A Tripartite Analysis of Challenges in Continuation Writing Task Instruction
XuDong1✉Emailp115524@siswa.ukm.edu.my
KualaLumpur1Emailnurainil@ukm.edu.my
MalaysiaNur1
AinilSulaiman1
MalaysiaWahizaWahi2Emailwawa@ukm.edu.my
SitiShuhaidaShukor3Emailsshuhaida@fbk.upsi.edu.my
1
A
A
A
A
Faculty of EducationNational University of Malaysia2School of Liberal StudiesNational University of Malaysia
3Faculty of Languages and CommunicationUniversiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris
Xu Dong
Faculty of Education, National University of Malaysia
EMAIL: p115524@siswa.ukm.edu.my (correspondence)
ORCID: 0009-0007-6205-7423
CITY AFFILIATION: Kuala Lumpur
COUNTRY AFFILIATION: Malaysia
Nur Ainil Sulaiman
Faculty of Education, National University of Malaysia
EMAIL: nurainil@ukm.edu.my
ORCID: 0000-0001-6212-7494
CITY AFFILIATION: Kuala Lumpur
COUNTRY AFFILIATION: Malaysia
Wahiza Wahi
School of Liberal Studies, National University of Malaysia
EMAIL: wawa@ukm.edu.my
ORCID: 0000-0001-5120-1038
CITY: Kuala Lumpur
COUNTRY AFFILIATION: Malaysia
Siti Shuhaida Shukor
Faculty of Languages and Communication, Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris
EMAIL: sshuhaida@fbk.upsi.edu.my
ORCID: 0000-0002-8000-8007
CITY AFFILIATION: Perak
COUNTRY AFFILIATION: Malaysia
Abstract
Continuation Writing Task (CWT) is a newly developed writing task in China which designed by Professor Wang Chuming for L2 teaching and learning. Although previous studies have found CWT as an effective ways to promote L2 langugae acquisition, challenges still exist especially in the front line L2 classroom.This study was therefore conducted to identify the real challenges that CWT teachers facing in applying CWT in English teaching in senior high schools in Hainan, China. This study is a qualitative case study which involved four senior high school English teachers. Semistructured interviews were used for the collection of the data in this study. The data obtained was analyzed using the descriptive and comparative analysis method to determine the final themes and potential themes. By cross-analyzing the nine potential themes from the four teachers, three final themes were extracted, which contained teacher role expansion, insufficient system support and complexity of students’ ability predicament in CWT are the identified challenges in CWT teaching. This study revels the relationships between the challenges and gain an interlock mechanism for the challenges. Pointed out the urgent research direction need to explored in the current CWT teaching.
Keywords:
Continuation Writing Task
challenges
Gaokao
interlock mechanism
senior high schools
A
A
Introduction
The National College Entrance Examination (Gaokao), as China's pivotal higher education admission mechanism, assesses the academic proficiency and competencies of millions of high school graduates through standardized testing protocols. Serving as the fundamental basis for university admissions, this high-stakes examination holds a paramount position within China's education system and remains a subject of intense societal scrutiny across all sectors (Huang, 2025).
In 2015, the Ministry of Education used The Explanations on the National Entrance Examination of English for Colleges and Universities ( Trial of the Comprehensive Reform of the College Entrance Examination in Provincials) which referred to as the Explanations, explicitly pointed out in the experiment provinces’ College Entrance Examinations, the composition part has divided into two parts, in the second part, Summary Writing and the English Continuation Writing Task (CWT) are involved in it. Both of them will not appear together and will regularly use every year (Ministry of Education, 2015).
The 2017 version of the General High School English Curriculum Standard states that “comprehension skills and expressive skills complement and promote each other in the process of language learning” (Ministry of Education, 2018). CWT as a writing task which combines reading and writing used in the composition part in College Entrance Examination fulfills the requirements of the curriculum standard for language skills, it has a better efficacy in promoting learning compared to application writing (Wang,2012). Since Zhejiang Province took the lead as a reform pilot province in October 2016, Continuation Writing Task has been used in Gaokao as a writing test for nine years. Writing assignments are considered as a challenge for English as a Second Language (ESL) students (Farooqui, 2023). Hainan Province has began to use this new exam type since June, 2020. Therefore, as a new exam type of the College Entrance Examination, it is challenging teachers and students, and it also prompts many schools to carry out the teaching practice of the English CWT. After using CWT for five years in Hainan, what are the challenging of CWT in senior high school English in Hainan Province? There are still a lot of researches need to be done on the implementation of CWT. This paper aims to explore the systematic challenges in CWT facing by the front line teachers in Hainan Province and gains more detailed information about the challenges. Povide a qualitative research-based perspective for systematically understanding the challenges in the implementation process of CWT.
