An Investigation of EFL Students’ Essay Writing: Problems and Suggestions: Ambo University First Year Students in Focus

This study examined the progress of English as a foreign language (EFL) writers using the instructional framework of systemic functional linguistics (SFL) and the communities of practice (CoPs) model. The study participants comprised 11 first-year undergraduate students in Japan with intermediate-level English proficiency who were exposed to SFL in a single EFL classroom (CoP). The participants’ genre understanding and meaning-making decisions when writing discussion essays were studied over two semester-long courses. To do so, their developmental changes were analyzed using pre- and post-instructional writing tasks. In particular, their ability to convey interpersonal meaning, such as through the use of modal verbs, was examined and compared between the pre- and post-tasks. To triangulate the findings, participants’ genre awareness in relation to discussion essays was also examined using in-depth qualitative analysis of their self-reflective texts and peer assessments, based on a grounded theory approach. In the pre-writing task, it was apparent that the learners lacked understanding of the components of discussion essay writing. However, analysis of their post-instructional tasks revealed that most had begun to apply the language components required to convey interpersonal meaning in their discussion genre texts. These results suggest that the changes in learner’s genre awareness and knowledge affected the lexicogrammatical features they used when writing discussion essays. Thus, this study concludes that applying the SFL framework to writing instruction enhanced EFL learners’ awareness of textual meaning and their understanding of the function of discussion essay texts.

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Difficulties Facing EFL Students In Narrative Paragraph Writing: The Case Of First Year Students At Batna 2 University

10.53418/1726-017-003-026 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 240

Author(s):

Wafia Helala ◽

Hachemi Aboubou

Keyword(s):

First Year ◽

First Year Students ◽

Efl Students

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EFL STUDENT’S PROBLEMS WITH PARAGRAPH WRITING AT TAY DO UNIVERSITY, VIETNAM

European Journal of English Language Teaching ◽

10.46827/ejel.v6i4.3778 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 6 (4) ◽

Author(s):

Thi Tra My Ly ◽

Thi Thuy Hang Nguyen ◽

Thi Minh Uyen Phan ◽

Thi Thuy Ha Dinh ◽

Thuy Vi Huynh

Keyword(s):

Social Sciences ◽

Teaching Methods ◽

Quantitative Methods ◽

First Year ◽

First Year Students ◽

Research Results ◽

Qualitative And Quantitative ◽

Qualitative And Quantitative Methods ◽

Efl Students ◽

Grammatical Structures

This paper studied problems in EFL students’ paragraph writing. The research participants were first-year students of English in Tay Do University (TDU). To achieve the desired aims of the current study, the researcher combined both qualitative and quantitative methods, using questionnaires, interviews, and observations as the main instruments. The researcher used the package of social sciences (SPSS) for analysis. Research results showed that the freshmen at TDU often encountered problems in writing paragraphs. These accounted for grammatical structures, vocabulary, and coherence. Basing on the research results, students could recognize their difficulties when writing and find some new ways to overcome them. It is suggested that teachers should find and update some new teaching methods so as to develop students’ paragraph writing skills. Article visualizations:<img src="/-counters-/edu_01/0920/a.php" alt="Hit counter" />

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The Impact of Learning Environment on EFL Students’ Academic Achievement: A study of Socio-Cultural Factors Affecting Academic Achievement

10.31235/osf.io/crnkq ◽

2022 ◽

Author(s):

Elmakki AMIRI ◽

Abderrahim El KARFA

Keyword(s):

