scholarly journals A Systematic Review of the Challenges and Solutions of ESL Students‟ Academic Writing

Research studies on ESL writing are more interested in providing operational writing strategies for academic writing. However, there are not many studies on challenges faced by students and their solutions. The main aim of this paper is to provide a systematic literature review of academic writing studies which focused on investigating students’ academic writing challenges and their solutions. The papers used in this study were published from 2010 until 2019. A systematic search of literature proposed in this paper employs the exploratory approach for identifying and evaluating twenty-seven articles published in the authentic Journals. The themes of the review are divided into two categories, one which is related to ESL Malaysian students and another category is regarding non-Malaysians, this is due to the context of the study which will be conducted in Malaysia and therefore a review of studies done on Malaysian student academic writing is justified. The review shows there is a broader context of ESL students’ academic writing challenges and factors influencing students’ academic writing skills. In addition, as mentioned above, the review clearly shows the highlight of previous studies was on strategies which help improve students writing skills. As a conclusion, the review signifies that there are three major enormous challenges faced by ESL students in academic writing, such as teaching methods, students’ attitude towards English, and language ability. And the solutions to the challenges are to employ active learning English language teaching methods, for example, Task-Based learning (TBL), Blended learning, Collaborative learning and cognitive approach, in teaching writing.

Author(s):  
Dina Zanaty

Mastering the skill of writing means mastering a very powerful tool of expression. Hence, English language teaching is an integral part of training medical students in Egypt. Developing ‘writing skills’ is essential for their future career after graduation. Due to smartphones, autocorrect devices, and pre-prepared writing templates available online; students lack the competence in a very indispensable skill in their academic progress which is ‘writing’. The main goal of this study is to investigate how ‘writing’ could be developed through the process approach in an academic semester during the period of quarantine in Egypt from 15th of March, 2020 to 30th of May, 2020, which coincidentally became an online teaching semester due to Covid-19 circumstances, an experiment involved (230) students in Oral and Dental Medicine Faculty at Delta University in their first year of study. There was a variety of research methods involved in this paper which included the theoretical and the practical ones in addition to inductive-deductive ones, observation, and analyzing techniques to reach data and statistical values of students. The results revealed a great improvement estimated by more than 60% in students writing performance after the application of this approach and demonstrating an ability to use proper terms and conjunctions in academic writing.


2014 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ida Fatimawati Adi Badiozaman

This study examined the challenges faced by Malaysian second language (L2) learners when paraphrasing an academic text. Drawing on interviews with two diploma students from two business majors, I explored the types of challenges they faced when attempting paraphrasing tasks. The findings revealed that the students faced multiple challenges that ranged from text comprehension, poor L2 proficiency to referencing problems. In addition, there were significant differences between paraphrasing strategies adopted by a competent student and one with a lower proficiency level. Overall, the findings suggest that there is a need to utilise Content-Based Instruction to make the links between writing skills and learners’ disciplines tangible and that pre-degree preparation needs to include extensive writing practice which would help students become familiar with academic writing demands. Preliminary results also show that there is a need for teachers to be aware that the design of the materials for English language teaching should be tailored to the purpose of university study and academic vocabulary.


2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 31
Author(s):  
Ilham Ilham ◽  
Bachrudin Musthafa ◽  
Fazri Nur Yusuf

The aim of this study is to explore the target needs (i.e. necessities, lacks and wants) of the students to inform academic writing courses materials. A case study design was employed as this design to provide in-depth data information. To collect the data, questionnaire and interviews were used. Twenty-three undergraduate students of English department at a private university in Mataram West Nusa Tenggara who take academic writing course in the 2019-2020 academic year participated in the study. The result of the study showed that the students need to learn the types of writing texts, vocabulary and construct sentences into paragraph, have good skills in writing different genres since they are lack of grammar knowledge and vocabularies, and improvement on the aspect of teaching writing. This finding may promise implications for updating the current curriculum and materials as practiced for tertiary level English department students in an attempt to keep up with the latest changes in the methodologies of English language teaching. This study recommends that lecturers and universities should conduct a need analysis regularly and updated the curriculum with such insightful needs.