Literature Review
The Xu-Argument
Xu, in Chinese meaning is continue. Wang Chuming, a prominent scholar in applied linguistics from Guangdong University of Foreign Studies in China (2016) pointed out that xu has the meaning of completion, extension and creation (CEC). He conceptualizes xu-argument as “a phenomenon inherent in human interaction, most notably observed in conversational exchanges where both participants mutually complement, expand, and co-construct discourse by responding to preceding utterances and formulating subsequent ones.” He further elaborates that xu-argument entails “the speaker's appropriation and elaboration of others' linguistic expressions in communicative contexts, thereby establishing intertextual linkages that facilitate discourse progression” (Wang, 2017). The xu-argument provides a new view on language acquisition in two key points: i) language is acquired through xu (Wang, 2016), and ii) high efficiency in learning a language is achieved by xu (Wang, 2021).
Empirical studies by Wang (2016) suggest that integrating xu into language pedagogy can substantially enhance instructional efficiency and mitigate language acquisition challenges.
To substantiate the pedagogical efficacy of xu-argument, Wang (2016) conducts a comparative analysis between natural dialogue and CWT. His findings indicate that CWT effectively simulates the discursive functions of conversational xu, with interactive learning constituting its core mechanism. While young learners acquire their first language through abundant xu opportunities in native-speaker interactions, adult foreign language learners often face acquisition difficulties due to limited access to such interactive contexts. In this regard, Wang (2016) posits CWT as a viable compensatory strategy to replicate naturalistic xu processes. For a long time, foreign language teaching in China has divided reading and writing into two parts for teaching, ignoring the importance of combining reading and writing (Li Lijun, 2019). Unlike application writing, there is no “quick-fix” template to be copied for CWT, and unlike the foreign language writing method, students’ xu on the basis of comprehension to complete the content. As the CWT used as a new question type in the composition part in Gaokao since 2016, numerous L2 learners facing CWT and started training since then. CWT demands L2 learners holding plenty vocabulary, constructing coherent plots and using vivid language. This makes great challenges to the Chinese L2 learners for they have limited access to model continuations (Liu FK et al, 2025). Limited language proficiency brings challenges for L2 learners facing CWT (Liu ZT et al, 2025). When facing the CWT, L2 learners with limited language proficiency feel hard to write and the content of the CWT they write is Chinglish. Wang (2023) explains the reason for this situation is L2 learners only learn how to cope with foreign language exams, but they can't actually use what they've learned—and when they do try to use it, it often carries a strong Chinglish flavor. Besides, the teacher is the one who may shorten or expand the material presented to the students and this way he/she can be or not be a factor causing students’overload (Antovska, A., & Kostov, B, 2017).
Teacher’s Role in L2 Teaching
According to the 2017 version of the General High School English Curriculum Standard suggests that teachers should actively explore effective teaching and learning methods, study how to transform language knowledge into students’ language application abilities in the teaching process (Ministry of Education, 2018). The role of teachers has been affirmed in the L2 classroom and teacher has the two roles from the above statements, explorer and transformer. Teacher should take the leadership to explore suitable teaching and learning methods and transform knowledge for L2 learners. Kumaravadivelu (2003) suggests three assumed teacher roles: passive technicians, reflective practitioners, and transformative intellectuals. The passive technician conceptualizes teachers as information conduits, mechanically delivering pre-packaged knowledge from experts to learners without substantive engagement with content (Tezgiden, 2015). In contrast, the reflective practitioner model, conceptualizes educators as adaptive problem-solvers who employ critical reflection, pedagogical imagination, and situated decision-making (Başar et al., 2023). This paradigm shift acknowledges teaching as a complex, context-bound practice demanding sophisticated intellectual engagement. The most transformative conceptualization emerges from critical pedagogy traditions, positioning teachers as transformative intellectuals. This revolutionary idea views teachers as professionals who reflect on their practice, connect theory to social reality, and work towards a more humane life (Büşra & Emre, 2025). This tripartite role fundamentally subverts traditional authoritarian teaching models, fostering instead a dialogic educational space where both teachers and learners develop critical consciousness as active, responsible participants in knowledge construction (Farrell, 2019).
