Investigating the Effective Strategies to Improve EFL Learners’ Writing Skill Proficiency

Abstract

The writing skill is considered a cornerstone of learning any language. However, writing in English, in particular, is believed to be a demanding task for Algerian EFL learners who struggle and seem to perform poorly in such task that calls many considerations. In regard to this, the study investigates effective strategies to improve EFL learners’ writing skill proficiency as it aims at finding out what hindrances EFL learners face when they write. The study adopts a mixed method design combining both quantitative and qualitative methods. A sample of 75 EFL Secondary School Teachers participated in the study where they answered an online questionnaire. Besides, classroom observations were used during writing sessions where 24 learners from 2nd year Experimental Sciences and 16 learners from 3rd year Foreign Languages were observed at KADIRI Khaled Secondary School ‘Sougueur – Tiaret – Algeria’. The results reveal that EFL learners confront many problems when they write such as the lack of vocabulary, the lack of semantic elements and the inability to construct grammarly-accepted sentences, besides other factors represented in the form of cognitive and psychological problems. Similarly, many strategies can be implemented to enhance EFL learners’ writing skill proficiency to remedy such deficiencies, some strategies are suggested.