TOWARDS A LEARNER-CENTERED APPROACH TO ACADEMIC WRITING INSTRUCTION IN THE TEACHING ENGLISH AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE (TEFL) CONTEXT OF IRAN

Abstract

Academic writing constitutes a significant part of teaching English as a foreign language (TEFL) students’ academic literacy. Therefore, it is paramount to adopt sound approaches to efficient instruction of academic writing to students of TEFL. To achieve these aims, this mixed-methods study explores the perceptions of Iranian Master of Arts (MA) students of TEFL about their attitudes towards learning academic writing and its challenges and merits. Instruments of this study included a questionnaire and semi-structured interviews. A total of 289 TEFL students took part in the survey phase of the study and 119 TEFL students participated in the interview phase of the study. The findings indicated that the TEFL students held positive attitudes towards learning academic writing despite several perceived challenges and obstacles to its learning in the TEFL context of Iran. The barriers included both stakeholder-related and pragmatic constraints. It was also depicted that the students had low levels of genre-based skills related to academic writing.  Furthermore, TEFL students’ interest in academic genres and their preference of activities and materials which can be used for academic writing instruction and learning were examined and discussed. The results of this study can have direct implications for the integration of academic writing instruction in TEFL curricula across the world.