Abstract
This study explored students' own perspectives on their writing challenges. A mixed methods research design combining a quantitative questionnaire with a series of semi-structured qualitative interviews was used. Therefore, the triangulation of data collection techniques was applied in this research. The study was conducted in the Department of English and Translation at Qassim University. 55 students filled 32 items questionnaire and ten were selected for the interview. For the questionnaire data, the descriptive statistics for ordinal Likert-type data include frequency, median, and mode were used. For the qualitative data analysis, the thematic coding was used for analyzing the interview. The obtained results showed that there are different types of writing problems among English language and translation major students at Qassim University. Findings suggest that some difficulties and perspectives are broadly shared by Saudi English students, e.g. struggles with irregularity and the non-phonemic nature of English. Other difficulties tend to evolve as students proceed in their studies. The lack of research into Saudi perspectives on English writing difficulties is emphasized, and further scholarly attention is strongly advised.
Highlights
The fact that the cultural and linguistic backgrounds of those who acquire English as a second language continue to influence their use of English for years and even decades to come has been extensively documented in the academic literature (Centeno et al 2014[8]; Saville-Troike & Barto 2016[19]; Romero & Manjarres 2017)
The findings suggested that while this practice is not yet standard in the university-level English course setting in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, it is generally well-received by students and appears to be growing increasingly common
A seemingly foundational category, response distributions highlighted the importance of phonology, morphology, and spelling for respondents' English writing difficulties
Summary
The fact that the cultural and linguistic backgrounds of those who acquire English as a second language continue to influence their use of English for years and even decades to come (including after a high level of English proficiency has been attained) has been extensively documented in the academic literature (Centeno et al 2014[8]; Saville-Troike & Barto 2016[19]; Romero & Manjarres 2017). Despite the rapid emergence of English as the language of global commerce, in the English as a second language (ESL) educational context, there are a number of major linguistic backgrounds that have been largely overlooked. Rather than merely carrying out a diagnostic examination, it seeks to explore students' perspectives on the nature and significance of these challenges. To this end, a mixed methods research design combining a quantitative questionnaire with a series of semi-structured qualitative interviews is used
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