Institutional Affiliation

Chapter 4
Findings
Student’s Name
Institutional Affiliation
Introduction
This chapter deals with analyzing the data collected through three main research instruments, namely; the student questionnaire, the student focus group, and the teacher interview. The data obtained by these instruments was intended to address the main and subsidiary research questions of the study. Based on these, the chapter is divided into five sections. The first section provides descriptive statistics of the questionnaire and the writing samples. The second section presents the analysis of the first main research question, which is what are Saudi secondary school students’ perceived difficulties with writing in English? The third sections highlights the findings of the first subsidiary questions which investigate whether there any differences between male and female students in the perceived difficulties they face when writing in English; the second part of the subsidiary questions aim to examine whether there any differences between students in different secondary school year levels (i.e. 10th, 11th and 12th) regarding the perceived difficulties they face when writing in English. The third part of the subsidiary questions will be concerned with analyzing whether there any differences between Saudi secondary school learners regarding the difficulties they faced when writing in English based on the father’s and mother’s educational level, and extra English classes taken by the students outside their classrooms. The fourth section is concerned with the findings related to the second main question which is what do Saudi secondary school students perceive to be the contributing factors to their difficulties with writing in English? The fifth section addresses the analysis of the third main research question that is what do Saudi secondary school students perceive to be appropriate solutions to their difficulties with writing in English? However, before presenting the descriptive statistics of the questionnaire, it is imperative to give the background information obtained through the questionnaires.
Demographic data questionnaire:
The questionnaire was completed by 600 students. The demographic section included five questions which were about gender, year level, father’s education, mother’s education and the extra English lesson the students took outside the classroom (see appendix ?). Regarding the gender and year levels, a total of 300 male students completed the questionnaire; 100 from each year level (i.e. 10th, 11th and 12th) in secondary schools. The total number of the female students who completed the questionnaire was similar to the male.
With regards to their father’s education, the results revealed that 231(38.5%) of the students’ fathers have secondary school certificates, 155 (25.8%) have bachelor degrees, 37(6.2%) have master degrees, 18 (3%) have PhD, and 159 (26.5%) have “other”. Considering their mother’s education, the results showed that 192(32%) of students’ mothers have secondary school certificates, 125 (20.8%) have bachelor degrees, 19 (3.2%) have master degrees, 8 (1.3%) have PhD, and 256 (42.7%) have “other”.
The last question in the demographic section was about whether students studied extra English lessons outside the classroom (e.g. in an English language institute or via tutoring). The results indicated that 94 students (15.7%) have extra English lessons outside the classroom, whereas 506 students (84.3%) do not. This demonstrates that majority of the students do not take extra English lessons outside the classroom.
Section One
Descriptive statistics of the questionnaire
In this section, the findings of the questionnaire are examined. The questionnaire was designed to collect the perceptions of Saudi secondary school students in response to the factors affecting them when writing in English. The questionnaire targeted respondents through a number of items represented in seven factors identified through factor analysis. These factors were: difficulty in English writing skills, L2 Strategic Processes, teaching practices, anxiety, motivation, difficulty in English and Arabic writing and L1 Arabic writing strategies. The results were obtained from the sample of 600 respondents while two scales in the questionnaire were used. For difficulty in English Writing Skills, Teaching Practices, L2 Strategic Processes and L1 Arabic Writing Strategies, a five point Likert scale was used (Always=5, Often=4, Sometimes=3, Rarely=2 and Never=1) and for motivation, anxiety and difficulty in English and Arabic writing, a continuum scale with 8 levels was used (where 1 represents lowest degree and 8 represents highest degree).
Difficulty in English Writing Skills

The factor regarding difficulty in writing skills in English was observed through 12 items which collectively presented the relationship of latent-manifest variables (see Figure 1.). The questionnaire scale used for this factor is the five point Likert scale (Always=5, Often=4, Sometimes=3, Rarely=2 and Never=1). The questionnaire findings against item 1, 35% of participants revealed that they sometimes find it difficult to use English grammar rules correctly which is the highest percentage, while only 4% stated that they never had difficulty in using English Grammar. In item 2, 38% the participants stated that they always have difficulty in constructing verb sentences while only 6% stated that they never had difficulty in writing verb tenses which is the lowest. In item 3, 23% of students perceived they sometimes face difficulty in using the punctuation while consistently 23% also reported no difficulty ever too. In item 4, around 30% always had difficulty in using articles. In item 5, while writing English prepositions 24% reported that they always find it difficult to use prepositions, the result was consistent with 19%, 20%, 18% and 19% regarding often, sometimes, rarely and never. In item 6, 31% always felt difficulty and only 6% never found any difficulty in spelling English words. In item 7, 37% and 3% reported difficulty in using appropriate words as always and never respectively with highest and lowest values. In item 8, again 37% always had difficulty in writing topic sentences with lowest reported value at 10% as they never felt difficulty in this regard. In item 9, 49% samples reported as they always find it difficult in constructing paragraphs which explained the highest of all items while only 5% testified as they never faced difficulty in this regard. In item 10, 46% described their difficulty as always in writing supporting sentences while only 6% stated that they never felt such difficulty. In item 11, 47% faced difficulty in writing paragraphs in coherence with only 5% stating no difficulty ever in writing paragraphs with coherence. Finally, the results of item 12 also revealed the consistent results as previous items that 40% found it difficult in using cohesive devices with minimum reported variable value at 8% who never found any such difficulty ever. Interestingly reported statistics of the Saudi Secondary school students identify a pattern and trend in their English writing difficulties. Less than 10% of the students report having no problems in issues to do with paragraphing in English as represented by items 8-12: topic sentence, paragraph organization, presenting supporting sentences, paragraph coherence, and cohesive devices respectively. Paragraphing is indisputably the most prominent problem that the students face in English writing as more than 35% of the students as represented by each item report that they always have problems.
Teaching Practices
The teaching practices factor included 14 items which were targeted to analyze the teaching strategies (see Figure 2.). The questionnaire scale used for this factor is the five point Likert scale (Always=5, Often=4, Sometimes=3, Rarely=2 and Never=1). Item 13 analyzed how frequently the teacher explains to the students how to introduce the topic sentence in paragraph, for which 39% individuals reported that their teacher never taught them so. 44% of the students reported that their teacher never taught them to organize paragraphs, 50% reported that they were never taught how to develop idea, 51% were never taught how to write coherent paragraphs, 23% were sometimes taught how to correctly use cohesive devices, 29% were always asked to memorize grammatical rules, 28.80% perceived that they were sometimes taught lists of vocabulary items in isolated terms, 26% of the teachers never gave feedback. Item 20 examined teachers’ feedback which was reported as 26% that they never gave any feedback. In item 21, 24% samples described their teacher behavior of always correcting mistakes without feedback. In item 22, 34% samples revealed that teacher never encouraged them to write their own sentences. In item 23, 27% samples stated that their teacher never varied his/her teaching techniques, in item 24, 46% individuals revealed that their teachers always asked them to memorize textbook content for exams. 25% of the sample students reported that the teachers never explained to them the objectives of the writing lessons they performed while 44% reported that the teachers never encouraged them to practice writing in English outside the classroom. From the data collected, the students’ opinions were observed to be consistent and unanimous mostly on the issues of the teaching strategies that were never applied by the teachers as well as those that were always applied. As noted in items 13-17, the teachers reportedly pay less attention in teaching other English writing skills in comparison to others. For instance, while 50.70% never teach paragraph coherence, merely 21.30% are reported to never teach cohesive devices.

