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UAE University Male Students’ Interests Impact on Reading and Writing Performance and Improvement

Canadian Center of Science and Education
English Language Teaching
Authors:

Abstract

The study examined the impact of the conjunction of structured journal writing and reading for pleasure on students’ reading and writing skills. Forty male students from UAE University participated in the study. The participants are of different academic abilities, majors and nationalities. Many of them have little experience with reading for pleasure and reflective writing. They were advised to select interested academic articles they would like to read and then reflect on the articles in their journals by filling different types of maps and summarizing the main points in the articles. The data includes the students’ interviews. The study explored whether the approach positively affects students’ academic reading and writing and helps students overcome their reading and writing anxiety. The study results are relating topics to students’ major deepen the students’ knowledge in their specialization. Selecting topics of students’ interests encourages them to continue working on reading the articles even though they face some challenges. Content and organization in reading and writing were improved in students’ dialogue journals project and story mapping strategy. The students’ awareness of building a large vocabulary is significant. However, students ‘fear of making semantic errors in their writing delays their work. Knowledge and experience gain, creativity and personality improvement are indicators of students’ enjoyment of reading and writing topics of their choices and interest even though they struggled initially.
English Language Teaching; Vol. 7, No. 9; 2014
ISSN 1916-4742 E-ISSN 1916-4750
Published by Canadian Center of Science and Education
57
UAE University Male Students’ Interests Impact on Reading and
Writing Performance and Improvement
Ghadah Al Murshidi1
1 Faculty of Education, Curriculum and Instruction Department, UAE University, UAE
Correspondence: Ghadah Al Murshidi, Faculty of Education, Curriculum and Instruction Department, UAE
University, UAE. E-mail: g_almurshidi@uaeu.ac.ae
Received: May 6, 2014 Accepted: June 6, 2014 Online Published: August 14, 2014
doi:10.5539/elt.v7n9p57 URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.5539/elt.v7n9p57
Abstract
The study examined the impact of the conjunction of structured journal writing and reading for pleasure on
students’ reading and writing skills. Forty male students from UAE University participated in the study. The
participants are of different academic abilities, majors and nationalities. Many of them have little experience
with reading for pleasure and reflective writing. They were advised to select interested academic articles they
would like to read and then reflect on the articles in their journals by filling different types of maps and
summarizing the main points in the articles. The data includes the students’ interviews. The study explored
whether the approach positively affects students’ academic reading and writing and helps students overcome
their reading and writing anxiety. The study results are relating topics to students’ major deepen the students’
knowledge in their specialization. Selecting topics of students’ interests encourages them to continue working on
reading the articles even though they face some challenges. Content and organization in reading and writing
were improved in students’ dialogue journals project and story mapping strategy. The students’ awareness of
building a large vocabulary is significant. However, students ‘fear of making semantic errors in their writing
delays their work. Knowledge and experience gain, creativity and personality improvement are indicators of
students’ enjoyment of reading and writing topics of their choices and interest even though they struggled
initially.
Keywords: male students, UAE University, academic articles reading, academic writing, students’ choices and
interest
1. Introduction
English Writing is one of the most important skills that students are taught at universities because “in order to
handle academic tasks, ESL students need to do their best to write proficiently” (Ghabool, Mariadass, & Kashef,
2012, p. 132). Conley (1995) affirmed that writing makes our thoughts and experiences vivid and long lasting
and helps us learn things in every subject area. (Ibaninan, 2010, p. 181) Many English teachers take it for granted
that writing a paragraph or even an essay should be an easy task for their students. Teachers enter their classes,
assign challenging writing topics and expect students to write coherent, unified paragraphs that are accurate
grammatically.
What makes things harder on students is that they have to write in a foreign language (English). When teachers
take their pens to check students’ papers, they tend to assume the role of a surgeon who is about to dissect a
corpse. The frustration of students arises when they do their best to write a paragraph or an essay, yet they do not
get the score that they aspired to. That is because their piece of writing did not meet the academic writing criteria
that their teacher had set. Students are expected to write in all different subjects though these students are seldom
taught “how to write.” This approach has led many students to hate writing simply because the whole experience
is not rewarding. Many students have even developed writing anxiety “a distinct complex of self-perceptions,
beliefs, feelings, and behaviors related to classroom language learning” (E. Horwitz, M. Horwitz, & Cope, 1986,
p. 128).
One of the strategies that can help students overcome their writing anxiety and improve their writing scores is
through reading interesting topics to them and journal writing. “The reading-writing relation is a strong one.
