Friday, September 7, 2012

The Challenges of L2 Writing for Tertiary Students: A Review on Learner, Instructor, and System Perspectives

Within the last few years, there has been rising concern in Malaysian society at the dismal ability in mastery of English among university students. The students with higher academic qualifications but committed numerous mistakes in written English will hardly be employed by the prospective employers. In most of the universities, language instructors face a lot of difficulties when essay writing is concerned. Many students still commit the grammatical errors that consume a great deal of instructors’ time and effort to correct their written tasks. To identify the challenges of second language (L2) writing particularly among tertiary students in Malaysia, one of the Malaysian universities with highest population was chosen. Based on the review of past studies, nine L2 writing challenges have been identified which can be represented by a chain reaction diagram called “SIL”: system (S), instructor (I), and learner (L). Lecture time, institutional e-learning system, and ICT research fall under the system perspective.

Besides, classroom practice, ICT interest, and L2 writing approach are considered as the shortcomings from instructor perspective. In the learner perspective, reading habit, language proficiency, and influence of first language are the areas of concern. SIL proposes a sequence of inductive remedial actions, which should be taken by considering the elements within the S to the I, and finally to the L.

Citation (APA 6th):
Mah, B. Y., Irfan Naufal Bin Umar, & Thomas Chow, V. F. (2012). The challenges of L2 writing for tertiary students: A review on learner, instructor, and system perspectives [Abstract]. National Conference on Postgraduate Research 2012 Proceedings (p. 87). Kuantan, Malaysia: Universiti Malaysia Pahang.

Click HERE to access the abstract.