Contributing factors to students’ difficulties in English writing

The second research question:
What are Saudi secondary school students’ perceived contributing factors to their difficulties in English writing?
Introduction
To answer this question I used a student questionnaire, student focus groups, and teacher interviews. The information obtained from the quantitative data was integrated with themes from the qualitative data. Regarding the quantitative data, I deployed the factor analysis in order to reduce the items on the questionnaire. All the difficulties faced by students in English writing were combined into one factor. Concerning the factors contributing to these difficulties I used four factors; factor for teaching methods, factor for anxiety, factor for motivation, and factor for L2 strategic processes. However, there were two contributing factors arising from the qualitative data; factor of curriculum and factor of previous learning experiences.

Subsidiary questions:
1- Is there an association between teaching methods (factor1,2,3,4) and writing difficulty faced be Saudi secondary school students when writing in English?
2- Is there an association between L2strategic processes (factor 1,2) and writing difficulty faced be Saudi secondary school students when writing in English?
3- Is there an association between motivation and writing difficulty faced be Saudi secondary school students when writing in English?
4- Is there an association between anxiety and writing difficulty faced be Saudi secondary school students when writing in English?
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Is there an association between teaching methods (factor1,2,3,4) and writing difficulty faced be Saudi secondary school students when writing in English?

Teaching Methods

The findings of the quantitative data revealed that teaching methodology is negatively correlated with the students’ difficulty in English writing. In essence, all students in the focus groups clearly indicated that their teachers are one of the major contributing factors to students’ problems in their English writing.
One student stated:
I think the teacher is the main reason for all our difficulties. [2nd year female student 2].

Precisely, all the participating students in the focus groups claimed that their teacher is the reasons for their problems in grammar and vocabulary. They clarified by saying that their teachers did not encourage them to correctly use the grammatical rules and vocabulary they learn in different contexts. Regarding grammar, the following excerpts exemplify how it is taught and learnt.

We don’t know how to use the grammatical rules. We just know the rules and how to answer them in the exam. We don’t apply the rules. We just know that if you face this, you put that. For example, if you find the word ” now”, you choose or put the verb with “ing”. [ 3rd year female student]

Moreover, the participating students indicated that they did not apply the grammatical rules they learnt in their compositions when writing in English. One student commented:
We learn the grammar separately from writing. They do not teach us how to use the grammatical rules we have learned in written composition. Therefore, we face problems in using the verbs correctly especially the irregular ones.

Intriguingly, in support of the students’ views about the teaching methods, one of the teachers confessed that he was a cause of the students’ difficulties in English writing. When he was asked for the reason behind his students’ challenges in using the irregular verbs correctly, he commented:
“I think it is because of the teacher. We haven’t asked them to memorise these verbs and apply them in sentences.” [ Male teacher 2]

Another teacher openly attributed her students’ difficulties in grammar to her own teaching methods on the basis that she did not encourage them to apply the required rules
“Although they learn most of the grammatical rules before, they still do not know how to use them correctly. I think it is because we do not encourage them to practice the rules in different contexts. For example, they studied the rule of “if” conditional sentence last year, they seem that they have not studied them. [ Female teacher 1]

Regarding vocabulary, all the participating students agreed that their teachers introduce the new words in a list on the board. The participating students indicated that this way of teaching hindered them from improving their vocabulary use. The participating students clarified that although they memorize the words, they cannot use them in different contexts. Two excerpts from students exemplify how vocabulary is taught:

He [the teacher] writes the words in a list and then he asks us whether we know it. Then he translates it. Sometimes, he specifies the most important words in the reading passage by asking us to underline them and then he tells us the meaning of them. The problem is that we do not know how to use the words correctly in complete sentences.[1st male year level student].

Our problem is not in recognizing the meaning of the words. Rather, it is how to use the words correctly in different functions. For example, we took a new word today. It is the word “material”. I think all of us know its meaning but if you ask us to use it in a sentence, we do not know how. [ 1st female year level].

Concurrently, all the teachers agreed that they do not teach their students how to use the words correctly in different communication settings. One teacher commented:
I think my students cannot put the words they learn in complete sentences because they have not been asked to apply them. I think the high level students can give the meanings in Arabic but using the words correctly in different situations is very difficult.
Concurrent with the students’ perceptions about how their teachers teach vocabulary, all the teachers indicated that they introduce the words on the boards in a list. Sometimes, they ask the students to underline the new words in a passage. One teacher commented:
I ask them to underline the strange words. Then i write them in a list on the board, and then ask some good students to read them. And then i ask them to guess the meanings. Then if they don’t know I tell them the meaning and they write it down. [ Male teacher 1]

Two teachers mentioned they sometimes use pictures and flashcards to introduce the meaning of the words. One of them commented:
I show them the pictures, flash cards, some materials and use body language to introduce the new words. They like my way of teaching vocab and they like guessing the meaning until they get the right meaning. They say the meaning in Arabic and then write the words and their meanings in their notebook [Female teacher 1] The two comments by the teachers depict that the teachers focus on introducing the words in isolated terms as opposed to encouraging the students to use the words they learn in diverse meaningful contexts.

Memorisation
All the participating students blamed their teachers for encouraging them to memorise and translate the grammatical rules and the new words.

