Writing preferences of EFL students

Abstract

The aim of the present study is to shed light on the writing class preferences of EFL students. It also aims to investigate into their teachers' perceptions about these preferences. The study was conducted in the ELT Department, Faculty of Education, Uludağ University, Turkey. For the purpose of the study, the first and the second year EFL students were given a writing class preference questionnaire to indicate their present preferences regarding eight different aspects of the writing class. Afterwards some selected students were interviewed and the process was tape-recorded. Additionally, all the writing teachers in the department received a modified version of the questionnaire given to the learners. The aim was to find out the teachers' perceptions of these preferences. Some of the teachers were interviewed as well. The analyses revealed that the learners seem to prefer to select their own topic, not a single topic, but a few options. Their teachers also seemed to think so. Additionally, the findings of the study indicated that the learners have a tendency toward class discussions about a topic before writing, reading sets of passages relating to the topic, and having study questions about the topic. Also, the learners seem to prefer a familiar, easy, and interesting topic or a topic from everyday life, generally a topic about personal matters, but sometimes about academic matters, and a topic given beforehand. Moreover, the learners seem to have a tendency toward teacher feedback, written feedback, feedback before or after completing their writings, comments both about what is strong and what is weak in their writings. All the students appear to be against the idea of no feedback. As for correction, the learners tend to prefer their teachers to correct all their mistakes, to underline their mistakes for them to correct, the corrections made later, in private, no peer correction, and sometimes self-correction. Also, they tend to prefer sometimes-given homework and thehomework that does not require abstract reasoning and too much effort. Furthermore, the learners seem to prefer different forms of interaction at different times. The learners need to be motivated in their writing class in different ways because they attribute the source of motivation to different agents. It was concluided that an increased understanding of student preferences regarding the writing class would have some implications for writing in the EFL context.