According to the above roles, in CWT teaching, teacher need to explore CWT suitable teaching and learning methods for studnets, they have to design and reflect the teaching methods as well (Minstry of Education,2018). As an assessment tool used in Gaokao, teacher’s role influenced by the large-scale selection exams (Gaokao), fored the teachers have to explore ways to improve L2 learners’ CWT to gain a good score rate. Based on the conflict between curriculum standards and the Gaokao, teachers’ role facing great challenges, various roles bring pressure for the teachers and teacher’s role has overloaded (Kyriacou, 2001).
Constraints of the Chinese Education System in CWT Teaching
Since 1980s, the reform of the English Gaokao has began. The purpose of the reform was to take advantage of Gaokao to promote the teaching of English. Form teaching langugae knowledge to developing language use (Gui,1986). However, the English Gaokao is designed to assess candidates’ English proficiency through sampling, using the results to evaluate their overall language skills and serve as a criterion for selection (Wang, 2022).Testing serves as a vital means of educational assessment, while test papers function as an essential instrument for conducting such evaluations (Liu, 2008). CWT as a newly designed task used in Gaokao also have the duty to assess and evaluate L2 learners’ English proficiency for selection. This can be seen directly form the CWT assessment standard, as the CWT used in Gaokao total 25 marks in the 40 marks composition parts, which devide five levels for the candidates to score. Each level gives out specific assessment points and the score range. Any well-designed learning-oriented task including CWT, when applied to large-scale selection exams, will see its pedagogical benefits significantly diminished—because the purposes and mechanisms of selection tests differ fundamentally from those of learning-focused assessments (Wang, 2022). However, the 2017 version of the General High School English Curriculum Standard states the general high school English curriculum should help students further learn and apply basic English knowledgeand skills, develop cross-cultural communication abilities, create favorable conditions for them to learn other subject knowledge, absorb the essence of world culture, and disseminate Chinese culture, and also provide more opportunities for them to continue learning English or choose employment in the future (Ministry of Education, 2018). This requires the English teaching should be the learning-focused assessments but not the purely a selection.
In other words, China's current foreign language proficiency assessments-particularly large-scale, high-stakes exams like the National College Entrance Examination (Gaokao) English test-primarily employ discrete-point testing methods. These evaluate linguistic knowledge (grammar/vocabulary) and isolated skills (listening, speaking, reading, writing) separately rather than integratively (Wang, 2023). This makes the L2 learners develop their language application ability isolated. So why not changing this situation? To break free from exam-oriented teaching, the most straightforward approach would be to decouple daily instruction from the college entrance exam (Gaokao). However, given the immense societal weight of the Gaokao, any forced separation between teaching and testing would face resistance from key stakeholders. Schools would lack confidence, teachers would hesitate to deviate, students would resist, and parents would object. As a result, high school education inevitably remains exam-centric (Wang, 2022). This leads a vicious circle for English teaching only focus on the exam-oriented and students, teacher, parents pay attention to the score but not what the curriculum emphasis, more challenges and problems arise due to the current vicious circle of English teaching in China. Wang (2023) pointed out that China's test-oriented English teaching has long been criticized as a time-consuming yet ineffective approach, becoming a persistent pain point in foreign language education.
This study focus on the following two questions:
(1)
What are the challenges for CWT in the fornt line CWT teaching?
(2)
What are the relationships between these challenges in the front line CWT teaching?
Methodology
A
This study use the purely qualitative approach, case study was chosen as the research design of this study. According to Johnson and Christensen (2024), a case study is a form of qualitative research which focus on providing a detailed account of one or more cases, case study research is holistic as it exists in its real-life context (Johnson and Christensen, 2024). Case study research can be used to address exploratory, descriptive, and explanatory research questions (Stake, 1995; Yin,1994). Case study research involves the study of an issue explored through one or more cases within a bounded system (Creswell and Poth, 2007).Senior high schools in Hainan, China, were selected as the study sites to explore and understand the challenges given by teachers in the process of teaching English Continuation Writing Task. Marshall and Rossman (2014) emphasize that a research site should be easily accessible, free from barriers, and conducive to in-depth data collection, while also allowing research freedom and participant convenience. In selecting schools for this study, practical considerations such as time, distance, privacy and cost were also taken into account.
