Macrolinguistic Errors in Arab EFL Learners’ Essays

Abstract

This study attempts to identify the errors that Arab EFL learners commit in writing English essays at the macrolinguistic level. It also tries to determine the causes of these problems and propose remedial strategies. More specifically stated the study seeks answers to the following questions: (1) What errors do Arab learners of English commit in writing English essays at the pragmatic and discoursal levels? (2) What are the possible causes of these errors? (3) How can such problems be minimized? and (4) To what extent do English language textbooks contribute to such problems? Five hundred essays and the contents of eight EFL textbooks were analysed for the purpose of this study. The findings revealed that Arab learners of English encounter major macrolinguistic problems in writing English essays, including coherence problems, cohesion problems, unawareness of logical relations between sentences, run-on sentences, poor paragraph development, and violation of the maxims of the cooperative principle. It was also found that teaching materials and the writing activities used in teaching English do not adequately develop students' pragmalinguistic competence. Finally, the study identified a few potential causes of these problems and proposed a number of strategies that may help learners and teachers overcome such difficulties.

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