Academic Achievement ◽

Environmental Factors ◽

Learning Environment ◽

Foreign Language ◽

First Year ◽

First Year Students ◽

Factors Affecting ◽

Academic Achievements ◽

Efl Students ◽

The Impact

It is worth pointing out that learning a foreign language in a multicultural context is a long and complex undertaking. Several factors influence whether or not English as a Foreign Language (EFL) students can accurately perceive and produce the foreign language. These variables can potentially contribute to the success and, or failure in learning and acquiring a foreign language. Given the Moroccan educational system, the research provided minimal insight into the relationship between those factors and language achievement. The present study’s aim, therefore, was to investigate the environmental factors that affect students’ academic performance. It also aimed to find out how these variables affect students’ academic achievements. To achieve this aim, data have been collected via open-ended questionnaires, and interviews addressed mainly to First Year Students of Master Programs, Department of English, FLDM, USMBA-Fez. The findings have shown that students’ academic achievements were significantly positively/negatively linked with the environmental factors, namely societal, home/family and school/classroom variables. The findings also revealed that the more highly sophisticated the social environment is, the more likely it is to foster EFL students’ academic achievements. In addition, the more similarity exists between the students’ cultures, the more successful the learning is. This study also showed that the development of EFL proficiency is a product of contextual factors influence. As such, the study concludes with several implications that brought up for possible effective change in the future to enhance the learning environment atmosphere, boost students’ academic achievements, and, therefore, achieve better results.

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A Cognitive-Semantic Analysis of Preposition on: An Experimental Study at University of Baghdad

10.31235/osf.io/yp9qs ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Sura Muttlak Nasser

Keyword(s):

Foreign Language ◽

Quantitative Research ◽

Semantic Analysis ◽

College Of Education ◽

First Year ◽

First Year Students ◽

Efl Students ◽

Cognitive Semantic ◽

The University ◽

Analyze Data

This study is descriptive quantitative research by using a test to collect the data needed. Iraqi English as a foreign language (EFL) students face difficulties in differentiating between using prepositions correctly. This study has been performed in the Department of English at College of Education for Women, University of Baghdad, to diagnosis the difficulties of English prepositions that face Iraqi first-year students at the University since multi-uses and meanings of prepositions. For Iraqi EFL students, prepositions regarded as a problematic criterion. This study aims at examining the problems that EFL students commit mistakes in using English prepositions of place on. It also highlights the causes of those problems. Correct handling proposition is not because most of them have different functions straightforward, and different prepositions have the same uses. For this reason, the researcher adopted pre and post-tests to evaluate the output of the means of the students' results. The researcher used SPSS to analyze data.

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First-year students’ essay writing practices: Formative feedback and interim literacies

Reading & Writing ◽

10.4102/rw.v7i1.87 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 7 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Emmanuel Esambe ◽

Cina Mosito ◽

Subethra Pather

Keyword(s):

Undergraduate Students ◽

Academic Writing ◽

Health Science ◽

Formative Feedback ◽

First Year ◽

Participatory Action ◽

First Year Students ◽

Essay Writing ◽

Writing Practices ◽

Academic Transitions

The varying literacy standards that undergraduate students represent are a reflection of their interim grasp of academic literacy (Paxton 2007). The aim of this study is to analyse a small group of undergraduate first-year students’ depiction of their interim grasp of academic writing and to reflect on how lecturers use formative feedback to respond to specific issues regarding students’ academic transitions within their discipline. Using an emancipatory methodology, this study was designed as a participatory action research. Qualitative data from focus group interviews with lecturers and photovoice presentations by first-year dental technology students were used to explore how students demonstrated their interim grasp of academic essay writing in a Health Science department at a university of technology. However, this article, which is part of a broader study, analyses a small class of first-year students’ depiction of their interim grasp of essay writing and reflects on how their lecturers use formative feedback to respond to these students’ academic transitions within their discipline. Using activity theory and morphogenetic realist theory to analyse essay writing activities during an intervention, the study reveals that images are potent artefacts that students and lecturers use to build meaningful dialogue during essay writing in an uneven terrain.

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Improving EFL Students' Speaking Proficiency and Motivation: A Hybrid Problem-based Learning Approach

Theory and Practice in Language Studies ◽

10.17507/tpls.0807.17 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 8 (7) ◽

pp. 848 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Mohamed Ali Mohamed Kassem

Keyword(s):