A
Senior high school English teachers were selected with the purposive sampling method from the Wechat platform. With considered willingness, three senior high schools’ English teachers participated in this research. The selection of study participants for this study was based on the researcher’s criteria and characteristics, namely native English teachers, teaching English Continuation Writing Task in senior high schools, and the teacher’s willingness to be involved in this study. The researcher also took into account the recommendations of Miller et al. (2012) in the selection of study participants, in that purposeful sampling should be based on the need to address research questions, and the participants’ willingness to cooperate and be interviewed, and ability to provide the necessary information.4 interviewees were chosen and among them, 3 were senior high English teachers. 1 was a teaching researcher. The interviewees were divided into the following codes about their background information. The gender, occupation, teaching experience, workplace, school area, school level and the professional title. Each code of the background information was displayed as the following. A hierarchy tree map was made by the NVivo, the highest level had the darkest colour, and each lower level had a lighter shade of the same colour.
According to the above table, Amy and May are females, all of them are teachers whose teaching experience was below 20 years. Their working place was in senior high school, Amy had the senior professional title, the school area was in urban, and the school level was public. May had the junior professional title, the school area was in countryside, and the school level was public. Sam and Bin are males, Bin was a teacher and Sam was a researcher. Bin’s teaching experience was below 10 years. Sam’s teaching experience was below 30 years. Bin had the junior professional title. His working place was in senior high school, the school area was in countryside, the school level was public. Sam had the senior professional title whose working place was in research college, the area was in urban, and the level was public.
As a result, the participants were deemed to possess the credibility, knowledge, and abilities necessary to teach English CWT.
A
A
To ensure compliance with ethical standards, this study obtained official ethical approval from Hainan Normal University. A
A
Prior to participation, all respondents provided verbal consent followed by written confirmation via a signed consent form. This dual-layer protocol aligns with Bailey’s (2014) emphasis on voluntary and informed participation, while the documentation safeguards both participants’ rights and the researcher against potential legal contingencies (Miller et al., 2012).Data collection employed semi-structured face-to-face interviews (Creswell & Poth, 2017), ensuring alignment with research objectives.
A
Transcripts were analyzed through a comparative approach, cross-examining responses across participants using NVivo 15. The coding process adhered to Corbin and Strauss ’s (2014) three-phase model (open, axial, and selective coding) to derive themes and subthemes.Following Creswell’s (2014) definition of validity and reliability as the accuracy and consistency of findings, this study implemented a triangulation strategy: Expert validation of instruments, member checking with participants, peer debriefing among academic colleagues.
Data Analysis
The researcher in this study adopted an nickname to represent each study participant in order to maintain the individuals’ confidentiality. Each presentation of the study’s findings was accompanied with excerpts from interviews with teachers. The study also found that teacher role expansion, insufficient system support and complexity of students’ ability predicament in CWT are among the challenges faced by senior high school English teachers in applying CWT teaching.
Challenges in Teaching CWT
4 teachers discussed their opinions about their CWT teaching challenges. The details of coding were shown below.
Text Fragment | Initial Coding (IC) |
|---|---|
When I .... to reflect | 1. Role Transformation: Teacher to Teaching Research |
And now... own problems | 2. Duty Expansion: From Problem Solving to Leading the Team |
So...the job. | 3. Working Attitude: Normalization of Problem- Oriented Approach |
The key... in practice | 4. Approach: Analyze to Make Solution |
keep .. improving in practice | 5. Practical Path: Continuous Exploration and Lteration |
And keep ... effectiveness. | 6. Objective: Teaching Effectiveness |
Gradually...exchange | 7. Specific Strategies: Observation/Sharing/Experience Exchange |
After organize the initial coding, three potential themes (PT) were generated for teacher Sam. The table below shows the how PT were generated and the points of each PT. PT1 is The Role Transformation from Teacher to Researcher and the Expansion of Responsibilities.PT2 is Problem-oriented Work Philosophy. PT3 is The Implementation Path of Effective Teaching.
A
Table 3. PT for Teacher Sam.IC PT Points
IC1 1.The continuation of the habit of personal reflection
PT1 2. Role change
IC2 Basis
IC3 1. Attitude to the problem
PT2 2. Core Logic
IC4 Basis
IC5 1.Specific Strategies
IC6 PT3 2. Final Objective
IC7 Basis
Accoridng to above table for Teacher Sam, the basis for PT1 is teacher Sam clearly pointed out the difference between the two roles. The basis for PT2 was teacher Sam repeatedly emphasizing the processand mindset for problem solving. The basis for PT3 was teacher Sam provides a detailed description of the strategies and purpose employed in practice.
