Problematizing Argumentative Writing in an Iranian EFL Undergraduate Context

Abstract

Argumentative writing is the most important genre that undergraduate students need to learn to meet their academic requirements. Hence, many studies in different ESL/EFL academic contexts have explored different aspects of argumentative essay at micro text level and also wider educational, contextual and cultural levels. However, majority of these studies have focused on separate aspects of argumentative writing. Therefore, in the absence of studies which examine different variables involved in undergraduate EFL students’ argumentative writing, the present study was conducted by drawing on multiple data sources: students’ perceptions of the argumentative texts, writing teachers’ views on argumentative writing of the students and finally analysis of the structure of the argumentative texts written by the students. For this aim, a total of 66 argumentative essays written by the undergraduate students was analyzed. In addition, a group of 66 undergraduate students majoring in English literature and 20 university writing instructors were interviewed. The findings revealed that the concept of argumentation was poorly conceived and tackled with by the learners. Teachers also counted various grounds that students faced difficulties. Moreover, the structural analysis of the students’ texts showed that they had problems with developing secondary elements of argumentation. In sum, the study discusses that the failure to develop an argumentative essay by the Iranian undergraduate English majors entails several academic, contextual and pedagogical grounds. Implications for improving argumentative writing in the EAP context would be provided.

Non-English Major Undergraduate Students’ Difficulties in Argumentative Writing at Mae Fah Luang University Thailand

“…In Europe, position-taking was difficult for the majority of linguistics students at a UK university (Wingate, 2012), and using sources, organization, language formality, academic tone, and writing thorough argumentation were difficult for Norwegian students (Horverak, 2018). Similar challenges were experienced by many university students in Iran and Saudi Arabia, as reported respectively by Ghanbari and Salari (2022) and Ozfidan and Mitchell (2020).…”

“…Writing is the process of using letters, punctuation, spaces, words, and sentences to express our thoughts and ideas in a readable and acceptable form. There are some writing genres; one of the most common for university students is argumentative writing, which is the most essential writing genre at the university level (Dang, Chau, & Tra, 2020;Ghanbari & Salari, 2022). It is a writing genre that demands the writers express their positions on a topic and support their stance by providing sets of reliable evidence and reasoning (Ozfidan & Mitchell, 2020).…”

Myanmar EFL Learners’ Perspectives, Structure, Reasoning and Literacy Practices of Argumentative Writing: A Needs Analysis Study

“…EFL learners' difficulties with argumentative writing have largely been approached from the textual perspective (mainly from the written products). Few studies have examined the challenges from the (learners' perspective) by eliciting input from EFL writers (e.g., Ghanbari & Salari, 2022;Peloghitis, 2017). However, understanding the hurdles and needs from the writers' points of view is essential to provide relevant information for the writing teachers to offer intensive additional instruction (Torgesen, 2007).…”

“…Writing an argumentative essay is a double burden for EFL students whose first language is not English (Hyland, 2013). Many students in different EFL contexts experience difficulties in constructing argumentative essays, for instance, in China (Liu & Stapleton, 2014;Bychkovska & Lee, 2017), in Indonesia (Saputra et al, 2021;Tasya, 2022), in Iran (Ghanbari & Salari, 2022), in Japan (Peloghitis, 2017), in Myanmar (MayOo & Eto, 2023) and in Thailand (Ka-kan-dee & Kaur, 2015). EFL learners are frequently described as having limited capacity to write well-organized arguments with clear and relevant evidence and demonstrate their opinions about a given topic or issue along with the opposing views.…”

Effectiveness of Hybrid-Flipped Classroom in Improving Efl Learners’ Argumentative Writing Skill

“…An argumentative essay is a genre used to convince readers and drive them to perform an action as framed by writers (Reznitskaya et al, 2012). Mastering the argumentative essay is a key skill for writing success (Ghanbari & Salari, 2022). Unfortunately, many L2 learners in foreign language contexts often encounter obstacles in the use of complex syntactic structures and argumentation in composing argumentative essays (Xu & Ding, 2014).…”