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Mónica Raquel Tamayo Maggi, Diego Christian Cajas Quishpe

Grammar provides the structure of the language and helps learners to Figure 2 shows that participants consider the current class conditions as
construct sentences that make sense and are within the acceptable con- the main factor to make the writing classes challenging, followed by time
ventions of English (Manolescu 2019). Jaramillo & Medina (2011) explo- availability and teaching aids.
red the role of grammar in writing short descriptive texts in English. Their
results confirmed that most of the difficulties students had were related to Class conditions revolves around the class environment and refers to
the construction of sentences, grammatical errors, vocabulary and difficul- large classes and reduced physical space, which, according to the par-
ties in reading comprehension. They concluded that learners may have be- ticipants limits personalized attention to students and reduces students’
tter writing results when they have time to develop their tasks, their ideas English practice. Large classes is not a phenomenon that occurs only in
and when the writing topic is clear. Time plays a fundamental factor since Ecuadorian educational institutions. Instead, it happens in different parts
students can reflect on their works and identify their own grammar lapses. of the world. Emery (2012) highlights that large classes is one of the
most mentioned problems encountered by English teachers. Likewise,
Regarding the Spanish interference, Alabere (2011) suggests that if L2 Khajloo (2013) also points out that one of the challenges in teaching
students have difficulties in phonology, vocabulary and grammar of the English is the size of the classroom.
second language are due to the interference of habits from mother ton-
gue. Aisa (2015) further suggests that regular practice and error analysis Regarding the effects of having large classes, Zhang (2010) identified
can help teachers find out how far the interference affects the learners’ three issues: discipline problems, students' and teachers' weary and
performance in the target language they are learning. Although teachers inefficient learning. Furthermore, Aoumeur (2017) states that problems
may always emphasize the need to think and write in English as such as anonymity and passivity among students, poor engagement with
much as possible, it is difficult for them to completely devoid from course content, and low motivation are the consequences of being tau-
native language and culture. ght in large classes. Opposite to the existing literature that suggests
classes with a limited number of students as a premise to successfully
Native language influence is not always negative, in fact, it can also be achieve the expected language outcomes, there are studies that empha-
a factor that scaffolds the success of writing of EFL students (Harmer, size the positive role of the teachers’ methodology and techniques to
2015). It is in the teachers’ hands to use it to their benefit and plan activi- work with large classes effectively.
ties to enhance their student’s Writing. EFL students tend to transfer the
meaning, culture, and forms of their first language to the second langua- The second factor that makes writing classes challenging is the inade-
ge and culture they are learning. Ultimately, it has a positive impact on quacy of allocated time to teach Writing. All participants mentioned that
the learning of the target language. It is, then, important for the teachers their institutions do not have an official distribution of hours for the de-
to start exploring the principles and advantages of translanguage. velopment of different language skills. It depends on the teacher. There
are certain constraints for time allocation. For example, teachers have a
Regarding the students’ motivation, Jabali (2018) identified in his study textbook to finish and, in most cases, the allotted time is directed pro-
with Palestinian EFL students that they showed willingness to do well in portionally to the textbook advancement. This results in teachers having
writing but they were not as interested in learning as they were with the limited time to plan and conduct other activities since they may not be
other language skills, leaving Writing apart from their interests. This shows able to finish all activities presented in the textbook.
the need to find appropriate mechanisms to develop all language skills
at the same time. In this line, Lucas (2010) states that making students Furthermore, ten (10) teachers emphasized that the students need a
aware of the importance of language will urge students to improve their longer time to practice Writing and, in many cases, they cannot cover
motivation to learn even if they do not have enough intrinsic motivation. all language skills due to time constraints. This is also because teachers
have to explain the topic to the learners, have them practice writing, and
Regarding the teacher-related factors, participants mentioned that this assess their production. According to Ajibola (2010), although English
revolves around the teaching practices, and within this, they identified learners start to learn this language from the very first year of school,
class conditions, time availability and teaching aids as the aspects that most of them fail to gain an adequate competence in English due to time
make a writing class challenging as presented in figure 2. constraints.

It is important to mention that students attending EFL classes in their
university language centers are, at the same time, studying their under-
graduate programs and they have to juggle between English and their
academic subjects. Thus, increasing the time allotted for learning English
may affect their performance in their academic courses. Teachers, then,
need to look for creative ways to infuse writing activities along with their
EFL class activities. For example, Lin et al. (2014) found out that blogs
in EFL writing through process-based approach have a positive effect on
writing achievement.

The last aspect that participants believe makes teaching writing challen-
ging is teaching aids.
Figure 2. External Factors that contribute to teachers´ It may be the result of the sole use of a single textbook in EFL classes. Parti-
challenges in teaching Writing
cipants mentioned that they use the textbooks as the main teaching resource
and some added that despite existing extra resources to teach English in
their language centers, they prefer to use the textbook as the main resource
and limit the use of the writing activity suggested in the textbook
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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