Tenses with ESL writing tenses : a case study of Bhutanese secondary students

Abstract

Writing as an element of the English curriculum is generally a pre-conceived difficulty even among the language teachers in Bhutan. Although no research has been done to validate or conclude this topic with writing difficulties in Bhutanese schools, this research seeks to answer the questions particularly with what could be the major reasons for children having difficulty to write essays in their exams. Writing is an important skill for language production. However, it is considered a difficult skill, particularly in English as second language (ESL) contexts where students face many challenges in writing. Therefore, this study was conducted with an aim to find out problems and challenges in Bhutanese ESL learners writing and what were some other factors that hindered their writing skills. For this purpose a group of Bhutanese English language learners from grade VIII were used as participants. Writing samples were also collected from 60 ESL students to find the major problems in their writing. The interviews and essays were analyzed using thematic content analysis. The findings revealed that the major problems in Bhutanese secondary ESL learners were appropriate command over the use of tenses, word order, vocabulary, writing anxiety, lack of ideas, reliance on L1, lack of reading and writing practices, large classrooms and lack of ideas. Besides these obvious problems and challenges, teaching writing for ESL learners was mainly focused on the writing process with no extensive teaching of tenses and other grammar topics