Teachers’ attitudes and techniques towards EFL writing in Egyptian secondary schools

Abstract

In 2008, the Egyptian Ministry of Education introduced a new national textbook, Hello for Secondary Schools, which recommends a shift in EFL teachers’ instructional practices. Since then, very little attention has been paid to teachers’ techniques in EFL writing classes. Hence, this paper aims at investigating teaching writing practices in secondary schools and exploring the teachers’ attitudes towards EFL writing skills in addition to exploring the difficulties that teachers encountered in EFL writing lessons. The paper depends on data triangulation through administering two questionnaires: one to 44 teachers and the other to 24 students, and conducting semi-structured interviews with 11 teachers. Both teachers and students are asked to describe teaching practices in EFL writing classes while the open-ended questions and interviews collected data about the teachers’ difficulties in writing lessons. The questionnaires indicate that teachers have negative attitudes towards teaching writing, and most of their practices are still traditional. Five factors have influenced teachers’ practices: backwash of the test, teachers’ professional development, students’ culture of reading and large classes. The paper recommends there has to be a necessary change in the students’ examination system, and ongoing teachers’ professional development should be considered. Finally, a teaching model and implications are suggested.