Memorization appears to be the main way for learning vocabulary. One student mentioned:
We just memorize “by heart “the words specified by the teacher then translate them. After that, we copy and paste. When the teacher just changes a word, we ask her “where is the word?” We cannot answer the question because she changed the question we memorized, for example, a true and false question. If she changes a word, we do not know whether it is true or false”

Relatedly, the teachers justified that they urge their students to memorise the new words in isolated terms because the education system is predominantly test-based. One teacher commented:
I ask them to memorize the words and their meanings for the final exam rather than for mastery of language. A student who would like to master the language would memorise the words without being told.
Unlike memorisation, all the participating students in the focus groups reported the difficulties they encounter in creating their own sentences when writing in English as attributed to their teachers’ misgivings. One student mentioned:
We do not know how to create our own sentences because the teacher did not encourage us to do that. We just copy and paste.

Additionally, the student blamed the teacher for not encouraging them to practice their English proficiency generally, particularly English writing. For instance, all the students corresponded that their teacher did not motivate to practise dictation in order to improve spelling. One student commented:
The teacher has never ever asked us to practice spelling. How can we improve spelling? He doesn’t give us example related to our lives.”

In support of the students’ notions, all the teachers indicated that they did not give the students a chance to form their own sentences when writing in English. However, the teachers clarified the situation by stating that they were unable to encourage their students to apply the English rules and vocabulary in diverse contexts because of two reasons. For one, the teachers perceived that the curriculum did not encourage students to form their own sentences. Secondly, the teachers stated that they lacked sufficient time to accomplish all that.
Two teachers commented by saying:
“I am not required as a teacher to give them the chance to put the word in sentences from their own. The curriculum requires me to explain the rules with examples and introduce the new words for the students to understand them [ Teacher male 2]

“I cannot encourage students to create their own sentences because I cannot give feedback where the class size is big. [ Teacher female 2].
As indicated in the last comment, the teachers do not give feedback due to massive class size. Lack of feedback was perceived by all the participating students as a negative influence on their English writing skills. One student stated:

Feedback:
We have problems because our teacher does not give us feedback. Therefore, we do not know our mistakes. We cannot improve our writing. [ 1st female]

We always copy and paste without understanding and knowing that there is a mistake in grammar or spelling. What makes is difficult that the teacher does not check whether we right correctly or not. If he checks, he just walks around and give us mark for completing the homework or collect notebooks and then just sign it without reading what we wrote and give feedback on it.
Another student mentioned:
Sometimes he [the teacher] underlines some words indicating there is a mistake but what it is ? we do not know. Is it grammar, spelling or punctuation. The teacher does not give attention to what we write because he thinks that we copied it correctly so that we don’t care when we copy because we know that the teacher will not check it. [ 2nd male student].

Techniques:
In addition, the students blamed their teachers for their teaching practices that merely focus on examinations. There was an agreement among all the participating students that their teachers simply teach them to pass their final examinations. One student mentioned:
I think our problem in learning English is that we just study to pass the exam. The knowledge we have is always forgotten after finishing the final exam. We have been accustomed to study some specific things specified by the teacher for the exam. We just study what the teacher asks us to do. [ 2nd female student].

(Removed one due to repetition)
Consistently, all the teachers concurred that they do in fact teach solely for the final examinations. The justification they provided for this was that the education system is indeed a test-focused system. For this reason the teachers perceived that the curriculum encourages them to solely focus on examinations when teaching English.
Although the teachers agreed with their students on the fact that they do teach for the final exams, they reproached the students for the same issue.
One teacher commented:
I feel they [students] are careless and i have a feeling that most of them don’t want to learn. They just want to pass the exam.

The students just focus on exam because our system focuses on the exam. They always ask me this question: is this lesson or question important for the final exam?)
Passive role:
The students criticized the way their teachers teach them English generally, and specifically writing. Some students were questioned about their roles in their learning process. One student commented:
“I am wondering where our roles although we always hear that the student is the central part of learning”.
Essentially, the students claimed that they lacked an active role in their own learning process. All of the students clarified that their teachers made them passive in the classroom. One student mentioned:
The teacher explains everything. We do nothing and we don’t practice. The teacher does not give us the chance to participate, to create our own examples by writing them on the board. [ 1st male].

The female students in third year level commented on this issue:
Students3: The problem is in the teacher unfortunately. She does everything.
Students1: She explains the grammatical rules and gives examples by herself.
Students2: We just listen and try to understand For example, we just correct the verb. Students3: We just add ‘ing’ or change it from passive into active or from past to present or make taq question.
Agreeably, the teachers agreed that they rarely give their students the chance to have an active role. They indicated their actions by saying that the curriculum does not aid the process of giving students the chance to have an active role in class, for instance by forming their own sentences or using the new words in their own examples. Furthermore, they believed that the education system mainly focused on the examinations. For this shortcoming, they blamed the supervisor and the principal as they instruct the teacher to cover all the matters indicated in the curriculum.
Two teachers commented:

I do most of things and I know this is not right but what can I do. I have to finalize explaining all the lessons. [ Teacher male 2].

