Difficulties students of Northern school of business encounter in writing English composition

Abstract

Writing is an important skill for language production. However, it is considered a difficult skill, particularly in English as second language (ESL) contexts where students face challenges in that aspect. The present study was conducted to investigate difficulties that students of Northern School of Business face in composition writing; causes of challenges and remedies to those challenges. Though a number of students could express themselves in English, they could not write composition competently in the areas of introduction, content, and conclusion. Purposive simple random sampling was used to gather data using thematic data analysis for the study. These involved administering questionnaire, pre-intervention test to thirty sampled students; and three English teachers interviewed. All the said activities were geared towards achieving the research objectives, namely, to identify students’ challenges in composition writing, causes and remedies. The result indicated that, students had challenges in the organization of ideas to write, content mastering, limited vocabulary and the structure of essays. Students’ effective English composition writings were also interfered by their first language (L1). The result also revealed that teachers did not use the appropriate instructional methods and approaches to teach composition writing. In the light of the study’s findings, the researcher recommended that students should do more reading to improve their language competency which will enhance their writing. Teachers of English should pay more attention to composition writing using the appropriate methods. The eclectic approach to teaching composition was also recommended for teaching English composition writing.