Academic Progress in Australian Universities - Case Study Example

An Analysis of Saudi University Students' Writing Errors with Implications for Academic Progress in Australian Universities Research Proposal Student’s Name: Course Code: Date Assignment is due: An Analysis of Saudi University Students' Writing Errors with Implications for Academic Progress in Australian Universities Background Information According to Salebi, English when learnt as foreign or second language oftentimes become difficult for many students especially in writing contexts (209). An effective mastery of basic writing rules, especially in the grammar of what one writes, takes time, effort, consistence and proper instructions (Fathman 433-441). If such learners are then required to write before they master the skills fully, their work is riddled with numerous errors (Altaha 3-13). This happens despite the availability of training materials, exposure to the target language or intent of the learner. Salebi (209) believes that such writing errors are bound to happen with EFL learners, not just as an indication of their failure to acquire language but as a result of a prematurely terminated learning process, especially if the student acquires English quickly as the language of instruction and not for its own sake. According to Salebi (209), EFL students who acquire English not for its own sake but as a way of integrating themselves in an English speaking community (such as in Australian universities), are the most susceptible in overlooking the value of error free writing as a mandatory area of improvement, despite its significance in the academic pursuits they undertake. This is because while many speaking mastery of English rules can occur outside classroom contexts, such as from listening to news, speaking with colleagues, reading newspapers or books etc (Fathman 433-441); writing error-free English almost always requires a student to be in a classroom setting. As such, students who can speak error-free English often have numerous errors in their written discourses, and these have a tendency of being ignored (Fathman 433-441). Salebi (210) posts that writing errors are often many at the onset of EFL learning and only gradually diminish with time and continued learning. But if the learners of a second or foreign language approximate native speaker competence and quit learning, the errors that may still be in their work (what prevents them from attaining a native competence) may remain at a significant level for the rest of their lives. Edge (1989) in Salebi (211) has classified such writing errors among EFL learners as errors, mistakes, attempts and slips that stain the EFL learners’ verbal and written performance. Such errors would not have a problem to the EFL learners if they wanted to interact with the native community in a daily live. However, when such errors are made by students in academic settings, they are annoying to the teachers and a cause why most EFL students score below average in whatever discipline they pursue. Corder, 1971; Dulay and Burt, 1973; Nemser, 1971 and Richards, 1984 all quoted in Salebi (212) agree that most non-language teachers look upon such writing errors as a sign depicting the students inability and incompetence in the area of study and not as a problem in the students language only. This means that a university student pursuing Medicine, Law, Business courses etc, may have a masterly in this disciplines that surpasses the native English speakers in the same context and still be ranked far lower in their tests and assignments for the mere reason of having numerous errors in their written discourses (Altaha 3-13). This concern and highly significant area of interest is the subject of the research study proposed herein. Perhaps, the research hypothesises, the Saudi Arabian students pursuing higher education in Australian universities are underachieving and having great problems in gaining the high scores they deserve, not because of weaknesses in their subjects of study, but because their written performance is riddled with grammar errors (Al-Hazmiand Scholfield 237-267). Statement of the Problem The scenario introduced above is worrying, given that more and more Saudi Arabian students are seeking for further studies in Australia, UK, America and other English speaking first nations (Al-Hazmiand Scholfield 237-267). The research study proposed herein will focus on linguistic performance of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners with an Arabic descent. Linguistic performance, in other words the output of language competency, is in two distinct forms namely speaking and writing (Fathman 433-441). According to Noam Chomsky, knowledge of a language exists in two forms namely, competence (knowledge of grammar rules) and linguistic performance (production of forms that are produced according to the grammar rules a speaker is in command of) (Brown 56). This study will focus on the production aspect of language, which is performance, and only on one form of production, writing. It emerges that, when a language speaker does not have an adequate command of the grammar rules of English (the language of analysis in this study), he or she cannot perform the language well (Fromkinand Rodman 56). Saudi University students, who have a predominant Arabic background and an exposure to EFL, have