L2 Strategic Processes
L2 Strategic Processes factor describes the strategies upheld in writing in English (see Figure 3.). The questionnaire scale used for this factor is the five point Likert scale (Always=5, Often=4, Sometimes=3, Rarely=2 and Never=1). This factor is examined through its 10 variables.
In item 27, about 37% of individuals stated that they never brainstorm before writing in English. 36% stated that they never write any drafts before making a final submission in English. In item 28, 31% stated that they always revise the spelling and grammar of their English composition. In item 29, 43% revealed that they never revise the main idea and coherence in their writing. In item 30, 50% of the respondents claimed they always memorize the predefined text from their textbooks for answering English composition. In item 31, 26% of the respondents revealed that sometimes they can easily answer English composition questions. In item 32, 23% individuals stated that they never use a transfer process of conversion from Arabic to English. In item 33, 35% individuals stated that they always think and translate Arabic sentence into English. Further items reported as 34% individuals never practiced writing in English outside their classrooms. Item 36, only 16% of students perceived that they always feel confident to correctly write a composition in English.

Motivation
Motivation factor was examined through five successive factors which tried to reveal the motivation levels among individuals for writing in English language (see Figure 4.). The continuum scale was used to measure the degree of the students’ perceived motivation regarding specific issues with writing in English where 8 represented the highest degree of motivation and 1 represented the lowest degree of motivation to no motivation at all. Item 37 revealed that 38% of the respondents were never motivated in writing irrelevant topics. Item 38 described that they lack motivation when objectives are not clear at 47%. Item 39, examined the motivation level if teacher had same routine of teaching. The results stated that 37% were never motivated if the teacher uses the same technique. In item 40, individuals feel a zero level of motivation when they are given the opportunity to write their own composition which stands at 44%. Item 41 analyzes the motivation about predetermined topic other than their choice; the results stated 38% were never motivated in doing so. Interestingly, it was noted that when the objectives of the writing lessons are not clear, there is quite a minimal margin in terms of motivation among the students. At level 2 and 3 there is a tie at 15.80% in terms of motivation level among the students. This is quite interesting as this issue raises the highest percentage of students who are not motivated at all (46.80%) and the least percentage of extremely motivated students (1.30%).
Anxiety
Anxiety factor is observed through four successive variables which are measured by the anxiety level (see Figure 5.). The continuum scale was used to measure the degree of the students’ perceived anxiety regarding specific issues with writing in English where 8 represented the highest degree of anxiety and 1 represented no anxiety at all. Item 43 focused on anxiety in writing an English composition free of spelling and grammar mistakes which was reported as highest at level 8 with 22% and lowest at level 2 with 5.50%. Item 44 focused on anxiety in writing organized and coherent composition which was reported highest again at level 8 with 21% and lowest at level 2 & 3 with 6.83% consistently. Item 42 analyzed thought of English writing evaluation which discovered a highest level 8 with 28% and lowest at level 2 with 4.50%. Item 45 asked about anxiety in answering English composition question in exams which described that 38% get anxious at the highest level 8 while only 5.50% have a minimal anxiety at level 3. The reported anxiety level for students in item 45, when answering the English composition question in the final exam is quite interesting. Apparently, the item records the highest number of anxious students in the entire table (38.20%) as well as the least number of anxious students (11.50%). The remaining students fall in between that gap.

