Challenges in English Academic Writing From the perspective of Postgraduate Students at Duhok Polytechnic University

Abstract

• Proficiency in academic writing in English is one of the significant requirements for postgraduate students, especially if they are from non-English background. The main purpose of this study is to identify the challenges encounter by students at postgraduate level in English academic writing skill at Duhok Polytechnic University (DPU), which is one of the technical universities in Kurdistan region of Iraq. This study dealt with collecting data in the field part, since it depended on the questionnaire form as a primary data source. To achieve the objective of this study, (50) forms were distributed among a sample of post graduate students enrolled on mainstream programs at (DPU) during the academic year 2020-2021 to collect their perceptions of difficulties and challenges in English academic writing skill, however, (41) students responded to the questionnaire. Also, semi-structured interviews were conducted with (5) supervisors to obtain their reflections and views on the student's academic writing skills. Descriptive research approach has been employed to collect and analyze the data. Hence, the study problem diagnosed with the following question; What are the challenges that postgraduate students encounter when they write their assignments and dissertations in English at DPU? To answer this question, it is hypothesized that there were various challenges encountered by the postgraduate students. The data was analyzed according to the variables of our own, including grammar, punctuation, vocabulary, spelling, using formal language, the interference of language1etc. The outcomes of the analysis showed that postgraduate students faced many difficulties in their academic writing, such as inappropriate use of vocabulary, grammatical problems, subject/verb agreement, punctuation, spelling, problems in writing sentences and paragraphs, difficulties in paraphrasing and summarizing also the results showed that the students were very much influenced by their mother language (language1). The study developed a set of recommendations within the suggestions section that can be used by different educational institutions including DPU.