Teacher: I have to finalize the curriculum. For example, I ask them [students] to change the sentence from active into passive. Just I ask two good students and they wrote them on the board correctly.
Researcher: Do u mean change or create their own?
Teacher: No we don’t have time for creation. Just change. I just ask the good students. [ Male teacher 3] The students had several complaints about their teachers and their teaching methods. They stated that they would prefer to be taught for more than just the final examination. Agreeably, the teachers confirmed all the students’ accusations and gave arguably viable reasons for the teaching methods. The following sections examines whether there exists a link between L2 strategic processes and writing difficulty faced by Saudi secondary school students when writing English.

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Is there an association between L2strategic processes (factor 1,2) and writing difficulty faced by Saudi secondary school students when writing in English?

L2 strategic process:
The findings revealed that L2 strategic process were negatively correlated with the difficulties in English writing among the students. As observed earlier, L2 strategic processes were perceived to be the second contributing factor to the students’ problems in writing English. The focus groups supported the quantitative results. Themes emerged from the focus group were planning, drafting, revising, memorisation, imitation and translation.
Planning
The students reported that they never planned for what they write because they do not create their own paragraphs themselves. They just copy and paste. One student stated:
I start writing without planning and without thinking about the topic sentence. I just imitate the written model without understanding what and why to write. [ 3rd male student].

Consistently, all the teacher indicated that they haven’t asked their students to plan before writing. One teacher commented:
There are no strategies such as planning and brainstorming because they do not create their ideas.

Drafting
Regarding drafting, 11 out of 18 mentioned they do drafting for two times. They pointed out that they make two drafts to make sure that the final version is free of grammar, spelling and punctuation mistakes. Two students gave two examples on how they drafted their work as indicated below:
I write the paragraph on a separate sheet of paper and make sure there are no spelling errors. Then, I copy it in the notebook to be corrected by the teacher. I drafted my writing to make sure no errors so that I can memorize them for the final exam.[ 1st year level student].

The teacher always asks to copy what he has written correctly. Therefore, i copy the paragraph in the notebook using the pencils because if make mistakes in spelling or grammar I can correct them. After, that I use the pen to highlight what I have written by then pencil.[ 2nd female student]

Consistently, the teachers indicated that students drafted their work two versions. All the teachers indicated they always remind their students to copy correctly and revise it so that they can answer the composition question in the final exam. According to one of the teachers:
They have two drafts. After I correct the first one they rewrite the final one to be ready for the final exam. [ Male teacher 1].

However, some students did not perceive any benefits of drafting their writing as they merely copy and paste.
We do not write. I mean we do not create our own ideas and sentences. We just imitate copy paste, no need for drafting.[ 2nd year level student]

Revising:
10 out of 18 students indicated that they do revising. They pointed out they revise their writings for checking grammar and mechanic issues. One student mentioned:
We revise our writings so that we can make sure we have the right version to be memorises for the final exam. We focus on spelling, grammar, punctuation, capital letters and indentation. [ 3rd year level female student] The teachers supported the students’ views about revising by indicating that some students revise their work focusing on grammar and mechanics.
Some students care about the errors in their writing so that they revise their writing. They care because of the final exam. [ Male teacher 2].

However, one student indicated that in addition to focusing on the linguistic and mechanic issues, she gives attention to the organisation of the paragraph she writes.

I revise my writing by concentrating on indentation, spelling, grammar, and the order of sentences that we make them from answering specific questions. [ 2nd year level female student]

In accordance with this, one teacher mentioned that she asks her students to focus on paragraph organization. She indicated that some writing tasks require students to form a paragraph from answering some specific questions. She said:
I ask the students to focus on order of the questions. They answered the questions orally. Then I write the answers of these questions in a paragraph on the board. Then, the students copy it in their notebooks. [ Female teacher 2] The above two comments from the student and the teacher show that while the students focus on the organization of the paragraphs, they are not keen on the organization of the ideas. Supposedly, the students focus on the order of the questions without concentrating on the ideas.

Collectively, the findings of the student focus groups and teacher interviews showed that that the students’ aim of drafting and revising was for refining the written version to be memorized for the final exam.
Memorisation:
The findings from the questionnaires indicated that 68% of the students perceived that they always or often memorise the predetermined topics discussed in the textbooks. In support of the quantitative findings, the results of the focus groups and teacher interviews showed that all the students and teachers agreed that the main strategy the students deploy in their writing is memorisation. Below is an example of the conversation between the students in one focus group.
Students3: We memorise it [the text] and how to answer it in the exam.
students2: the English subject mostly depends on memorisation rather than understanding or creation. We have been taught to memorise.
Student1: we memorise some things without understanding. The teacher herself encourages us to memorise the grammatical rules? [1st male students]

There was a unanimous agreement among the students that memorisation is not an effective strategy for them to learn English generally as well as improve their writing in particular. Some students related their difficulties in English writing to the memorisation strategy. An example is given below:
The reasons for our problems is we unfortunately just memorise the paragraphs which already specified by the teacher. She told us memorise this and this. One of them will be in the exam. So we memorise without understanding and we just want to pass the exam. [2nd female student].

Consistently, the teachers unanimously mentioned that they encourage their students to memorise the predetermined topics. All the teachers indicated that they specify some topics to be memorised. One teacher commented:
I assign three or four of the predetermined topics for the students to be memorized to pass the exam because the composition question in the final exam is the most difficult one. [ Female teacher 2].

