TEACHING EFL WRITING AT THE SSC LEVEL IN BANGLADESH: CHALLENGES AND CONSIDERATIONS

Teaching EFL writing is one of the challenging tasks for every teacher, especially at the secondary level of education as it is consisted of very young learners. The current study was conducted with the aim of examining the challenges faced by the EFL teachers teaching EFL writing at the SSC level in Bangladesh. Mixed Method Approach was applied to conduct the study. 4 EFL teachers were interviewed from four secondary school of Dhaka City and 60 SSC students were given questionnaire to collect data. The study also aimed at exploring learners? view regarding their learning of writing skill as well. It was explored from the teachers? interviews that they faced a number of common challenges while teaching writing at the SSC level including students? tendency of memorizing rather productive writing, large class size and short class duration, insufficient teachers? training and improper curriculum. It was unfolded from the students? questionnaire that most of them did not get sufficient vocabulary and idea for creative writing. They claimed that they often did spelling and grammatical mistake while writing. It was also found that learners did not get sufficient time for writing practice in the classroom and for the same issue teachers could not give them clear feedback on their writing script. Based on the findings of the study, it was recommended that trained teachers, more writing practice in the classroom, interesting visual materials, motivation, and quick and clear feedback were essential to overcome the challenges to teaching-learning of writing skill at the SSC level in Bangladesh.