less than the native competence in English (Altaha 3-13). Compared to Australian nationals who are native speakers of English, the Saudi Arabian students can only but approximate the competence of native English speakers (Al-Hazmiand Scholfield 237-267). As competence increases, the level to which the Arabic speakers approximate the native speakers in the performance of English also increases and can be measured by the number of grammar errors they make in their performance (Altaha 3-13). For instance, in the beginner stages of their learning English, the Saudi Arabia students make many writing (and even speaking errors) that keep on decreasing as their competence levels increase and as they approximate the native competence more and more (El-Hibir and Al-Taha 211-232). However, Peter Kranshen’s developed a theory in which he posted that EFL learners can never attain native competence (Brown 56). This is because at a particular point in their learning process, be it consequent to their age, exposure to proper language input, their attitude to the learning process, their assimilation to the native community or the nature of the language itself, the learning stops and some grammar rules are never learnt (Brown 56). That means that the Saudi Arabian university students who seek to progress their education in Australian universities, may have some performance errors (in this case writing errors) that they live with without ever learning how to omit them from their production. The problem accrues if such errors are significant in proportion as to negatively affect the quality of their academic writing. All academic progress is attained and tested through written texts, especially in the university levels for undergraduate, graduate and postgraduate levels. This means that indeed, Saudi Arabian university students’ writing errors can and do have implications for academic progress in Australian universities, and analysis of these implications is the mandate of this research as proposed herein. Justification of the study There is a need to urgently analyze and document any implications that the writing errors depicted by Saudi Arabian students in foreign universities have on their academic progress. The academic success of such students may well lie upon their ability to write error free English, especially in undergraduate, graduate and postgraduate levels. The findings of this study will be valuable to EFL students in any context in realizing the impact their writing errors may have on their academic performance. More importantly however, the findings will help Saudi Arabian students in Australian universities, as well as those in other English speaking nations, to master better academic performance and avoid failure on account of their writing errors. The findings will also be of significant help to EFL instructors and teachers in their teaching goals, for the student’s intent on pursuing further studies abroad as well as instructors of other disciplines who have to gauge the competence of students with written tests. Literature Review The literature has a general consensus on the fact that most EFL students exhibit weaknesses in writing not only in the writing courses but also in other academic writing contexts (Altaha, pp. 3-13). If a student has writing problems, the same is invariably depicted or reflected on other courses where writing is required (Swales and Feak 23). This becomes significant due to the exigency of requirements in any examinations and even assignments areas where knowledge is tested through writing (Swales and Feak 23). Students who can write without grammatical errors and in clear, precise and accurate styles stand a high chance of scoring better in all manner of tests than their counterparts whose writing is riddled with grammatical errors (Altaha 3-13). Some studies have helped classify the most common writing errors that Arabic-descent students make while writing in English (El-Hibir and Al-Taha 211-232). The most significant errors are sentence-level grammatical errors in which EFL learners misplace some key syntactic features like verbs, articles, relative clauses, fragments, prepositions or noun modifiers (El-Hibir and Al-Taha 211-232). While these same errors may have a significant population even in native English speakers in writing, the population is way higher for EFL students (Brown 56). A recent investigation by Chen (59-79) highlighted the significance of writing errors in EFL students. In the study, Chen sampled Taiwanese university students and conducted surveys, gave writing tests and collected questionnaires which helped illuminate that 60.7% of these students had writing errors in vocabulary while 50% had errors in grammar. This study also expects to find the same degree of errors among Saudi university students in Australia. Salem (2007) also conducted a research on the student’s writing errors in which Hebrew speaking EFL learners were placed on a lexico-grammatical continuum and thus identified their weakness points. According to Salem (118), EFL learners depict most of their errors in writing than in speaking. In another related study, conducted by Al-Hazmi and Scholfield (2007) as quoted in Salebi (212), the authors samples EFL Saudi university students writing difficulties such as paragraphing, discourse organisation, text, cohesion, grammar errors etc, and