Teaching English Writing for Arabic Students

by

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I would like to express my deepest gratitude for my research supervisor, fellow students, peers, questionnaire and interview respondents and my family whose enormous and endless support has been a source of constant inspiration and guidance throughout the completion of this dissertation.

DECLARATION

I [your full first name and surname], declare that this dissertation and its entire content and research responses is the result of my individual unaided effort, and no part of this dissertation has been submitted or published before. This thesis reflects my individual opinion in terms of the findings of the research on the topic of my dissertation, and does not necessarily reflect the opinion of my college.

Signature:

Dated:

ABSTRACT

In this dissertation, I tried to explore the concept of teaching English writing to Arabic students. The research also analyses the process of learning languages, the key differences between Arabic and English language, the language learning strengths of the Arabic students and the major obstacles that Arabic students might face during learning English writing skills in order to achieve results for creating an effective model for teachers to teach English writing to Arabic students. English language is highly valued by Arabic-speaking people because of its worth in multinational corporations. However, Arabic students learning to write English language face a lot of problems in their written communication. This could be because of the various writing styles, and structure difference between these two languages. Hence, there are many differences in Arabic and English languages, which causes the Arabic students to face various difficulties in attaining advance English writing skills. The research comprises of mix methodology approach, in which, the secondary research is conducted by reviewing literature from academic literature resources. The primary research is performed by conducting semi-structured interviews of the students followed by a questionnaire survey of the students in order to achieve unbiased results for the research project. This research is mainly conducted for study purpose, and no inducements were offered to the participants of the results.

CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTII

DECLARATIONIII

ABSTRACTIV

LIST OF FIGURESVII

LIST OF TABLESVIII

CHAPTER 01: INTRODUCTION9

1.1Background of the Research9

1.2Problem Statement10

1.3Rationale of the Study11

1.4Aims and Objectives11

1.5Research Questions12

1.6Method of Study12

1.7Limitations of the Study13

1.8Outline of the Study14

CHAPTER 02: LITERATURE REVIEW15

2.1Learning Foreign Language15

2.11Learning Strategies16

2.2Definition of Writing17

2.21Advance Learning Strategies for Writing18

2.221Accuracy18

2.222Organisation19

2.223Relevance to Question21

2.224Choice and Style21

2.225Coherence and Cohesion22

2.3Significance of Learning English as a Foreign Language Writing23

2.4The Arabic Language23

2.5Differences in Arabic and English Language25

2.51Most Prominent Differences27

2.6Obstacles Encountered by Arabic Students in Learning English Language31

2.61Collocational Patterns31

2.62Different Writing Strategies32

2.63Negative Transfer32

2.64Prepositional Knowledge34

2.7Implications for Teaching34

2.71Responsibilities of an EFL Teacher35

2.72Teaching EFL Writing Skills37

2.73Teaching Nouns, Adjectives and Verbal Usage39

CHAPTER 03: METHODOLOGY41

3.1Study Design41

3.2Qualitative and Quantitative Research42

3.3Overview of Mixed Methods Research Approach44

3.4Research Method and Design Appropriateness45

3.5Advantages and Disadvantages of Mixed Method46

3.6Assessment tool47

3.7Data collection47

3.8Selection Criteria48

3.81Inclusion Criteria48

3.82Exclusion criteria48

3.9Data Analysis48

3.91Qualitative Data Analysis48

3.92Quantitative Data Analysis49

3.10Informed Consent49

3.11Confidentiality50

3.12Validity51

3.13Reliability52

3.14Ethical Considerations53

CHAPTER 04: DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS55

4.1Questionnaire Survey Findings and Analysis55

4.2Interview Survey Findings and Analysis68

4.3Discussion of Findings Related to Literature Review76

CHAPTER 05: CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS80

5.1Recommendations for Further Research81

REFERENCES82

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1: Difference of writing system in English and Arabic language25

Figure 2: Differences in Arabic and English28

Figure 3: Actual and Borrowed sounds in Arabic language29

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