PAKISTANI UNDERGRADUATE ESL LEARNERS’ PERCEPTIONS REGARDING THEIR DIFFICULTIES IN ESL WRITING

Abstract

Errorless writing has been a phenomenon in the ESL context because writing is a difficult and challengeable task, especially for Pakistani ESL learners. They face such difficulties in writings due to a lack of knowledge, and skills. These difficulties and challenges are influenced due to certain reasons such as lack of prior knowledge, concertation, insufficient skills, untrained teachers, poor strategies of teaching, inappropriate methodologies, and lack of practice in this regard. This study attempts to investigate the perceptions of Pakistani undergraduate ESL learners regarding the difficulties they face in ESL writing. Using a survey questionnaire, the data for this study was collected from 279 Pakistani undergraduate ESL learners from two public and two private sector universities in Pakistan using the convenience sampling technique. The results revealed that the Pakistani undergraduate ESL learners faced several difficulties in ESL writing including lack of appropriate vocabulary, making meaningful sentences, finding the exact expressions, correct usage of active/passive voice and conditional sentences, and coherence and cohesion. The findings have important implications for ESL teachers, trainers and material developers.