Suitable reading material, when used creatively can enhance the writing curriculum. Students who are exposed to
many genres and styles of good literature are very likely to transfer these rich experiences to their own writing.”
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(Olness, 2005, p. 9) Avid readers would most likely become good writers “as they become familiar with article
elements, terminology, and style, students begin to include them in their own writing.” (Olness, 2005, p. 3)
Journal writing is another instructional strategy that can assist students overcome their writing anxiety.
2. Statement of the Problem
The writing proficiency of some male students in the UAE University is way below the international standards.
One of the main challenges these students face is the lack of English language proficiency which “is the main
cause of lots of difficulties that ESL learners have in their writing tasks” (Gabool, Edwina, & Kashef, 2012, p.
132). These language difficulties make students dislike reading and wiring in their academic disciplines, which
affects negatively in their performance. Students need more encouragement to read and consequently improve
their writing skills. Most of the students do not consider reading as part of their daily routine which reflects on
the quality of the writing pieces they produce. Considering students’ interests to be a key for encouraging them
to read and write, could be beneficial. Giving students the freedom to choose topics that are in their interests, to
read academic articles and write in academia using story mapping as strategy could motivate the students to
enjoy academic reading and writing in their academic fields.
3. Purpose of the Study
Teachers are trying to enhance students’ writing skills. They have attained some success but that is incomparable
to the efforts and time the teachers have invested. The researcher realizes that students’ improvement in writing
will significantly impact their academics in general and their language skills in particular. The urgency and
importance of the issue has led the researcher to think of a technique that would engage the students and
minimize the pressure on the language arts teachers who generally agree that teaching writing is a daunting task.
The purpose of the study is to explore the effectiveness of the use of approach which includes using reading
academic articles that are chosen by the students based on their interests and structured journal writing to
enhance the performance of forty male students at UAE University in Al-Ain.
4. The Research Questions
The research questions are:
1) What is the impact of using the instructional strategy of reading topics of students’ choices and interests and
academic writing on changing students’ negative attitude toward writing?
2) What are the students’ challenges of using the instructional strategy of reading topics of students’ choices and
interests and academic writing?
5. Significance of the Study
Although studies that explore the importance of reading articles relevant to students’ interest and journal writing
as instructional strategies to improve students’ writing fluency are abound, relatively few studies have
investigated the effect of using reading interesting topics and mapping in students’ journals as facilitative tools
that can help improve students’ writing skill.
English language proficiency is a key to students’ success at UAE University and the lack of this essential skill
can impede students’ academics. The implementation of reading interesting topics and journal writing approach
will not merely affect students’ English competence but will also have positive impact on their future careers.
The study is significant for students. The study could propose some strategies that assist students overcome their
writing anxiety. As a long term effect, students will become better readers and more confident writers. Some
teachers consider writing the most challenging skill to teach. The study could help teachers by introducing new
instructional strategies that will contribute to students’ writing skills improvement.
6. Literature Review
In the 21st century, reading and writing is significant in human history. Students need advanced levels of literacy
to perform their careers, run their households, act as citizens, and conduct their personal lives. They need literacy
to cope with the information they find everywhere. They need literacy to feed their imaginations to build the
future (Moore, Bean, Birdyshaw, & Rycik, 1999).
Many students view reading and writing as boring tasks that their teachers force them to perform. In most of the
undergraduate courses, teachers ask students to read academic articles. Students often complain about the
difficult academic articles they read in class. Teachers have to adhere to the curriculum standards. Invariably
students complain that generating ideas for their writing tasks is a real challenge.
A new approach is crucial to change students’ negative attitude toward reading and writing. For instance, reading
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academic articles that are relevant to their interest and journal writing using the story mapping strategy could
help improving students’ attitude toward reading and writing as Ghazali (2009) stated that students’ attitude is
essential in maintaining their success in language learning.
Reading interesting topics is beneficial for students as Krashen (1993) emphasized that when students read for
pleasure and get “hooked on books”, they acquire, involuntarily and without conscious effort, language skills.
The students become adequate readers, acquire a large vocabulary, develop the ability to understand and use
complex grammatical constructions, develop a good writing style, and become good spellers.
