Improving University Students’ Writing Skills in Pakistan
The European Educational Researcher, Volume 1, Issue 1, June 2018, pp. 1-16
OPEN ACCESS VIEWS: 1119 DOWNLOADS: 955 Publication date: 15 Jun 2018
OPEN ACCESS VIEWS: 1119 DOWNLOADS: 955 Publication date: 15 Jun 2018
ABSTRACT
The education system of Pakistan is not unified. Students mainly attend three types of schools with different languages as medium of instruction; private schools, public schools and religious schools (called locally madrassas). Even though mother tongue education is emphasized in education and literacy circles, Pakistan has not been able to implement policies that would allow all students to be taught in their mother tongue. Since mother tongue education (MLE) is not a reality, students have been facing many issues, especially in those regions of the country where Urdu is not spoken at home, rather a different regional language, dialect or language variety. A conference was held in Karachi, where data about the language situation of the country was collected at level one of the data collection and at level two, eighteen experts were interviewed, who provided a list of recommendations to address the matters found at level one, for the improvement of the writing skills of the students all over the country. The most important of these recommendations were to ensure that the students engage on enough writing practice and proper programs of instruction are set into place with properly trained instructors.
KEYWORDS
Additive bilingualism, Language learners, Writing skills, Writing centers, Urdu/English bilinguals, Improving writing skills.
CITATION (APA)
Maldonado García, M. I. (2018). Improving University Students’ Writing Skills in Pakistan. The European Educational Researcher, 1(1), 1-16. https://doi.org/10.31757/euer.111
REFERENCES
- ASER. (2015). Annual status of education report. Retrieved from http:// http://aserpakistan.org/report
- ASER (2014) Annual status of education report. Retrieved from http: http://aserpakistan.org/report
- Adam, J. (2009). Engaging Students in Writing Labs: An Empirical Study of Reading and Commenting on Student Papers. International Journal of Education, 1(1), 1-9.
- Bacha, N. N. (2002). Developing learners' academic writing skills in higher education: A study for educational reform. Language and Education, 16 (3), 161-177.
- Blau, S. & Hall, J. (2002). Guilt-Free Tutoring: Rethinking How We Tutor Non-Native-English-Speaking Students. The Writing Center Journal, 23(1), 23-44.
- Braine, G. (1988). A reader reacts… TESOL Quarterly, 22 (4), 700–709.
- Britton, J. et al. (1975). The Development of Writing Abilities. Houndmills: Schools Council Research Studies, Macmillan Education. 11–18
- Clark, I. L., Healy, D. (1996). Are writing centers ethical? WPA. 20 (1/ 2).
- Choudhry, M. A. (2006). Pakistan: where and who are the world’s illiterates. United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. Paper commissioned for the EFA Global Monitoring Report 2006, Literacy for Life.5.
- Crusius, T.W. (1989). Discourse: A Critique and Synthesis of Major Theories. New York: Modern Language Association of America.
- Dixon, C. N., & Nessel, D. D. (1983). Language experience approach to reading and writing: Language experience reading for second language learners. Hayward, CA: Alemany Press.
- Farooq, M. S., Uzair-Ul-Hassan, M. & Wahid, S. (2012). Opinion of Second Language Learners about Writing Difficulties in English Language. A Research Journal of South Asian Studies, 27 (1), 183-194.
- Grabe, W. and Kaplan, R. (1996). Theory and Practice of Writing. London: Addison Wesley Longman.
- Geiser, S., & Studley, R. (2001). UC and the SAT: Predictive validity and differential impact of the SAT and SAT II at the University of California. Retrieved from http://web.stanford. edu/~rag/ed351B/sat _study .pdf
- Gopang, I. B., Ansari, S., Kulsoom, U., & Laghari, A. (2017). An Empirical Investigation of Foreign Language Anxiety in Pakistani University. International Journal of English Linguistics, 7(2), 21.
- Haider, G. (2012). Teaching of Writing in Pakistan: A Review of Major Pedagogical Trends and Issues in Teaching of Writing. Journal of Educational and Social Research, 2(3), 215-25.
