Investigating the Difficulties that Encountered by Secondary School Students in Paragraph Writing

Abstract

This study aims at investigating the difficulties which secondary school students who study English as a foreign Language [EFL] face when they are writing English paragraphs. The purpose of the study is also to find out which of the two sexes can write paragraphs better (girls or boys) and the exact level of the students. It also explores students’ strategies used in learning paragraph writing. In addition, it aims at finding out the role of paragraph writing in improving students writing of compositions and essays. The researcher used the descriptive analytical approach to investigate this issue. The method used to obtain data was two questionnaires: One for third year secondary school students at OmbaddaLocality and one for their teachers of English language, for the academic year (2016). The SPSS program was applied for the statistical analysis of these two questionnaires. Also a part of writing paragraph was added to check the validity and reliability of these instruments. The statistical results and a paragraph writing part reveal that students are weak in writing paragraphs. The use of old methods in teaching and untrained teachers are a part of their weakness but thereare some other obstacles which hinder the writing process. Based on these difficulties, old methods of teaching writing should not be used, teachers should be trained, and students need motivated methods in writing paragraphs. Students need to use various writing strategies when writing paragraphs. Some of them are aware of applying the rules in writing, but most of the students need more lessons to strengthen their writing ability. Keywords: Difficulties, paragraph writing, 3rd year secondary school students, Omdurman