To enhance students’ writing skills, reading academic articles of students’ choice and interest can be used in
conjunction with journal writing. Herroro (2007) conducted a study that explored the positive relationship
between reading and journal writing. Twenty three university students kept “a journal that included a personal
dictionary and a reading log.” (p. 7), engaged “in two types of reading: extensive and intensive reading.” (p. 8)
and responded to prompts on daily basis. The teacher provided constructive feedback for the students regarding
their performance and utilized the scaffolding process to promote students’ learning by providing a handout with
rules and exercises. Herroro (2007) analyzed the students’ errors and monitored their progress. Herroro (2007)
emphasized that students’ awareness of building a large vocabulary and extensive reading is important to
become good readers and writers. Herrero (2007, p. 24) added:
It is significant for the students to enjoy what they are reading. Although it is difficult to please everybody,
professors should choose books appropriate for the age, interests, and proficiency level of the students. If a
student does not like the theme or the type of book assigned, teachers should give them alternatives in order to
get better results
Journal writing develops students’ writing skills because it encourages the students to express their views about
the articles they read, utilize the language learned in the readings in a real context. Students’ journals provided
authentic samples of students’ work which assist the teacher to pinpoint content and linguistic problems and
provide individual and group feedback that can be individualized to the students’ needs (Herrero, 2007).
Tuan (2010) providing feedback to students’ journal entries enable teachers to measure each learner’s
proficiency and understand their needs, thoughts, and feelings, which assist teachers modify their teaching styles
to meet learners’ preferences and assist them in their writing difficulties.
Liao and Wong (2008) study of dialogue journals project emphasized that students’ writing fluency, writing
performance on content, organization, and vocabulary; reflective awareness of writing and self-growth as
learners, and intrinsic writing motivation, were improved.
Imposing assignment of Reader’s Journals in which students write informal responses to reading assignment is
recommended rather than quizzes which students’ fear. It makes students relax and do not worry about text
organization, spelling and grammar because it is not graded. Journal writing is instructional effective tool that
assists students overcome their reading and writing anxieties and motivates them to perform their reading , which
it differs than traditional reading strategies (August, 2000).
Ibanian (2010) study proved that the story mapping strategy had a positive influence on developing students’
writing skills in terms of content, organization, mechanics of writing, language use, fluency, flexibility, novelty
and elaboration. The story mapping promotes students’ competency to recognize main story ideas and elements
to compose well-formed narratives (Baumann & Bergeron, 1993).
7. Research Methodology
This study employed a qualitative research design to examine the impact of reading academic articles topics
based on the students’ interests, choices, journal writing on students’ reading and writing performance.
The study took place in the UAE University in Al-Ain, which English is the medium of instruction for nearly all
subjects. Some of the male students in the University are not uent English language speakers and a considerable
number of these students find writing a challenging skill to master. In writing, some students translate from
Arabic to English.
The Introduction to Language and Communication Course was taught to forty male students who are from
different colleges (e.g., Engineering, business, Social Sciences and Humanities, Law, Science, etc.) and different
years (first, second, third, fourth, fifth year). Their ages range between 20 and 25. These students are with
different academic abilities and varying English language proficiency.
The procedures of this study are students chose academic articles topics related to their specializations and
interests about language and Communication issues to read. The students used different types of reading maps
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and reflected on the academic articles they read by writing their dialog journals and present in classroom.
In this study, the data collection tool that the researcher used is interviewing six male students. The researcher
conducted open-ended interviews with male students on regular basis in order to monitor their progress and
receive feedbacks with regards to the interesting articles they are reading and journals they are writing. The
questions of the interviews focus on the researcher’s newly introduced strategy and aim at receiving participants’
feedbacks towards the newly adopted technique and the impact it had on their attitude toward reading and
writing and whether it has improved their reading and writing.
8. Results and Discussion
This section presents some of the findings and discussion of the interviews analysis to its themes based on the
research questions .The main results of research Question 1: What is the impact of using the instructional
strategy of reading topics of students’ choices and interests and academic writing on changing students’ negative
attitude toward writing? Are as followed:
8.1 Benefits of Choosing Topics of Student’s Interest
UAE University male students expressed their ownership of the topics that they have chosen and how their
choices make a difference in their learning. As Byerikbolsy commented:
It is interesting to know world of politics that I just start to learn. I chose my topic that is related to my political
science major.
Shuaib added:
The most interested thing in choosing my topic was that I gain more knowledge and information. It opens my
mind to different cultures and even become interested in knowing what the world is all about especially in terms
of language and communication. I have learnt that a person can learn at any time and any place and age.
Interest is the most significant.
8.2 Knowledge Gain
Feeling of the work significance came after students’ knowledge gain as Mohammed commented:
The struggles I came across have made me realize the importance of the work I do and increased my knowledge
capacity.
Abdullah added:
I have learned and gained more knowledge, experience and information during searching for my chosen topic.
