[MIDTERM - SUMMARY] University Students’ English Writing Problems: Diagnosis and Remedy

INTRODUCTION

Writing is one of the main language skills. It plays a major role in expressing one’s ideas, thoughts, opinions, and attitudes. Through writing, people are capable of sharing ideas, feelings, persuading and convincing others. People may write for personal enjoyment or for some other purpose. There are many reasons to include writing in a second or foreign language syllabus. One important reason is that: writing helps learners learn. It helps them have a chance to adventure with the language, to go beyond what they have learned (Reimes, 1993). Writing allows students to see their progress and get feedback from the teacher, and also allows teachers to monitor students and diagnose problems encountered. This shows that writing plays a predominant role in language learning.

 

Statement of the Problem

Students’ problems in writing may occur because of many factors. One of the causes for the challenge might be the complex nature of the writing skill itself. Raimes (1983) thinks that: “When students complain about how difficult it is to write in a second language, they are talking not only about the difficulty of finding the right words and using the correct grammar but also about the difficulty of finding and expressing ideas in a new language. (p. 13)”.

 

APPROACHES TO WRITING

Product Approach

The product approach to writing focuses on the finished products of the writing work rather than the process. The writing teacher who uses the product approach will be concerned to see that the end product is readable, grammatically correct and obeys discourse conventions relating to main points, supporting details and so on. Raimes (1983:6) writes “in the control approach of teaching writing students are given sentences to copy and manipulate grammatically and correctly with very limited opportunity of making mistakes.” Hedge (1988:8) suggests some points which students should include in the product approach of writing. These include:

a. Getting the grammar right.

b. Having a range of vocabulary.

c. Punctuating meaningfully.

d. Using the conventions of layout correctly.

e. Spelling accuracy.

f. Using a range of sentence structures.

g. Linking ideas and information across sentences to develop a topic.

h. Developing and organizing the content clearly and convincingly.

 

Learners’ Writing Problems

Hedge (1988: 5) thinks that so as the writer to compensate the absence of the prosodic features in writing, he/ she has to write with high degree of organization, careful choice of vocabulary and using complex grammatical devices. Grammatical problems, mechanical problems, sentence structure problems and problems of diction are linguistic problems that hamper students’ effective writing in English.

 

CAUSES OF LEARNERS’ PROBLEMS IN WRITING

Lack Learners’ Motivation

According to Zamel (1997) the writing class should take into account the learners’ purposes for writing. Writing tasks can be developed rapidly when students’ concerns and interests are acknowledged, when they are given numerous opportunities to write and when they are encouraged to become participants. According to Leki (1991, p. 9), the desire on the part of the writer to communicate something is very important because it is much more difficult for students to write about something they have no interest in.

In addition, Pincas (1982: 4) thinks that for all ages and levels, motivation is increased if writing is placed in a realistic context. Byrne (1988:2) believes that most of writers write less well if they are obliged to write about something that they do not want to write about.

 

Lack of Practice

According to Davies (1998:25), "writing is essentially a creative process and good writers must learn to communicate their ideas clearly to an unseen audience. This takes a lot of practice. Grabe and Kaplan (1996:6) believe that writing does not come naturally but rather gained through continuous effort and much practice. In addition, learners must take the responsibility for their learning if meaningful learning is to take place.

 

Teachers’ Feedback

Zamel (1985: 79) states that teacher's feedback can be effective if teachers respond to students writing as genuine and interested readers rather than as judges and evaluators. To motivate students, the writing teacher should include comments of praise and encouragement in their written feedback. If teachers see their students’ response as the end of the interaction, then students will stop there.

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