INTEGRATION OF INQUIRY-BASED LEARNING IN WRITING SKILLS COURSE IN AN ELT PROGRAM: PERSPECTIVES OF TEACHER CANDIDATES

Improving writing skills is challenging not only for English language learners (ELL) but also English language teaching practitioners and teacher candidates studying in English Language Teaching (ELT) Program. In the case of enhancing writing skills of teacher candidates who are in the first year of ELT program, there have been several concerns related to the effectiveness of the writing skills course as well as some challenges experiences by the participants and instructors.

To begin with, according to Bacha (2002), students in higher education "have been found to face problems mainly in writing, making them unable to cope with the institution’s literacy expectations. In other words, students may experience difficulty in language structure, lexicology, writing fluency, and writing mechanics including spelling and punctuation. Tops et al., (2013) stated that it is not always possible to extrapolate research findings on English writing to other languages, as in the context of this study, due to "the transparency of their correspondence rules" (p. 706) and "the differences in the organization of the education system" (p. 707). Sa'Adeddin (1989) found in his study that the lack of lexical variety, subordination, and substantial reliance on redundancy that doesn't provide any new information in student texts. Regarding writing fluency, the foundation of rhetoric, logic (in the common, not the logician's use of the word), is a product of culture; it is not universal; in other saying, writing fluency may vary depending on the culture and time (Kaplan, 1966).

Another issue in writing skills is the education programs depend mostly on memorization and teacher-centered instruction rather than student engagement and critical thinking. Tynjälä (2001) stated that listed several factors in which higher education programs should offer but may not be able to provide; to relate Tynjälä's (2001) list to the writing skills course in higher education, "solving problems, devising plans and strategies, negotiating, and participating in networks and teams, critical thinking, an ability to think conceptually and holistically, and to use and produce information" (p. 37) can be accepted as significant elements of writing skills instruction.

Depending on the problems and challenges explained above, this study, which is a part of the researcher's M.A. Thesis conducted at Gazi University, aims to investigate teacher candidates' perspectives towards the integration of inquiry-based learning approach in writing skills course. The research questions are listed below;

RQ1: What are the perspectives of teacher candidates about inquiry-based writing skills instruction?

RQ2: What are the perception of teacher candidates about their improvement in writing skills through inquiry-based learning approach?

RQ3: What are the benefits of inquiry-based writing instruction according to teacher candidates?

RQ4: What are the challenges of inquiry-based writing instruction according to teacher candidates?

This study is a qualitative research-design. The data was collected from teacher candidates (n=36) who are in their first year of English Language Teaching Program. The participants were provided with a six-month training to enhance their writing skills. After the intervention, the semi-structured interviews were conducted with focus groups (n=6) in which there are six participants. The interview questions were prepared depending on the research questions and grouped under the major factors; content of the writing course, opinions about the inquiry-based writing lessons, the importance of inquiry-based writing, perspectives about inquiry-based activities such as problem solving and critical thinking, and future implications about inquiry-based learning approach. Two experts in English Language Teaching were asked for opinions about the interview questions; accordingly, the questions were adjusted. The semi-structured interviews were analyzed through content analysis. The themes and codes are being done via MAXQDA.

The findings indicate that teacher candidates have positive attitudes towards inquiry-based writing. They also stated that this intervention enhanced their writing skills; moreover, they stated that inquiry-based writing course helped them to do their assignments of other courses. Teacher candidates also claimed that inquiry, problem-solving, and critical thinking tasks are useful in teacher education programs; therefore, these tasks should be integrated in other courses as well. Even though the coding procedure is still continuing, some of the contepts of the quantitative data will be shared below, and all the qualitative data including themes, codes, and related quotes of the participants will be completed until the presentation date.

Example Concepts

The Importance of Inquiry-Based Writing in ELT

Future Implications about Inquiry-Based Learning Approch

Opinions about The Writing Course

The Content of the Course

Perspectives about the Problem-Solving Tasks-Peer Evaluation

Opinions about the Inquiry-Based Writing Activities

Bacha, N. N. (2002). Developing learners' academic writing skills in higher education: A study for educational reform. Language and Education, 16(3), 161-177, https://doi.org/10.1080/09500780208666826

Sa'Adeddin, M. A. A. (1989). Text development and Arabic-English negative interference. Applied linguistics, 10(1), 36-51, https://doi.org/10.1093/applin/10.1.36

Tops, W., Callens, C., Van Cauwenberghe, E., Adriaens, J., & Brysbaert, M. (2013). Beyond spelling: the writing skills of students with dyslexia in higher education. Reading and Writing, 26, 705-720.

Kaplan, R. B. (1966). Cultural thought patterns in inter‐cultural education. Language learning, 16(1‐2), 1-20.

Tynjälä, P. (2001). Writing, learning and the development of expertise in higher education. In Writing as a learning tool: Integrating theory and practice (pp. 37-56). Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands.