Use of English in Academic Writing among Saudi Arabia Studying in New Zealand - Term Paper Example

USE OF ENGLISH IN ACADEMIC WRITING AMONG SAUDI ARABIA STUDYING IN NEW ZEALAND Introduction Over the years, there has been an increase interest to teach English across many countries the world over. Every year, students with the majority from non-English speaking nations cross international borders to acquire a foreign education (Turner, 2011). In the UK, international students contribute up to £10 billion annually out of which £1.3 billion comes directly from the sector responsible for teaching of the English Language (Graddol, 2006). This demonstrates that learning/teaching of English is not only significant for academic purposes but also for commercial and political reasons. Indeed, English is developing as a lingua franca in many countries and “the medium of a great deal of the world's knowledge"(Crystal, 2003, p. 110). The essence of English language is evident at the last of the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) developing a “global partnership for development” where English is considered an international language for international communication, collaboration and co-operation (Coleman, 2011, p.23). Despite the importance of English language in the contemporary world , international students learning English as their second language are faced with numerous challenges including language proficiency, adapting not only to the host country, but also to new educational systems, social relationships, and discursive academic literacy prac­tices. In their socialization into academic discourses, “international students are positioned between different cultures and languages” (Turner, 2011, p.12). The challenge of academic writing in English at advanced levels is particularly common with international students who are by no means “one homogeneous group even when they come from similar backgrounds” (Ryan and Viete, 2009, p.12). This is partly attributed to the fact that they come with their own unique histories and backgrounds and, in turn, experience their studies differently, as indeed we would expect for all students, regardless of cultural or other background. Universities and colleges in English speaking countries including New Zealand require international students to provide a certain level of English proficiency before they are admitted to their programs (Tian and Low, 2012). For example, international students are required to perform well or to pass English language tests before they can be successfully admitted for any doctorate, master or postgraduate diploma programs (Green, 2013). Furthermore, many international students including Middle Eastern students with required level of English proficiency for university entry requirement still experience language challenges. Is it possible that lacking the language ability in listening, speaking, reading and academic writing their academic performance as well as integrating with the host community. It is therefore imperative to understand the students’ experiences and what they bring with them to the program in order to be able to respond appropriately to such demands when structuring and executing the program. Hence, the main objective of this study is to examine factors that contribute to the academic writing challenges with a focus on Saudi students who are studying in New Zealand universities. Furthermore, the intended research examines the reasons why students in Saudi Arabia, perhaps including other Arabic –speaking countries, have difficulties learning and understanding the requirement of academic English or challenges of academic literacy. At the latter part of this study, recommendations and suggestions will be laid out regarding how to overcome these problems and challenges. It is significant to mention that Saudi female students might be excluded and not be interviewed mainly most of the female learners are not allowed to be interviewed individually without the presence of one of their relatives, and that is a part of cultural background. Following the brief background, the rest of this study is structured along the broad headings which are solely meant to aid in the discussions of the subject in question and not to portray issues addressed as mutually exclusive of each other. What is Academic Writing? Academic writing can be conceived as a mental and cognitive activity because it is often associated with the mind. The image of an individual working alone in a quiet environment has furthered the view of writing as a mental and cognitive activity. However, as has been pointed out, “writing can be understood only from the perspective of a society rather than a single individual” (Burke, 2010, p. 40-41). Factors Contributing to Academic Writing Challenges The following are the main challenges also identified in the literature showing what Arab students go through while in English speaking universities such as those in New Zealand. The influence of Mother Tongue in learning English as second Language Saudi students exhibit elements of their mother tongue in their academic writing. This is a common problem for most people who learn English as their second or foreign language. Grami and Alzughaibi (2012) explain that mother tongues can significantly affect the general mastering of English. Through there are various reasons behind this anomaly, the obvious one is that non-native English speakers tend to think in their mother tongue while trying to communicate in English and those who are not used to reading or those who lack exposure to reading a variety of texts in English end up making grammatical errors while trying to achieving their communicative ends. They may not know how to organize their ideas, because it is a new experience for them. As a result of this, they tend to prepare their ideas in their native language and then translate them into English (Ruwaida, 2011). In addition, Arab learners have little opportunities to use the foreign language in their society. Consequently, many problems occur when they study at a university where the medium of instruction is a foreign language like English as in the case of New Zealand (Turner, 2011). The influence of the mother tongue and the pervasiveness of Interlingua transfer, defined as differences in languages, are indisputable, especially in learning situations where students' exposure to the foreign language is confined to a few hours per week of formal classroom instruction (Hyland, 2008). According to Mahmoud (2000, p.134) “mother tongue undoubtedly plays a prominent role in learning and using another language especially in foreign language learning situations where learners are infrequently exposed to the target language”. In many cases, international students learning English as their second language usually have no choice except to rely heavily on their inter-lingual transfer strategy/approach to solve the various problems they encounter when learning English (Wang, 2011). Unfortunately, the literal translation of a sentence or a passage from one’s mother tongue into English may not make any sense or convey the meaning of the text effectively. In addition, second language learners may be faced by additional challenges of organizing this knowledge into coherent structures (Grami and Alzughaibi 2012). This is made worse in an environment where there are no grammar books to guide students on how to translate mother tongues into English (Hyland, 2008). Like the rest of the non-native English speakers, Saudi students are often affected by their Arabic language where they end-up making high frequency errors when responding to English. This may be attributed to the fact that an Arabic speaker retains much more of the oral culture in its written expression than English does (Ruwaida, 2011). The Arabic language is more dependent upon pragmatics than upon strict English-style syntactic structures (Khuwaileh and Shoumali, 2000). Writing skills of most Saudi Arabian students also suffer from negative transfer of their language to English. For instance, Arabic uses the definite article (al). In case of a drop in an ocean, Arabic uses a zero article to indicate indefiniteness (nuqta fi moheet). In this translation, the preposition (bi) as in most cases rendered as "by” and (fi) as "in "(Tawalbeh, 2013, p.97). The use of the noun (thahab) in Arabic accounts for the use of the same grammatical class of the word in English (silence is from gold). In the Arabic equivalent of the English idiom "crocodile tears ", both nouns are plural (dumuattamaseeh). The lexical substitution in the above examples is as a result of negative Interlingua transfer of the Arabic idioms which are identical to the English ones except for one word (Tawalbeh, 2013). Furthermore, in Arabic the negative particle is often placed either before the verb or at the beginning of the sentence. For instance, the declarative sentence (Ali jaabkitabu) is negated either as Ali maajaabkitabuor maajaab Ali kitabu. Again in the English language, the negative particle ‘not’ cannot be used in the beginning of a sentence. For instance, the sentence ‘he is not happy’ cannot be negated as ‘not he is happy’ (Tawalbeh, 2013, p.97). The learning process of a second language can also be affected by the vowel habits of Arab learners of English where certain vowels indicated by diacritics are often omitted as an experienced reader of Arabic knows, by habit, the exact vowel sound in each phonetic environment. As a result of their non-dependence on the writings of vowels explicitly, Arab learners tend to ignore writing the vowel letters in their English writings, too. Research scholars name this interference ‘vowel blindness’ (Khan, 2013, p.26). It is therefore not a surprise that Saudi Arabian students tend to commit more transfer errors in English than committing other types of errors as a result of their mother tongue (Ruwaida, 2011). However, it is also important to note that there are some features in the second language that seem to be similar with the native language. In such a case, individuals tend to respond easily to such features but face extreme difficult when responding to the features that are far different from the native language. Differences in Alphabets and Writing Direction/Styles Arabic and English are totally different in both alphabets and styles. Moreover, the two languages are also different in the fact that Arabic tends to have more metaphoric phrases and lengthier sentences as compared to English (Fadda, 2012). All these language differences tend to affect Saudi computer science students and those in business departments in New Zealand simply because English is the language used in this region. Schoonen, (2003) supports the fact that there are some languages that tend to support learners in understanding or acquiring English as their second language but in the case of Saudi students, this is totally different. This is because English and Arabic languages are quite unique or distinguished from each other. Apart from learning a completely new alphabet, Saudi Arabian students in New Zealand universities must adjust in their writing styles which unlike English, takes a reverse direction (right to left). Moreover, differences in writing and reading of Arabic and English also tend to be a main challenge. Yiu (2009) explained that languages with more different structures tend to cause difficulties in students trying to learn them. With respect to consonants Arabic is definitely a consonant-heavy language when compared with English and while on the issue of grammar, Arabic is certainly complex but at the same time, it is very systematic. This means that when an Arabic word is spelt, it is almost written the same way. However, in English most of the terms tend to be different in speaking and writing. For example, the word “neighbour” in writing is always spelled as “neybur” (Tawalbeh, 2013, p.97). In spite of the fact that spelling is not a major issue in academic writing, it seems that some students keep failing in this area. Recently, acquisition of English as a second language and writing in an academic environment has been the subject of a number of studies such as Grami (2010) and Hyland (2008). However, the focus of the inquiry has shifted from rigid concern of grammatical errors and writing mechanisms to the overall pattern and idea development of texts (Yiu, 2009). A significant number of studies, with different approaches, have addressed the difficulties found by Arab writers when writing in English at the sentence level. Error analysis and interference hypothesis were the essence of an extensive investigation carried out for a long time (Green, 2013). Then, studies that dealt with students’ writing at an over sentential level or text level have emerged. One influential field of investigation of English language writing at the text level is referred to as the contrastive rhetoric (Green, 2013). According to this approach, the reason for inadequacy in second language writing is due to the fact that the foreign student often employs rhetoric and a sequence of thought which violate the expectations of the native reader (Stapa and Irtaimeh, 2012). In addition, Grami (2010, p.8) mentioned that many researchers have defined writing as a ‘complicated cognitive task’ because of the fact that it “… demands careful thought, discipline, and concentration, and it is not just a simple direct production of what the brain knows or can do at a particular moment”. This definition suggests that writing is considered a secondary action that interferes with complex mental processes that makes it a difficult skill to learn. Many studies have been conducted in the Arab world and have reported that Arab students who are studying in institutions of higher education suffer a serious handicap in English language including “lexical errors” during communication and writing (Al-Khasawneh, 2008, p.2). This partly explains why Arabic Students have difficulties in pursing their higher studies effectively, especially in “producing required university academic writing tasks” (Bacha, 2012, p.233). Differences in genre, defined in the context of this study as organizational patterns, also explain why writing in English is so difficult for speakers of other languages including Arabian Students. According to Hyland (2008) analyzing language acquisition through a Genre point of view assists us in understanding not only the organizational patterns but also the salient features particularly in interpersonal and expressive kinds of writing. While all possibilities are available to all users, what is seen as logical, engaging, relevant or well-organized in writing often differs across cultures. Culture isn’t the only explanation of course, and we can’t simply predict the ways students are likely to write on the basis of assumed cultural preferences. But it is clear there are different ways of organizing ideas and structuring arguments in different languages which can have implications for teachers of academic writing (Bacha, 2010). Research suggests, for instance, that compared with many languages, academic texts in English tend to be more explicit about structure and purposes, “to be less tolerant of digressions, to be more cautious in making claims, and to use more sentence connectors” (Hyland, 2008, p.548). Arab students who are studying in institutions of higher education therefore suffer from serious handicap in English language in general and writing in particular that make it very difficult for them to cope up with their higher studies effectively (Bacha, 2010). The aim of this study is to indentify reasons why Arab Students have difficulties coping with university study in New Zealand. Outdated Methods of Language Teaching In many parts of the Middle East, English language is taught through traditional teacher centered, book–centered, grammar translation methods and a strong emphasis is put on rote learning (Bacha, 2010). As a result of this traditional approach teachers adopt an introvert learning which has elements of sense and feeling. However, students think knowledge is something to be taught explicitly and transmitted by their teachers rather than to be explored and interpreted by themselves. In addition, many students prefer to listen rather than actively participate in the learning process. This point is confirmed by a comparative research between Asian students and non-Asian students which showed that Asian students took fewer speaking turns than non-Asian students. This implies that they have no had adequate experience in English thus in one way of another may influence their writing skills. Furthermore, the traditional style of teaching in Arabia leads to a closure-oriented style for most Arab students. These closure oriented students dislike ambiguity, uncertainty or fuzziness. To avoid these, they will sometimes jump to hasty conclusions about grammar rules or reading themes (Bacha, 2010).The teachers explain each and every thing of the text and grammatical rules to the students whereas the students passively’ listen, take notes and answer questions (Green, 2013). Audio lingual Method (ALM) is widely used for teaching English in Saudi Arabia. This teaching approach emphasizes the process of stimulus and response situations. Although the method may serve some of the goals of teaching English in the country such as enhancing reading and writing skills, it is not fully applied in the teaching of English in Saudi Arabia (Zafer 2002). This is partly attributed to the fact that teachers tend to follow some parts of the method and ignore others. Besides, students are not taught how to communicate in the language which by extension affects their writing skills. This is why most of Saudi students cannot express themselves in English even after finishing secondary school. The persistent use of traditional approaches to teaching English is partly attributed to the fact that texts and curriculum are locally developed and the students are not familiar with the English/ American culture; therefore they lack the most important factor which is comprehension. Comprehension is closely linked to writing skills as it helps one understand various rules for good writing. Regarding the teaching of English writing, some Arab countries do not allocate enough hours for learners of English during their primary and secondary schools. Zafer (2002) surveyed intermediate and secondary English teachers, from the Qassim region in Saudi Arabia, about the teaching methods they used. He concluded that the method most preferred and used by teachers is the ALM followed by the grammar translation method. Based on that, a conclusion may be drawn that the English teaching methodology in Saudi Arabia is following the more traditional methods of teaching English and needs to incorporate more modern communicative methods which will enhance writing skills. Yiu (2009) reported that in spite of the fact that the history of second language teaching started as early as 1945, there has been a deficiency of research on English as second language writing. This situation changed dramatically in the second half of the 1990s and many research studies have been conducted since then. This positive change in the domain of ESL/EFL teaching was because of the fact that English started playing a key role in the world as a main language of international communication (Yiu, 2009). However, Chou (2011) has mentioned that even though there has been an increased interest in writing yet there has been a deficiency of research in this field in EFL contexts as most of the research studies related to writing skills have been conducted in the ESL context such as Canada, England, New Zealand, Australia and America. Much research has identified that Arab university student’s lack the required English language proficiency that prevents their academic progress (Javid and Khairi, 2011). Several studies have mentioned that international students who are studying in the Asian universities face challenges in coping with academic writing demands in their disciplines (Javid, Farooq and Gulzar, 2012). This problem also exists in a very intensive form in the Arab world where a lot of studies reveal the difficulties of Arabic students in using English in Academic writing (Khuwaileh and Shoumali, 2000). The low proficiency level is also due to the inappropriate English Language teaching approach and a learning environment that does not support foreign language learning (Fadda 2012). Saudi Arabian students in NewZealand are also affected by a lack of proper foundation in English as many teachers in Saudi are also not proficient in the language. Aisha (2010) argues that the way of teaching the Arabic classical language is implemented by memorizing classical text, Quran (the holly book of Muslims) and classical poetry. In this context, methods such as memorizing and rote learning are a mirror of the reading- writing practices which have been utilized by the Arab countries (Aisha, 2010). In addition, according to Alhaisoni (2012), most of the learners in Saudi Arabia cannot be able to utilize English with respect to their intellectual understanding in a competent manner. This is simply because many of the teachers tend to ignore teaching various basics of writing beyond the communication skills. Teachers in the region tend to emphasize mainly the grammatical rules and use of vocabularies with the aim of assisting students pass English courses and fail to assist in developing the recommended writing skills of the language. Most teachers in Saudi Arabia have not been able to enhance students’ writing proficiency, which in the context of this paper means the ability to produce a well-connected and flowing passage of at least up to a full page on a subject of descriptive or discursive nature. Due to incompetency in English, most of the teachers in Saudi Arabia only provide limited knowledge of the language to the students. Incompetence as demonstrated by the teachers means that they also lack the proficiency to help students in translating their mother tongue to English as recommended. This results in students using poor word choice. Alhaisoni (2012) points out that among many countries in the East where English is taught as the second language, the methodology used by Saudi Arabia teachers is not adequate for academic writing. This is because writing strategies, which include use of appropriate grammar structure and word choice, is neglected and this affects students who seek high education in institutions such as those in New Zealand. Education System In the context of Saudi students, the educational system in Saudi Arabia is completely different to other countries. Gender-segregated schools, separate schools for boys and girls, still largely exist until now in all public and private schools in Saudi Arabia (Aisha, 2010). The educational system consists of 4 levels including Pre-Elementary level, Elementary level, intermediate level and secondary level. After finishing the elementary level, students at the age of fourteen are encouraged to carry on their education at the intermediate level which is equivalent of grades 7-9 in the US education system.At this stage, English becomes compulsory and stays a required subject throughout secondary (Aisha, 2010). Due to the fact that Saudi Arabia has never been colonized by a European power, and most of them have never travelled abroad, it is not a surprise that the government has been reluctant to adopt an additional language to better communicate with a colonial master or English speakers. This obviously affects the general learning of English. Lack of Motivation confidence and Negative attitude towards English Language While motivation has been defined in many ways, in this paper it simply refers to effective strategies that could help the learners develop their English language skills. It is believed that motivation “energizes” human behavior and “gives it direction” as well as forming a significant dimension in language learning (Bahous, 2011, p.34). Lack of motivation is therefore retrogressive in relation to learning and understanding not only English but any other new language. Unfortunately, this is one of the major challenges that face Saudi students. Most of Saudi students who undertake their academic courses in New Zealand come from a back ground where there are social-culture differences with the English language. Even though it is difficult, learning English language can be easy for these students but they suffer from lack of motivation. There are various social-cultural differences between the East and the West which affects even language preferences. This is why students from Saudi tend to show less motivation in studying at institutions outside their home area such as those in New Zealand where teaching is done using English, it becomes a major challenge. There are also groups of students who do not have passion to understand the English language while in New Zealand simply because of continuing to hold the negative perception in relation to the language. In this case, it can be understandable that there are those Saudi students who study in New Zealand as a result of being forced to do so by their parents. Such students tend to lack passion in their studies and therefore, it becomes difficult to understand English according and the subjects taught using this language. Although the learners are in New Zealand, there is a tendency within most Saudi student communities to stay together instead of developing a good relationship with the local students. This means that these learners are less likely to enjoy the benefits that could be gained from living with a homestay family, with many preferring instead to live with other Arab speakers in the same accommodation. Most Saudi students may bring quite a negative attitude towards the learning of English. Most Saudis view English as unimportant for two main reasons. Firstly, English is not often used in daily life in Saudi classroom. Also, most of the foreign teachers teaching in Saudi Arabia are not themselves a native English speaker; they are nationals of Pakistan, India, Malaysia and various countries such as Jordan, Syria, Egypt surrounding Saudi Arabia (Aisha, 2010). In addition, the main reason for Saudi learners to learn English is simply to pass exams. Furthermore, the medium of instruction used within schools and universities is Arabic. There are very few educational institutions such as King Abdullah University of Science and Technology and Saudi Electronic University where English is the medium of instruction (Green, 2013). However, most of the students are not attracted to these institutions because of the reasons mentioned above. Saudi Arabian students not only lack motivation, but also show low levels of confidence towards learning English (Fadda, 2012). To learn more effectively, there is a need for high levels of confidence as this assists students catch up with the requirements and mastery of English accordingly. Lack of confidence may be made worse by the existing challenges in academic writing skills in studying the second language. Understanding L1 accordingly assists students to transfer some of the writing skills such as outlining, paraphrasing and summarizing to L2 with ease. However, those students who are not well-equipped with such skills always find it difficult to work on academic writing (Aisha, 2010). Academic writing is always more than normal writing. This is because it requires students to write from an expert position. However, lack of confidence with the second language makes students perform poorly in their academic work especially in subjects that require creativity such as business and computer science. These subjects require students to write as experts and demonstrate their creative capability and in situations where students lack confidence, it becomes a big challenge for them to perform as recommended. Moreover, lack of confidence in the part of learners makes them fail to engage in classroom discussions with other students and lecturers. Fadda (2012) indicates that poor communication proficiency is another major challenge that affects Saudi students who conduct their studies in New Zealand. In order to understand academic learning and write accordingly, oral language is always very important simply because it is the skill that most of the teachers use while in class. Therefore, in situations where students are not competent with the oral language being used, they end-up failing to understand the lesson or even ask questions. All these issues emerge because of lack of confidence on the part of learners as they fear to become embarrassed in front of their peers every time they speak poor English. In general, Saudi undergraduate students who come to conduct their studies in New Zealand tend to experience certain challenges simply because they have an Arabic speaking background as their native language while the official language in New Zealand is English. According to Grami and Alzughaibi (2012), available statistics indicate that Saudi students perform extremely poorly in English and Linguistic subjects. This therefore affects their performance even in other subjects taught using English. Challenges in Writing Skills Saudi students also face the challenge of the writing skill itself. Being in a position of writing academic work effectively and in an excellent manner requires a student to have a number of various skills. Writing is one of these skills and Saudi students who use English in their academic writing face a lot of difficulties when using this skill. According to Fadda (2012), writing using a second language is a complex, demanding and difficult task. These difficulties always emerge because in order to write constructively, it requires application of various elements. For example, it is recommended for a writer to include a thesis statement, develop concrete support for it, organize the written work, make the necessary revisions if any and finally make the appropriate editing in order to ensure that the final copy is 100% or almost error free. In order to create such a piece of writing, the student always requires a comprehensive command of grammar. Moreover, one is required to employ the use of appropriate vocabulary. More importantly, there is always a need to use a suitable style and employ effective organizational skills in order to meet readers’ expectations. Hyland (2008) explains that such academic writing is always enjoyable to read because it flows well and therefore, the reader can understand each point made. Unfortunately students who use English as a second language find it to be a tedious and challenging task to meet most of the outlined elements of appropriate academic writing. Poor writing makes students fail to explain their points clearly even though they know, the result is a poor grade. In order for students who undertake various courses in New Zealand universities to succeed in writing, they must be conversant with English However, this is a challenges especially by the virtue of the fact that most of them, if not all have a weak writing foundation in the English language. Most of the institutions in Saudi Arabia use Arabic when teaching. And although the Ministry of Education recommends that grade 6 students ought to be taught English (Aisha, 2010), it can be considered late to start learning English at grade six considering the fact that the language is of important use worldwide and most of countries connect using this language. The fact that English is nowadays the main medium normally used in world trade, students should be taught the language from as early as in kindergarten. Therefore, learning institutions should not wait until students reach grade six in order to start teaching them English. Unfortunately, even with the recommendations that grade six students should have started learning English; most of the learning institutions do not take it seriously and end-up concentrating on Arabic since it is the national and official language in the country. Therefore, a poor or weak foundation in English tends to be a “major challenge in academic writing for Saudi students who are from 19 to 40 years old in New Zealand” (Grami and Alzughaibi 2012, p.21). Possible ways that Academic Study can be improved among Saudi Arabian students in New Zealand Moving forwards, there is need to rethink several assumptions. First, English should no longer be considered as a property of its native speakers. Likewise, language learners should not be viewed as mere consumers of this Anglo-Saxon tradition. With no attempt to de-emphasize the national practice of English for English speaking countries, the international function of English is thought to be a different function which deserves particular attention. The existence of different varieties for English warns us against the danger of limiting the scope of practice and learning to certain limited varieties. Accordingly students should get familiar with different varieties, native and non-native. The English teaching curriculum in Saudi Arabia should, thus, be improved with the inclusion of varieties of English spoken by different native or non-native speakers. This measure will help students broaden their appreciation and knowledge of the language they use and get prepared for any variety not yet known to them hence expanding their academic knowledge. Previous research has proved that students taught English using modern teaching methods significantly excelled or secured higher marks in their subject tests as compared to those who were taught using the conventional or traditional ways (Khurshid and Ansari, 2012). Using the modern approaches assist students in not only learning different subjects more effectively also encourage their ability to solve real life problems while enriching their understanding at highest level (Umer and Siddiqui, 2013). Another study conducted by Doyle (cited in Umer and Siddiqui, 2013, p.147) highlighted the need for teachers in Saudi Arabia to adopt a wide range of instructions methods. Doyle established that variety of ways used for information processing influence the learning than using direct way of studying curriculum which hardly meets the needs of students coming from different background and having different learning questions in their mind. Some of the innovative approaches to teaching English may include lectures, demonstrations group discussions, and creative writing tasks and so on. These approaches are associated with improved understanding of self and a deeper as well as broader understanding of others’ ideas and therefore become very important in academic writing. Lectures are used to impart information on various topics which needs students as active listener (Mehmood and Rehman, 2011). Problem based learning is another teaching method that can develop concepts of various topics instead of memorizing the learning material (Mehmood and Rehman, 2011). Through discussion in the class, student can identify the learning issues which are essential to have an understanding of the lesson. Through discussion methods, knowledge is shared, imparted and compared with each other. Students can express their views, opinion and feelings and as well as clarify and pool their knowledge. Teaching aids (audio/video lectures, documentaries, pictures and images, art and craft material) are used with the innovative teaching style. Previous studies confirm that innovative methods of teaching are associated with success in English For instance, Mehmood and Rehman (2011) examined the effectiveness of teaching methodologies used for students in Pakistan. Their study revealed that teachers using the methods of query, inquiry, discussion, lectures, giving homework assignments, maintained vigilant contact with students and using audio/visual material to facilitate the comprehension of concepts among students proved them effective teachers. The same findings can be used to improve teaching methods for Teachers in Saudi Arabia. Third, there is a need for more training especially in writing while also equipping the learning institutions with adequate resources including a new series of English textbooks especially in the initial stages of learning. This can ultimately improve or enhance the foundation of English taught. This has already worked in other countries as explained by Tian and Lowe (2012) who illustrate that new series of college English textbooks used in China has assisted in enhancing students’ critical thinking training, and as a result of this, more Chinese undergraduate students especially in the UK actively engage with formative feedback in their second semester. Conclusion From the findings and discussions presented here, it can be concluded that indeed Saudi Arabian students pursuing their undergraduate studies in New-Zealand face numerous hurdles which emanate from a number of factors. However, all this revolves around the fact that most of the students are inadequately prepared for their first studies in New Zealand. It is also important to note that Arabic student’s exhibit differences in their writing experiences and they cannot be homogenous groups as noted by Ryan and Viete (2009). 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