A survey of students’ perceptions of how English writing instruction is carried out in Norwegian upper secondary schools

Abstract

This study investigates how Norwegian upper secondary school students attending General Studies perceive how English writing instruction is carried out, their own writing skills and what assessment strategies are applied from a genre-pedagogical perspective. A questionnaire was distributed to15 randomly selected schools, resulting in 522 students responding. The analysis of the current survey reveals that Norwegian upper secondary school students do not feel confident about their English writing skills, neither when it comes to narrative nor argumentative writing, and they perceive writing instruction and feedback practices differently. If practices vary as much as students report here, this is a serious issue that needs to be addressed both in schools and in teacher training institutions, and this article suggests that applying a genre-pedagogical approach to teaching writing could be one solution to ensure more similar practices in line with official guidelines for the Norwegian educational system.