ABSTRACT
This qualitative-phenomenological study was conducted to find out the current practices and learner-encountered challenges in the teaching of writing. The instrument used was a researcher-made in-depth interview guide to ascertain the teachers’ current practices in teaching writing and the challenges encountered by learners as bases for in-service training. The findings of the study revealed that the teachers’ current practices in teaching writing are as follows; shared writing, meaningful writing activities, outlined writing, and collaborative writing. Findings further revealed that learners encountered challenges in the way their teacher taught writing and these were the following: learners’ limited vocabulary and grammar, limited time provided to accomplish a writing task, writing topics are difficult, and teachers lack motivation. Teachers managed the challenges encountered by the learners in the way their teacher taught writing by utilizing the following strategies: group learners according to their academic performance, identify difficulties for intervention, teach the basic parts of writing, and establish goals in writing.
Keywords: Current Practices, Teaching Writing, Learner-Encountered Challenges, In-service Training
INTRODUCTION
In language learning, there are four macro-skills that one needs to develop and master: listening, speaking, reading, and writing. As much as teachers want to deliver their craft in their most desired and practiced strategies, these four integral parts of outputs in language learning are not collectively realized.
The researcher found that among the four macro-skills that a learner desire to develop, writing is often the most challenging and sometimes the most neglected. That challenge among language teachers is highlighted in terms of an ideal result in teaching the language.
There are several reasons why this predicament has become a problem. It can be either be a teacher factor, a time factor or learner factor. Whether as teacher or learner factor, English is an international language that everyone should master and that the four facets of learning the language must equally be developed. Therefore, mastery of the English language is a must in reading, writing, listening, and speaking. Above all, the world’s most widely spoken language is English (Moses & Mohamad, 2019).
In language learning, writing is as essential as the rest of the other macro-skills. Yet in the past, writing was only done on pencil and paper but because the recent development of learning, writing becomes a skill done on screen and keyboards on laptops or mobile phones. This has opened the gateway to digital writing. However, by embracing the novelty brought about by change, does not mean that teachers will neglect the importance of teaching the basic of writing to the learners since this will only back their dependence on the use of technology in learning. This made the job of teachers more challenging since outputs presented by learners are irreproachable since it is a product of computer generation.
This sudden change in the writing process has paved the way to the emergence of AI-generated written outputs and it is one of the reasons why writing skill is less developed. Likewise, it has become a great challenge since teachers can no longer extract appropriate writing outputs from learners because of their dependence on technology.
The role of a teacher speaks so much in responding to this global issue. As facilitators of learning, teachers should master the art of writing to reach the endpoint of producing job-ready learners. Each area should be given careful consideration in order to achieve the greater purpose of developing a language-equipped learner a learner who can listen, speak, read, and write at any given situation.
As a secondary English teacher for twelve years, the researcher has observed that the four macro-skills in learning English are equally given importance in the list of Most Essential Learning Competencies (MELCs) but it is right to mention that writing is delivered and evaluated less of the other three. This is the reason why the researcher was eager to ascertain some of the factors affecting the less learning outcomes on writing. After knowing such factors, an In-service Training program should be proposed to enhance teachers’ knowledge on the delivery of learning, especially on the writing activity.
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