A Study of the Difficulties that Saudi Students Face with Academic Writing in the U.K

Abstract

Academic writing is important to students because it is the skill most commonly used to assess students at university. Developing good academic writing skills is important to both local and international students to embrace the use of the English language as the media of instruction. In consideration of the lack of adequate knowledge about grammatical rules applied when writing academic work in the English language among Saudi students in UK institutes, the current study elucidated the causes of the challenges that Saudi students face in writing academic works and offers possible solutions. Using an exploratory design, both inductive and deductive approaches were integrated to guide the processes of data collection and analysis. A mixed methods approach encompassing interviews and questionnaires was used to survey 137 Saudi students at university in Sheffield, Leeds, Manchester, Newcastle, Scotland and elsewhere in the UK. Thematic analysis was applied, leading to the isolation of three themes consistent with the study objectives. The findings suggested potential challenges faced by Saudi students with academic writing including difficulties with critical thinking, referencing and using sources, understanding essay instructions or questions, and English writing skills, especially paraphrasing. The causes of the problems identified include a lack of feedback on academic writing, not taking a pre-sessional English course, the lack of opportunities to practice academic writing, the lack of English language teachers, and unavailability of course books and reading materials. Therefore, practicing academic writing in English and taking pre-sessional courses prior to entering the UK were identified as the potential solutions to the problems revealed with academic writing.