Text Fragment | Initial Coding (IC) |
|---|---|
The problems........ finish reading | 1. Core problem: CWT abaility insufficient |
For instance........original text | 2. Embody: lack logic, poor foundation |
students don't .....story logically | 3. Embody: insufficient creativity, writing illogical |
Including students...corpus to support | 4. Embody: Lack of language expression ability |
Actually, it's not...students' problem | 5. Attribution: Student |
Actually, when....achieve certain things | 6. Teaching reality:Pursuing efficiency |
But if ........... attractive. | 7. Competition objective: creativity and attractive |
AI ways to design classes like this | 8. Technology application: AI-assisted CWT design |
After organize the initial coding, three potential themes (PT) were generated for teacher Amy. The table below shows the how PT were generated and the points of each PT. PT1 is The difficulties of the students’ CWT ability. PT2 is Goals conflict between front-line teaching and the teaching competition. PT3 is The differentiated application of technical tools in teaching.
A
Table 5. PT for Teacher Amy.IC PT Points
IC1 1. Core problem
IC2 2. Attribution
IC3 PT1
IC4
IC5 Basis
IC6 1. Teaching reality
PT2 2. Teaching competition
IC7 Basis
1. Teaching reality
IC8 PT3 2. Teaching competition
Basis
Accoridng to above table for Teacher Amy, the basis for PT1 was teacher Amy clearly describe the students’ performance and clearly distinguish the responsibility attribution. The basis for PT2 was teacher Amy compared the difference between two scenarios and provided examples to illustrate. The basis for PT3 was teacher Amy mentioned the application of technology is directly related to the goals of the teaching scenarios.
Text Fragment | Initial Coding (IC) |
|---|---|
In the CWT teaching... at that point | 1. Problem1: Students’ abilities are polarized |
To promote...continuations" tasks | 2. Countermeasure: Stratified teaching strategy |
This requires...assignment distribution | 3. Consequence:Teacher’s workload |
The class time ... needs to be laid | 4. Problem2:Class hour squeeze |
However, CWT as...cancel the writing class time. | 5. Conflict: Curriculum standard requirement vs Actual Implementation |
Some parents ..."depends on talent". | 6. Problem3: Parental Cognitive Bias |
When ...reduce the assignment?" | 7. Phenomenon: Students’ sense of fear and reluctance |
many students ...writing tasks | 8. Consequence: Limited teaching effectiveness |
After organize the initial coding, three potential themes (PT) were generated for teacher Bin. The table below shows the how PT were generated and the points of each PT. PT1 is Teaching challenges arising from ability segmentation. PT2 is Marginalization of writing in the curriculum system. PT3 is Lack of support due to misalignment of home and school perspectives.
A
Table 7. PT for Teacher Bin.IC PT Points
IC1 1. Performance
IC2 PT1 2. Implement
IC3 3. Cost
Basis
IC4 1. Performance
PT2 2. Root cause
IC5 Basis
IC6 1. Performance
IC7 PT3 2. Consequence
IC8 Basis
Accoridng to above table for Teacher Bin, the basis for PT1 was the complete logical chain that runs through Problem1. The basis for PT2 was the contrast between “plan” and “reality” as mentioned in Problem2. The basis for PT3 was the correlation between parents’ statements in Problem3 and students’ performance.
Text Fragment | Initial Coding (IC) |
|---|---|
Every time I ... plot by myself. | 1. Core of lesson preparation: plot conception |
So when you ... article yourself. | 2. Teacher practice: writing personally |
when I come up with the plot... questions to design for the students | 3. The design of teaching relies on the writing experience of teacher |
If you haven't written... won't be coherent | 4. Consequence: lack of practice leads to a disconnect between questions and content |
spend more time... comprehension exercise | 5. Time investment: prioritize ideation |
After organize the initial coding, one potential themes (PT) were generated for teacher Bin. The table below shows the how PT were generated and the points of each PT. PT1 is Teacher’s personal writing as a foundation for teaching design.
A
Table 9. PT for Teacher May.IC PT Points
IC1 1. Necessity
IC2 2. Process-oriented
IC3 PT1 3. Time cost
IC4 Basis
IC5
Accoridng to above table for Teacher May, the basis for PT1 was The entire paragraph focuses on the causal relationship between “teacher writing” and “teaching design”.
By cross-analyzing the nine PTs from the four teachers (Sam, Amy, Bin, and May), three FPs were extracted, forming a hierarchical theme framework showed below which contained FP1 Teacher Role Expansion. FP2 Insufficient System Support. FPT3 Complexity of students’ ability predicament in CWT.
