Abstract:

Writing, outside the academic realm, is often seen as a neglected skill in teaching English as a second or foreign language. It is perceived as boring and irrelevant by many students, and teachers, in turn, will often skip the writing sections of the course books. However, the Anglo-Saxon culture arguably relies on the written medium of communication more than many other cultures, so learners need to develop the skill.

This paper looks at the practical task rather than theoretical implications of teaching a class to a group of intermediate learners of English (L1 Turkish speakers) where the students approach writing a letter of complaint (an email asking for a refund for faulty goods bought online). Since refund emails fall under the broader category of letters of complaint, which in their turn are types of formal letters start by exploring the genre features of these texts. I then proceed to identify the common challenges faced by English learners when faced with writing a formal text (namely, lack of genre awareness, poor proofreading and/or self-editing skills, Lack of both system and process knowledge). Finally, I conclude with putting forward suggestions to teachers seeking to overcome these challenges (these include activities to introduce topical lexis and functional language, to develop the learners’ proofreading and/or self-editing skills, pre-writing strategies such as brainstorming).

Keywords:

EFL, ESL, teaching writing, genre approach, genre writing.