However, all the teachers claimed that they do not prefer that the students to memorise the topics as they believe memorization would not help them improve their English writing. Regardless, the teachers explained the reasons for encouraging the students to memorise the topics. One teacher expanded:

I know specifying some topics and encouraging students to memorise them is wrong. I always say that to my colleagues that what we do is wrong and we destroy their English but what can we do? We cannot destroy their future. They need to pass and get high grades. If we assume that we let them compose their paragraphs themselves, they would get low grades. This would affect my performance because the principal of the school and the supervisor would ask me why the students get low grades. This is why i specify some paragraphs and words for the girls to be able to pass the exam, get high grades, and avoid the principal and the supervisor criticism. Also, the girls are mostly good in maths and physics etc. but they face many difficulties in English. This is why i do not want English to affect their GPA negatively.

The teacher’s comments depict two reasons for specifying certain predetermined topics in the textbooks and ask the students to memorise them for the final exam. For one, they would prefer it if their students excelled in their examinations as this would go a long way in improving their general quality of their life in future. Secondly, the teachers may be worried about their jobs as failure among the students typically reflects badly on the teachers’ records which would cause problems with the school’s administration.
As far as memorization is concerned, interestingly, when students were asked whether they can create their own sentences in the exam if they do not memorize or forget what they have memorized, one answered:
Impossible, we have not practiced that and it is very difficult. We are not required to create our sentences. We just do what our teacher asks us to do.
Concurrently, the entire teacher believed that their students couldn’t create their compositions themselves because it is difficult for them. Therefore the five teachers perceived memorization was easy for their students. One teacher commented:
The students have not taught to create their sentences. They did not practice writing from their own. If they cannot create a sentence correctly, how would they create a composition in English?
Consistent with teachers’ views about the difficulty students face in creating their own sentences and the ease of memorization strategy, there was one student who showed interest in memorization. He commented:
I like memorization because it is easier for me. I do not think memorization will improve my writings. However, if we create our sentences, we will make many mistakes because we are not sure about the words we use.
This statement indicates that the students memorize mainly to avoid mistakes in class rather than improve their skills in English writing.

However, memorization was not as easy for all the students as it was perceived to be by most of the teachers. Some students revealed it is difficult to memorize all the predetermined topics in the textbooks. One student commented:
I just put the word “and” between the helping verbs given by the teacher when answering the composition question. I have no choices as it is hard to memorise all the paragraphs. [ 2nd male student] Consistently, one teacher said that the students find it difficult to memorize all the paragraphs such that many of them leave it blank.
I think we have two kinds of students, the good students memorize the paragraphs in the textbooks and the others leave it blank .

Regardless, three students mentioned they do not memorise the predetermined topics because the composition question in the exam is a paragraph with missing words and multiple choices are provided to fill the blacks.

We don’t memorise all the paragraphs. We just memorise specific things in the paragraph because we will not write in the exam. It is multiple choice.
Memorization is prominently used by Saudi students and encouraged by their teachers. Furthermore, imitation is another misguided strategy that these students reported to using in classes.
Imitation:
Additionally, both the students and teachers agreed that the students’ role in writing tasks is just to imitate a written model. Earlier on, imitation was mentioned to have negative implications on the students’ skills in English writing. When students were asked about how their teacher teaches the paragraph, one stated:
We read it and he explains the meaning of it and then if some new words he asks about the meaning. Then he ask us to write it as a homework. [ 3rd male student].

All the students indicated they do not like imitation because it does not improve their writing. Moreover, one student gave an example of why he did not prefer imitation and rather prefers production and creation. He stated:
1st female:
Student1: the problem is in writing.
Researcher: Why?
Studen1t: Because we do not practice. We never create our own compositions like in the third year in the intermediate school.
Researcher: Can you explain?
Student1: We created our composition about my friend. The teacher gave us helping words but write form ourselves. It was very good because we practice and do not have to memorise as we do in the secondary stage.
Student2: I think our problem in learning English is that we just study to pass the exam. Our job is to imitate a model and copy without understanding what we write.[ 1st female student].

All the teachers indicated that they ask the students to imitate a written model because the curriculum and the teacher’s guidebook require them to do so.
There is one model in each writing lesson. I explain how the paragraph is composed from the table which has helping words and some phrases. Students are asked to write another one on another topic by using the same techniques. The student’s role is just to copy and paste, and change some words such as numbers, names,
Another teacher justified why she asked her students to simply copy from the board. She explained:
I ask questions and they answer them and then we collect ideas. Then i start writing the paragraph on the board. I never allow them to write because they spend much time in writing and make many mistakes in spelling. This takes time and waste class time. This is why i have to write it myself and then they copy it.
All in all, there is a definite association between L2 processes and English writing difficulties among Saudi students. Both students and teachers concur to using methods such as imitation and memorization during the learning and teaching process. Subsequently, it is important to examine the existence of an association between motivation and English writing difficulty among Saudi students.

