Investigating the Problems of Paragraph and Essay Writing among EFL Students of Almergeb and Tripoli Universities-Libya

Abstract

This study investigated the problems that face EFL students and teachers when learning and teaching writing paragraph and essay at university level. A sample of 120 students and 10 teachers of faculty of education was randomly chosen from two different universities, namely: Almergeb University and Tripoli University. A test for the students and a questionnaire for the teachers were used as data collection instruments. For data analysis, descriptive statistical analysis by means of T-test and analysis of variance (ANOVA) was adopted. The results obtained showed that the overall competence of the group is relatively weak. On the one hand, the group has moderate levels of competence in such areas as punctuation, unity, coherence, spelling, cohesion and word order. The group has also neared moderate levels of competence in Subject – Verb Agreement, Style and Verb – Tense Logic. It lacks sufficient competence in the organization of essay. However, the group has shown a great promise that given proper and adequate exposure, it can fare well in the domain of academic writing. In addition, the teachers did not use suitable ways of teaching writing .The study recommended suitable ways of teaching writing by providing students with guidelines, strategies, and practice in writing in order to prepare them for academic demands; decreasing the use of Arabic in classrooms; and exposing the students to supplementary materials to make writing classes more useful.