ANALYSIS OF EFL STUDENTS’ PARAGRAPH WRITING PROBLEMS: THE CASE OF GRADE 11 STUDENTS, AT GINDEBERET PREPARATORY SCHOOL.

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to analyze of EFL students‟ paragraph writing problems in the case of grade 11 students at Gindeberet preparatory school. Case study research design was employed. To achieve the purpose of this study, two data gathering tools were employed. These were paragraph writing test and semi-structural interview. Paragraph writing test administered to classify the major problems in students‟ written paragraph. Using the semistructured interview data were gathered from four English language teachers. Both the data collected from students‟ written paragraphs and teachers‟ interviews were analyzed qualitatively. The main findings of this study were poor paragraph writing of the students as to different problems like language, sentence structures, paragraph unity, coherence and organization problems. The findings also revealed that sentence structures and organization as the most serious problems in students‟ paragraph writing. Furthermore, the study indicated that lack of knowledge of strategic use, shortage of vocabulary, low practice of paragraph Writing, lack of attention, lack of giving feedback, less motivation and lack of reading were as major factors of affecting students‟ paragraph writing skills. In conclusion, grade 11 students‟ writing skill was dominated by different defects like high frequency of grammar errors, use of inappropriate vocabulary, poor punctuation and poor handwriting in their paragraphs. So the study suggested doing a lot of practice on sentence and organizational aspects.