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Is there an association between motivation and writing difficulty faced be Saudi secondary school students when writing in English?
Motivation

Motivation was perceived by both students and teachers as a contributing factor to the students’ difficulties in English writing. The quantitative data revealed that motivation is negatively correlated with the difficulties in writing.
Supporting the statistical results, the qualitative findings showed that motivation has an impact on students’ difficulties in English writing. One student commented:
“I think one of the main reasons for our problems in English and writing is lack of motivation. We are not motivated to learn English. [ 1st male year level student].
Another student said:
I feel demotivated because I see no benefits in learning English because I cannot learn it very well. [2nd male student].
The students elaborated on the perceived reasons behind their lack of motivation to learn English. They attributed their lack of motivation to a number of factors such as the teacher, curriculum and classroom environment.

Teachers:
• teaching techniques
All the students indicated that theirs teachers’ teaching techniques demotivate them to learn English and improve their English writing. Specifically, the students perceived that they feel demotivated when their teachers do not vary their teaching techniques. One student stated that:
1st male mentioned:
The teacher repeats the same teaching techniques in all the lessons. I feel demotivated to keep focusing on the lesson with the teacher.”
(Removed one due to repetition)
The student clarified that class is demotivating because of the lack of using technology and games in the class.

2nd male said:
We feel demotivated because the lessons are very boring. The teachers use the same teaching aids, marker board and book. There are no projectors or computer games like in the English institutes.”
Consistently, all the teachers reinforced students’ views by complaining about the lack of teaching aids. One teacher offered:

The lack of teaching aids and the lack of English labs demotivate me to teach and demotivate students to learn so that students feel bored in English class. Without teaching aids, I am like the birds without wings. I need an English lab equipped with facilities.
• Lack of feedback
Additionally, the students reported that a lack of feedback from the teachers was a key demotivating factor. Two examples are given below:
The teacher put a smile face in the intermediate school but now in the secondary school no smile faces. [3rd female student].
We do not know where our mistakes are. We are not motivated to correct our mistakes because we do not know them and the teacher does not care about our work. [3rd female student].
• Teachers’ enthusiasm
The students concurred that they believed that their teachers mainly care about concluding the class and finalize explaining all the lessons in the curriculum.

We feel not motivated because I think the teacher just want to finish the curriculum. We don’t feel that he likes teaching English. I think he is not enthusiastic to teach . He just want to finish the lesson and finish 45 minutes.
Consistently, all the teachers indicated that they feel demotivated to teach English. They blamed this on the education system which is test-centred and mainly requires the students to memorize. One teacher commented:
Teachers come each class and lecture them. They rarely give them the chance to participate. They just listen. They do nothing. This is why they feel demotivated. And I admit I feel demotivated because of the education system, the atmosphere of the class and the school environment.
Another teacher commented:
Some students do not know all the letters and some know the some of the capital letters without their small ones. These students make me frustrated and distracted because I need to teach them the letters and teach them the basics.
Consequently, the lack of enthusiasm among the teachers leads us to the teachers’ role in the classroom. The teacher’s role impacts highly on the students’ performance and their mastery of the writing in English. Essentially, in Saudi secondary schools, the students complain that contrary to what is considered normal, their teachers take the active roles in class while they are forced to be passive participants.
• Teacher’s role

2nd male said:
We feel boring, not motivated and sleepy because the teacher speaks all the class time and we just listen until we feel sleepy. Some students sleep in the English class. Just one or two students who wants high mark, they concentrate on what the teacher says.

Consistently, all the teacher indicated that their ways of teaching did not provide the students with a chance to take up active roles in their learning lessons. One teacher said:
Teachers come each class and lecture them. They rarely give them the chance to participate. They just listen. They do nothing. This is why they feel demotivated. And i admit i am affected by the educational system, the atmosphere the class, the school environment.

Lack of students’ motivation was not restricted to the teaching techniques used by their teachers, but also the classroom environment was perceived to be a key factor in demotivating students from learning English including writing skills.
Classroom Environment
All the students agreed that they perceived that the class environment is not motivating. They indicated that size of the class and the big number of students in each class makes the class a less attractive environment to learn.
The classroom environment demotivates me. I hate to come to school because the class is small and the school day is very long. [ 1st male student].
Another student said:
(removed a comment)
Consistently, all the teachers complained about the classroom environment. Similar to what the students complained about, the teachers also held the opinion that the school learning environment was not suitable for supporting education, particularly in a foreign language such as English. The students talked about congestion in classrooms. This is a major cause of distraction. As opposed to listening to their teachers, the students focus more on how uncomfortable they are; for instance in terms of heat. Additionally, there are bound to be noisemakers in overcrowded classrooms.

The class time, the class size and the number of students are not suitable for learning. Even the teachers, we are frustrated because of the building not suitable for teaching and learning. [ Male teacher3].
When another teacher was asked about the classroom environment, he said:
It is very very very boring. I am a human being. I am affected by the students and vice versa. Many of the students are silent and waiting for u to finish the class. Then I ask them “do you understand” they say “yes” although they don’t. They just want me to finish because they want to get back to sleep because some of them did not sleep enough or did not sleep at all last night. Or some want me to finish because they want to do their homework for other subjects. It is complicated. I think most of them don’t have the desire to learn not just in English but as teacher we talk with each other, the students don’t want to learn.
Furthermore, the students mentioned that memorization and imitation is a major demotivating factor. According to the findings obtained from the focus groups, 17 out 18 students reported that they are demotivated when instructed to memorize the words or predetermined topics in their textbooks.
Memorisation and imitation
The findings of the focus groups revealed that 17 out of 18 students indicated they feel less motivated when their teacher asks them to memorize the words or the predetermined topics in the textbooks. One student commented:
3rd female:
I feel less motivated to memorize the words in a list without using them in different contexts. I memorized many words but I have not been able to use them. Therefore, I feel demotivated because I see no benefits in memorizing them without using them.
1st female
We like the way we were taught writing in the third year level in the intermediate school because we practice and do not have to memorise as we do in the secondary stage. Memorisation is very boring. We prefer to create our owns. We need to practice and learn. We get motivated to create our own compositions. [ 1st female year level student].

