Damtew, Abebe (PhD)Getahun, Samuel2019-11-262023-12-052019-11-262023-12-052019-06http://etd.aau.edu.et/handle/123456789/20267The main objective of the study was to explore the practices and challenges of teaching writing skills with reference to students in the Addis Ababa Peacekeeping English Training Center. In order to achieve this goal, level-2 students of the center were taken as the participants of the study. The purpose was to explore techniques and strategies used by the teachers to practice writing, the types of classroom activities often used in writing lessons, the roles of teachers and learners in writing classes, the factors that cause difficulties or problems that learners face in learning writing skills and the type of error correcting techniques frequently used in writing lessons. The researcher used descriptive survey methods for the study. For the purpose of gathering sufficient and reliable data, four instruments were used. These are: questionnaire (for the students), interview (for teachers), classroom observation and content analysis. The data obtained through questionnaire was analyzed quantitatively whereas data obtained through interview; observation checklist and the content analysis (tasks from the students’ course book and students’ writing assignments) were analyzed qualitatively. The findings of the study demonstrated that appropriate techniques and strategies were often used in teaching writing skills for level- 2 students. There is a good culture of using more recent language teaching techniques such as pair work, small group work and sometimes individual work, information gap and problem solving that could promote active learning in the writing lessons. Furthermore, the teachers used different strategies that could help the learners to develop their writing skills and the students mostly played their role actively in a writing class despite shortage of time to complete writing tasks in the class. Teachers also implemented all types of error correction techniques when teaching writing skills. However, teacher correction technique (mostly directly written feedback and correction) was observed more frequently than self-correction and peer-correction techniques both in and outside the classrooms. Even though results drawn from the entire data gathering instruments show that there is a good tendency of teaching writing skills for level-2 classes, the students still have some difficulties or challenges that emanated from a multitude of variables such as poor language background of the students, lack of opportunities to practice writing outside the class, lack of time to accomplish writing tasks in the classroom, lack of teachers’ support and motivation that was reflected by lack of giving regular and timely feedback and correction and sometimes too much reliance on the mother tongue. Generally, the results of this study indicated that there are good practices and good opportunities in the teaching and learning of writing skill in the Addis Ababa peacekeeping English training center of level- 2 classes, though the students face some difficulties or challenges in learning and developing their writing skills. Finally, based on the findings of the study, possible implications and recommendations were drawn and presented.enJournalismeThesis