A
Fig. 1
Hierarchical theme framework for FPs
(a)
Teacher Role Expansion
Accoring to the four teachers’ interview, different teacher roles were mentiond. Teacher Sam worked as a reflector and leader. He not only need to reflect teaching CWT himself but need to guide the teachers to solve the problem. Teacher Amy worked as a efficiency pursuer and innovative performer. Teacher May worked as a practitioner and designer.
“When I was a teacher, I admitted that I also needed to reflect. And now, as a school-level teaching researcher, I also need to think about it. I said that in addition to solving this problem, I also need to guide the teachers to figure out how to solve their own problems.” (Teacher Sam)
“Maybe in actual teaching, it might be faster to achieve certain things. But if you are in a competition or a demonstration class, you might want to show that this class is more eye-catching and attractive.” (Teacher Amy)
“Every time I prepare lessons, I have to think about how to structure the plot by myself. So when you are planning the plot, you should first write the article yourself. That way, when I come up with the plot, I will know which questions to design for the students.” (Teacher May)
(b)
Insufficient System Support
1.
Contradiction in CWT class hour allocation
Teacher Bin mentioned that CWT training was largely squeezed and replaced by other tasks. He also pointed out that CWT need more time, two class periods.
“The class time is tight, and CWT writing training is often squeezed by other tasks. In the actual teaching progress of the first year of high school, a realistic problem we face is "heavy teaching tasks and compressed writing time". According to the curriculum standards and teaching plans, the four major modules of listening, speaking, reading, and writing need to be balancedly advanced, and a foundation for the college entrance examination needs to be laid. However, CWT as a comprehensive task that integrates reading and writing usually requires two class periods. But in reality, the writing class is often replaced by exam reviews, oral tests, unit grammar reviews, etc., and teachers have to compress or even cancel the writing class time.”
2.
Insufficient family support in CWT
Teacher Bin mentioned that due to misunderstanding to the CWT, parents made light of the the importance of CWT and this lead the students were influenced by parents’ wrong concepts.
“Parents do not understand the importance of writing teaching and lack extracurricular support. Another problem in CWT teaching lies in the absence of family support. Some parents habitually believe that "writing is less important than grammar and reading", and think that the improvement of writing skills "depends on talent". They do not attach importance to their children's writing practice and even some parents have complained to me: "Teacher, writing is too difficult. When children are writing, they just cry. Can you reduce the assignment?" Due to parents' failure to understand the driving force of writing on comprehensive language proficiency, many students lack necessary reading accumulation and expression training outside of class, resulting in "no feeling of input and no ability to output" in class when facing continuation writing tasks. They can only mechanically apply template sentences and phrases.” (Teacher Bin)
3.
Alienation of teachnological application
Teacher Sam mentioned that a CWT teacher needed to use different technology application in CWT teaching.
“The key is that you should gradually form your own understanding of teaching through observing lesson examples, sharing, and including some experience exchange.” (Teacher Sam)
Teacher Amy also mentioned she used AI to assist but only use AI in a demonstration class. She did not notice whether AI could assist in her CWT daily teaching and reflecting.
“For example, in class. In a demonstration class, I might use some methods, for instance, now many people even use some generative AI ways to design classes like this.” (Teacher Amy)
(c)
Complexity of students’ ability predicament
1.
Weak language foundation
Teacher Bin mentioned that due to students’ language foundation and ability, CWT teaching was not smoothly. Teacher Amy pointed out students’ language foundation was worrisome.
“many students are not proficient in basic sentence structures and often get stuck in a situation where they can only write one sentence but get stuck at that point. This ability gap directly affects the teaching progress and classroom efficiency.” (Teacher Bin)
“students have a very poor foundation and they can't understand the original text.” (Teacher Amy)
2.
Lack of creativity and logic
Teacher May and teacher Amy both pointed out that for CWT teaching, logic and creativity was essential. Students still needed more focus on logic and creativity training and teaching.
“the content you write won't be coherent.” (Teacher May)
“students don't have enough creativity and they don't know how to write the story logically.” (Teacher Amy)
3.
Individual differences
Teacher Bin mentioned that due to students’ individual differences, the requirement conlict was conducted and this led the teacher need to make stratified teaching.
“To promote the teaching uniformly, I often need to design supplementary vocabulary lists, transitional sentence templates, and concept charts for students with weak foundations. For students with stronger abilities, I provide "challenging rewrites" or "multi-angle continuations" tasks. This requires a lot of effort in lesson preparation and differentiated assignment distribution.” (Teacher Bin)
Discussion
The study identifies three major challenges in teaching Continuation Writing Tasks (CWT): teacher role expansion, insufficient system support, and students’ ability predicaments. These issues are deeply interconnected, complicating effective CWT instruction.
