Writing Issues in ESL and their Potential Solutions: Case Study IMCO's Foundation Students

Abstract

This paper studies the common writing mistakes committed by IMCO's foundation students. Therefore, it supports students in addressing their issues and prepares them for their degree studies. The study investigates the common writing mistakes at the foundation level (A1 to B1). To investigate writing problems in linguistic, cultural, educational, and social contexts. To recommend potential dynamic solutions to support IMCO's students and other learners to write better. A team of experts in English language teaching with experience of five to fifteen years in the field conducted an experimental study through the first semester of the academic year 2021–22 on 5 groups, each made of 20 to 27 students. The experiment recorded the common mistakes committed by learners on an excel sheet for ten weeks. The paper also used bibliometric analysis to map errors on the international level by analyzing articles from five recent years (from 2005 to 2022) from Scopus via VOSviewer. Data collected was analyzed via Yale DHlab Raw Graph 2.0 beta. Findings reveal that the main mistakes committed by learners are linked to spelling, punctuation, irrelevant ideas, thesis statement writing, topic, sentence, use of the verbal sentence, verb-subject agreement, run-on sentences, structure, layout issues, and plagiarism issues. Several factors contribute to these issues, including the impact of language one on language two, lack of reading, motivation, and the impact of online learning. Findings also reveal that although lecturers use a student-centred approach, they lack high-tech skills in dealing with writing issues, requiring apps, technology, and artificial intelligence. The paper is valuable as it adds value to teaching productive skills to non-native English speakers, and it combines the use of scientific research methods.

Received: 2 August 2022 / Accepted: 24 October 2022 / Published: 5 November 2022