Difficulty in English and Arabic writing
Difficulty in English and Arabic writing factor is observed through two successive variables that is measured by the difficulty level (see Figure 6.). The continuum scale was used to measure the degree of the students’ perceived difficulty in writing in English and Arabic where 8 represented highest degree of difficulty and 1 represented no difficulty at all.
Figure 6 indicates that writing in English was perceived at highest level 8 with 36% and lowest at level 1 with 5%. Conversely, 56% of the students expressed no difficulty at all in writing in Arabic while about 6% reported they perceived it extremely difficult.
Writing Strategies in L1 Arabic

Writing strategies factor describes the strategies upheld in writing in Arabic (see Figure 7.). The questionnaire scale used for this factor is five point liker scale (where Always=5, Often=4, Sometimes=3, Rarely=2 and Never=1).
About 45% reported that they always plan before and write in Arabic first, 23% reported that they always write some draft before submitting the final version in Arabic, 53% reported that they always generate their own sentences when writing in Arabic, 41% stated that they always focus most on grammar and spellings when writing in Arabic, 48% revealed that they always focus on developing idea to convey message in Arabic with lowest at 4% who never focus on developing ideas and Finally in item 53, 44% described their habit of practicing for writing in Arabic outside their classroom, 19% in this item reported that they never practice, 10% reported that they rarely practice, 15% reported that they sometimes practice outside class while 10.83% reported that they often practice outside class when writing in Arabic. Items 49 and 53 are quite interesting. Evidently, Arabic is the first language for these students. Additionally, majority of them do not prefer to write in English. However, as observed in items 49 and 53, neither do some students prefer Arabic. Over 19% of the students reported to never drafting or practicing writing in Arabic outside the classroom. This would be an obvious assumption for most readers.
In addition, in my research I was able to collect descriptive statistics of the results of the errors observed among the students from the writing samples that I provided for them.
Descriptive statistics of the results of the errors in the students’ writing samples

Ranking Type of error Frequency Percentage
1 Word 1728 26.8%
2 Punctuation 1064 16.5%
3 Spelling 949 14.7%
4 Capitalisation 935 14.5%
5 Subject 547 8.4%
6 Verb 536 8.0%
7 Prepositions 432 6.7%
8 Articles 267= 6440 4.1%
After obtaining the students’ permission, all the students (N= 600), who completed the questionnaires, were required to write a paragraph on a familiar topic: ‘what is your daily routine?” They were asked to write approximately 100 to 150 words within a period of 45minutes. The students were assured that the aim of obtaining writing samples was to assess students’ writing proficiency rather than to evaluate and grade them. The collected writing samples were assessed in terms of sentence level errors (grammar, word choice and mechanics).
Five steps were utilized to determine and analyze the writing samples. Firstly, errors were identified in each paragraph. Secondly, each error was coded. Thereafter, the coded errors were classified into different types of errors under: word choice, verb, prepositions, articles, missing subject, punctuation, spelling and capitalization. After coding, errors were counted and transformed into a percentage to quantify the frequency of errors. Afterwards, the classified errors were categorized, based on (Darus & Ching 2009; Darus et al., 2007; Ellis, 1997; Ferris, 2005), into lexical (word choice), grammatical (verb, missing subject, articles and prepositions) and mechanical (punctuation, spelling and capitalization) categories. Finally, the errors were described.
The identification of each type of error was based on the literature review (Darus & Ching 2009; Darus et al., 2007; Ellis, 1997; Ferris, 2005). The table below shows a description of the errors in question.
Table 0
Type of error Meaning
Verb All errors in verb tense or form, including relevant subject verb agreement errors.
Article Article or other determiner incorrect, omitted, or unnecessary
Word All specific lexical errors in word choice or word form.
Subject Subject missing
Spelling Any error in spelling
Punctuation Missing or misuse, insertion, deletion, and replacement of punctuation marks
Capitalization Missing or misuse
Preposition replacements, insertions, and deletions
Out of 600 students who were asked to write a paragraph, 328 accepted to complete the writing task. Out of these 328 students, 191 (82 male and 109 female) students wrote complete paragraphs. The other 272 students wrote less than the required number of words. For example, some students wrote some words in a list, others just wrote one or two sentences; others wrote “I do not know” expressing they did not know how to write a paragraph.
Table 1 shows the errors committed by the students in the writing samples. It displays the frequency count (f), percentage (%) and rank (r) of each type of errors. Errors were ranked from the most frequent errors to the least frequent. The main error types analysed were errors related to lexical knowledge (word choice), with grammatical knowledge (verb, subject mission, prepositions and articles), and mechanical knowledge (spelling, punctuation and capitalization).
As the table shows, it is notable that the two most frequent types of errors produced by the students were in word choice with a total of 1,087 errors (26.8%) and in punctuation with 1,064 errors (16.2%), respectively. This was followed by the number of the errors classified into the category of spelling with 949 (14.7 %) and of capitalization with 935 errors (14.5 %) of all errors. In contrast, the number of errors in preposition and articles were relatively small (432 and 276 errors). These errors accounted for 6.7 % and 4.1% of all errors respectively.
The Second Section
Difficulties in English writing Skill
Research Question (1)
What are Saudi secondary school students’ perceived difficulties with writing in English?
Using a student questionnaire, student focus groups, teacher interviews, and student writing samples, sentence level and paragraph level difficulties experienced by Saudi secondary school students when writing in English were examined. As indicated earlier, sentence and paragraph level issues were considered in this study because the goal of teaching and learning English writing in Saudi secondary schools focuses on these two issues. Sentence level difficulties include grammar, mechanics and vocabulary. Paragraph level difficulties include the topic sentence, paragraph organization, coherence and cohesion.
Sentence level difficulties
This section presents the analysis of students’ and teachers’ perceptions of the difficulties in sentence level issues, including grammar, mechanics and vocabulary, faced by Saudi secondary school students when writing in English. Also, the analysis of the students’ writing samples regarding the errors in the sentence level issues will be presented.
Grammar
This study investigated a number of grammatical issues experienced by Saudi secondary school students. These specific grammatical issues comprised verb tense, articles and prepositions. The findings showed that there was a convergence between the students’ and teachers’ perceptions regarding the difficulties faced by Saudi secondary school students in using verb tense, articles and prepositions. However, this convergence did not appear between the findings of writing samples and the perceptions of students and teachers regarding these issues.
Verb tense
The findings of the questionnaire reveal that approximately 61% of students perceived that they always or often have difficulties in using the verb tense correctly in different contexts; 23% sometimes and only 16% indicated they rarely or never have difficulty in this matter (see Table 1). This was qualitatively supported by the students’ comments in the focus groups. They did mostly agree on the difficulty of using verb tense where 16 out of 18 students reported that they always have problems or difficulties, while 2 did only sometimes. An example of students’ views is demonstrated below:
We always face difficulty in the verb tenses. We get confused. We do not know which tense should be used. We do not know how and when to use the appropriate verb tense. They are very difficult especially the perfect tense. [1st year male student 1]

