Investigating Difficulties Encountered by Students in Interpreting Analytical Factors in Written Discourse

Abstract

This study aimed at investigating difficulties encountered by undergraduate students in interpreting analytical factors in written discourse. The researcher adopted descriptive analytical approach. Two instruments were used for collection data relevant to the study, namely questionnaire was distributed to teachers of English at some Sudanese Universities and written diagnostic test was given to the fourth year students of English at Sudan University of Science and Technology, College of Language. The sample of questionnaire comprised (60) teachers whereas the written diagnostic test consisted (40) students. The study adopted descriptive analytical approach and applied SPSS program to analyze and verify the results. The results showed that Undergraduate students have problems in using the analytical factors to analyze written discourse. Moreover, Undergraduate studentsare unfamiliar withanalytical factors indecoding rhetorical expressions.Undergraduate students are not able to classify the types of the written discourse to comprehend the written discourse. The study recommended that teachers should raise students' awareness about the importance of using analytical factors to decode written discourse. In addition, students should be encouraged by their teachers to use different types of analysis so as to be well-trained in classifying written discourse. Furthermore, analytical factors are highly recommended to be integrated in the English curriculum in Sudan. Sudanese universities teachers should recommend students to learn more about using analytical factors in analyzing written discourse. Some suggestions are also proposed for further studies.