EXPLORING TERTIARY ENGLISH-MAJORED STUDENTS’ ACADEMIC WRITING DIFFICULTIES

Abstract

This paper endeavors to present the findings of a study on the writing difficulties in terms of six aspects in academic writing, namely organization/sequence, vocabulary/spelling, grammar, supporting ideas, punctuation/capitalization, and unity and coherence encountered by English-majored students. The research participants were 126 English-majored students from a higher education institution in Lam Dong province, Vietnam. The participants took part in answering closed-ended questionnaires. Quantitative data were analyzed by SPSS in terms of descriptive statistics. The findings revealed that participants often faced a variety of writing difficulties in academic writing. Remarkably, among six aspects of academic writing difficulties, participants had more difficulties in deploying organization/sequence and using grammar and punctuation/capitalization than the other aspects. Additionally, the aspect of unity and coherence in academic writing was the least difficult one from which they suffered in academic writing. Pedagogical implications are recommended for improving the quality of the teaching and learning of academic writing in the research context and other similar ones.