Incorporating Writing Skills in ESP Classes. Challenges Albanian ESP Students Encounter and Writing Skills Solutions: A Study Case of Polytechnic University of Tirana

In this paper, we want to highlight the importance of writing skills in English classes to a student learning English for specific purposes, who can easily develop writing skills by taking advantage of the professional vocabulary acquired in ESP classes. The study concerns students from the Polytechnic University of Tirana, who are taught Engineering English. Writing perception and current situation are observed from two different perspectives, the viewpoint of lecturers and that of the students themselves. Two questionnaires are conducted for both categories to help us reach the results and discussions for this paper. Students and textbooks are mainly driven towards speaking and listening skills. Contrary to their required routine activities with writing being one of the main and demanding four skills they are assessed in when undertaking international language exams or when asked to write a thesis, research papers or reports. In the age of the Internet and AI, it has become way easier for students to have access to ready-made examples or Internet-assisted writing tasks. However, it is crucial to teach them autonomous writing, select the right models and not depend on technology. It is our responsibility to equip learners with skills that serve them well in their upcoming careers and one such skill is writing. Writing in English might be one of the responsibilities they could have in their daily routine, thus fostering such skills before graduation, is a distinguishing feature and a huge advantage for them. Received: 29 January 2025 / Accepted: 19 April 2025 / Published: 08 May 2025