8.3 Improving Reading Skills and Patience
Students’ own choices encouraged them to continue reading even though the difficulty of the reading texts. As
Mohammed commented:
Choosing my interested topic and its challenges have helped me in earning great skills of reading and
searching , being patient until finding the right information and working on different sources of information to
obtain accurate details about the topic I am writing.
8.4 Improving Vocabulary and Writing Skills
Reading topics of students’ choices and interests improved their vocabulary and generally writing skills as
Mohammed commented:
I have developed better writing skills and selecting appropriate formal words which in turn has improved my
English vocabulary.
8.5 Improving Critical Thinking Skills
Reading more in a chosen topic deeply improves students’ critical thinking skills as Mohammed commented:
I have become capable of criticizing and analyzing various aspects of similar topics due to reading and thinking
about different opinions of international writers and novelists.
8.6 Making Effort for Creativity
Some students expressed their enjoyment in the process of searching for their interested topics, analyzing and
presenting, which gave them feeling of comfort and confidence as Mthkar commented:
If I choose my own topic which is I liked. I did my best to create new ideas. I was creative in analyzing my topic.
It was easier to talk about my topic. When I got questions from the students, I answered easily.
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8.7 Personality Development
Personality development is an advantage of reading preferred topics as Mohammed commented:
The work of choosing my own topic has helped me in developing my own character and thinking skills.
This section presents the main results and discussion of research Question 2: What are the students’ challenges
of using the instructional strategy of reading topics of students’ choices and interests and academic writing? are
as followed:
8.8 Not Meeting Students’ Interests
Other students started to think of their classmates’ interest to attract their attention in their presentations. As
Mthkar commented:
I thought may be the students will not like my topic or it is not their preference.
Mohammed added:
It was not easy to select important and beneficial topics that may be of major concern to many students
8.9 Difficulty in Finding the Accurate Information
Other students face challenges in searching for the suitable information related to their topics. As Byerikbolsy
commented:
I am student of Political Science department so everything that happens in the world is very interesting for me.
When I wrote about The Formation of UN, it was very difficult to find out when exactly it started and how it was
developed. It was a challenge for me to find correct answers and to find correct date in a history.
Mohammed added:
The challenges I have experienced during selecting desired topics were ways of information gathering either
through books, articles or internet.
8.10 Information Organization
During the reading process, some students thought deeply in organizing the collected ideas which they found it
challenging.
Mohammed commented:
Organizing relevant information and details according to their priority order was difficult for me when I
selected my interested topic.
8.11 Difficulty in Paraphrasing Paragraphs
During the writing process, some students found it difficult to paraphrase the ideas that they read from the
related articles As Mohammed commented:
I found difficulty in paraphrasing certain paragraphs to provide a better and clearer understanding of the topic.
8.12 Fear of Spelling, Vocabulary and Grammatical Errors
Students’ fear of making technical errors in their writing about their topics delays their work. As Mohammed
commented:
Avoiding spelling, vocabulary and grammatical errors while writing for my topic that I have selected was a
challenge.
8.13 More Effort and Time to Do the Work
Some students felt exhausted of the time spent to search for the related articles to their chosen topics. As
Mthkar commented:
When I chose my own topic which is interested for me, I thought I might not find information related to my topic.
I need to do more work and effort to collect the most relevant information to my topic. I asked my classmate to
get more opinions about my topic.
Mohammed added:
When I chose my interested topic, I faced some struggles. These struggles made my work uneasy and require
time to find the most appropriate materials that are relevant to my selected topic.
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9. Discussion and Conclusion
Relating topics to students’ major deepen the students’ knowledge in their specialization As Byerikbolsy
commented. Students’ beliefs that learning possibility without limits, and their interests and openness to other
cultures differences is stated by Shuaib: “I have learnt that a person can learn at any time and any place and
age. Interest is the most significant”.
Selecting topics of students’ interests encourages them to continue working on reading the articles even though
they face some challenges as Mohammed commented: “it requires time to find the most appropriate materials”
and Mthkar added: “I need to do more work and effort to collect the most relevant information to my topic”.
Mohammed stated: “Choosing my interested topic...have helped me in ... being patient until finding the right
information”.
Content and organization in reading and writing were improved in students’ dialogue journals project (Liao &
Wong, 2008) and story mapping strategy (Ibanian, 2010). When these strategies were used with the male UAE
University students, the students initially found the strategies challenging, which means that students’ reflective
awareness of writing and self-growth as learners were improved as Mohammed commented: “Organizing
relevant information and details according to their priority order was difficult for me when I selected my
interested topic”.
