Abstract

Writing plays a prominent role in learning a second language or foreign language. Research mainly focused on the development of writing skill from the teachers or trainers’ perspectives, but in the recent studies researchers have explored students’ concerns about writing skill and the difficulties they encounter in the process. The learners are fully aware of the challenges and their expectations of the courses. The purpose of this study is to investigate students’ perceptions about academic writing courses or writing in general and to investigate the differences they observe about the teaching practice followed in the kingdom as well as ELP in the USA. A total of 03 students (from three different provinces of the KSA) from the pre-university English language program (Applied English Center, Kansas University, USA) for Saudi students enrolled for various courses in their masters program in the US universities participated in this study. The general design of the study was qualitative in nature as a questionnaire and a focus-group interview were implemented for data collection. The overall results demonstrated that the difference in teaching strategies is a significant factor which poses a question mark on the professional training expected of the teachers involved in various universities in the kingdom. The major findings demonstrated students’ awareness of their needs and ESL writing requirements and how teaching writing in MT or so to say L1 influences their ESL learning. The study concluded with recommendations for future research.

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