Identifying academic writing challenges encountered by EFL learners to develop their academic writing skillss. The case of second year Master Two students of sciences of the language at Mohamed Kheider University of Biskra

Abstract

The current study attempts to identify the academic writing challenges encountered by second year Master students during the preparation of their dissertation, as well as determining the reasons behind these challenges. For this purpose, a descriptive analytic research with qualitative approach was employed. To gather data, a students‟ and a teachers‟ questionnaires were devised. The sample consisted of 32 second year Master students and 07 teachers at Mohamed Kheider University of Biskra. The main findings show that students face numerous challenges in academic writing, mainly at the level of word choice, grammar, and paraphrasing. The teachers‟ questionnaire indicates similar results in terms of the areas of challenges citing critical writing and style as most challenging. Results also reveal that teachers attribute these difficulties mainly to the lack of experience in writing research papers and lack of writing practice. Moreover, the majority of participants believe that the time allocated for teaching academic is insufficient. The recommendations derived from the findings need to be considered by students, teachers, and syllabus designers.