The students’ awareness of building a large vocabulary is significant (Herroro, 2007). When students read for
pleasure and choose their interesting topics, they acquire a large vocabulary (Krashen, 1993). Also, students’
vocabulary improved when they write their dialogue journals (Liao & Wong , 2008) as Mohammed commented:
“I have developed better writing skills and selecting appropriate formal words which in turn has improved my
English vocabulary”. However, students ‘fear of making semantic errors in their writing delays their work As
Mohammed commented: “Avoiding spelling, vocabulary … errors while writing … was a challenge”.
As initial stage, Knowledge and experience is what the students gained as Mohammed commented: “The
struggles I came across have….increased my knowledge capacity”. Abdullah added: I … gained more
knowledge, experience” In later stages, students developed skills of critical thinking as Mohamed emphasized “I
have become capable of criticizing and analyzing various aspects of similar topics”.
Creativity and personality improvement are indicators of students’ enjoyment of reading and writing topics of
their choices and interest even though they struggled initially As Mathkr commented: “If I choose my own topic
which is I liked. I did my best to create new ideas” and as Mohammed commented: “choosing my own topic has
helped me in developing my own character”.
The role of reading interesting articles, article mapping and journal writing in enhancing students’ reading and
writing performance is important, which is preferable to students rather than traditional approaches that some
teachers utilize. The reading and writing performance of the male students who are instructed using the
conjunction of reading their interesting topics and writing structured journal is improved. The implementation of
this approach empowers the students, help them overcome their writing anxiety and ultimately improve their
achievement in their reading and writing. This study is beneficial to students, teachers and researchers. Based
on the study results, adopting this approach, teachers could assist their students overcome their writing anxiety
which could lead to students’ writing skills improvement. The results of this study emphasize that when the
students are given the opportunity to read academic articles they choose and like, they most probably develop a
love for reading and writing. When these students start to find a pleasure in reading, they most probably become
lifetime readers, a target that many teachers aspire to attain. This passion for reading assists students improving
their reading and writing skills. The study shed light on the significance of reading academic articles of the
students’ choices and interest and academic writing. Further studies would be needed to search for other
instructional strategies of improving students’ reading academic articles and writing skills.
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... As discovered by Al Fadda (2012), the most difficult aspect in writing for ESL students includes distinguishing between written and spoken words, reviewing correct grammar to use, and connecting sentences together to form a cohesive paragraph. Al Murshidi (2014) agreed that students' inability to generate ideas on the related topics may become a barrier that impedes them to write more. These problems may arise as a result of low language proficiency among the students. ...
... Study by Aldabbus and Almansouri in 2022 indicated that students encountered difficulty in selecting the appropriate academic words for their academic writing. In contrast with the findings by Al Murshidi (2014), the participants expressed their inability to generate ideas on the related topics which became the main difficulty for them to write. Besides, Al Badi (2020) noted that his findings show coherence and cohesion in writing were chosen as the most common difficulty faced in writing academically. ...
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... Students' difficulties in the proper use of articles, punctuation, prepositions, irregular verbs, weak expressions, consistency paralleled structure, and use of verb tense were noted in the research study of [20]. The students had difficulty in a reasonable vocabulary size [60], morphology, lexicon, and syntax [14], spellings, grammar, mistakes due to first structure, doubling of subjects, language interference, doubling of preposition, articles, tenses, appropriate vocabulary, use of prefixes, and suffixes [61], the low level of the language proficiency [62] language related skills more difficult than content-related problems [63], organizing ideas and arguments, expressing thought smoothly with appropriate styles of academic writing [64,65], organizing the structure and content of a paper more than the language-related problems [66,67], composing an in-depth and interesting content [68], language-related problems [63] and terms of lexical and stylistic aspects of academic writing [69,70]. The difficulties that they mostly faced were about how to write, what to be written, vocabulary as well as incompetence in structure [71]. ...
