Writing: A Profitable but Negated Skill in English Classes in Undergraduate Programs
Abstract
The present study describes a small scale project consisting in several workshops to improve the students’ writing in English as a foreign language. The targeted population consisted of first level students in undergraduate programs at a public university in Colombia where low development of writing skills in the students’ foreign language has been constantly observed in the English teaching process.
A diagnostic test administered to our students revealed that one of the possible causes of student’s low performance in writing, was the lack of writing activities that serve as training for them to produce writing texts. Students showed the few opportunities they had concerning this kind of activities. The diagnostic data through questionnaires and interviews also revealed the lack of guided and controlled activities which help students to improve the process of writing, and the low motivation as the main result of this lack of activities. Last but not least, after the implementation of this writing workshop, students were more confident, they wrote high-quality texts and writing became an interesting activity for students.
Keywords: writing process, motivation, process approach, writing techniques, product approach
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