Challenges for College Students in Paragraph Writing at a Public Sector College in Pakistan: A Case Study

Abstract

Writing in English is extremely important language skill especially when it comes to academic and professional success. As a result, writing in English has received attention around the world including Pakistan. Like all other non-native English language learners across the world, Pakistani students struggle to write well-organized paragraphs which are a key component of secondary and higher secondary exams. Under qualitative research paradigm, the current study was, therefore, conducted to explore the challenges for college students in paragraph writing at a public sector college in Pakistan. The data was collected through semi-structured interviews with four purposively sampled female participants. Thematic analysis of the interview transcripts revealed that students faced problems related to pedagogy, assessment, feedback, and revision. More specifically, the majority of the participants shared that they reproduced paragraphs rather than writing on their own; the assessment was grammar-focused; there was a lack of constructive feedback on paragraphs; also, there were very limited opportunities for revision. Although the study is an addition to the literature on writing skills in the Pakistani context, its significance lies in highlighting females’ voices in the literature. The study will have implications for teachers teaching English in public sector colleges.

Keywords

• challenges, college students, paragraph writing, pedagogy, teacher feedback