Challenges of Teaching and Promoting Saudi EFL University Learners’ Written Texts in an Online Classroom Context: Teachers’ Perspectives

Abstract

The primary objectives of this research study are to explore EFL university teachers' perspectives on teaching and promotion of the written texts of Saudi EFL university students in an online classroom context during the second semester of the academic year 2022/2023. Moreover, the study aims at identifying the challenges that teachers face and shedding light on the impact of these challenges on teaching and promoting writing skills. To collect data, a structured interview is conducted with 16 EFL university teachers in both the College of Science and Arts for male students and the College of Science and Arts for female students at King Khalid University in Tanumah, Saudi Arabia. The findings indicate that there are many challenges experienced by EFL university teachers in teaching and promoting EFL Saudi university learners’ written texts in an online classroom context. These challenges include, for example, giving direct feedback on the student’s written assignment, as well as difficulties in planning an online writing class, problems in assessment, the difficulty of observing the online writing process, learners’ insufficient practice of writing at home, learners’ plagiarism, learners’ lack of seriousness and interaction in online classes besides difficulties in maintaining the motivation of EFL learners in addition to the low language proficiency of some learners, which is considered a big challenge that impedes teaching and promotion of writing skills online. The study also discusses the findings' implications and makes some recommendations for teachers.