EFL Teachers’ Writing Performance and Writing Self-Efficacy across Teaching Experience and Gender (Research Paper)

Writing poses a daunting challenge not only for learners but also for teachers who are assumed to have achieved native-like dexterity in and held self-efficacious beliefs about writing as a prerequisite for a promising teaching career. The present study, hence, set to explore Iranian EFL teachers’ writing performance and writing self-efficacy (WSE) in the light of their gender and teaching experience. To this end, a stratified sample of 80 EFL teachers (40 males and 40 females) was selected from a research population of about 120 at Shokouh-e-Iran and Jahad-e Daneshghahi English Centers in Urmia. The two groups were further subdivided based on their teaching experience into three groups of novice (N = 15) 1-4 years of teaching experience, developing (N = 13) with 5-9 years and experienced (N = 12) with over 10-years of teaching. The group members were requested to do a writing task and also complete the Teachers’ WSE Scale, the results of which were further analyzed through two-way analysis of variance tests (ANOVA) and a correlational analysis. The findings revealed a lower-than-expected average for the teachers’ writing performance score with novice teachers as the weakest with no significant difference between male and female participants’ WSE. However, teaching experience was found to significantly impact the participants WSE and further correlational analyses supported the significantly positive relationships between experienced and developing teachers’ writing performance and their WSE. The findings highlight the need to enhance ELT teachers’ writing if any significant improvement is expected to occur in their WSE.