Academic Writing Difficulties (original) (raw)
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Academic Writing Problems Faced by ESL Learners in Higher Education Institutions
Academic Writing Problems Faced by ESL Learners in Higher Education Institutions, 2023
English is used as a medium of instruction for educational purposes all over the world. All the subjects such as Mathematics, Social Sciences, and Technology are taught in English. However, students face difficulties to communicate effectively in that present study was conducted to find out the writing difficulties and the reasons for those difficulties. The sample consisted of the postgraduate students of University of Education Faisalabad campus. This study used quantitative method. The data were collected via questionnaire and were analysed by calculating frequency, mean, and standard deviation. The data analysis depicted grammar, preposition, vocabulary and sentence structures as main problems. Students felt that insufficient teaching methods are the cause of these problems. The students needed that teachers may deliver lectures in English language to improve their writing skills.
Identifying Gaps in Academic Writing of ESL Students
2011
There is growing evidence that the lack of competence of university ESL (English as a second language) students in academic writing affects their overall academic performance. Olivas and Li (2006) connected low second-language proficiency levels in English to poor academic performance of international students studying at both university and college levels in the United States. Although, many ESL students at university have a general understanding of grammar rules, not many are able to write academically at levels expected of them. This is further exacerbated by a lack of awareness of students’ own ability in academic writing. The paper reports on a case study conducted to identify critical gaps in academic writing standards among ESL students in a foundation studies programme. The study employed a pragmatic case study approach, drawing on qualitative methods as deemed appropriate. In this project, four essential criteria for developing good academic writing skills were investigate...
A Systematic Review of the Challenges and Solutions of ESL Students‟ Academic Writing
International Journal of Engineering and Advanced Technology
Research studies on ESL writing are more interested in providing operational writing strategies for academic writing. However, there are not many studies on challenges faced by students and their solutions. The main aim of this paper is to provide a systematic literature review of academic writing studies which focused on investigating students’ academic writing challenges and their solutions. The papers used in this study were published from 2010 until 2019. A systematic search of literature proposed in this paper employs the exploratory approach for identifying and evaluating twenty-seven articles published in the authentic Journals. The themes of the review are divided into two categories, one which is related to ESL Malaysian students and another category is regarding non-Malaysians, this is due to the context of the study which will be conducted in Malaysia and therefore a review of studies done on Malaysian student academic writing is justified. The review shows there is a bro...
According to Green (2013), successful writing is a result of careful planning. Successful writers are capable of using effective writing strategies and transferring these strategies to write academic texts in their content areas. Skills in academic writing is used way beyond the ESL writing classrooms. Students from institutions of higher learning use academic writing to submit assignments. The knowledge (or lack of) academic writing strategies will facilitate (or hinder) their assignment writing. This study looks into the writing process of Diploma Engineering students. Using the Flower and Hayes writing process model (1981) as the basis of study, this quantitative study. describes the strategies ESL writers use when they write their written assignments. Results of this study will have useful implications towards the teaching of academic writing in the future.
Exploring ESL Students’ Current Competency and Needs in Academic Writing Skills at University
Sains Insani, 2021
Mastering academic writing is one of the skills to be acquired by all university students. Ability to master academic writing skills enables university students to be more competent in presenting ideas and information related to their field. Inability to master required skills in academic writing will consequently impact the students’ performance in fulfilling the graduation requirement. Generally, students in higher learning institutions (HLIs) are constantly struggling with unfamiliar styles and mechanisms in academic writing. The current situation subsequently resulted students’ incompetency in presenting their ideas and discussion. In this study, the researchers aim to discover the students’ expectation for an academic writing skills course and their current competency academic writing skills. An adapted questionnaire from Choo (1998) was used as the main instrument in this study to 65 undergraduate TESL students in public higher learning institution (HLI) in Malaysia. Analysis ...
