Teaching Writing Orientation of Esl Teachers

Abstract

INTRODUCTION

Approaches to teaching writing would best improve the learners' writing skill. According to Parina (2011), the Philippines is still stuck with the traditional product approach to teaching writing. This strong claim should be verified as it seems to oppose the education ideology of the Department of Education which is biased towards the combination of process and genre-based approaches.

METHODS

Thus, this study which used mixed method research design was conducted to investigate the preferred approach to teaching writing among Department of EducationESL teachers and how they use the approach to teaching writing to maximize students' learning experience. A self-made checklist elicited quantitatively the ESL teachers' preferred approach to teaching writing and an interview was conducted to qualitatively underscore how these teachers use the approach to teaching writing.

RESULTS

It is very apparent that among the three approaches to teaching writing, the product approach is the least approach with a mean of2.61 and a verbal interpretation of sometimes preferred approach. While the genre-based approach got a higher mean of 4.45 compared to the process approach with a mean of 4.40, both are preferred approach to teach writing among ESL teachers. Interview with the respondents revealed that they actually practice their preferred approaches to teaching writing in their classes in all aspects of their teaching.

DISCUSSIONS

Generally, the results of this study contradict the claim made by Parina (2011) that the Filipino ESL teachers prefer the product approach. Apparently, the results of this study suggest that ESL teachers in the Philippines are starting to realize the effectiveness of both process and genre-based approaches.