Abstract-Although studies on the causes of writing apprehension on native learners of English have been done extensively, studies on English as foreign language (EFL) learners are scant. In fact, limited studies have examined writing apprehension experienced by EFL postgraduate learners, in particular written academic discourse. Therefore, the study focused on writing apprehension experienced by Jordanian EFL learners when writing their PhD thesis in Malaysia. The objective of the study was to explore the causes of writing apprehension among Jordanian PhD students at Universiti Utara Malaysia. In this qualitative case study, the researchers interviewed 21 Jordanian PhD students. Four main themes emerged pertaining to causes of writing apprehension which are Lack of knowledge in English structure, Negative attitude toward writing, Negative writing experience in the past, and Inadequate knowledge in academic writing. The study concluded that writing apprehension was a prevalent phenomenon among the students. The study contributes to the body of knowledge on writing apprehension related to the causes of writing apprehension. It highlights internal and external factors which contribute to writing apprehension.

Writing apprehension is a serious problem faced by most ESL/EFL learners because their writing in the mother

This study investigates congratulation strategies used by Jordanian EFL postgraduate students. It also investigates the types of positive politeness strategies in the congratulation speech act. Data were collected using an adopted version of discourse completion test (DCT) by Dastjerdi and Nasri (2013). Data were encoded and analyzed based on the taxonomy of congratulation strategy proposed by Elwood (2004). Furthermore, data were analyzed based on a modified version of positive politeness strategies proposed by Brown and Levinson (1987). Findings revealed that the most frequently used strategies of congratulation were illocutionary force indicating devise (IFID), offer of good wishes, and expression of happiness. Regarding the positive politeness strategies, findings revealed that the most frequently used strategies by the participants were giving gift to listener, exaggeration, and ingroup identity marker. The study concludes with a discussion of important directions for future research such as including more participants with different social background. The results are expected to be useful information in cross-cultural comparison studies and other related areas.

This study discussed the language attitudes among EFL students in Jordan society. The present study aimed to investigate the level of language attitude and to discover the relationship between gender, language experience, and the place of learning the language with language attitude. The participants of this study were 300 tenth school students from a private school in Irbid governorate, Jordan. Data was collected through a questionnaire contained 55 statements which were adapted from (Gardener’s, 1985). The descriptive analysis used in this research to discover the level of language attitude. T-test and ANOVA were also used to achieve the second research objective. The results of the study revealed that the participants showed a medium level toward learning the language. Female students reported having a higher level of attitude towards learning the language more than male does. Students who learned English at pre-school have more positive attitude compared with others, students who start to learn the language at the age of 6 and below have more positive attitude that the second group. They can speak with more confident way than other groups. Finally, the findings of this study should be used as starting point for both English instructors and students.   Received: 4 March 2021 / Accepted: 6 May 2021 / Published: 8 July 2021

This study highlights the compliment response strategies of Jordanian adolescent students, and discusses the respective influences of gender and social power on the production of these strategies. The participants were 37 male and 37 female Jordanian adolescent students at private secondary schools in Amman, with ages ranging from 14–16. They responded to eight discourse completion test situations translated into Arabic to ensure the participants’ understanding. These eight scenarios resembled academic situations which students might face in their daily life, and were intended to represent interactions with persons of different social standing/power. The resulting data were analysed based on the classification system found in previous research. The results revealed that both male and female participants preferred to accept compliments over using non-acceptance strategies. The most frequent strategies used by both groups were combination strategies and acceptance strategies, while nonacceptance strategies and face relationship-related response strategies were the least common. However, there were differences in the preference and frequency of use of other compliment response strategies such as amendment and no acknowledgment strategies. The participants’ gender and the social power of the speakers were also found to influence the choice and perception of politeness. For example, the males tended to use more acceptance strategies compared to the females. They also preferred different rank order of compliment response strategies when the hearer was of lower status. Finally, some pedagogical implications and suggestions for future research were briefly discussed by the researchers.