Exploring what shapes English Language teachers\u27 of teaching formal writing to grade 11 students in a private higher secondary school in Gilgit-Baltistan

This qualitative case study investigated the classroom practices of two English language teachers from Gilgit-Baltistan to understand what shaped their practices of teaching formal writing at the higher secondary level to identify what their current practices of teaching writing in use and the factors that hinder or help students’ formal writing skills according to the participants. The data were gathered through semi-structured interviews, focus group discussions, classroom observations, document analysis and field notes. Analyses of the data suggest that contrary to the traditional lecture practice, the participants use various approaches such as, Integration of product and process approach, communicative language teaching, technology integration, co-operative teaching approach, and student-centred teaching in the classroom. Their teaching, however, was dominated by an integrated approach of product and process to develop formal writing skill at higher secondary (11) level. The study participants believe that sharing model texts help students in gaining a deeper understanding of the assigned writing tasks. However, there remain some apparent factors which hinder teachers’ practices in the learning process. Because of these hinders, multiple approaches being used show little improvement in the case of composition writing of struggling students and their motivation. This research work calls teachers to be more informed about these approaches in order to engage the students fully in meaningful writing exercises. It is evident from the findings that students, on the other hand, take formal writing skill development for granted and fritter the time provided by the teacher in trivial activities. Therefore, this study recommends that teachers and students need to spend more time in building a strong base in the form of background knowledge and vocabulary to help the students remember, recognize, apply and create coherent, meaningful and error-free written compositions. teaching formal writing at the higher secondary level to identify what their current practices of teaching writing in use and the factors that hinder or help students’ formal writing skills according to the participants. The data were gathered through semi-structured interviews, focus group discussions, classroom observations, document analysis and field notes. Analyses of the data suggest that contrary to the traditional lecture practice, the participants use various approaches such as, Integration of product and process approach, communicative language teaching, technology integration, co-operative teaching approach, and student-centred teaching in the classroom. Their teaching, however, was dominated by an integrated approach of product and process to develop formal writing skill at higher secondary (11) level. The study participants believe that sharing model texts help students in gaining a deeper understanding of the assigned writing tasks. However, there remain some apparent factors which hinder teachers’ practices in the learning process. Because of these hinders, multiple approaches being used show little improvement in the case of composition writing of struggling students and their motivation. This research work calls teachers to be more informed about these approaches in order to engage the students fully in meaningful writing exercises. It is evident from the findings that students, on the other hand, take formal writing skill development for granted and fritter the time provided by the teacher in trivial activities. Therefore, this study recommends that teachers and students need to spend more time in building a strong base in the form of background knowledge and vocabulary to help the students remember, recognize, apply and create coherent, meaningful and error-free written compositions