Teachers' Voices: Exploring the Training and Needs of Writing Teachers

The purpose of this study was first to investigate the level of preparation and the linguistic knowledge of 17 EFL writing instructors prior to teaching writing courses in universities. The recognition and ability to treat errors were also explored. A combination of questionnaires, interviews, and records of students' marked writing provided a comprehensive description of the specific training the teachers had before teaching writing classes, a profile of the participants' linguistic knowledge of English, and a sense of how they responded to student writing. One finding was a lack or near lack of prior training in teaching writing. Also, many of the teachers expressed doubts about their teaching and anxiety in fulfilling teaching tasks. This raises the question of whether a writing class should be treated as a general subject anyone with a master's degree in TESOL (or a related field) can teach, or whether it is a professional, content course that should be taught by specialists in the field. It is suggested that the lack of treating writing as a specific content course needing qualified instructors leads to a wide fluctuation in the quality of writing courses in Taiwan. Likewise, the error recognition analysis of student essays showed a mixed recognition and correction of errors. Many of the participants' linguistic knowledge and awareness seemed low, again suggesting a need to re-evaluate and re-examine the qualifications of all writing teachers. A debate on the minimum qualifications, including language proficiency and previous training, is much needed.

並列關鍵字

English writing teachers ； writing teacher training

國際替代計量

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