An Investigation of the Most Common Difficulties Iranian Pre-university EFL Learners Face in Their Paragraph Writings

Due to the fact that writing is a cognitively demanding task and as a step toward removing some of the obstacles English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners encounter when performing writing tasks, this study attempted to investigate Iranian pre-university EFL learners' perceptions toward the most typical writing difficulties. For this to be done, 20 intermediate students from two different secondary high schools in Gonbad Kavoos, Iran were selected. Based on the steps of error analysis recommended by Corder (1967), a meticulous content analysis was conducted on the paragraphs written in their final exams and it was revealed that the most common writing problems these students face were related to their ‘grammatical knowledge’, ‘lexical knowledge’, ‘semantical knowledge’, and ‘mechanical knowledge’. All of these types of errors were fully explained and exemplified in the article. Furthermore, a semi-structured interview with students was conducted and the result of the interviews also confirmed the results of the content analysis of their paragraphs. Ten English language teachers' opinions were gathered and listed through semi-structured interviews and coding analysis in order to find solutions to their problems. There are some practical ramifications for educators, students, content creators, and curriculum designers in this regard at the article's conclusion.

An Investigation of the Most Common Difficulties Iranian Pre-university EFL Learners Face in Their Paragraph Writings Keywords:

Corder taxonomy of errors , English as a foreign language (EFL) , Iranian EFL learners , Writing problems , Writing skill