Background: Writing is among the most important skills, and globally it has received more emphasis in literature on language teaching than reading, speaking and listening. However, a paucity of studies is observed in sub-Saharan Africa, particularly in contexts where English is being taught as an additional or foreign language, as is the case in Rwanda. Research shows that learners who can write well in different genres and for different purposes tend to do well in all curriculum subjects and subsequently beyond school education. The key challenges are the inadequacy of materials and teachers’ inability to teach writing well, especially through distance education programmes. Objectives: This study investigates the effectiveness of materials used at the University of Rwanda-College of Education’s Distance Education programme to train high school teachers on writing pedagogy for English teaching. Method: The study adopted a qualitative approach to report on the findings from textual, document analysis of distance education materials, argumentative essays and focus group discussions with 80 of 599 in-service teachers, who responded to designed and redesigned sections on writing pedagogy. Results: The findings indicate that teachers’ knowledge and skills in both writing and writing pedagogy are not addressed effectively by the materials designed. This negatively affected the quality of their own writing abilities and those of their students. Conclusion: The article recommends reconceptualisation of distance education materials to equip in-service teachers with propositional knowledge and procedural knowledge on writing pedagogy.

中文翻译：

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通过远程教育计划学习写作教学：卢旺达中学英语老师的经验

背景：写作是最重要的技能之一，在全球范围内，与阅读，口语和听力相比，文学对语言教学的重视程度更高。但是，在撒哈拉以南非洲，研究很少，特别是在以英语为辅助语言或外语进行教学的情况下，如卢旺达的情况。研究表明，能够以不同体裁和不同目的写作的学习者往往在所有课程科目以及随后的学校教育中都表现出色。关键的挑战是教材不足和教师不能很好地教授写作，特别是通过远程教育课程。目标：这项研究调查了在卢旺达大学教育学院的远程教育计划中用来培训高中教师英语写作教学法的教材的有效性。方法：本研究采用定性方法，对599名在职教师中的80名进行了远程教学材料的文本，文档分析，论证性论文和焦点小组讨论的结果进行报告，他们对设计和重新设计的写作教学法部分做出了回应。结果：研究结果表明，所设计的材料未能有效地解决教师在写作和写作教学法方面的知识和技能。这对他们自己和学生的写作能力产生了负面影响。结论：