Students’ Ability Predicaments:
Weak language foundation: Gaps between Gaokao demands and curriculum standards hinder students’ ability to apply knowledge. CWT, designed to enhance language learning, often fails to bridge this gap, functioning more as a selection tool than a learning aid (Wang, 2012).
Lack of creativity/logic: Students avoid original ideas due to fear of deviating from model essays (Gu et al., 2022). Additionally, L2 learners struggle with logical organization, influenced by differing Chinese-Western narrative structures (Liu, 2017). Individual differences further necessitate tailored CWT activities (Hoang, 2021).
Teacher Role Expansion:
Teachers face expanded roles—from knowledge transmitters to task designers, coaches, and evaluators (Xia, 2022). Addressing diverse student needs increases time pressure and workload, yet systemic constraints limit effectiveness.
Insufficient System Support:
Class-hour allocation: CWT time is often diverted to grammar or reading, reflecting Gaokao’ s dominance.
Low awareness: Teachers and parents undervalue CWT’ s benefits, prioritizing exam scores.
Underutilized technology: While AI tools (e.g., writing assistants) show potential (Zulfa et al., 2023), they are often used superficially rather than integrated sustainably.
Interlocking Mechanism:
These challenges form a vicious cycle: student difficulties push teachers to assume broader roles, but inadequate support forces compromises (e.g., reducing CWT time), worsening student outcomes. Breaking this cycle requires systemic reforms, including curriculum alignment, teacher training, and technology integration.
A
Fig. 2
Interlocking mechanism model for FPs.
Conclusion
Challenges faced in the applying CWT in English Teaching. Relationship model reveals the affilation between each themes. L2 learners, teachers and the system support are deeply influenced each other in CWT taching and learning. As an effective way to promote English learning, CWT teachers need to notice the complexity of students’ ability predicament in CWT and find ways to improve students’ language application ability development. Teachers also need sufficient system support, not only the technology support but the correct understanding and aweareness of language teaching. For teachers themselves, how to adjust various roles without overloaded is an important part of one’s personal career development experience. This study reveals the challenges from the front line teaching and sort out the challenges with their relationships systematically. This interlocking mechanism not only shows the urgent problems in the current CWT teaching and learning, but also points out the research direction for CWT better development in teaching and learning.
Declarations
A
Data Availability
The original contributions presented in the study are included in the article, further inquiries can be directed to the corresponding author.
The original contributions presented in the study are included in the article, further inquiries can be directed to the corresponding author.
Ethics approval
A
This study was approved by the Research Ethics Committee of School of Foreign Languages, Hainan Normal University in China. (approval number: WGY202508). A
A
All methods were carried out in accordance with the relevant guidelines and regulations stipulated by this committee..
Consent to participate
A
Informed consent was obtained from all participants prior to data collection.Consent for publication
A
Written informed consent for publication was obtained from all participants.A
Clinical trial numbernot applicable
Competing interests
The authors declare no competing interests.
A
Funding
No external funding was received for this study.
Acknowledgements
The authors thank participants for their assistance with the interview.
A
A
Author Contribution
Xu Dong : Conceptualization, Methodology, Writing.Xu Dong: Data curation, Formal analysis.Nur Ainil Sulaiman, Wahiza Wahi, Siti Shuhaida Shukor: Supervision, Review & Editing.
Reference
Antovska A, Kostov B. The teacher as a students’ overload factor. Int J Eng Res Technol. 2017;3(1):8–14.
Bailey LF. The origin and success of qualitative research. Int J Mark Res. 2014;56:167–84. 10.2501/IJMR-2014-013.
Başar S, Çomoğlu I, Dikilitaş K. (2023). Teacher study groups as a collaborative platform for action research: An ecological perspective. Prof Dev Educ, 1–14.
https://10.1080/19415257.2023.2283429
Büşra Müge Özdil & Emre Debreli. (2025). Exploring language teacher roles at a higher education context through the lens of critical pedagogy: Transmission or transformation? System,130,103613. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.system.2025.103613
Corbin J, Strauss A. Basics of qualitative research: Techniques and procedures for developing grounded theory. Sage; 2014.
Creswell JW, Poth CN. Qualitative inquiry and research design: Choosing among five approaches, 73. Sage; 2007.
Creswell JW. (2014). Research Design: Qualitative, Quantitative, and Mixed Methods Approaches, 4th Edn. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, Incorporated.
