N°020_Vol.1_14

Introduction: The importance of learning English has raised the need to learn it. English teaching and learning as a foreign language have become a primary preoccupation for both the education and business sectors. Teachers employ instructional methods and strategies to help students develop fluency in English, both orally and in writing. Learning English involves mastering the four skills: listening, speaking, reading, and writing. In other words, students need to be fluent in both written and oral English to perform well in English Departments. Manuel (2022) states that fluency in writing is the ability to write easily by using meaningful as well as appropriate vocabulary and word forms. Writing fluency is crucial for any language learner, as it is needed both in and out of the classroom.

At the university level, writing in English for students of Anglophone studies is the most common form of assignment. Acquiring and mastering writing skills is salient for students from Anglophone studies. As writing helps students consolidate and practice what they have learnt, writing fluency is essential for these students to learn more effectively. Sax (2020) argues that writing fluency can assist learners organize their thoughts more coherently. However, EFL learners at university often struggle to write meaningful, well-structured sentences. El-Gawad and Abou Sree (2022) highlight that students have difficulty writing short, complex sentences and using punctuation. According to Torrance (2019), students who are not fluent in writing are less likely to express their ideas and receive useful feedback from their teacher. Hence, Abd Al Galil and Helmy (2024) argue that learners with low writing fluency receive fewer opportunities for language learning. Like EFL learners, First-year students in Anglophone studies at Université Joseph Ki-Zerbo struggle to write effective paragraphs.

This article aims to investigate the use of cross-age tutoring to enhance first-year students’ paragraph-writing skills in the Department of Anglophone Studies. Studies. Specific objectives include identifying the challenges first-year students face in paragraph writing and investigating the impact of cross-age tutoring on students’ paragraph-writing skills. This study addresses two research questions: what challenges do first-year students face in paragraph writing? what is the impact of cross-age tutoring on students’ paragraph writing skills? This article hypothesizes that first-year students in Anglophone studies at Université Joseph Ki-Zerbo have difficulties with content (weak task response) and linguistics or mechanics of writing. It also posits that cross-age tutoring effectively improves students’ paragraph skills.