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IDENTIFICATION OF CHALLENGES IN TEACHING WRITING TO ECUADORIAN EFL STUDENTS

Students’ English language competency Regarding the teaching methodology, participants mentioned that they
use brainstorming and mind-mapping as the leading techniques. They
Out of the ten (10) participants, nine (9) manifested that generally, the also ask students to complete the activities presented in the textbook
students’ level of English is, most of the times, lower than the one ex- to practice their Writing. Apart from the textbooks, some participants
pected for the EFL course that teachers are currently teaching. The most mentioned that in their institutions, they have some additional audio and
problematic areas are grammar and vocabulary. For example, students video teaching materials available to use in their classes, but they hardly
cannot write complex sentences and the register they use in their texts is use them since they prefer the activities included in the textbook.
basic and repetitive. This, according to the teachers, hinders the deve-
lopment of students’ writing skills since they must use the time planned Following the description of the four categories that make writing cha-
to teach Writing to explain to their student’s grammar structures and llenging, they were grouped and classified as internal and external fac-
vocabulary. tors. Student – related factors revolve around the learners, namely, stu-
dents’ English language competency, Spanish language interference and
Spanish language interference Students’ lack of motivation to write in English as presented in figure 1.
Teacher – related factors, on the other hand, refer to teaching practices
Seven (7) teachers pointed out that another factor that hampered writing as presented in figure 2.
skills development is the marked influence of L1 which in this case is
the Spanish language. According to the participants, the Spanish inter-
ference results in inaccurate and incoherent written texts. Teachers also
emphasized that literal translation from Spanish to English is common
among their students and this practice has been intensified due to the
accessibility to online translators. One example provided by a teacher
refers to “false cognates”. In one task, a student chose one English word
with similar spelling in Spanish but with a different meaning in English
and used it in her text, affecting the sentence's semantics. Teachers
suggested that the students’ penchant for translating is the result of a
poor vocabulary.

Students’ lack of motivation to write in English

The majority of the participants mentioned that their students feel forced
to write in English, and a few students who are willing to do so are afraid
of committing mistakes in their writings. Students are also unwilling to
show their written works to their classmates since they want to hide their Figure 1. Internal Factors that contribute to teachers´
writing limitations. The fear of failure or rejection of written tasks seems challenges in teaching Writing
to be a common feeling among students.
Figure 1 shows that, according to the participants, the English language
Although writing skills often require students to spend a certain amount competency that students have acquired during their formation, has never
of time exploring and organizing their ideas, they do not seem willing to been in accordance with the learning outcomes designed for each class.
devote their time and energies to developing their writing tasks. Conse- For example, a student who is expected to have a B1 level to be enrolled
quently, it is important to identify the mechanisms that provide students in a B2 level class does not usually have a B1 level. Instead, their English
with different motivational writing experiences. level is lower than A2. This mismatch between the student’s expected level
of English and their actual level is the main challenge that participants
Teaching practices have to confront in their classes. The second challenge, though not as
intense as the first, is the Spanish language interference. According to the
It is essential to mention that the number of hours allocated per week to participants, students have not been able to adapt to the English writing
teaching and learning EFL in language centers is not divided per langua- conventions and continue using the Spanish conventions in their English
ge skill, such as listening, speaking, writing, and reading. It is instead a writings. The lack of student’s motivation to write in English is the lowest
fixed amount of time, and it is the teacher’s prerogative to use this time challenge that teachers face, this because, according to the participants,
to develop the four language skills. The participants mentioned that, on the lack of motivation two write is the result of the other two aspects. They
average, they have 300 minutes per week to teach EFL. Out of this time, added that, if students can improve their level of English and understand
three (3) teachers use from 25 to 30 minutes and two (2) teachers 15 the English writing conventions, their motivation will increase.
minutes per day to practice Writing. One teacher uses 40 minutes per
week and the four (4) remaining teachers do not use any time to focus According to Brown (2014) the English language competence, in the
only on teaching writing. area of Writing, includes learners’ grammatical competence, vocabulary
mastery, and a proper paragraph organization. The combination of these
All participants considered that the time they have to teach EFL to their abilities helps students produce well written texts. On the other hand, the
students is minimal, which is not enough for achieving English learning lack of one of them, particularly grammar or vocabulary can impede lear-
outcomes planned for each EFL course. Thus, it is difficult to focus only ners to write a proper and coherent paragraph. Harmer (2007) explains
on teaching writing due to time concerns. They also added that they that students “can become very frustrated when they are engaged in a
have large classes and providing detailed feedback to their students is productive task without the knowledge of grammar and the vocabulary
very difficult. they need to express themselves” affecting negatively the students’ mo-
tivation to write.

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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