Exploring Challenges Encountered by EFL Libyan Learners in Research Teaching and Writing

Abstract

Research is conducted all over the world to solve problems or to answer questions of significance to humanity. Academic writing or writing to report research is not easy because it requires adequate background knowledge, interest, motivation and hard work. This study investigates the major challenges in research writing faced by Libyan EFL learners at Sebha University and also explores Libyan teachers' attitudes towards their students' work. A total of 42 students and 4 teachers formed the sample of this study. The present study used a mixed method approach. The findings of the study revealed that Libyan EFL learners have difficulty developing a research project and reporting the findings. The former requires them to identify the area of interest, choose a topic and formulate a researchable problem while the latter typically involves writing a literature review, the methodology, results and discussion sections. Between the two tasks, the students found academic writing the most challenging. It was also found that Libyan teachers had negative attitudes towards their students' research due to the following reasons: lack of motivation, insufficient background knowledge about research, lack of library resources, inadequate number of courses related to research, and the unavailability of Internet in the college.

Correlation Between Demographic Perspective of PG Trainees and Research: A Cross-Sectional Multidisciplinary Study

“…Same results were identified worldwide as other researcher also declare medical students interest in scientific activities. 8,[19][20][21] Amin TT, Khan H & Aslam A identified significant improvement in the attitudes of medical students with increasing years of study in medical college. 8,14,19 Whereas in Morae's study, participants presented highest interest (81.7%) in research activities.…”

Returning to Graduation Project: Attitudes and Perceived Challenges of Students and Staff at a Libyan EFL Department

“…Although RW is primarily associated with AW, particular problems usually occur in the writing process. One of the main issues encountered by Libyan students is the inability to paraphrase correctly and tend to plagiarize, often without proper citation (Alsied & Ibrahim, 2017). Taskeen, Shehzadi, Khan, and Saleem (2014) understandably attribute students' plagiarisation to supervisor inexperience to detecting plagiarised work and, as a result, students get away with it.…”

“…One of the main issues in GP is the quality of supervision. According to Alsied and Ibrahim (2017), supervisors can be one of the biggest problems Libyan students encounter during RW. When students start GP, they usually hesitate in choosing a supervisor; during the project, they may decide to change supervisors for different reasons.…”

“…The lack of regular contact with supervisors is another hindrance; some supervisors are said to behave irresponsibly by not following students step by step because of other responsibilities (Alsied & Ibrahim), 2017; (Chabaya, Chiome & Chabaya), 2009. Consequently, students end up doing most of the work unaided, which will, more often than not, result in inferior research projects (Alsied & Ibrahim, 2017).…”

“…Only three relevant studies were found in the literature regarding problems or obstacles in conducting GP/ RW with reference to the narrow Libyan context: Alsied and Ibrahim (2017), Elmabruk (2019) and Elmojahed (2010). Four other studies in the broader context are reported.…”