Developing Learners' Academic Writing Skills in Higher Education: A Study for Educational Reform

Bacha, Nahla Nola

doi:10.1080/09500780208666826

Cited by 77 publications

(56 citation statements)

References 31 publications

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“…So, EFL students studying in Institutions that use English as medium of instruction, face severe problems in writing skills, and that factor hinders their academic progress. (Tahaineh, 2010;Rababah, 2003;Bacha, 2002;Kharma & Hijaj, 1997). In fact, Tahaineh (2010, p.79) re-confirmed and stressed that the writing skill " …… is needed for taking notes, describing objects or devices and writing essays, answering written questions, writing their compositions, writing experimental reports, etc ".…”

Section: Survey Of Current Literature: a Bird's Eye Viewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Problems of English Language Acquisition in Saudi Arabia: An Exploratory-cum-remedial Study

Al-Nasser¹

2015

TPLS

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Abstract-'An international language belongs to its users, not to the countries whose national languages have become internationalized' (Edge 1992). With an ever increasing number of L2 users it is time we rewrote the description of the place of English among world languages. All types of interactions, more particularly between nations, are through English, for a reason no other than the fact that it is the only language in which non native users can possibly communicate. It is the language of science, technology and business apart from being significant in political or diplomatic dialogues. English Language has come to be owned by all people in the world of work. Saudi Arabia is no exception. Almost a hundred years on Saudi schools, colleges and universities teach English with primary and genuine concern. Still, just like non-native learners in other nonEnglish speaking countries, Saudi learners also confront many problems in their English Language acquisition. This study is a humble effort to bring out the major barriers and problems that Saudi students face while learning English; it proposes remedial measures for the said barriers and problems. In this study, the researcher has tried to focus on the teaching methodologies and learning atmosphere prevalent in Saudi English classrooms.

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Section: Survey Of Current Literature: a Bird's Eye Viewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Problems of English Language Acquisition in Saudi Arabia: An Exploratory-cum-remedial Study

Al-Nasser¹

2015

TPLS

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“…All these definitions seem to suggest that writing is considered a secondary activity that involve complex mental processes that makes it a difficult skill to learn and teach. Much research conducted in the Arab world has reported that Arab students who are studying in institutions of higher education suffer from serious handicap in English language in general and writing in particular that make it very difficult for them to cope up with their higher studies effectively (Tahaineh, 2010;Rababah, 2003;Bacha, 2002;Khalil, 2000;Kharma and Hajjaj, 1997). Tahaineh (2010) states that writing is an important skill for university students because they have to use it for note taking, essay writing, answering written questions, composition writing etc.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Saudi English-Major Undergraduates' Academic Writing Problems: A Taif University Perspective

Al-Khairy¹

2013

ELT

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This study attempted to investigate Saudi English-major undergraduates studying at Taif University to identify a) the types of academic writing Saudi English-major undergraduates carry out at English departments, b) Saudi English-major undergraduates' writing problems, c) the reasons behind Saudi English-major undergraduates' writing problems and d) the solutions to overcome Saudi English-major undergraduates' writing problems. To collect data for this purpose, senior faculty members were interviewed and a 32-item structured Likert-scale questionnaire was developed that was administered to 75 English-major students (sophomores, juniors & seniors) studying at foreign languages department, Taif University. Data generated through the questionnaire were subjected to descriptive analyses and mean and standard deviation were recorded using SPSS. The findings of this study reveal that Saudi English-major undergraduates are very weak in writing skills and commit lots of errors in their academic writings and are usually engaged in sentence-level or at the maximum at paragraph-level academic writing and they do not consider it important at this level to write different kinds of essays. It has been strongly recommended that the language courses should be increased to strengthen all the language skills in general and writing in particular, motivate the students to use English with the teachers as well as with each, introduce modern and novel teaching techniques, equip the classrooms with necessary audio-visual aids, diagnose students' writing problems in the beginning of their studies at university, tailor the course contents according to their needs, introduce group/pair work, peer correction, use dictionaries frequently etc.

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“…This may be so because being able to write appropriately in English is deemed to be imperative for students' academic and professional future in present-day multicultural society (Tuan 2010). Likewise, improving students' writing skills fosters the development of certain cognitive abilities desirable for any language learner such as analysis, structuring, synthesis, and reasoning, among others (Bacha 2002).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The relationship between writing anxiety, writing selfefficacy, and Spanish EFL students’ use of metacognitive writing strategies: a case study

Blasco

2016

J. engl. stud. (Logroño, internet)

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Developing Learners' Academic Writing Skills in Higher Education: A Study for Educational Reform

Cited by 77 publications

References 31 publications

Problems of English Language Acquisition in Saudi Arabia: An Exploratory-cum-remedial Study

Problems of English Language Acquisition in Saudi Arabia: An Exploratory-cum-remedial Study

Saudi English-Major Undergraduates' Academic Writing Problems: A Taif University Perspective

The relationship between writing anxiety, writing selfefficacy, and Spanish EFL students’ use of metacognitive writing strategies: a case study

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