THE CHALLENGING FACETS OF EFL LEARNERS’ WRITING PERFORMANCE

Writing constitutes an important skill that has to be acquired by learners of English as a foreign language (EFL) to be able to express themselves in a written form within different contexts including academic studies and realistic situations. It requires the manipulation of a set of linguistic and cognitive sub-skills that determine the quality of the written product. The mastery of these features is reflected in the level of the learners' writing performance. Therefore, this article attempts to highlight the interrelationships between the distinct writing traits and their role in increasing or hindering the students' achievement. First, the literature review of writing instruction and assessment is provided. Also, the main elements of writing performance are explained. Then, the research methodology and the analysis of the collected data are described. Finally, the main findings are discussed and some suggestions are proposed for the purpose of developing EFL learners' writing performance.