Language Challenges Encountered by Postgraduate Students in Academic Written Discourse: A Case Study

Abstract

This study aims to examine the challenges of academic written discourse encountered by postgraduate students at a Palestinian university. It mainly addresses the challenges that students face the most from their view and the faculty member’s perspective. Data were collected from 87 postgraduate students enrolled in postgraduate programs from various disciplines. A fourteen-item questionnaire was used to answer the two questions of the study. The data extracted for the questionnaire were complemented by semi-structured in-depth interviews with faculty members. The questionnaire’s responses were statistically processed using SPSS, where a thematic analysis approach was adopted to analyze the data. The results revealed that postgraduate students find writing in an academic style the most challenging aspect of academic writing. Moreover, the study revealed that there are no statistically significant differences in the level of the challenging aspects of academic writing according to the variables of academic degree type, year of study, and gender. Pedagogical implications were provided and future research studies were suggested at the end of the study.