What the Pakistani L2 Writers Do When They Write: An Investigation of the Composing Processes of Pakistani L2 Writers

Abstract

This paper presents a real account of what L2 writers do when they write. In Pakistan approach to
teaching writing to students is always affected by unawareness of the writing processes of the
students. This paper also attempts to address the writing processes of student writers considering
some major problems of writing pedagogy in Pakistan: a heavy emphasis on linguistic accuracy;
overlooking the development of students’ writing ability; over-emphasis on the “product”; a lack of
input of genre knowledge; and a lack of variety of assessment. Based on the discussion of current
approaches to teaching writing, implications are introduced to improve writing instruction as well as
enhance effective learning in Pakistani context.