and business areas. We are in an era where ners’ ability to use grammar, vocabulary, and organization of a good para-
due to the influence of the internet and social media, people, especially graph, can also affect the development of students’ writing skills.
the new generations, expand their horizons and are more interconnec-
ted despite physical distance. Communicating with people from different It is important that studies in the area of Writing go beyond the teaching
countries has never been as easy as it is now. Due to technology's ad- methodology and start considering other aspects which may be why tea-
vantages, any person can express their ideas and beliefs through blogs, ching writing has become challenging for teachers in language centers
posts in social media, websites, or online forums. In this context, writing in Ecuadorian universities. Focusing only on the teaching methodology
plays a fundamental role since it is through letters that people can ex- may not be enough to understand the intricate nuances that prevents
press themselves. Unfortunately, most people do not take enough time to teachers from teaching writing at the tertiary level. This study therefore,
reflect on the type of texts they compose and immediately upload their aims to address the difficulties and challenges that EFL teachers en-
writings online without an adequate revision resulting in texts which do counter when they teach writing to university students.
not consider the writing conventions and are difficult to understand.
METHODOLOGY
It is important to consider that Writing is a productive skill aimed at ex-
pressing the writer`s ideas in a written manner. Through writing, people
can provide meaning to their ideas and abstract ways of thinking via Among the existing studies carried out in ELT in Ecuadorian universities,
selected words which are presented to different audiences in online or there is a lack of research aiming to describe or identify the difficulties
printed forms (Liu & Kunnan, 2016). A proper piece of writing requires a teachers have when teaching Writing to university students. Most of the
coordination between content, grammar, vocabulary, spelling, organiza- studies in teaching writing in the country focus more on teaching tech-
tion and mechanics (Jahin & Idrees, 2012). Hence, grammar presents a niques and strategies rather than what teachers confront when teaching
set of rules that support the development of well-constructed sentences this skill. Not considering the factors that may cause difficulties in tea-
with an appropriate meaning (Manolescu, 2019). Vocabulary, on the ching writing can hinder the advantages of any intervention to improve
other hand, plays an important role by providing the learners with the instruction.
English words to express and organize their thoughts logically, coherent-
ly, and cohesively in a paragraph (Hundarenko, 2019). In this regard, this study aims to identify the difficulties and challenges
that Ecuadorian EFL teachers encounter when they teach writing to uni-
However, learning how to write is not an easy task, not only for those versity students. Thus, an exploratory research methodology was used
learning English as foreign language but also for native speakers (Es- since “it permits the researcher to have a better understanding of the
meralda, 2013). Brown (2014) highlights that the teaching of writing existing problem” (Guerring, 2012). Also, due to the limited local litera-
skills involves more than providing general explanations and instructions ture in this area, through this methodology, the researchers aim to bring
about how to write correct grammatical sentences; it consists of the into discussion the influence that other aspects that are different from
formulation and manipulation of ideas and concepts to express them in teaching methodology can have in developing students’ writing skills.
the most appropriate language. Sumarsih, & Sanjaya, D. (2013) add that
it is essential for EFL students to “create written products that manifest To achieve this study's objective, the researchers sent an invitation to
mastery over contextually appropriate formats to present ideas rhetori- participate in this research to EFL teachers working in three different
cally as well as mastery in all language areas”. public university language centers. The invitation contained the study
description of the study and the criteria for the selection, namely, more
Considering the importance of writing in English, many EFL teachers have than five (years) of teaching writing to EFL students in higher education.
made great efforts to teach this skill. Regrettably, this task has become After receiving the invitation, ten (10) teachers (4 male and 6 female)
very challenging because it involves developing the learners’ linguistic confirmed their willingness to participate. Due to the distance among
and communicative competence (Bilal, Tariq, Din, Latif, & Anjum, 2013). universities, the researchers interviewed the participants online.
To understand the challenges presented when teaching Writing, resear-
chers in different parts of the globe have carried out studies in this area. The participant’s teaching experience ranged from six (6) to fifteen (15) years.
For instance, the research results that focused on teachers’ methods in The data was collected through a structured interview whose main objective
teaching writing conducted in Palestine showed that the methods used was to identify the challenges of teaching writing to university students. The
were monotonous and affected the students´ learning outcomes. To im- researchers also used a thematic analysis to analyze the data.
prove writing teaching, the researchers proposed blended writing activi-
ties (Abas & Bakir, 2013). Another study investigated teachers’ problems RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
in teaching writing to students at an intermediate level and the findings
suggested that WLA (Writing Learning Approach) proposed by Jeremy What was commonly voiced by all participants is that teaching writing
Harmer is an effective method to teach writing (Bilal et al., 2013). is challenging. Thus, to systematically present the challenges that tea-
chers confront when teaching Writing to university students, the data
The above studies concentrate mostly on the methodology used to teach results are organized and presented in four main categories. Namely, a)
Writing, leaving apart other equally important aspects. For example, lack students’ English language competency, b) Spanish language interfe-
of motivation, limited reading activities and the influence of the mother rence, c) students’ lack of motivation to write in English, and d) teaching
tongue (Ngoc Anh, 2019). The mother tongue, in turn, is considered a very practices.
influential factor in the success of a learner’s Writing in EFL (Lightbown &
Spada 2013). Hence Spanish interferences are usually presented in the
AXIOMA - Revista Científica de Investigación, Docencia y Proyección Social. Julio - Diciembre 2020. Número 23, pp 5-9.
ISSN: 1390-6267- E-ISSN: 2550-6684
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