INVESTIGATING WRITING DIFFICULTY AMONG ENGLISH LANGUAGE STUDENTS: A CASE STUDY OF MASTER ONE STUDENTS AT THE DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE- UNIVERSITY OF GHARDAIA

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to investigate the writing difficulty and its causes among Master One students when engaging in academic writing and how they overcome this difficulty that hinders their writing improvement. 47 students in the Department of English Language at University of Ghardaia took part in this study. To this end, a mixed method approach was adopted combining both quantitative and qualitative analyses, and a structured questionnaire was distributed to forty-seven Master one students and analysed using an SPSS software. It consisted of twelve closed-ended questions ranged between Yes/No questions (2), frequency scale questions such as “Always, Often, Sometimes, Never” (2) and checklist type multiple choice questions (8). The obtained findings revealed that the students, in the main, read and write insufficiently, lack conceptual mastery of the subject matter and specialised vocabulary and are unaware of the importance of using writing strategies. The findings confirmed the hypothesis that the writing difficulty and its causes are due to the lack of reading and writing besides the lack of subject matter mastery, specialised vocabulary and writing strategies. Finally, some recommendations were suggested.