A Preliminary Investigation of Writing Beliefs of Secondary School Arab Teachers of English and Arabic in Northern Region of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Abstract

No doubt that knowledge of language teachers’ beliefs helps reveal how they conceptualize and approach their work. An unlimited number of researchers have probed into teachers’ beliefs on teaching English writing skills. Yet, the role of first language teaching and learning beliefs and their influence on second language teaching and learning has not, to the best of the researchers’ knowledge, been accorded due consideration in the study of teachers’ beliefs, and how such L1 beliefs permeate into the teaching of English as a foreign language. To verify whether first language teaching beliefs creep into the teaching of English writing skills, the beliefs of two groups of Arab teachers of English and Arabic are examined in this study. It probes into the beliefs of Arabic and English language teachers of writing in the pre-university stage in the northern region of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. It surveyed the beliefs of 28 Arab female and male teachers of Arabic and English on the nature of writing skills in English and Arabic. Preliminary results of this small scale study show that differences in beliefs are gender related, rather than inter-group differences. They also show more similarities in beliefs than differences. These could be attributed to the fact that the participants received their university education and gained their teaching experience in the same cultural environment, and had little or no knowledge of the standard ways of the writing process in English. Results point to the need for reeducating English language teachers as to the nature and requirements of writing skills in the English language. The study concludes with pedagogical recommendations and suggestions for future research.