Difficulties in Academic Writing in English as a Second/Foreign Language from the Perspective of Undergraduate Students in Higher Education Institutions in Oman

Abstract

The English language is the medium of instruction in Omani Higher Education Institutions (HEIs), and mastering writing in English has become a requirement for success. This study aims to investigate the challenges faced by the learners at the tertiary level when writing English from learners’ perspective and to determine what teaching approach students consider the most effective. A survey was conducted for the purpose of focusing on two main domains, the difficulties faced by them from their perspective, and the strategies they deem helpful. The results show that students’ main challenges are the limited vocabulary and range of grammatical structures, inability to comprehend reading texts, and difficulties in summarizing and paraphrasing. Findings also show that the most helpful strategies, from students’ point of view, are feedback from the teacher, both specific and general, extensive reading about the topic, using a dictionary, examining writing models, and writing multiple drafts.

An Analysis of Morphosyntactic Construction of English Writing Text Produced by the Postgraduate Students at Unismuh Makassar

“…But unfortunately, most of the students are more capable only to write simple phrases than rather or very complex phrases in their written English text. Harmawan et al (2023), Mustafa et al (2022), and Purinanda & Sutrisno (2022) showed that beside the grammatical sentences, limited vocabulary understanding became the main difficulties of the students in academic writing. Therefore, the researcher is interested to analyze deeply the English writing text of the University Students to find out the most frequent types of inflectional and derivational suffixes as well as the types of noun phrases and verb phrases used by the students in writing English text.…”

Advancing EFL Writing Proficiency in Jordan: Addressing Challenges and Embedding Progressive Strategies

“…Undoubtedly, without a solid foundation in grammatical knowledge, EFL students may find it difficult to distinguish between appropriate uses of verb tenses, prepositions, articles, and other grammatical structures. Since it is a common challenge among the students (Hawari, Al-Shboul and Huwari 2022; Mustafa et al 2022). Moreover, the English language encompasses ambiguous grammar rules and exceptions, challenging even native speakers to consistently apply them correctly (Al-widyan and Abu Darwish 2019).…”

Analyzing the Paraphrasing Techniques in Academic Writing Skills and the Paraphrasing Challenges Across Gender

“…As Sarwat et al, (2021), the problems that are often found in paraphrasing are using poor grammatical structures, such as the use of tenses, syntax, inappropriate vocabulary, lack of creative ideas, problems of anxiety in writing, and organizational structure of texts, and first language interference (L1). The main difficulties students often faced are limited vocabulary, lack of understanding of grammar, inability to read, and difficulties in summarizing and paraphrasing (Mustafa et al, 2022). However, They also conveyed strategies for dealing with the difficulties, namely having feedback from the teacher, using the English dictionary properly, reading a lot about the topic, studying lots of essay examples, writing outlines and written drafts, and the application of collaborative learning.…”