Teaching and Learning Writing in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) School Education Contexts: A Thematic Review

While abundant research has investigated the teaching and learning of English as a foreign language (EFL) writing in college contexts, there has been little examination of writing in primary and secondary school settings. It is important to understand the writing literacy development of young EFL learners and to explore instruction that supports their growth as writers. For research and pedagogical purposes, we conducted a review of 136 studies of EFL writing in primary and secondary school contexts from 2012 to 2019 concerning three themes: (1) contexts and participants, (2) research foci and theoretical orientations, and (3) research methodology and data sources. The findings offer a broad picture of the scholarship on EFL writing in school contexts over the last eight years and suggest future directions for researching and teaching EFL writing in primary and secondary school contexts.