Supporting the students’ views about their difficulty in using verb tense correctly in English writing, the analysis of teachers’ interviews shows they all agreed that the students always find it difficult to use verb tenses correctly in different contexts. The teachers consider using verb tenses correctly as the most problematic issue experienced by students in grammar when writing in English. They also mentioned that perfect tense is the most challenging writing issue. As one teacher indicated:

Students do not know how to use the correct tense. There are many different verb tenses. Perfect tense is the most difficult as there is no equivalent tense in their L1 Arabic. I think verb tenses are the most frequently difficult issue faced by students in grammar.

As far as the use of English verbs in writing is concerned, three new themes emerged from the student focus group and teacher interviews. These themes were as follows: difficulty in using irregular verbs; subject-verb agreement; and missing and/or misuse of helping verbs. Analysis of student focus groups showed that there was an agreement among all the students that they experience difficulty in using irregular verbs correctly when writing in English. One student stated:
Every year, we always face this problem of using the irregular verbs correctly. We cannot memorize them because there are many of them.
Another student commented:
Our teacher asks us to memorize all forms of irregular verbs. It is very hard. I cannot. We rarely use them in complete sentences, so it is difficult to remember the forms of all the irregular verbs. I find challenges in choose the right irregular verbs when answering a multiple choice in the exam and when I write a composition in English.
The students’ views about their difficulty in using irregular verbs correctly were supported by their teachers. Teachers agreed that irregular verbs constitute a challenge for Saudi secondary school students when they are writing in English. According to one teacher:
I believe that my students always face difficulty in choosing the right irregular verb in different situations. I have been teaching English in secondary schools for more than 16 years. Using irregular verbs correctly is one of the hardest areas encountered by students when writing in English. To be honest, they mostly do not want to memorize the irregular verbs; they just want to add “ed” to the regular verbs. They often say to me “please teacher, don’t ask us about irregular verbs in the exam; they are very hard”. Students rarely want to memorize them. I have tried to remind them that irregular verbs are important especially with the second form of the verb [past] and third form of the verb [past participle].

