Exploring Students’ Perceptions of ESL Writing

Abstract

Writing has always been regarded as playing a prominent role in learning a second language. Research within this discipline has mainly focused on the development of writing skill, but in recent years, some researchers have examined students’ perceptions of writing. The purpose of this study was to investigate students’ perceptions about an academic writing course and writing in general. A total of 64 female students from an ESP program participated in the study. The general design of the study was quantitative and qualitative in nature as a questionnaire and a focus-group interview were implemented for data collection. A combination of quantitative and qualitative procedures was employed to analyze the data collected via the questionnaire and the focus group interview respectively. The overall results demonstrated the students’ positive views towards the Academic Writing Course (AWC) in particular and ESL writing in general. The major findings demonstrated students’ awareness of their needs and ESL writing requirements. The study concluded with recommendations for future research.