Self-Reported Writing Difficulties of Saudi English Majors at Qassim University College of Sciences and Arts: A Survey and Analysis

Abstract

This study explored students' own perspectives on their writing challenges. A mixed methods research design combining a quantitative questionnaire with a series of semi-structured qualitative interviews was used. Therefore, the triangulation of data collection techniques was applied in this research. The study was conducted in the Department of English and Translation at Qassim University. 55 students filled 32 items questionnaire and ten were selected for the interview. For the questionnaire data, the descriptive statistics for ordinal Likert-type data include frequency, median, and mode were used. For the qualitative data analysis, the thematic coding was used for analyzing the interview. The obtained results showed that there are different types of writing problems among English language and translation major students at Qassim University. Findings suggest that some difficulties and perspectives are broadly shared by Saudi English students, e.g. struggles with irregularity and the non-phonemic nature of English. Other difficulties tend to evolve as students proceed in their studies. The lack of research into Saudi perspectives on English writing difficulties is emphasized, and further scholarly attention is strongly advised.