Translation vs. scaffolding for the writing practice: Techniques employed by in-service EFL teachers in Primary Education

Abstract

Writing entails one of the most difficult skills to teach in the English as a Foreign Language (EFL) classroom, above all in Primary Education. The main purpose of this paper was to analyse the techniques employed by EFL teachers in the teaching of writing. The study addressed fundamental issues for the development of writing skill, such as approaches to teaching writing, scaffolding and translation, the use of metacognitive strategies, and the type of activities and resources employed by in-service teachers. A quantitative survey was designed and administered online to 47 in-service EFL teachers in Primary Education (20 from bilingual schools and 27 from non-bilingual schools). The results showed that scaffolding was more frequent among the EFL teachers over the translation, even though using the mother tongue was very popular among the respondents’ answers. Besides, EFL teachers from both cohorts pointed out that among the most frequent metacognitive strategies were the suggestions of improvements and the use of checklists or rubrics rather than the organisation of peer reviews in class. The activities that best suit the practice of writing were those in which teachers had more control (familiarisation and controlled writing). To conclude, the respondents were unfamiliar with many of the tools devoted to writing, being more popular the use of more general educative tools such as Canva, Wordwall, or Padlet. Regarding the outcomes, this study depicts the perceptions and the actual implementation of techniques of the EFL teachers in Primary Education, leaving an open door to further analysis in other educative stages to determine if these techniques are confirmed or refuted in other contexts and levels.