A Comparison of ESL Writing Strategies of Undergraduates and Postgraduates
LSP International Journal, 2018
Writing is an essential skill that needs to be mastered by students. They need to adopt some strategies in order to be a good writer, especially in fulfilling their academic requirements. This study attempts to compare the writing strategies used by undergraduate and postgraduate students. A total of 44 students participated in this study. A survey questionnaire adapted from Flower and Hayes (1981) framework was administered to the respondents. Analysis of strategies based on three factors namely task environment, background knowledge and composing process was used. The t-test results showed that there was no significant difference between the mean response of undergraduate and postgraduate students. In task environments, the undergraduate students were found to choose topic that they know while the postgraduate students tend to choose a topic that they like. Both groups tend to use their schemata or background knowledge in order to write. Furthermore, findings from composing proces...
ESL Writing Strategies across Disciplines among Diploma Students
According to Green (2013), successful writing is a result of careful planning. Successful writers are capable of using effective writing strategies and transferring these strategies to write academic texts in their content areas. Skills in academic writing is used way beyond the ESL writing classrooms. Students from institutions of higher learning use academic writing to submit assignments. The knowledge (or lack of) academic writing strategies will facilitate (or hinder) their assignment writing. This study looks into the writing process of Diploma Engineering students. Using the Flower and Hayes writing process model (1981) as the basis of study, this quantitative study. describes the strategies ESL writers use when they write their written assignments. Results of this study will have useful implications towards the teaching of academic writing in the future.
ESL Writers' Performance in Exam and Non-Exam Academic Writing Settings
Alzahra University,, 2023
With the growing access to new types of reference tools, today’s L2 writers have a plethora of choices when completing an academic writing assignment. Such resources are absent in most high-stakes academic writing exams, making the two situations dissimilar. Aimed to compare the performances of ESL writers in Exam and Non-exam (real-life) academic writing situations, the present study recruited seven ESL university students who had previously taken an IELTS test. The students completed two analogous writing tasks: an exam-setting and a Non-exam writing test which aimed to simulate the real-life setting. Coh-Metrix analysis of the linguistic features of syntactic complexity, lexical sophistication, and text cohesion of the writings suggested that the students improved the textual quality of their writings in real-life academic writing situation. In addition, FACETS analysis of the quality of the writings, as assessed by the human raters, showed that the students did not benefit equally from the merits of the real-life settings compared to the Exam settings. The findings suggest that the students spent different amounts of time and used different types of queries to consult with external resources. Students’ background training and writing strategies can highly affect their performance in real-life academic writing compared to the writing exams, warning against the validity of such tests.
Revista Romaneasca pentru Educatie Multidimensionala, 2019
The painstaking effort to teach academic writing skills to EFL/L2 students is rewarding when learners are aware of the need to improve their English language skills and gain the mastery of key academic genres required both for their academic and professional life. The majority of Western communities/employers first evaluate novice specialists by their writing ability: CVs, statement of purpose, personal statement, cover letter, etc. This article draws a modest comparative analysis of approaches to teaching academic writing skills in European universities (Ukrainian and Slovak) based on personal experience; it makes an attempt to engrasp key principles of teaching some challenging aspects of academic writing skills in European university classroom, highlights most common students" mistakes, and ways of avoiding them. The purpose of this study has been to identify the most challenging writing aspects for L2 learners, mainly a range of Ukrainian and Slovak EFL students. To do so, the most frequent errors of the students" essays were collected and analysed based on language study discrepancies, which affect L2 learners" acquisition of literacy of the target language. The most palpable gaps appear in register and punctuation fields of the students" knowledge, which implies an application of powerful tools to deal with these errors.
Most Common Problems of ESL Learners in Writing: An Analysis
2021
Among the four basic communication skills of the English language, writing is looked like an incredibly challenging one to execute. Since writing is considered as a very formal mode of communication it demands perfection. A written composition should not only lucid in its message but also ideal in its construction. Any discrepancy in construction can lead to an ambiguity in the perception of the read message. Learners during their academic atmosphere look writing as a just tool through which they present their subjects in the exams. They do not consider writing a very important and inevitable weapon to lead the professional world. Learners often grumble on their own writing abilities, sometimes they complain against themselves and sometimes on their backgrounds, teachers, and academics. No matter what reason a person has for his bad writing ability but the problems in writing will undoubtedly cause a great damage to their success in production of ideas or information. This paper focuses on the most common problems in writing that the learners often show in their written composition and some effective strategies to be introduced to achieve perfection in writing of ESL learners.