found that the difficulties and errors were way high than those of students with native background in English. These studies are among those that inspire an interest in how Saudi Arabian university students’ writing errors can, and do have implications for academic progress in Australian universities. Aims of the Study The primary aim of this study is to investigate whether or not the writing mistakes of many Saudi university students in foreign English-speaking nations, have an impact in their academic progress. Based on the informed assumption that indeed the students have similar EFL difficulties in writing as opined by Sattar, Lah & Suleiman (268), it is the objective mandate of this study to empirically domesticate this assumption among Saudi university students currently studying in Australia universities, and with a specific focus on their writing errors and their implication on academic performance. This main aim is then broken into four narrow objectives that help to focus the study into a more comprehensive venture, and to help in distilling relevantly the findings of the study. The narrow objectives include: a) To establish whether Saudi university students have significant writing errors in EFL b) To determine the implication of such writing errors in the academic pursuits of Saudi university students in Australia c) How do the EFL Saudi university students studying in Australia perceive their writing errors? d) How does students’ perception of their errors help clarify their learning strategies? Research Questions Given that the linguistics area under study is very wide, there was the risk of including far too many issues than can be comprehensively covered by the research or far too less than would facilitate a good coverage. There is therefore a need to constrain the core interests of the study to those issues that could sufficiently be investigated. Consequently, three research questions were created based on the four narrow objectives of the study (identified above) to act as the guide posts for the exploration of this study, and to consolidate the conclusive findings or convictions of the discussion. Answering these four research questions sufficiently would in this regard be termed as a conclusive coverage of the study’s mandate. The four research questions thus formulated were: a) What kind of writing errors are common with the EFL Saudi university students studying in Australia? b) How do the EFL Saudi university students studying in Australia perceive their writing errors? c) How does students’ perception of their errors help clarify their learning strategies? d) What are the implications of the students’ perception of their errors in written English? Research Design The proposed study will sample 50 EFL Saudi university students studying in Australia. The method of enquiry will be both quantitative and qualitative in that, it will quantify the findings as well as attempt to discuss the findings qualitatively. The study will employ three data collection instruments. First, a written essay test will be given to the students and then analyzed for writing errors that will be provided for in a checklist such that the most common writing errors are common among the EFL Saudi university students studying in Australia can be accumulated. Secondly, a questionnaire will be served to each of the respondents to determine quantitatively, how the EFL Saudi university students studying in Australia perceive their writing errors as well as how the perception of their errors helps clarify their learning strategies. The third data collection instrument will be face to face interviews with a 50% of the respondents, to qualitatively determine the implications of the students’ perception of their errors in written English. The face to face interviews will help generate comments from the students on their academic progress and how writing errors affected the progress, if and when they did. Works Cited Al-Hazmi, S., and Scholfield, P. “EFL writing: The example of Saudi university students.” Scientific Journal of King Faisal University, 8.2 (2008): 237-267. PDF. Altaha, M. “Grammatical errors made by Saudi University students majoring in English” Interface. Journal of Applied Linguistics, 9.1 (1994): 3-13. Print. Brown, H. Principles of Language Learning and Teaching. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice Hall Regents, 1994. Print. Chen, Y. “The problems of university EFL writing in Taiwan.” The Korea TESOL Journal. 5. 1 (2002): 59 -79. Print. El-Hibir, I. and Al-Taha, F. “An analysis of Orthographic errors made by Saudi university students learning English.” Scientific Journal of King Faisal University, 5.2 (1992): 211-232. Fathman, A. “Variables affecting the successful learning of English as a second Language.” TESOL Quarterly, 10.1 (1976): 433-441. Print. Fromkin, V. and Rodman R. An introduction to language. Jovanovich: Harcourt, 1998. Print. Salebi, M. “Saudi College Students' Perception of Their Errors in Written English.” Scientific Journal of King Faisal University, 5.2 (2004)” 208–228. PDF. Salem, I. “The lexico-grammatical continuum viewed through student error.” ELT Journal. 1.1 (2007): 211-219. Print. Swales, J. and Feak, C. Academic writing for graduate students: essential tasks and skills.  Ann Arbor, Michigan: The University of Michigan Press, 2007. Print. Read More