However, one student revealed that she liked memorisation. She commented:
I like memorizing the words even without putting in sentences but putting them in sentences is better. Knowing their meanings help me learning English and increase my vocabulary. [ 3rd female year level student].

Consistently, three teachers perceived that memorisation is a demotivating strategy for their students. One teacher commented:
I think students should learn how to use their words rather than memorising them. Students do not want to learn vocabulary because they feel demotivated to memorise them.
(Removed a comment)
The other three teachers felt that memorisation is important and it is not a demotivating way to learn English. One teacher commented:
I think student should memorise the words they learn. If they memorise them, they will understand English and this would encourage them to keep learning. [ Male teacher 3].
(Removed a comment)
Similar to memorization, imitation causes a significant lack of motivation among the students. Some students would prefer to actually learn something rather than copy their teachers’ work.
-Imitation
All the participating students agreed that they feel less motivated when their teachers ask them to copy a composition written by the teacher and imitate a written mode.
1st male said:
“Copying and pasting is demotivating us. We cannot be encouraged to learn when we imitate and copy without understanding”
(removed a comment)
In addition, curriculum is one factor mentioned by the students as a cause for demotivation. The reason behind this concept is that they can barely find a connection between their school curriculum and actual lives. Simply put, the students are unable to relate the two concepts.
Curriculum:

Related to the topics, they mentioned that the topics are not related to their lives. This makes them less motivated. One student commented:
We study about boring topic. They are not related our lives. I have not seen rhinoceros in my life. How can I get motivated to write about them? [3rd female student].
Another student said:
The curriculum is very old and bad. The pictures are old. 1 the topics are not interesting and the book is not attractive. [ 2nd female student].
(removed a comment)
Consistently, all the teachers agreed that the topics in the curriculum do not motivate students to learn. Consequently, neither are the teachers motivated to teach. When one teacher was asked how his students feel about the topics in the textbook, he commented:
Very boring and not related to their lives. I can say there are one or two which are related such as talk about yourself. [ Male teacher1].

Another teacher said:

I feel frustrated because the curriculum is very old and also the students are frustrated. My students always ask me why it is old, the pictures are old the topics are not related to our lives directly, not attractive. [ Male teacher2].

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The teachers added two imperative issues they believed aided in the demotivation of students attempting to learn English writing in particular. They encompass: students’ beliefs and the education system.

• Students’ beliefs about learning English
All the teachers agreed that they feel many of their students are demotivated due to their notions about learning English. One teacher commented when he was asked about students’ motivation:
Many students are demotivated because they have a feeling that learning English is difficult. They have heard from their friends or families that English is difficult. For this reason they make an attempt at learning the language with a crippling attitude from the beginning [ Male teacher 1]

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The education system “ exams”
All the teachers harmonized that education system was fundamental in overall demotivation of students about learning English writing. One teacher commented:
“Students can pass the exam even if they fail. The systems say that if students fail to get 50 out of 100 in one subject, the computer will make the student pass automatically. If the students fail in two subjects, they can choose to do a supplementary exam in one subject and the computer will make them pass in the other one. Most of the students He can choose English to be passed by the computed. Therefore, students don’t have the motivation to learn because they already know that they will pass it. Students say it to me frankly. “If you don’t help us pass the exam, the computer will do.” [ Male teacher 2].
Another teacher said:
I think the education system is one of the main factors helps in making learning English is impossible as the students focus on the exam and they know that the computer will give them the chance to choose one of the topics he hasn’t passed. They always say to me that they choose English to be passed. This is why they don’t want to learn English because they are sure they will pass. [Male teacher 1] on the whole, the students and teachers are basically connected in this process of learning a foreign language. For this reasons, the teachers’ actions can either motivate or demotivate the students. As mentioned, the students are demotivated when the teachers make them memorize and imitate, by the curriculum, among others. Below, I explore the association between anxiety and writing difficulty for Saudi secondary school students in writing in English.
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Is there an association between anxiety and writing difficulty faced be Saudi secondary school students when writing in English?

