This study examined the Problem-based Instructional Approach as a determinant of the English writing performance of pre-service technical teachers in South-western Nigeria. The objectives of this study were to: (i) examine the general level of English writing performance of the pre-service technical teachers (ii) assess the English writing performance of pre-service technical teachers exposed to PBIA. A quasi-experimental study with pre-test, post-test, non-randomised and nonequivalent control group design was adopted. The population consisted of 983 college of education students in South-Western Nigeria. A multi-stage sampling technique was employed to select the respondents for the study. The data were analysed using the percentage, mean, standard deviation, t-test and analysis of covariance at 0.05 level of significance. The findings of the study were that: the general level of English writing performance was relatively low before the treatments (control group, 32.59:30.61) but high after the treatments (48.26; 46.62); there was no significant difference in the English writing performance of pre-service technical teachers taught through PBIA and control (F 1.353= 439 P>0.05). The study concluded that the PBIA approach is highly needed in the teaching of writing. The study recommended that teachers should employ the use of PBIA for teaching writing to enhance students’ performance.

Keywords : English Writing Performance, Problem-Based Instructional Approach, Pre-Service, Technical Teacher, Cognitive Learning