As far as the emerging themes are concerned, most of the interviewed teachers perceived that subject-verb agreement and missing and/or misuse of helping verbs were areas of difficulty experienced by Saudi secondary school students. As one teacher commented on the use of English helping verbs correctly:
They [students] forget the helping verbs. For example, they say “it playing”. They forget the verb “is”. I don’t know why. Sometimes they put the helping verbs in the wrong place or add another one in the sentence. I believe using helping verbs correctly is challengeable for many of my students.
An example of teachers’ comments on the difficulty encountered by Saudi secondary school students when writing in English is illustrated by the following excerpt:
I perceive that subject-verb agreement is an area of difficulty for my students, especially third singular s. For example, they write “he eat instead of he eats”.
In short, 62 % of the students in the questionnaire, 89% of the students in the focus groups, and 100 % of teachers in the interviews perceived that students always or often have difficulties in correctly using verbs when writing in English. However, these findings were not supported by the results obtained from the analysis of the students’ writing samples. It was found that 191 students committed only 536 errors (8.0) in the use of verbs in their actual writing. This is in comparison to 432 errors (6.7%) in prepositions and 267 errors (4.1%) in articles. In light of these facts, we can conclude that the perceived difficulties in such-related issues as expressed by students and teachers is much more dire than the actual errors committed by the students in the written texts.
In summary, based on the findings of the questionnaire, focus group, teacher interviews, many students struggle with using verb tenses correctly in different contexts or scenarios. They also encounter problems in using helping verbs and subject-verb agreement.
Articles
Another grammatical issue that was investigated was the use of articles correctly in English writing. The questionnaire indicates that approximately 51% of students perceived they always or often encounter difficulties in using the articles correctly; 18% sometimes, while approximately 31% said rarely or never. This finding reveals that although more have than half of the students always or often encounter problems in using articles, a substantial number of them perceived that they rarely or never had a problem regarding this matter.
With regard to the student focus group, 9 (50%) students perceived they always have a problem in this matter while 1 (5.5%) did so only sometimes; 8 (44.5%) students reported that they never had any difficulties. For the students who always or often find using articles difficult, a student stated that:
We face difficulties in using “a, an, and the” because we get confused. We do not know when to use them. Although it is easy, we face difficulty in using them correctly when writing in English.
Another student mentioned that:
Using the article “the” is most difficult for me. I do not know when to use it. So, I use it randomly.
On the other hand, as mentioned above, nearly half of the interviewed students perceived they never face problems in using articles. A student indicated that:
I don’t see any difficulty in using articles. We know when we use “a, an or the”. They are clear.
With regard to teachers’ views, their statements revealed that: two of them reported that their students always face problems in using articles; two sometimes; and two said never. Of the ones who perceived that their students struggled in using articles correctly, a teacher stated that:
Students do not write regularly. Many of them cannot recognize when to use “a, an or the”. I think the most frequently difficult article for them is using “the” because there are some conditions, such as proper nouns, which they mostly do not remember. Many students get confused as they add the article “the” in wrong places.
On the other hand there were teachers who perceived that their students rarely or never have problems in using articles correctly when writing in English. One teacher remarked:
I do not think they face difficulty in using articles. They are clear and easy. They recognize that using an before vowels and a before the others. They recognize how to use “the” with names.
Generally, nearly half of the students and their teachers perceived that students have always or often have difficulties in correctly using articles when writing in English, and nearly half of the students and their teachers believed the students did not have difficulties in doing so. This shows that there is a consistency between the students’ and teachers’ views regarding the difficulty encountered by students in using articles in their English writing.
However, as far as the evidence from writing sample is concerned, the findings revealed that the errors committed by the students in the use of articles were the least frequent type of errors with a total of 267 (4.1%) errors. These findings appear not to support the views of the participating students and teachers as half of them expressed that students face difficulties in correctly using articles in English writing.
Prepositions
The questionnaire findings reveal that approximately 43% of students indicated that they always or often experience challenges in using prepositions correctly in different contexts, 20% sometimes; about 37% choose rarely or never. This statistical finding shows that the percentages of students who chose always or often, and rarely or never have problems with prepositions are similar. However, this is not the case with the qualitative findings.
In the focus groups, 13 (72%) students mentioned that they always or often have issues with prepositions while 5 (18%) mentioned that sometimes they do. This illustrates that most of the interviewed students experience difficulty with English prepositions. One student said:
Prepositions are easy when we know the meaning; we can choose the right answer in a multiple choice question or we can relate the right preposition to the right picture. But we find it difficult to use them correctly in different situations.
(removed one due to repetition)
With regard to teachers’ opinions, they all (100%) agreed that their students always or often find difficulties in using prepositions correctly. One teacher said:
My students always ask me when how and when they use English prepositions. They often get confused with the prepositions “in, at, into or onto”. They get crazy with them. They ask me why they memorize their meanings but their uses are different.
Two other teachers commented as well:
My students have a big problem in using prepositions correctly because they need to read. The more they read, the easier using prepositions will be. They translate from Arabic into English so that they make mistakes because some prepositions do not have equal ones in Arabic.
(removed one due to repetition)
The findings show that there was an agreement between the students and their teachers’ perceptions regarding the difficulties experienced by students in correctly using the prepositions in English writing. However, these perceptions were not consistent with the reality of students’ writing samples that revealed that the students made a total of 432 (6.7%) errors in using prepositions. This proportion also indicated that using prepositions did not constitute a major area of difficulty for students.

Mechanics
Mechanics, which includes spelling, punctuations and capitalization, was considered one of the many difficulties experienced by Saudi secondary school students when writing in English. With regards to the difficulty experienced by students in spelling, the findings revealed that there was an agreement between the students’ and their teachers’ perceptions, and what the students actually produced in their writing. Nonetheless, both the students and teachers opinions regarding the difficulty faced by students in using punctuation and capitalization were not reflected in the students’ actual writings.

Spelling
The findings of the questionnaire reveals that more than half of the students, approximately 57%, stated that they always or often encounter difficulties in spelling; 25% sometimes and only 18% perceived that they rarely did or never encounter difficulties. This result demonstrates that spelling is a challenge for Saudi secondary school students. The difficulty in spelling when writing in English was supported by the students in the focus group. More than half of the students 11 (61%) stated that they always or often have problems with spelling; 3 (17%) said sometimes and 4 (22%) said never. According to one student:
I think spelling is a big problem for us especially in the silent letters (words such as fly flies),(words that ends with “e” such as apple). We cannot expect to write the letter e. (Words such cat school). We haven’t learnt the spelling rules. We lack spelling practicing. The teacher never asks us to practice spelling. One time I asked the teacher about the rules of spelling. He said it is early to learn them. How is it early? I am in the first year level? When can i learn them?!!!!!
(removed one due to repetition)

As stated above, four students commented they never experience problems in spelling. As one of them suggested:
I believe spelling is easy because I practice writing the word many times at home. For answering the composition in the exam, I write the predetermined paragraphs many times until I memorize them”.
Another student in third year level indicated that spelling is not difficult. He said
I try to divide the word into different parts when I memorize it.

Regarding teachers’ views on the difficulties Saudi secondary school students have with English spelling, they all agree that it is a major issue. One teacher remarked:
Unfortunately, some students reach the third year level and they do not memorize all the alphabetical English letters. Some students do not know all the capital and small letters. Some students do not differentiate between the letter d and b when writing in English. I think their foundation is very weak.

Two teachers stated:
I can say that more than two thirds of my students encounter challenges in spelling in English. Generally, students misspelled many words especially the words have silent letters.
(removed one due to repetition)

The above results show that 57% of students in the questionnaire, 61 % of the students in the focus group, and 100 % of the teachers in the interviews perceived that students always or often experience difficulties in spelling when writing in English. Consistently, the analysis of the writing samples indicated that spelling errors were the third frequently types of errors committed with a total of 949 (14.7%). This shows that spelling constitutes an important area of difficulty for Saudi secondary school students.
Punctuation
The questionnaire answers demonstrate that about 33% of students felt they always or often experience challenges in using punctuation; 24% sometimes whereas 43% of them perceived they rarely or never have difficulty. As stated earlier, the responses to the questionnaire showed that punctuation is the least perceived difficulty that Saudi secondary school students have when writing in English.
Regarding the student focus group, only 3 (16.6%) students mentioned that they always or often have challenges in punctuation, 2 (11.1%) said sometimes, whereas 13 (72%) students perceived that they never experience problems. This indicates that majority of the students have rarely or never problems with English punctuation. One student stated that:
We know that question mark means question, full stop means the end of the sentence. Punctuation is not difficult.