Anxiety
The quantitative findings revealed that anxiety is positively correlated with the difficulty in English writing among students. Profoundly, the more students get anxious, the more difficulties they have in their English writing.
The focus groups data presented two situations where students feel anxious in their writings. These include; when they write their homework and when they write a composition in the final exam. Illustratively, 12 out of 18 students indicated that they were anxious during their exams. Conversely, only 5 out 18 students indicated having anxiety while doing their homework. The main reason for this diversity was attributed to supervision. While examinations were supervised, high-pressure situations, homework was done in a more relaxed setting where the students knew beforehand that their work would not even be marked by their teachers.
• Anxiety in the exam
Specifically, 12 out of 18 students feel anxious when they answer the composition question in the final exam. These students indicated that their anxiety is caused by fear of losing grades which implicated that they over-focus on writing error-free paragraphs. 3rd male said:
I feel very much anxious about spelling, grammar and punctuation because i don’t want to lose any marks. When i feel anxious, i sometime change some words or sentences although i was sure it was right.
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2 rd female said:
I do not just feel very very anxious in the exam, I think I reach to the highest level of anxiety. I get sweaty because I am afraid of exams. I feel very anxious because I do not want to lose any marks.

Consistently, one teacher indicated that students experience a high level of anxiety in the exam because they are afraid of making mistakes and thereby losing grades.
I believe the student don’t feel anxious when writing in classroom because it is not marked. They have a high level of anxiety when writing the composition in the final the exam. [ Male teacher 2].
Another teacher pointed out :
Many students lack confidence in their writing and afraid of doing mistakes so that they memorise the paragraph to write it correctly in the exam.
However, the other six students out of 18 expressed that the nature of the composition question in the final exam helped them not to be anxious. They indicated that the question did not ask them to compose a paragraph; instead, they are provided with a written paragraph in the exam. Furthermore multiple choices are availed to aid in the completion of the written paragraphs and all they are required to do is select the correct choices.

2nd male said:
We do not understand the questions. We choose and some of them will be correct. The questions are multiple choices. For example, the first sentence in the paragraph has missing words. I fill in the missing-s from the multiple choices.

• Anxiety in doing the homework
Regarding the anxiety in writing the classroom or doing homework, 13 students out of 18 perceived they did not feel anxious when writing a paragraph in the classroom or as homework. They indicated that the reason for not being anxious when writing was due to the fact that they do not have to create or produce new sentences. They were wondering how they get anxious while their role in writing was merely to imitate a model. One of the three students in the focus group disagreed with the other two students who indicated they have anxiety when writing their homework. He commented :
For me, I have never ever felt anxious because I do nothing. I just copy and paste. [ 3rd male year level student].

Another justification mentioned by the student about not feeling anxious was because the teachers did not give feedback and did not check what they write.
2mal said:
We never ever feel anxious if we write the homework or the teacher marks it because we are sure that he will not check it.

Supporting the students’ views, three teachers reported that their student do not get anxious because they simply copy a written model. One teacher stated:

I do not think the students having a feeling of anxiety when writing a paragraph because they just copy from the board. [ Male teacher 3]

Another teacher clarified that :
When there is drafting, there is no anxiety. They want me to write the final draft because they want to know it and memorise it for the final exam. They don’t feel anxious when writing because it is not marked.[ Male teacher 2]

However, the findings of the focus groups revealed that five students out of 18 perceived that writing a composition in the classroom or at home makes them anxious. These students mentioned the reasons for their anxiety in writing a composition in the classroom or doing the homework. One student commented:
I feel anxious because I just write it once. We need to practice continually more and more to remove our anxiety. And the more anxiety is in the exam.

Consistently, two teachers stressed that they perceived that their students get very anxious when writing in English because of the fear of making mistakes. One teacher commented:
I think holding the pen is scary to students. They are afraid of writing. They have great anxiety. They don’t have the confidence to write. They are afraid of their classmates’ comments or teachers’ comment. They are afraid that the teacher may take bad impression about their writing. [ Male teacher 1]

When a teacher was asked about the reasons behind his students’ problems in spelling, he replied:
I think because the anxiety, fear, lack of confidence. They are afraid of holding the pen to write. One of the students wrote to me that he wanted to talk with me. When i met him, he begged me not to ask him to write, he gets embarrassed and afraid of writing. Some of them let’s say about 25% of students do not know all the letters.
Conclusively, there is definite association between the students’ difficulties in English writing and matters such as teaching methods, teacher’s roles, and L2strategic processes. Observably, the students are very affected by their teacher’s practices in terms of motivation or demotivation. For instance, the students are demotivated when asked to memorize and imitate. This is because they are interested in learning the language but the teachers seem hesitant to teach them properly. Additionally, some students experience anxiety which affects their writing skills in English. Alternatively, it is vital to have an in-depth discussion of the qualitative data on the factors increasing students’ difficulties in English writing in Saudi secondary schools.
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As indicated above, both the quantitative and the qualitative findings revealed four perceived contributing factors to the students’ difficulties in English writing. However, the findings of the qualitative data had two emergent factors “themes” contributing to the students’ difficulties in English writing. These factors “themes” were curriculum and previous learning experiences.

Curriculum:
All the participating students agreed that the curriculum was one of the contributing factors to their problems in English writing. One student pointed out:
3rd male said:
Writing is neglected. The curriculum just focuses on grammar. [ 3rd male year level student].
All the students agreed that the curriculum does not require them to use their English communicatively. One student commented:
I think the curriculum is not good. It does not teach us how to use our English
For example, there is a clothing shop in which all the staff speak English, we would love to buy but we cannot communicate with them in English. [ 3rd female year level student].

