The Significance of English Scientific Writing Proficiency for Publishing Purposes: The Case of Moroccan EFL PhD Students at the Euromed University of Fes

Abstract

This study aspires to theoretically and empirically investigate the dearth of English scientific writing in the engineering PhD programs at the Euromed University of Fes. It must be noted that the entire absence of English in the curriculum of PhD programs unequivocally creates myriad challenges, mainly in the writing process. Doctoral students find themselves impotent to publish in indexed journals, be it a single-blind peer review or a double-blind peer review, due to the high demands of scientific writing proficiency and accuracy alongside the scrupulous treatment of data. In like manner, novice researchers lack expertise and oftentimes agonize about the writing task as their meta-cognitive skills need to be rejuvenated, revitalized, and rigorously fortified. To that end, the use of numerical data by means of questionnaire is highly estimated by researchers to vigorously help in unveiling the aforementioned challenges, while simultaneously systematically paving the way for context-specific recommendations to be made in order to alleviate some of the pressure that doctoral students undergo with respect to English scientific writing for the purpose of producing quality publishable materials.