L2 Writing Teacher Education for In-service Teachers: Opportunities and Challenges

Although command of good writing skills is crucial to student success at all levels, throughout the world most L2 writing instruction is delivered by inexperienced and under-prepared writing teachers. In L2 contexts, writing teacher education is under-developed, and research on writing teacher preparation is a relatively uncharted territory. Using interview and classroom research data from four Hong Kong teachers upon their completion of a writing teacher preparation course, this paper investigates the opportunities and challenges brought by in-service writing teacher education. The findings show that while L2 writing teacher education can alter teachers' perspectives, develop their professional knowledge and skills, and improve their preparedness for teaching writing, teacher educators are faced with a number of challenges. The study suggests that there are tensions between what teachers learn from writing teacher education and the informal learning that takes place in school. The paper concludes with implications for L2 writing teacher education and suggestions for further research.