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Academic writing is an advanced formal composition written with a specific purpose. It is a structured writing retaining certain elements that frame it outstanding from other ordinary writings. The crucial objective of this article is to examine the difficulties encountered by the master level fourth semester students in academic writing in the Faculty of Management at Makawanpur Multiple Campus, Hetauda in the academic session 2021- 2022. A cross-sectional survey research design was executed to carry out the research study. The five point 35 Likert type questions were administered to assemble the primary data. A simple random sampling technique, lottery method, was used to form the sample size of 81 students from the population comprised of 102 students by maintaining the 95% confidence level and 5% margin of error. The study concluded that the first largest number of students had difficulties in starting the writing, contents in writing under the conclusion section, the general length of each section, giving examples in writings, conditional sentences, adverbs , adjectives and drawing recommendations; the second largest number of the students had difficulties in choosing an appropriate academic topic, generating information, writing the introduction section, writing the body section, writing topic sentences, writing causes and their effects, using cohesive devices, in writing different sentences of comparisons and contrasts, using quotations, summarizing, paraphrasing, indirect form, using prepositions, tenses, conjunctions, feedback, polishing sentences, editing spellings, editing punctuations , and using appropriate words. The students were not sure about their difficulties in supporting the topic sentences by giving reasons and evidence, and use of passive voice. They did not have difficulties in citing and referencing the sources. This research article will be beneficial to teachers as it exposes them the particular problems that they will support their students in solving the problems through teaching.
... Additionally, teachers' choice of essay topics significantly affects student motivation. Writing about topics that interest them motivates students to read and persist when they encounter difficulties (Al Murshidi, 2014). ...
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Writing assignments have been considered challenging for English as a Second Language (ESL) students. Several studies have investigated writing difficulties, primarily focusing on lexical and grammatical problems. However, few studies have explored challenges at various stages of writing. This research examines teachers’ views on the challenges ESL tertiary students face when writing descriptive essays in the three primary stages: pre-writing, during writing, and post-writing. It also explores the factors contributing to these challenges and provides suggestions for overcoming them. Explanatory research was conducted by collecting quantitative and qualitative data from a web-based questionnaire and semi-structured interviews and analyzing those datasets separately. Fifteen English teachers participated in the online survey, and five teachers underwent individual interviews. This research reveals the problems ESL tertiary students encounter at the different stages of writing essays. In the pre-writing stage, students struggled most with outlining. During writing, they worked most on avoiding plagiarism, writing well-structured sentences, and linking between sentences. In the post-writing stage, they worked most with editing and revising. The teachers identified a lack of knowledge and creativity, over-dependence on teacher feedback, and unawareness of the writing process as the main factors behind these difficulties. The teachers suggested numerous solutions to overcome the challenges, including continuous writing training, teacher guidance, and increasing students’ awareness about writing stages by applying different digital techniques.
... Additionally, teachers' choice of essay topics significantly affects student motivation. Writing about topics that interest them motivates students to read and persist when they encounter difficulties (Al Murshidi, 2014). ...
Article
Writing assignments have been considered challenging for English as a Second Language (ESL) students. Several studies have investigated writing difficulties, primarily focusing on lexical and grammatical problems. However, few studies have explored challenges at various stages of writing. This research examines teachers’ views on the challenges ESL tertiary students face when writing descriptive essays in the three primary stages: pre-writing, during writing, and post-writing. It also explores the factors contributing to these challenges and provides suggestions for overcoming them. Explanatory research was conducted by collecting quantitative and qualitative data from a web-based questionnaire and semi-structured interviews and analyzing those datasets separately. Fifteen English teachers participated in the online survey, and five teachers underwent individual interviews. This research reveals the problems ESL tertiary students encounter at the different stages of writing essays. In the pre-writing stage, students struggled most with outlining. During writing, they worked most on avoiding plagiarism, writing well-structured sentences, and linking between sentences. In the post-writing stage, they worked most with editing and revising. The teachers identified a lack of knowledge and creativity, over-dependence on teacher feedback, and unawareness of the writing process as the main factors behind these difficulties. The teachers suggested numerous solutions to overcome the challenges, including continuous writing training, teacher guidance, and increasing students’ awareness about writing stages by applying different digital techniques.
... In practice, the intention to read and the extent of engagement with a particular English reading material are both influenced by interest (Fox & Alexander, 2003). A study conducted at a university in the United Arab Emirates revealed that choosing to read a variety of engaging topics developed students' interests and increased their motivation to continue reading academic articles despite facing some challenges in understanding vocabulary and semantic errors (Al Murshidi, 2014). Thus, it has been shown that a high level of reading interest can lead to academic achievement (Oakhill & Petrides, 2007). ...
