ABSTRACT
This qualitative study investigated a phenomenon of the English creative writing and L2 writing instruction in Thai higher education based on perceptions of both teachers and undergraduate students at public universities from the four main regions of Thailand. The participants were recruited by a snowball sampling method and invited to participate in semi-structured interviews. Both the student and teacher participants conceptualized L2 creative writing in Thai higher education in a similar way as reflected through four major themes emerged out of the interviews: L2 writing under standard ideology and exam-based education system; limited L2 creative writing spaces in a mainstream English curriculum; L2 writing pedagogy without emotional engagement and creativity dimensions; and L2 creative writing with low linguistic entrepreneurship currency. Conclusively, practices of L2 writing instruction in Thailand have geared to writing norms rather than creative dimensions of writing even though the current trend of ELT is increasingly moving toward the World Englishes paradigm, which promotes learners' identity expression through varieties of Englishes and regards English use as a sense of inclusion and an expressive tool. This research contended that L2 writing instruction in Thailand should be shifted beyond error corrections to provide more space for L2 creative writing.
