Academic Writing Problems in L2 Settings: Realities and Need for Intervention

Abstract

Building on evidence from prior research, this literature review focuses on academic writing problems in ESL /EFL contexts, bringing to the fore emerging approaches to academic writing and calling for a shift from writing across the curriculum program to writing in specialized centers to propagate the integration of writing rather than some fixed tasks throughout the curriculum. For the study purpose, a theoretical-based descriptive thematic procedure was adopted, while at the same time providing pedagogical implications for automated writing and evaluation. As aside, instituting multimodal composition that fully engages all senses connects the linguistic and non-linguistic (semiotic) dimension of meaning-making. It enhances written fluency and liberates learners from getting bogged down in grammatical flaws and beyond alphabetic literacy. Given the situation in the local Yemeni EFL context, the current review highlights that writing would remain in a state of limbo unless it is coupled with a timely intervention addressing the problems of writing from school to university in light of these refinements. Keywords: Academic Writing (AW), Problems, ESL, EFL, corrective Intervention

Writing Difficulties for Research Scholars Pursuing PhDs in Engineering

“…Previous studies (Kotamjani et al, 2018;Zahra & Haniyeh, 2020;Lin & Morrison, 2021;Gupta et al, 2022) reported writing mechanism and coherence difficulties, but this study highlighted technical vocabulary and length of sentences being the most reported challenges by the case in focus. Perhaps engineering disciplines affect how engineers think and put ideas on paper, unlike authors in the humanities and social sciences (Abdulkhalek & Al-Khulaidi, 2022). In a relevant study, Demir and Al-Kadi (2023) contend that hard science writers, in some ways, think differently from writers of soft sciences such as literature, linguistics, and social studies, which is, according to the authors, because in humanities, authors take part in knowledge construction and thus integrate their voices into other authors' ideas, unlike science writers who take a robust stance on their empirical results and deal with numbers more than words.…”

“…The ability to write clearly and fluently is undoubtedly one of the more critical skills (Abdulkhalek & Al-Khulaidi, 2022;Torrance et al,1994), and this ability is a prerequisite to writing dissertations which demand cogent writing. Several studies have been conducted to understand scholars' and supervisors' perceptions (Linda & Morrison, 2021;Kalpana & Lavanya, 2021;Xiao & Chen, 2015).…”

“…The existence of writing difficulties is evident in various contexts across disciplines (Abdulkhalek & Al-Khulaidi, 2022;Dubicki, 2015;Gupta et al, 2022;Liudmila et al, 2020;Xiao et al, 2015). Along with the difficulties, researchers have studied the reasons behind academic writing problems.…”

“…As an extension of the existing research and as a step towards gaining further insights, this paper intends to identify specific language difficulties that scholars face while writing research papers in these sub-branches of engineering: information technology, electronics and communication engineering, mechanical engineering, and textile engineering. To draw a roadmap for the investigation, the researchers drew on prior research that has undertaken academic writing challenges in some other context (Abdulkhalek & Al-Khulaidi, 2022;Al-Kadi, 2019;Xiao et al, 2015). Besides, the authors, who are language teachers, have put their experiences into the investigation regarding familiarity with engineering students' academic difficulties in writing.…”

An Examination of EFL Undergraduates’ Writing Error Types and Frequency in WhatsApp Chat Messaging: Exploring Key Factors

“…Consequently, writing pedagogy in EFL contexts has garnered a lot of scholarly attention, including debates and discussions on the effectiveness of using digital platforms like WhatsApp for teaching, especially in terms of how well they affect writing instruction and learning quality [14][15][16][17][18][19]. Research findings indicate that EFL students often struggle to demonstrate their writing skills due to various challenges [20][21][22][23][24][25].…”