Opinions of Turkish teachers on writing education

Writing, one of the expressive language skills; helps individuals to express their feelings, thoughts, imaginations, and impressions in writing, within a certain frame. Students acquire and improve writing skill through planned and gradual training. Students receive writing training throughout school life from preschool to university. However, many middle school, high school, or college graduates have difficulty in expressing themselves in writing. It is important to learn how writing training practices are made by teachers to identify the causes of this problem and to develop solution offers. In this study, it is aimed to determine what the opinions of secondary school Turkish teachers about writing education are. In accordance with this purpose, the study used phenomenology approach which is a qualitative research the study group includes 25 Turkish language teachers who work in government schools in Eskişehir, Konya, Muş and Şanlıurfa provinces. A semi-structured interview form, prepared through expert opinions, was used to learn teachers' views. The data obtained from interviews were analysed through content analysis, the results of the study are as follows: Teachers emphasized telling and expressing while defining the aim of writing training. Almost every teacher thinks that the knowledge they acquire in career contributes to their practice of writing ability more than the knowledge they acquire in undergraduate education. Almost every teacher uses techniques to draw student's attention to writing and motivate them before writing. All teachers do preparatory work during the writing training process. Most of the teachers do not plan in writing training. All teachers stated that they give feedback and make assessments in writing training. Many teachers assess students' writing only through exams. Teachers think the reasons that adversely affect the writing education process result from eight different categories as follows: "students; family, school and environment; textbook; class time and curriculum; Ministry of National Education and education system; teacher; students' elementary school education; teachers' undergraduate education". The suggestions offered by the teachers in order to improve the writing skills of the students are collected under nine catagory as follows: "student; application, activity; family, school and environment; textbook; weekly lesson hours and curriculum; Ministry of National Education and education system; teacher; students' primary education; teachers' undergraduate education. Most of the teachers stated that they use technology in writing training but not electronic writing. In the light of these results of the research, various suggestions were offered that can help to improve writing training.