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The prevalence of COVID-19 worldwide and the length of the global lockdown period deeply affected students' academic study. This unexpected scenario posed a challenge to a considerable number of academic institutions around the world to formally adopt a new education system based on e-learning platforms. Therefore, this study aims to investigate whether Malaysian English as a Foreign Language (EFL) undergraduates' incidental exposure to online platforms during the pandemic might have helped to arouse their interest in reading extensively on the internet. To help explore the issue, a quantitative approach using a descriptive survey design was implemented. Data were collected through a structured online questionnaire administered to 255 undergraduate EFL students majoring in a range of academic disciplines at the University Malaysia Terengganu (UMT) to express their interest in the research topic. To analyze the data, a two-tailed Pearson Correlation coefficient was undertaken and the researchers administered the standard multiple regression analysis to test its impact using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) (Version 25). The obtained findings indicated that the relationship between incidental exposure to e-learning and students' interest in online extensive reading during the COVID-19 pandemic was found to be high, positive, and statistically significant. Therefore, EFL undergraduates who had incidental exposure to e-learning classes also developed a significant interest in extensive reading on the internet. Moreover, carrying out reading and writing assignments assigned by EFL university teachers was one of the central reasons behind the Malaysian undergraduates' engagement with online extensive reading during this period. Resumen La prevalencia de COVID-19 en todo el mundo y la duración del período de aislamiento global afectaron profundamente el estudio académico de los estudiantes. Este escenario inesperado planteó un desafío a un número considerable de instituciones académicas de todo el mundo para adoptar formalmente un nuevo sistema educativo basado en plataformas de aprendizaje electrónico. Por lo tanto, este estudio tiene como objetivo investigar si la exposición incidental de los estudiantes de licenciatura de inglés como lengua extranjera (EFL) de Malasia a las plataformas en línea durante la pandemia podría haber ayudado a despertar su interés en leer mucho en Internet. Para ayudar a explorar el problema, se implementó un enfoque cuantitativo utilizando un diseño de encuesta descriptivo. Los datos se recopilaron a través de un cuestionario en línea estructurado que se administró a 255 estudiantes de EFL de pregrado que se especializan en una variedad de disciplinas académicas en la Universidad de Malasia Terengganu (UMT) para expresar su interés en el tema de investigación. Para analizar los datos, se realizó un coeficiente de correlación de Pearson de dos colas y los investigadores administraron el análisis de regresión múltiple estándar para probar su impacto utilizando el paquete estadístico para las ciencias sociales (SPSS) (versión 25). Los hallazgos obtenidos indicaron que la relación entre la exposición incidental al e-learning y el interés de los estudiantes en la lectura extensiva en línea durante la pandemia de COVID-19 resultó ser alta, positiva y estadísticamente significativa. Por lo tanto, los estudiantes universitarios de EFL que tuvieron una exposición incidental a las clases de aprendizaje electrónico también desarrollaron un interés significativo en la lectura extensiva en Internet. Además, llevar a cabo las tareas de lectura y escritura asignadas por los profesores universitarios de EFL fue una de las razones centrales detrás del compromiso de los estudiantes universitarios de Malasia con la lectura extensiva en línea durante este período.
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The focus of this study was to explore English writing challenges faced by Alsharq University undergraduates in North and East Syria. A qualitative study was conducted for data collection using semi-structured individual interviews with 5 undergraduates. Conducting thematic analysis, the present study found that students need help in academic writing due to limited vocabulary, frequent grammatical errors, and sentence structure issues. They needed help with organizing ideas and adhering to academic writing conventions. The study's findings also revealed that different solutions were proposed, including enriching vocabulary through extensive practice, revising drafts to identify and correct errors, seeking peer support, and incorporating instructor feedback. These strategies were identified as key methods for improving the student's writing skills. The findings of this study contribute to a deeper understanding of the specific barriers English language learners face in English writing. Limitations and future research suggestions are discussed in the article.
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Purpose This study contributes to the current body of literature on students' understanding of academic misconduct, plagiarism, forms of plagiarism, the reasons they plagiarize, the sanctions imposed by academics for plagiarizing and the methods to address plagiarism in written assessments within the Faculty of Natural Sciences, University of Guyana, which was investigated in 2021. Design/methodology/approach The research design was descriptive and grounded in the pragmatism paradigm. The methodology employed was quantitative, consisting of the collection of data through an online, self-administered questionnaire-based survey. Findings The results showed that despite students having a conceptual understanding of academic misconduct and plagiarism, they intentionally and unintentionally plagiarized their written assessments, mainly because of the assessment workload (64.9%), busy schedule (52.8%), not understanding the assessment (46.3%) and not knowing how to correctly cite sources (44.6%). Prevalent forms of plagiarism committed by students included finding synonyms for the author’s language while keeping to the same general structure and meaning of the original work (48%) and neglecting to cite sources, misquote sources or unintentionally paraphrase a source by using similar words, groups of words and/or sentence structure without attribution (42%). Academic sanctions commonly include giving an overall reduced grade, giving a warning and asking the student to redo the plagiarized work. The study showed that students preferred flexible and lenient penalties to address plagiarism and objected to sanctions that may jeopardize their academic progression. Originality/value An international literature review will demonstrate extensive research on academic misconduct, particularly plagiarism, emphasizing attitudes and perceptions. Despite Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies and limited software subscriptions, academic misconduct in Guyana is still poorly understood. Therefore, this study adds to the literature by evaluating tertiary education students' perceptions of plagiarism, given the growing concerns and negative repercussions of plagiarism and student use of AI to produce assignments at this university.