Creswell JW, Poth CN. Qualitative Inquiry and Research design: Choosing Among Five Approaches. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage; 2017.
Farrell TS. Reflective practice in ELT. London, UK: Equinox; 2019. pp. 1–186.
Farooqui A. (2023). Writing assignments difficulties, factors, and solutions: ESL teachers’ perspectives. Arab World English Journal (AWEJ) Volume, 14. https://doi.org/10.24093/awej/vol14no4.22
A
Grainger T, Goouch K, Lambirth A. Creativity and writing: Developing voice and verve in the classroom. Routledge; 2005.Gu QY, Zhao CC, Jin XF. Effects of Topic Familiarity on Continuation Task among Chinese EFL Learners. J PLA Univ Foreign Lang. 2022;45(2):43–51.
Gui SC. (1986). My view on English teaching reform. Curriculum Teach Mater Method (9): 5–8.
Hoang VQ. The differences of individual learners in second language acquisition. Int J TESOL Educ. 2021;1(1):38–46.
Huang S. Analysis of the Influence of College Entrance Examination System Reform on Educational Equity. J Social Sci Humanit Literature. 2025;8(1):1–7. https://doi.org/10.53469/jsshl.2025.08(01).01.
Johnson RB, Christensen LB. Educational research: Quantitative, qualitative, and mixed approaches. Sage; 2024. pp. 104–5.
Kumaravadivelu B. Beyond methods: Macrostrategies for language teaching. Yale University Press; 2003.
Kyriacou C. Teacher stress: Directions for future research. Educational Rev. 2001;53(1):27–35. https://doi.org/10.1080/00131910120033628.
Li LJ. A review and evaluation of continuation writing research. Sci Garden. 2019;2019(2):14–8.
Liu Y. Similarities and Differences of the Narrative Structure of Western and Chinese Short Narratives. J Arts Humanit. 2017;6(4):27–41.
Liu ZX. (2008). An analysis of the application of SPSS software in test paper analysis. J Hetian Teachers Coll, (4), 150–3.
https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.18533/journal.v6i4.1141
Liu F, Lu X, Jin T. Using ChatGPT to facilitate vocabulary learning in continuation writing assessment tasks. Assess Writ. 2025;65:100952.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.asw.2025.100952
Liu Z, Zhu J, Yuan D. Mitigating boredom in L2 Spanish reading class with the reading-writing continuation task. Learn Motiv. 2025;90:102124.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lmot.2025.102124
Marshall C, Rossman GB. Designing Qualitative Research. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE, Incorporated; 2014.
Miller T, Birch M, Mauthner M, Jessop J. Ethics in Qualitative Research. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE; 2012. 10.4135/9781473913912.
Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China. (2018). English curriculum standards for senior high schools (2017 edition). People's Education Press.
National Education Examinations Authority. English subject examination specifications for the National College Entrance Examination (Trial version for comprehensive reform pilot provinces). Higher Education Press; 2015.
Stake RE. The art of case study research. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage; 1995.
Tezgiden Cakcak SY. (2015). Preparing teacher candidates as passive technicians, reflective practitioners or transformative intellectuals?.
Wang C. Continuation task: An effective way to improve the efficiency of foreign language learning. Foreign Lang World. 2012;5:2–7.
Wang C. Learning by extension. Mod Foreign Lang. 2016;39(6):784–93.
Wang C. From write-to-learn to learn-by-CEC. Foreign Lang Teach Res. 2017;49(4):547–56.
Wang C. The Xu-Based Approach to Second Language Learning. Chin J Appl Linguistics. 2021;44(3):267–72. https://doi-org.1189.top/10.1515/CJAL-2021-0017.
Wang C. (2022). Separate teaching from testing, focus on fostering learning. Foreign Language Teaching and Research, 54(3), 425–432. https://doi-org.10.19923/j.cnki.fltr.2022.03.002.
Wang C. (2023). Xu as a Natural Linkage for Language Interfaces. Modern Foreign Languages,46(2), 237–244. https://doi-org.10.20071/j.cnki.xdwy.20230104.002.
A
Xia F. The Role of Teacher Feedback and Peer Feedback on the Promotion of High School Continuous Writing.Journal of Education. Humanit Social Sci,4,64–9.Yin RK. Case study research: Design and methods. Thousand Oaks,CA: Sage; 1994.
Zulfa S, Dewi RS, Hidayat DN, Hamid F, Defianty M. (2023). The use of AI and technology tools in developing students’ English academic writing skills. In Proceeding International Conference on Education (pp. 47–63).