Another student in the third year level stated:
We have no difficulty because we have learned them very well. The teacher always focuses on these issues. We practice them in the writing book.

(removed one due to repetition)
In response to the question about the difficulties students face in using punctuation, teachers expressed a variety of opinions. Firstly, teachers who teach the first year level contended that students have difficulties in using punctuation marks in English. Secondly, teachers with students in the second year level were not sure about this situation because punctuation was not taught at that level. Thirdly, teachers who teach the third year level indicated that their students do not have serious problems regarding punctuation.
A male teacher in the first year level stated:
They face a big problem in it because it is just emphasized in the curriculum of third year level. I think it is too late to focus on punctuation at the third year level. Because i have taught the third year level for three years, i teach the first year level the punctuation to avoid punctuation problems when reach the third year level. I think the teachers who have never taught the third year level may not give attention to punctuation in the first and second year levels.

(removed one due to repetition)
One teacher who is responsible for third year students remarked:
I think my students can use punctuation easily. I focus on teaching how to use punctuation marks correctly. They already have a special writing book focuses on punctuation and capitalization. So, they have no difficulty in punctuation.

Although 43% of the students in the questionnaire, 72 % of the students in the focus groups, and nearly 50% of the teachers in the interviews did not consider students to have problems in punctuations, the students’ writing samples did not appear to truly reflect the students and their teachers’ perceptions of the difficulty in using punctuation. The analysis of the writing samples revealed that punctuation was the second most frequently error committed by the students with a total of 1064 (16%) errors.

Capitalization:
Capitalization emerged as a theme in the focus group, teacher interviews and writing samples. All the teachers and students agreed that never or rarely are there any problems encountered with capitalization. For example, according to one student:
I think they are easy. We know that we start each sentence by a capital letter.
A teacher stated that:
I don’t think it is difficult. Students are aware of how to capitalize words.
Surprisingly, with reference to the writing samples, it seems that correctly using capitalization constituted an area of difficulty for Saudi secondary school students. The analysis of writing samples showed that capitalization was the fourth most frequently type of error committed by the students with a total of 935 (14.5%) errors. This indicates that there was inconsistency between the participants’ perceptions and the students’ actual writings.
Vocabulary
The questionnaire revealed that the majority of Saudi secondary school students find it hard to choose words when writing in English. Specifically, 62% said that they always or often encounter difficulty in finding the right words for the right contexts, 25% sometimes had problems whereas only 13% mentioned they rarely or never had difficulties in selecting the right words. The same question was directed to the students in the focus group. It emerged that all students agreed they always encountered a problem in word choice. One student said:
I have no problem in knowing the meaning of many words. The problem is often to choose suitable words in different contexts. We find it difficult to put the words in complete sentences because we haven’t been taught to create our sentences.
Another student suggested:
We can recognize the meaning by looking at the picture or translating the words. However, the problem is in using the words in different situations correctly. We don’t practice. We do not create our own sentences and use the words we learn.
Students indicated that they sometimes know more than one meaning for a word but find it difficult to write the appropriate one in the right context. As one student noted:
I use Google to translate English words but a word has different meanings. I get confused and find difficulty in choosing a suitable meaning. I get confused because Google translate website often gives me a non-sense sentence.
(removed one due to repetition)
The teachers consistently supported the students’ comments about the difficulty of using English vocabulary correctly. Teachers also agreed that word choice is a major problem for students and in the following excerpt, a teacher maintained that:
I think the amount of vocab is acceptable because of the media, films and playing computer games, for example. Some students come to me asking about the meaning of some words they find when play games in computers. They are eager to know them because knowing their meanings help them to move from one stage to another. However, I think the difficulty is how to use their words appropriately in different situations. I think the high level students can give the meaning but using the words correctly in different situations is very difficult.
Another teacher maintained:
My students do not memorize the words they learn. We have a word study lesson in each unit. This lesson has some words with their with classifications, definitions, and examples on using them. If the students memorize these words, they will have a good amount of vocabulary but they do not want to learn. They just want to pass the exam rather than leaning a language. So, they face problems in using the words correctly. Some students have amount of vocabulary but can’t use them correctly. Some of the words in the curriculum are not suitable because they are not widely used in daily life.
Two teachers noted in regard to using electronic software:
The students use Google translate and they often get confused. Mostly, they do not know how to choose the appropriate meaning for the context.