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Early childhood education (ECE) is widely recognised as the foundation of children's academic success and overall development. In recent years, there has been an increased interest in integrating up-to-date technological resources and innovative pedagogical approaches to improve the quality of ECE, such as implementing online reading platforms in education, which can result in expanding young learners' extensive reading (ER) on the Internet. This narrative review aims to explore the integration of innovative online reading platforms into ECE to promote emotional engagement in ER on the Internet among elementary school children. Conducting a thorough review of the literature from 45 high-impact indexed articles, this study sheds light on key concepts related to ECE, emotional engagement, online reading platforms, and online extensive reading (OER). Furthermore, it highlights the benefits and potential contributions to early childhood literacy development. The present review concludes that integrating online reading platforms in teaching ER offers educators an opportunity to create engaging environments for emotional engagement with online reading materials. However, teacher guidance and parental oversight are essential for children's interactions or exposure to those platforms, ensuring positive impacts on early literacy growth.
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“Frequently accepted as being the last language skill to be acquired for native speakers of the language as well as for foreign/second language learners” (Hamp-Lyons and Heasly, 2006: 2), English writing, for a number of EFL learners, appears to be challenging. This paper sought to investigate if learners can grow out of the writing difficulties by engaging in journal writing activity. 85 second-year students from the two writing classes, one treated as the experimental group (EG) and the other as the control group (CG), at the Faculty of English Linguistics and Literature of the University of Social Sciences and Humanities in Ho Chi Minh City (USSH-HCMC) were invited to participate in the study, whose findings substantiated the benefits of journal writing as an extensive activity to foster learners' writing motivation and enhance their writing skill as well as to build a close bonding between teachers and learners.
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This study investigated the effectiveness of instruction in story mapping as a means to promote first-grade students' comprehension of central story elements in children's literature. Participants were 74 children in four first-grade classrooms, which were randomly assigned to one of four groups: (a) a Story Mapping 1 (SM1) group, in which students were taught to construct story maps for unadapted, unabridged children's stories they had read; (b) a Story Mapping 2 (SM2) group, which involved the same instruction as SM1 but included using story maps to compose stories; (c) a Directed Reading-Thinking Activity (DRTA) comparison strategy group, in which students read the same stories according to a predict-verify procedure; or (d) a directed reading activity (DRA) instructed control group, in which students engaged in a noninteractive, guided reading of stories. Quantitative analyses were conducted on five whole-sample dependent measures: an important idea test on a parsed story, a wh-question test of central story elements, a summary selection task, an important story element recognition test, and a delayed wh-question test. Results revealed that (a) some form of active comprehension instruction (SM1, SM2, or DRTA) was superior to the control-group DRA on most measures, (b) story mapping (SM1 and SM2) students consistently outperformed DRA controls, (c) story mapping was superior to DRTA on some measures but not on others, and (d) SM1 and SM2 groups did not differ on any measure. Qualitative data from student interviews generally supported these findings. It was concluded that instruction in story mapping is an effective instructional strategy for promoting first-grade students' ability to identify central narrative elements in authentic children's literature.
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Learn how to use literature to teach students the six traits that characterize effective writing: ideas, organization, voice, word choice, sentence fluency, and conventions. This practical text gives the reader a variety of ideas and strategies for developing and integrating the traits into students? writing, bibliographies of recommended children's literature, assessment ideas, and sample lesson plans. It also gives ideas on how to provide time for students to read aloud and write every day. This book contains the following ten chapters: (1) The Reading-Writing Connection; (2) Teaching Writing and Genre Literature; (3) Chapter Writing From Experience; (4) Finding Good Ideas and Details; (5) Organizing Ideas; (6) Expressing Feelings through Voice; (7) Choosing the Right Words; (8) Apprehending Fluency and Rhythm; (9) Editing for Conventions; and (10) Some Final Thoughts. An index is included.