Status Of Teaching English Regarding Effective Writing Skills At Elementary Level: Problems And Factors

Effective writing is regarded as one of the most complicated cognitive activities and its teaching needs loads of attention. It is perceived as an important skill for good language production. However, it is considered very difficult expertise, particularly in English as second language contexts where elementary students face numerous challenges in English writing. Writing is supposed as a significant art for students' successful academic achievement. Improper teaching of effective writing skills and can create numerous writing mistakes. Therefore, the present study was conducted with the aim to investigate elementary students' writing problems and factors that hamper their English writing skills. It also illustrates some supportive suggestions on how to improve elementary students' effective English writing skills. This article argues that writing is one of the most prolific skills which sometimes seem very difficult for elementary learners to develop. Students' effective writing problems in English language have become a major issue for English teachers and learners as well. Writing in English is considered a very complex skill particularly in elementary classrooms where students face numerous challenges regarding this skill. In the study writing samples were randomly collected from 150 students of grade eight to find out the most recurrent writing problems in their English subjects. 30 English teachers were also interviewed in order to know their perceptions about students' writing difficulties and factors that hamper their English writing development. SPSS software was applied to compute and analyze the outcomes of the research. The results of the study indicate that the majority of the students at elementary level are unable to write grammatically precise English paragraphs. Students' writing difficulties cannot be attributed to one factor. Hence, the findings of the study disclose that the foremost problems of students' English writing are due to poor command over English tenses, grammar, syntax and insufficient vocabulary as well as untrained English teachers, ineffective teaching methods, lack of reading and writing practices and overcrowded classrooms. Lack of creative ideas, writing anxiety, weak structural organization and dependence on L1 are also the major cause of learners' poor writing in English.