(removed two due to repetition)
Word choice was not the only problem faced by Saudi secondary school students. Other issues emerged such as word order and lack of vocabulary were highlighted in the student focus group and teacher interviews.
Word order
In the student focus group 14 students cited their problems regarding the word order when writing in English. As one student commented:
I find ordering words hard. I do not know how to order some nouns. I don’t know which one comes first.
Most of the teachers stated that students became confused when trying to put nouns and adjectives in their proper order. Said one teacher:
Students have a lesson about compound nouns; they face difficulty in ordering the nouns. They face a big problem in ordering words correctly. They get confused with word order. They make mistakes with two nouns together, noun with adjective or adverb and adjective. They think in Arabic and order the nouns in English. For example, we have a lesson about compound nouns such as car park. They mostly write park car because they translate from Arabic into English and use the same order in Arabic. They like my way of teaching vocab and they like guessing the meaning until they get the right meaning. I like them when they translate the words and saying their meaning in Arabic when i introduce the words to them but i do not ask them to translate.
Limited vocabulary
In addition to the challenges posed by word choice, the lack of vocabulary is a further problem. This is reflected in the findings of the student focus groups where 15 students admitted their vocabulary was limited. Four students made the following remarks:
I do not have many words to write. I may know the meaning of the word when I see the picture related to it but I cannot remember when I want to write.
(removed one due to repetition)

We do not memorize the words we learn. I feel I have a very small amount of words. In the exam, the teacher mostly brings the definition and we just choose the right word for the definition. Or the teacher shows some pictures and we relate the words to the appropriate pictures. We just try to remember the shape of the word and relate it to its picture I have little words so that I cannot write a composition in English. I don’t have enough words to write complete sentences or composition in English. Sometimes, I want to use my own words but I could not so that I just use and, and, and when answering the composition question in the final exam.
Referring to the teachers’ interviews, four said that the students suffer from having a limited amount of vocabulary. According to three teachers:

My students always tell me that they have ideas but do not have enough words to write.

Students depend on translation. Most of them do not memorize the words they learn. they sometimes write the words in Arabic because they do not know it in English.

(removed one due to repetition)

As stated above, the findings showed that 62% of the students in the questionnaires, 100% of the students in the focus groups and 100% of the teachers in the interviews revealed that correctly using vocabulary was perceived as the most frequently difficult issue faced by Saudi secondary school students in English writing. Similarly, the findings of analyzing the writing samples indicated that the greatest number of all error types was related to correctly using vocabulary in English writing with a total of1728 (26.8%).
To summarize the findings of the difficulties faced by students in sentence level issues when writing in English, the results showed that the most perceived difficulties faced by Saudi secondary school students in English writing were to correctly use vocabulary, followed by verb tense and spelling. (deleted this part as it was unnecessary)
While there was a consistency between the students’ and teachers’ views about the difficulties experienced by Saudi secondary school students in using verbs, punctuation, capitalization, articles and prepositions in English writing, this consistency was not supported by the results of the actual students’ writing in these issues. In other words, while students and teachers consistently perceived that using verbs, articles and prepositions constitute an area of difficulty for Saudi secondary school students, the actual writing samples did not show that area of difficulty. Moreover, while students and teachers did not consider using punctuation and capitalization as major problems encountered Saudi secondary school students in English writing, the actual writing samples revealed that students made many errors in using these two issues. However, the findings revealed that the Saudi secondary school students did not only experience difficulties in sentence level issues but also in paragraph level issues when writing in English.
Paragraph level difficulties
Students and teachers were asked about the challenges experienced in paragraph level issues (i.e. procedural knowledge) when writing in English. Specifically, they were asked about the difficulties they encounter in utilizing paragraph unity, organization, development of ideas and coherence correctly when writing in English. By looking at table (…), The findings of the questionnaire revealed that more than 70% of the students perceived that they (always or often) struggle with: firstly, organizing a paragraph correctly; secondly, writing supporting sentences for developing the main ideas presented in the topic sentence when writing in English; and thirdly, in writing a coherent paragraph. Around 60% of the students perceived that they (always or often) find difficulty in using the cohesive devices correctly in different contexts. The least difficulty is with introducing the topic sentence in a paragraph as about 57% of students perceived that they (always or often) have difficulty in this matter. Table (….) also displays that of the many responses on this issue, more than 20%, expressed their difficulty in writing the topic sentence and using the cohesive devices correctly. Generally, more than two-thirds of students always or often encounter difficulty using the procedural knowledge when writing in English.
The analysis of student focus group discussions showed that they believed they would have problems in all the issues concerning the paragraph level if they were asked to write a paragraph. They mentioned that neither their teachers nor the curriculum focus on these issues. One female student focus group stated that their teachers explain to them what the topic sentence means rather than encourage them to use it:

Our teacher explains the topic sentence but she doesn’t tell us how to use it or write a free paragraph using it. She just tells us the topic sentence is the main idea in the paragraph.

One teacher commented that she focuses on topic sentence, organization and cohesive devices. She maintained that she simply informs her students that the first sentence is often the topic sentence. Regarding paragraph organization, she indicated that she teaches her students to write a paragraph from notes and/or tables. These tables and notes are introduced sometimes in the shape of questions. Students are required to answer these questions in the order which they appear. For example, the students cannot answer question number 3 before number 1 because the organization of ideas goes smoothly from the answers of question one to the last question. She added:
Students are very good in cohesive devices especially the high proficiency level students.
However, she mentioned that she rarely focuses on coherence. Another teacher mentioned that when he teaches third year students he asks them to write a paragraph and focus on these issues. He said:
I taught them how to use the topic sentence and how to write a paragraph in an organized and coherent way. I need them to learn how to write a paragraph before going to university.
Generally, all the teachers agreed that they do not focus on developing ideas because they are not required to. When we asked them about the objectives of teaching writing, some mentioned they only focus on creating a complete sentence with an emphasis on grammar and spelling. Other teachers claimed that their teaching objectives are indentation, capitalization, underlining the title, etc.
As far as analyzing the writing samples is concerned, the focus was on sentence level issues rather than paragraph level ones. Put another way, the findings of the questionnaire, focus group and teacher interviews revealed that procedural knowledge (unity, organization, development of ideas, coherence and cohesion) was not introduced into the curriculum in Saudi secondary schools. Furthermore, four teachers indicated they did not introduce these topics into their classroom. However, of the two other teachers one did examine topic sentence and paragraph organization. The remaining teacher stated that he teaches these themes to his students at the third year level, especially the high proficiency level students. For this reason the researcher decided not to analyze the paragraph level issues because the students were asked to answer the question concerning the paragraph and not the topic sentence and development of ideas. In short, although procedural knowledge was not emphasized in the Saudi secondary school curriculum, the students and teachers perceived that Saudi secondary school students would face difficulties in using procedural knowledge in English witting.
The main perceived difficulties experienced by Saudi secondary school students when writing in English have been presented. In the next section, a comparison between genders and the different year levels regarding these perceived difficulties, and the correlation between parents’ level of education and students’ perceived difficulties will be highlighted.
Third Section
Subsidiary questions:
The first research question has five subsidiary questions that were as follows:
1- Are there any differences between male and female students in the perceived difficulties they encounter when writing in English?
2- Are there any differences between students in different secondary school year levels regarding the perceived difficulties they encounter when writing in English?
3- Does the father’s educational level make any difference to the Saudi secondary school students’ perceived difficulties when writing in English?
4- Does the mother’s educational level make any difference to the Saudi secondary school students perceived difficulties when writing in English?
5- Does taking extra English lessons outside the classroom make any difference between the Saudi secondary school students regarding perceived difficulties when writing in English?
The analysis of these five supplementary questions will be presented below:

