Exploring Senior High School Students’ Academic Writing Difficulties: Towards an Academic Writing Model

Abstract

Undeniably, writing is an indispensable skill in different contexts of life. It is one of the pivotal components of education. With the advent of the K-12 Basic Education Curriculum, students are confronted with different academic writing tasks through the English for Academic and Professional Purposes and Practical Research courses. Despite the efforts of the educational sector to improve students’ writing skills, many students still experience difficulties in academic writing. Therefore, there is a need to fill the gap and advance an in-depth understanding of students’ academic writing difficulties. In order to satisfy the said aim, this Qualitative study grounds on Flower and Hayes’ (1981) Cognitive Process Theory of Writing. Focus group discussion of 14 purposively selected Grade 11 Senior High School students was carried out. The results expound on the different Academic Writing difficulties encountered by the participants in terms of the Task Environment, Writers’ Long-Term Memory and Writing Process. A model for teaching academic writing was formulated anchored on the identified difficulties. The model will benefit the teachers as it may serve as a guide in more effective and efficient teaching of academic writing.

Keywords: Academic writing, writing difficulties, senior high school, process writing, Philippines