Arab World English Journal (AWEJ) Proceedings of 1st MEC TESOL Conference 2018 Pp. 140-145
DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.24093/awej/MEC1.10
Towards Arab Students’ Grammatical Errors in Academic
Writing & their Perceptions
Soheil Atashian
Department of Foreign Languages
University of Nizwa, Oman
Khairiya Al-Bahri
English Education
University of Nizwa, Oman
Abstract:
Writing plays an integral role in English students’ academic life. Background study reveals that ‘grammar’ is one of the most significant challenges concerning students’ academic writing performance. The present paper aims to find out the grammatical difficulties that university students face in their academic writing and to identify the causes of this problem. Furthermore, the study seeks to investigate the strategies and solutions to tackle this problem. Data in this research were collected from 200 students of B.A. in Education (with the sub-major in English) at the University of Nizwa in Oman. The samples were students’ assignments throughout the semester. A table of frequency was formed to list the type of grammatical errors and the number of times the mistake was observed. Three grammatical points, namely, tenses, adverbs and pronouns were students’ most frequent mistakes. Then an interview was conducted with the students to figure out their perception of the mistakes in their academic writing skill. Students’ perception was looked into against their actual mistakes in writing. Finally, the sources of these errors were investigated in the background study and the related literature, and some pedagogical implications were made. The method of research in this study is qualitative.
Key Words: academic writing, error, grammar, perception, tenses
Cite as: Atashian, S., & Al-Bahri, K. (2018). Towards Arab Students’ Grammatical Errors in AcademicWriting & their Perceptions. Arab World English Journal (AWEJ). Proceedings of 1st MEC TESOL Conference 2018.
DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.24093/awej/MEC1.10