Proficiency Test ◽

Action Plan ◽

Problem Based Learning ◽

First Year ◽

First Year Students ◽

Speaking Proficiency ◽

New Ideas ◽

Efl Students ◽

Standardized Curriculum ◽

Positive Effect

The present study used a Hybrid Problem-Based Learning (H-PBL) approach for teaching a Speaking Course to the First-Year students of the English Department at Prince Sattam Bin Abdulaziz University, Saudi Arabia. Previous research has proved the currently inappropriate teaching approaches and the lack of motivation to be the most significant reasons for EFL students' poor speaking proficiency. The lack of motivation is due to the traditional, rigid and tedious teaching techniques adopted in speaking classrooms and partly due to the standardized curriculum of the speaking course where there is no scope for instructors to change their teaching approach or introduce new ideas in the curriculum. The H-PBL approach has been proved to be an effective model for teaching language skills; however, the existing literature still lacks an actual action plan or a methodology to introduce this approach as a pedagogical remedy for motivating EFL students and improving their speaking proficiency. The study addressed this gap by recommending the use of H-PBL approach in EFL speaking classes. The study used a pre-post speaking proficiency test, a students' motivation questionnaire, interviews and observation sheets as data collection tools. Results revealed that the H-PBL approach has a positive effect on improving the students' speaking proficiency, students' motivation significantly increased and, eventually, students tended to be more self-directed and independent. Instructors also applauded the use of H-PBL approach but recommended adapting the curriculum and the teaching strategies to support this approach.

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The Current Issues of Indonesian EFL Students’ Writing Skills: Ability, Problem, and Reason in Writing Comparison and Contrast Essay

DINAMIKA ILMU ◽

10.21093/di.v19i1.1506 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 19 (1) ◽

pp. 57-73

Author(s):

Rostanti Toba ◽

Widya Noviana Noor ◽

La Ode Sanu

Keyword(s):

Writing Skills ◽

Teaching Writing ◽

Writing Anxiety ◽

Essay Writing ◽

Writing Ability ◽

Writing Improvement ◽

Writing Test ◽

Content Organization ◽

Writing Problems ◽

Efl Students

The aim of this study is to investigate issues of Indonesian EFL students’ writing skills, covering ability, problem and reason why they got problems in writing comparison and contrast essay. The convergent parallel of mixed methods was used to explore these issues by involving 52 EFL students of IAIN Samarinda who enrolled the academic essay writing course. The three research instruments; essay writing test, open-ended questionnaire and interview were used in the data collection. The findings of this study revealed that the Indonesian EFL students’ writing ability was good that categorized with the mean score 77.83. However, some of them encounter problems in writing aspects including content, organization, vocabulary, grammar, and mechanics. Their reasons in experiencing these problems are not only limited knowledge of writing aspects and comparison and contrast essay itself, but also they had own personal reasons; lack of writing practice, writing dislike, writing anxiety, negative writing perception, low writing motivation, insufficient time given in writing test, and also inadequate teaching writing process taught by their lecturers. Indeed, the teaching writing improvement that involved EFL students and lecturers should be well-integrated in order to alleviate the students’ essay writing problems related to their reasons and to improve their writing ability. Factors caused the writing difficulties will be discussed further and some suggestions will be given on this research.

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Development of first-year students' conceptions of essay writing

Higher Education ◽

10.1023/b:high.0000016419.61481.f9 ◽

2004 ◽

Vol 47 (3) ◽

pp. 257-282 ◽

Cited By ~ 32

Author(s):

Velda McCune

Keyword(s):

First Year ◽

First Year Students ◽

Essay Writing

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Genre analysis of essays in the Social Sciences: The case of Botswana students

Reading & Writing ◽

10.4102/rw.v9i1.137 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 9 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Joel M. Magogwe ◽

Unity M. Nkateng

Keyword(s):

Social Sciences ◽

Study Skills ◽

English For Academic Purposes ◽

Genre Analysis ◽

First Year ◽

First Year Students ◽

Essay Writing ◽

University Of Botswana ◽

The Social ◽

The University

Writing is a challenging but requisite skill at university and other life situations. At university, essay writing is generally challenging to first-year students across disciplines or faculties. This study therefore describes the writing challenges of the Faculty of Social Sciences students at the University of Botswana. To that end, this study asks the following research questions: (1) What writing tasks are first-year students in the Faculty of Social Sciences given? (2) What problems do the students encounter when writing essays in the Faculty of Social Sciences? (3) What kind of assistance do students receive on writing essays? This article is underpinned by the English for Academic Purposes genre analysis framework. All in all, the findings of this study point to the need for a more intensive writing programme for first-year students at the University of Botswana in which both faculties and the Communication and Study Skills Unit will cooperatively assist students with writing. Students’ responses clearly indicated the need for such collaboration.

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