Supporting the students’ views about the curriculum, the teacher unanimously claimed that the curriculum is one of the contributing factors to students’ problems in English generally and writing specifically. It was a consistent agreement among the teachers and students that the curriculum does not focus on the writing skills. One teacher commented:
It is very bad. I studied it and now teaching it without improvement. I hope it gets changed and focused on writing because i think writing is the most difficult to learn and is the most neglect skill in curriculum and as teacher we don’t focus on it [ Male teacher 2].
When teachers were asked why their students face difficulties in applying the rules not understanding them, one teacher commented:
To be honest, I blame the curriculum because it doesn’t require the students apply the rules and create their own. For example, students don’t feel that this unit talks about the past and the writing lesson is to write a paragraph using the simple past.
When teachers were asked why their students cannot have the chance to create their own sentences, one teacher commented:
Because this is what we are required to do. It is to follow the instructions of the curriculum. It is mandatory. This is not to say i am not mistaken. But i face problems preventing me from giving the students the chance to create their own sentences. We as the proverb says “get abide by the rules” .
Another teacher stated:
The curriculum leads us to teach the students to copy and paste and how to pass the exam. We don’t encourage the students to create their own sentences or paragraphs. We are anxious because the supervisor and the principal focus on finishing explaining the curriculum and we are guided by it.
All the teachers agreed that the most topics of the curriculum are not suitable for their students. One teacher commented:
The topics are very bad because they are very old, boring and not related to their lives; for example. To ask students to write about the oil. How can they write about something they have never seen in their lives? I think these topic not just demotivate but also frustrate them. I really thought about changing it but i can’t because of the system and we are abiding by the curriculum.
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One teacher blamed the curriculum for not focusing on the punctuation in the first year level, he stated:
They [the students] face a big problem in using punctuations because the curriculum focuses on them in a later stage that is in the third year level. Since i have taught the third year level for three years, i often teach the first year level students about how to use the punctuations. I think the teachers who have never taught the third year level may not give attention to it. [ Male teacher 1].
One teacher believed that the sequence of the lessons is not suitable. The curriculum is not organized very well. For example, the tag questions are repeated several times and everywhere.
We do not introduce the tag questions, which has different conditions, in one unit in an organized way. This kind of disorganized teaching confuses the students who are barely trying to master a foreign language [female teacher 3] —————————————————————————————————–
Previous experiences in learning English “weak foundation”:
The other theme emerged from the student focus groups and the teacher interviews were the weak previous experience in learning English. 15 out of 18 of the participating students agreed that many students reached the secondary school stage with weak foundations in the previous experiences in learning English. An example of conversation between the 2nd male students:
Students 1: The cause of our problems in English is that we did not learn very well in the elementary and intermediate schools.
Students 2: They made us to pass without understanding and practising English.
Students 3: English was a subject like any subject. The most important was to pass but the teachers did not care if we learned it very well.

Another example is the conversation between the students in the 3rd year male levels students
Student 3: I think the previous learning on intermediate was bad. We did not learn the basics. We learned in the elementary the letters but in the intermediate was bad.
Students1: sometimes the teacher say ok i think you all know the letters but most of them were not. They didn’t learn it in the elementary school.
Students 3: i think the teacher in the intermediate school was not enthusiast to teach english. What was he doing was putting the cd in the cd player and sleep.
When students were asked about the reasons behind their problems in learning grammar well, one student pointed out:
The weak foundation in learning the basics in English affected many students negatively. Some students did not care about learning English when they were in the elementary school. It was on going evaluation without exams so that they did not care. They were sure that they would pass English because there were no exams. [ 2nd female year level student].
Another student said:
We have not good foundation in the 6th year level. The teacher did not teach us very well and made us pass without being strong enough in English. There are some students do not know the English letters very well in the intermediate level. [3rd female student].
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Consistently, all the teachers indicated that many of their students come to the secondary schools with weak foundations in the basics of learning English such as recognizing the alphabetical English letters.
One teacher said:
They do not know how to make a sentence because their foundations in intermediate schools where the students did not learn how to make a simple sentence by focusing on the main parts of making a sentence. [ Male teacher 3].
Another teacher said:
I think they often face difficulty in grammar. I don’t blame them because they have weak foundations. [female teacher 2] (removed a comment)

Another teacher mentioned :
I feel frustrated because of their base or foundation. I get distracted between teaching them the foundation in spelling grammar and writing sentences, and explaining the curriculum. [ Male teacher 2].
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However, there were three students who did not agree that their English problems can be attributed to their weak learning experiences in learning English. One said:
I think it was good and not affect my writing negatively. The problem in writing in secondary school we just copy and paste. We learned some words we know how to write the letters. Just we need to practice writing our own sentences.[ 1st female students].
In conclusion, it can be noted that there are several factors that contribute to the difficulties that Saudi students face in English writing. This is mostly in relation to the teachers and their methods of teaching. The students mostly disapprove of the way in which they are taught and the teachers concur with their notions. Curriculum and previous learning experiences are emergent factors to the difficulties that students face in writing English. The curriculum does not allow for several things such as allowing the students to be active rather than passive members in class. Moreover, it is noted that most students have considerably poor foundations in English which impacts on their willingness to accept and learn the language at such a late stage in their educational life.
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