- Halliday, M.A.K. and Martin, J.R. (1993). Writing Science: Literacy and Discursive Power. London: Falmer.
- Harmer, J. (2001). The Practice of English Language Teaching (3rd ed.). Essex: Pearson Education.
- Henry, J. (2000). Writing workplace cultures: An archeology of professional writing. Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press.
- Horowitz, D.M. (1986). What Professors Actually Require: Academic Tasks for the ESL Classroom. TESOL Quarterly, 20 (3), 445–62.
- Imran, M., Asgher, T., & Ghani, M. (2016). A Study on Science Students’ Understanding of Three Lemmas: State Verb, Action Verb and Noun in the State Run Colleges in Pakistan. International Journal of English Linguistics, 6(5), 121.
- Javed, M., Xiao Juan, W. & Nazli, S. (2013). A Study of Students’ Assessment in Writing Skills of the English Language. International Journal of Instruction, 6 (2), 129-144.
- Johns, A.M. (1988). Another reader reacts . . . TESOL Quarterly, 22 (4), 705–7.
- Jordan, R.R. (1997). English for Academic Purposes: A Guide and Resource Book for Teachers. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- Khan, H. I. (2011). Testing Creative Writing in Pakistan: Tensions and Potential in Classroom Practice. International Journal of Humanities and Social Science, 1 (15), 111-119.
- Kinneavy, J.L. (1980). A Theory of Discourse. New York: Norton.
- Fritzsche, B., Young. R. , Hickson, B., Kara C. (2003). Individual differences in academic procrastination tendency and writing success. Personality and Individual Differences, 35, 1549-1557.
- Linville, C. (2009). Editing line by line. In S. Bruce & B. Rafoth (Eds.)., ESL writers: A guide for writing center tutors (2nd ed.). Portsmouth, NH: Boynton/Cook Publishers. 116–131
- Maldonado García, M. I. (2015). Reforming the National Curriculum: Teaching the National and Provincial Languages of Pakistan. Journal of Elementary Education, 25 (2), 73-87.
- Maldonado García, M. I. (2016). Debate on Urdu as the Official Language of Pakistan: English versus Urdu. Almas 18, 700-712.
- Moffet, J. (1968). Teaching the Universe of Discourse. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
- North, S. M. (1984). The Idea of a Writing Center. College English, 46 (5), 433-446.
- Panhwar, A. H., Baloch, S., & Khan, S. (2017). Making Communicative Language Teaching Work in Pakistan. International Journal of English Linguistics, 7(3)., 226.
- Rafoth, B. (2010). Why Visit Your Campus Writing Center? Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing, 1, 146-155.
- Rasheed, S., Zeeshan, M., & Zaidi, N. A. (2017). Challenges of Teaching English Language in a Multilingual Setting: An Investigation at Government Girls Secondary Schools of Quetta, Baluchistan, Pakistan. International Journal of English Linguistics, 7(4), 149.
- Sarfraz, S. (2011). Error Analysis of the Written English Essays of Pakistani Undergraduate Students: A Case Study. Asian Transactions on Basic & Applied Sciences, 1 (3), 38.
- Sparck, R. (1988a). Initiating ESL students into the academic discourse community; How far should we go? TESOL Quarterly, 22 (1), 29–51.
- Sparck, R. (1988b). The author responds to Johns . . . TESOL Quarterly, 22 (4), 707–8.
- Swales, J. (1990). Genre Analysis: English in Academic and Research Settings. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- Tangpermpoon, T. (2008). Integrated Approaches to Improve Students Writing Skills for English Major Students. ABAC Journal, 28 (2), 1-9.
- Thonus, T. (2004). What are the differences? Tutor interactions with first- and second- language writers. Journal of Second Language Writing, 13, 227-242.
- Ziegler, N. (2009). Launching a Writing Center: A Practical Possibility. Language Arts Journal of Michigan, 25 (1), 8.
LICENSE
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.