2017 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Aydin Aliyev

The purpose of this study is to find out the effectiveness of integrating into teaching English writing movies whichare supported by online technologies. Using movies in English classes has become the interest of many teachersand educators, as films are believed to be very effective, appealing and motivating authentic materials. Filmicapproach somehow creates a natural English language teaching (ELT) environment in the classroom and makesthe instruction of English enjoyable, particularly in terms of learners. Mixing motion pictures and onlinetechnologies both of which have a very crucial role in students’ life, would be fun and innovative. This studyfocused on teaching writing through the use of films and contemporary educational technologies amongundergraduate learners. The action research was designed at Qafqaz University in Azerbaijan among 32intermediate level students in the School of Languages. The learners were divided into experiment and controlgroups which were almost at the same English proficiency levels. The research involved a questionnaireconsisting of 10 questions with participation of 32 learners. The study is expected to be helpful for Englishteachers in terms of employing movies and online technologies effectively in writing classes, not to mention it islikely be a helpful material for further researchers in this field.


ELT-Lectura ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 90-98
Author(s):  
Prih Febtiningsih ◽  
Ardiya ◽  
Agung Prasetyo Wibowo

Teaching English at Indonesian special senior high schools is applied based on the curriculum determined by the government. However, there were some problems found in English language teaching for visually impaired students especially in writing. This research aimed to investigate the teachers’ challenges in teaching English writing for visually impaired students. The respondents were taken purposively, namely the English teachers at Indonesian special senior high schools for visually impaired students namely SLB Sri Mujinab, SLB Negeri Pembina and SLB Kasih Ibu. The data for the research were collected from semi-structured interview conducted to get specific information about what challenges encountered by the English teachers teaching writing skills for students with visual impairment. The challenges encountered by the teachers in teaching writing were inappropriateness of curriculum and syllabus with the students’ need, time constraint of teaching,  lack of learning media, lack of teaching strategy, inappropriateness of teacher’s qualification, and students’ attitude problem. These challenges made the teachers difficult in teaching English writing.   Keywords: Teaching Writing, Visual Impairment, Teachers’ Challenges, English Language Teaching


2003 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 102
Author(s):  
John Sivell ◽  
Ellen Pilon

Reviews of: 'How to Teach English: An Introduction to the Practice of English Language Teaching,' by Jeremy Harmer; and 'Focusing on IELTS: Reading and Writing Skills,' by Kerry O'Sullivan and Jeremy Lindeck.


2017 ◽  
Vol 10 (9) ◽  
pp. 208
Author(s):  
Tunku Mohani Tunku Mohtar ◽  
Charanjit Kaur Swaran Singh ◽  
Napisah Kepol ◽  
Ahmad Zainuri Loap Ahmad ◽  
Sasigaran Moneyam

The present study investigated the beliefs and efficacy of a teacher teaching English to students who were weak at the language. The objective of the study was mainly to investigate the beliefs and efficacy of the ESL teacher for teaching writing to weak learners. The research was a case study of the English Language teacher teaching Form Three class of students whose English proficiency was very low. An interview was conducted with the teacher to further probe the instructional strategies applied to enhance her beliefs and efficacy in her own capabilities to make learning happen in her classroom. Observations were made to investigate the teacher’s efficacy in teaching and the performance of the students specifically for writing. Results show the teacher’s beliefs of her students’ capabilities and their language needs helped shape the teacher’s instructional strategies. The teacher’s efficacy enabled her to decide to undertake the task of teaching writing to her students because she was confident in her ability. The teacher provided clues to the students to facilitate their learning. This kind of feedback from the teacher indirectly motivated them to learn. The teacher’s beliefs and efficacy contributed to her teaching practice and the instructional strategies that she used in turn enhanced her beliefs and efficacy. The study implicates that teacher’s beliefs and efficacy can assist the weak learners in improving their writing skills and also facilitate language learning.


Author(s):  
Ratnawati Ratnawati

Writing, one of the four skills which have to be taught by educators in language learning. Starting from classroom observation implied that students confronted the difficulties in writing involving generating ideas, organizing words, and making compositions. This study supposes to explore some effects of pop culture as authentic materials for English language teaching in improving students’ writing skill. Due to pop culture relates to students’ life and experience, it is considered to be a stimulus for gaining students’ ideas, information, motivation, and interest in teaching writing. The students of secondary school were involved in this study and descriptive case study was employed to observe the importance of pop culture in writing class. Also, questionnaires and students’ works are the instruments to measure its effects. Both students’ works and result of the questionnaires pointed out that significantly improvement obtained after applying pop culture. In line with findings, it can be said that pop cultures have significant effects toward students’ writing skill. So, educators need to apply pop culture as their choices in future planning lesson.


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