TITLE:
Tunisian EFL Students’ Perceptions toward Their Writing Difficulties
AUTHORS:
Salwa Enneifer
KEYWORDS:
Writing, Difficulties, Tunisian, EFL Students
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Modern Linguistics,
Vol.11 No.4,
August
24,
2021
ABSTRACT: The research is intended to investigate Tunisian students’ own perception of the difficulties they encounter in the writing task. To achieve this objective, a questionnaire was administered to students enrolled in the “Faculty of Letters Arts and Humanities” in Kairouan, in Tunisia. Students were classified into three groups: first-, second- and third-year students. The researcher used 120 questionnaires filled in by the students as data for this study; moreover, 30 students participated in a semi-structured interview to complete the data. The questionnaire results revealed that Tunisian EFL students faced spelling and grammar difficulties. ANOVA also revealed that the first-year students did not recognise that Arabic and English greatly differ in their respective punctuation systems. The second-year class, however, were fully aware of this difference. Additionally, the interview shed light on other aspects or different difficulties experienced by students in writing: a cruel “lack of vocabulary”, Arabic language interference, the organisation of the essay and especially the academic essay and difficulty with writing an argumentative essay.