First-Year Undergraduate Instructors and Formative Writing: Practices and Pedagogical Agency in Saudi EFL Classrooms

Abstract

This study examines how English language instructors in Saudi universities’ preparatory-year programs engage with formative writing tasks within a semi-centralized curriculum. Although the preparatory year is designed to equip students with essential linguistic and academic competencies, the implementation of writing instruction is often constrained by rigid curricular frameworks, top-down assessment policies, and limited opportunities for teacher involvement in decision-making. These conditions generate tensions between institutional requirements and pedagogical judgment, raising important questions about how instructors negotiate their agency in practice. Based on literature on teacher agency, instructional decision-making, and formative assessment, the study addresses two research questions: (1) How do first-year undergraduate instructors interact with and navigate formative writing tasks embedded in a semi-centralized curriculum? and (2) How do they perceive the impact of these practices on students’ academic writing development? Data were collected through two rounds of semi-structured interviews with five EFL instructors and analyzed using Saldaña’s two-cycle coding method. Findings indicate that while institutional constraints limited instructional flexibility, they also stimulated adaptive strategies. Participants reported supplementing mandated tasks with low-stakes activities, scaffolding instruction to meet students’ linguistic needs, and drawing on rapport-building and reflective practices to enhance engagement. Formative writing tasks were thus perceived as serving dual purposes: advancing student development and informing instructors’ practices.