Pakistan is among the countries where number of English language users is on rapid growth. Despite English has been an influential language in Pakistan since its independence, learners face difficulties in almost every area of English language learning: Listening, reading, writing and speaking referring to just basic skills of English language. This study focuses on one of the four basic skills: Writing. It measures levels of writing anxiety of Pakistani undergraduate students while writing essays on various topics in English. In this study, 418 students participated which represents both public and private sector universities. Cheng (2004) SLWAI’s instrument was adopted to answer the research questions. Data analysis revealed that majority of the total participants, 61.48 percent has average level of English language writing anxiety. On the other hand, 19.38 percent of the total participants at undergraduate level face high level of English language writing anxiety. Minimum 19.14 percent of the total participants belong to low level of English language writing anxiety. It is interesting to note that both participants from the private and public sector universities experienced average level of writing anxiety. Consequently, English Language Teachers have to adopt/adapt those writing approaches and modify their methods of writing instruction which could help learners decrease their writing anxiety.

It is hard to ignore the importance of reading skills for desired proficiency in foreign languages. Reading can be beneficial for learners to immerse themselves in the target language and learn it efficiently. In EFL contexts like Saudi Arabia, learners face many challenges in reading skills. The main purpose of this research was to explore reading problems of elementary level students and causes of the readings skills inabilities. Following random and convenience sampling techniques; this mixed-method research obtained quantitative data from 290 elementary level students and qualitative data from nine teachers and supervisors. The analysis of quantitative data from the reading test and checklist and qualitative data retrieved from interviews suggests that students considerably perform relatively low in reading skills, and the main reasons are poor vocabulary, incorrect pronunciation, wrong spellings, slow reading pace, and flawed grammar. These five areas account for more than 90% of the challenges faced by learners in reading skills. Based on evidence from this research, we suggest that policymakers, teachers, and students should focus on these five areas for solving the issues related to reading skills. Although other avenues are essential, these items demand special attention to develop the reading skills of EFL learners in Saudi Arabia and elsewhere in the world.Keywords: Reading skill, Elementary level, Reading Pace, EFL

<p><strong> </strong></p><p><strong>T</strong>he existing technological expansion has transformed pervasive revolutions in modern civilization, with continuing innovation of services and products. Nowadays people are having different channels of communication.  Currently, mobile learning (M-learning) is being used extensively in teaching and learning foreign languages which further widens the mobility of learners. The usage of mobile instruction can lead learners towards a real interruption to learn effectively when used inappositely. The current study is an attempt to explore the potential usage of M-Learning in English for specific purpose (ESP) classes. For this intention smartphone were used in the ESP context for teaching Business English at the College of Business Administration at a public sector university in Saudi Arabia. A questionnaire was distributed to 21 participants of the present study after a 5-week exposure to M-learning activities in the formal classroom. The findings revealed that ESP learners acknowledge M-learning as a prompt source of feedback in ESP. The results of this study also indicate that incorporation of M-learning in ESP learning with conventional classroom can support learners to develop their learning proficiency. Moreover, learners showed significantly positive attitude in mobile instruction in a formal classroom.</p>

English language writing skills play a significant role in academic and professional lives in the ESL context. Anxiety can have debilitating effects on learning English language listening, reading, speaking and writing skills. The objective of the current study was to explore the causes of writing anxiety in Pakistani undergraduate ESL students. The data for this study were collected from Pakistani ESL students and English language teachers in Karachi with asample that had both public and private-sector representation. Group interviews were held to collect the data. Interview protocols were designed for the interviews of the students and the teachers and checked for self-validity and expert validity. Three group interviews were carried out with the undergraduate ESL students and two with the ESL English language teachers. All of the interviews were audio recorded and transcribed. Respondent validation technique was used for the transcription and similarly, inter-coder reliability was carried out for respondents’ Urdu translation into English. The findings revealed multiple causes of Pakistani ESL students’ English language writing anxiety.

No abstract