An Investigation of Afghan Undergraduate English Major Students’ Academic Writing Difficulties
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.18196/ftl.5249Keywords:
Academic Writing, Difficulties, Undergraduate study, EFL, Afghan StudentsAbstract
Academic Writing is a core subject that undergraduate students take during their four years of study. However, many students find the subject challenging. Several studies have been conducted to explore the difficulties students face, yet in Afghanistan, little to no research is available. Hence, this project is a small attempt to address this gap. This research aims to look into the difficulties of undergraduate English major students face in Academic Writing. The writing difficulties were investigated in terms of content, structure, and language. A quantitative descriptive method was employed for this study, and a questionnaire was given to 121 undergraduate degree students from the English Department at Kabul University. The research data were analyzed using SPSS. The research findings revealed that the students faced several challenges in Academic Writing in terms of language, structure, and content. Finally, some recommendations to overcome the difficulties and suggestions for future research are provided.References
Abdulkareem, M. (2013). An investigation study of academic writing problems faced by Arab Postgraduate Students at Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM). Theory and Practice in Language Studies, 3(9), 1552-1557.
Afghanistan Ministry of Education. (2011). Afghanistan Education Curriculum. Kabul: Ministry of Education.
Ahmed, A. (2010). Students’ problems with cohesion and coherence in efl essay writing in egypt: Different perspectives. Literacy Information and Computer Education Journal (LICEJ), 1, 219-221.
Al Fadda, H. (2012). Difficulties in academic writing: From the perspective of king saud university postgraduate students. English Language Teaching, 5 (3). 123-130.
Albalawi, M. A. (2013). Exploring Academic and Cultural Challenges for Saudi Students in the United States. Gonzaga University.
Alfaki, I. (2015). University students’ English writing problems: diagnosis and remedy. International Journal of English Language Teaching, 3 (2), 40-52.
Al-Khasawneh, F., & Maher, S. (2010). Writing for academic purposes: Problems faced by Arab postgraduate students of the college of business, UUM. ESP World, 9(2), 1-23.
Ariyanti, A. (2016). The teaching of efl writing in indonesia. Dinamika Ilmu. 16(2), 2442–9651. http://doi.org/10.21093/di.v16i2.274
Barkaoui, K. (2007). Teaching writing to second language learners: insights from theory and research. TESL Reporter 40, (1), 35-48.
Casanave, C. P., & Hubbard, P. (1992). The writing assignments and writing problems of doctoral students: Faculty perceptions, pedagogical issues, and needed research. English for Specific Purposes, 11(1), 33-49. https://doi:10.1016/0889-4906(92)90005-U
Collis, J., & Hussey, R. (2009). Business research: A practical guide for undergraduate and postgraduate students. Basingstoke: Macmillan International Higher Education.
Fukao, A., & Fujii, T. (2001). Investigating difficulties in the academic writing process: Interview as a research tool. ICU Language Research Bulletin, 16, 29-40.
Lamptey, R. B., & Atta-Obeng, H. (2013).Challenges with Reference Citations among Postgraduate Students at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, Ghana. Journal of Science and Technology (Ghana), 32(3), 69-80.
Lee, N. (2005). Understanding students’ perceptions of difficulty with academic writing for teacher development: A case study of the university of tokyo writing program. Researchgate, 14, 1-11. Retrieved March 3, 2017, from www.researchgate.net.
Miri, M. A., & Joia, J. (2018). Writing anxiety in an afghan efl setting: Voices from five afghan students. Journal of Foreign Language Teaching and Learning, 3(1), 14-29.
Mousavi, H. S., & Kashefian-Naeeini, S. (2011). Academic writing problems of iranian postgraduate students at the national university of malaysia (UKM).European Journal of Social Sciences, 23(4), 593-603.
Musa, F. (2010). Teaching Writing to Post-Secondary Students: Procedure and Technicalities in an EFL Classroom. Paper presented at the First National Conference on English Language Teaching, Al-Quds Open University, Palestine. Retrieved from: http://www.qou.edu/english/conferences/firstNationalConference/pdfFiles/farouqMusa.pdf.
Mutimani, M. M. (2016). Academic Writing in English: challenges experienced by Bachelor of Education primary level students at the University of Namibia, Katima Mulilo campus (Doctoral dissertation, University of Namibia).
Mwangi, S. W. (2017). Challenges faced by undergraduate students in academic writing: A case of kenyan students. African Multidisciplinary Journal of Research, 1(2).
Myles, J. (2002). Second language writing and research: The writing process and error analysis in student texts. Tesl-Ej, 6(2), 1-20.
Noori, A. (2018). Attitudes of afghan efl lecturers toward instructional technology. TechTrends, 2(62), 17-178. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11528-018-0347-9
Noori, A. (2018). Communicative language teaching (CLT) in efl context: Exploring afghan efl lecturers’ perceived challenges in implementing clt. International Journal of Research, 5(16), 1049-1063. https://journals.pen2print.org/index.php/ijr/article/view/15468/14994
Rahmatunisa, W. (2015). Problems faced by indonesian efl learners in writing an argumentative essay. English Review: Journal of English Education, 3(1), 41-49.
Sanu, L. O. (2016). Narrative paragraph writing of the second-semester student of the state institute of islamic studies (IAIN) Samarinda A Syntactic Analysis. Script Journal: Journal of Linguistic and English Teaching, 1(1), 36–45.
Street, B. (2004). Academic literacies and the new orders: Implications for research and practice in students’ writing in higher education. Learning and Teaching in the Social Sciences. 1(1), 9-20. Retrieved on May 14, 2016, from http://dx.doi.org/10/1386/ltss.1.1.9/0
Tardy, C. M. (2005). “It’s like a story”: Rhetorical knowledge development in advanced academic literacy. Journal of English for Academic Purposes, 4(4), 325-338.
Wallace, A., Schirato, T., & Bright, P. (1999). Beginning university: Thinking, researching, and writing for success. Crows Nest, NSW: Allen & Unwin.
Wang, W. and Yu, X. (2008). A survey of learners’ self-perceived difficulties in L2 writing. Foreign Language Learning Theory and Practice, (1), 31-35.
Xiao, G., & Chen, X. (2015). English academic writing difficulties of engineering students at the tertiary level in China. World Transactions on Engineering and Technology Education (13), 259-263.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright
Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgment of initial publication in this journal.
Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories, social media account, or on their website) after the article getting published in the journal, as it can lead to productive exchanges and earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).License
You are free to:
- Share — copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format
- Adapt — remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially.
Attribution — You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.
ShareAlike — If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you must distribute your contributions under the same license as the original.
- No additional restrictions — You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits.
.png){kind=logo}
