Author/s:
Yang, Yingjie*
University of Southern Queensland, Australia (u1040470@umail.usq.edu.au)
Abstract:
This study investigated Chinese junior high school teachers’ and students’ attitudes mainly about their worries, perceptions, and beliefs towards EFL writing, which was conducted by a mixed research method. 25 participants were involved in a survey questionnaire that consists of three parts: (1) demographical information, (2) measure of attitudes, and (3) comments on EFL writing. The attitudinal measures with a five-point Likert scale questionnaire showed that EFL writing was ignored in EFL class, but participants expected to focus on that. Furthermore, the results observed from a paired t-test quantitatively indicated that these teachers and students considered EFL writing as a difficult and important skill and they believed that it is possible to improve their EFL writing skill. On the other hand, there was an individual facet-to-face interview to justify these results in the survey, in which, that the root reasons of EFL writing is a weakness skill, the difficulties of performing writing, and the lack of opportunities to practice it, were found. Based on these findings in survey questionnaire and interview, several pedagogical implications were discussed consequently in order to: (i) increase the practice opportunities, (ii) use correct language learning strategies, (iii) overcome the first language barrier, (iv) keep ongoing learning, and (v) reflect the process, quality, and outcome of EFL writing, which are effective ways to enhance the EFL writing skill.
Keywords: EFL writing; perception of writing; learning attitude; attitudes towards EFL; writing skill; practice opportunities; language learning strategies
DOI: https://doi.org/10.5861/ijrse.2015.1209
*Corresponding Author