Table 1
Non-parametric Test for the Differences between Male and Female on Difficulties in English writing
Factors* The Mann Whitney (U) Asymp. Sig.
Factor 1 42710.5 0.28
Factor 2 43136 0.38
Note: *Test was performed between male = 1 and female = 2
As shown in Table 1, the Mann-Whitney U Test was used to measure the variation between the male and female genders of Saudi secondary school regarding the difficulty they face when writing in English language. Thus, from the results, there is no significant (n.s.) difference between the genders in their writing difficulties in factor 1 writing difficulty, U (2) = 42710.5, p = .28. Likewise, there is no significant statistical difference between the genders in their writing difficulties in factor 2 writing difficulty, U (2) = 43136, p = .38. Thus, it can be concluded that there is no significant difference between female and male learners in Saudi Secondary School with regard to their difficulties when writing in the English language.

Table 2
Non-parametric Test for the Differences between Secondary School Year Levels
Factors* The Chi Square** Degree of freedom P value
Fac1_Sum 6.178 2 0.046
Fac2_Sum 2.053 2 0.358
Note. *The test was done in three secondary school year levels.
**The Chi-square calculated by Kruskal-Wallis Method

From the Chi-Square test results in Table 2, it is obvious that there is no statistically significant variation among the school levels in their writing difficulties in both factor 1, X2 (2, N = 600) = 6.178, p = .05 and factor 2, X2 (2, N = 600) = 2.058, p = .36, writing difficulties. This finding indicates lack of statistically significant variation among the secondary school learners in the three-year grades regarding their perceived problem when lettering in English.

Table 3
Non-parametric Test for the Differences between the mothers’ Education Level
Factors* Chi-Square** Degree of freedom Asymp. Sig.
Factor1_Sum 15.172 4 0.004
Factor 2_Sum 25.031 4 0
Note. *The test was conducted over Five levels (High school diploma = 1, Bachelor degree = 2, Masters, degree = 3, PhD level = 4, and others = 5)
**The Chi-square was calculated by Kruskal-Wallis Method

The Chi-square test results shown in Tables 3 illustrate the effect of mothers’ educational level of the writing difficulties experienced by learners. There is a statically significant difference (p<. 001) between the learners in their writing difficulties based on their mother’s educational level in factor 1 writing difficulty (sentence level issues), X2 (4, N = 600) = 15.172, p = .004. There is also a considerable significant difference between the learners in their writing difficulties based on their mother’s educational level in factor 2 writing difficulty (paragraph level issues) when writing in English, X2 (4, N = 600) = 25.031, p = 0. Thus, a student with a mother whose educational level is advanced, experiences less difficulties when writing in the English Language.
Table 4
Non-parametric Test for the Difference between Fathers’ Educations
Factor* Chi-Square** df Asymp. Sig.
Factor 1_Sum 17.696 4 0.001
Factor 2_Sum 19.214 4 0.001
Note. *The test being conducted over 5 levels (Secondary school certificate = 1, Bachelor = 2, Master = 3, PhD = 4, others = 5)
**The Chi-square as calculated by Kruskal-Wallis Method

Tables 4 shows the statistical significance using The Chi-square test to measure the differences between Saudi secondary school learners regarding the difficulties they faced when writing in English based on the father’s educational level. There is a statically significant difference (p< .001) between the learners in their writing difficulties based on their fathers’ educational level in factor 1 writing difficulty “sentence level issues,” X2 (4, N = 600) = 17.696, p = .001 and in factor 2 writing difficulty “paragraph level issues” when writing in English, X2 (4, N = 600) = 19.214, p = .001. Thus, a student with a father whose educational level is advanced, experiences less difficulties when writing in the English language.

Table 5
Non-parametric Test for the Differences between Extra English Lessons
Factors* Mann-Whitney (U) Z P value
Factor 1_Sum 19676 -2.663 0.008
Factor 2_Sum 19169 -3 0.003
Note. *Test being conducted between whether taking English lesson yes= 1 and no = 2
The variations among the secondary school learners vis-à-vis the difficulties they faced when writing using the English language based on further English lessons was measured using the Mann-Whitney U test (Table 5).The results indicate a statically significant difference (p < .05) between the learners in their writing intricacies based on extra out-of-class English lessons in factor 1 (sentence level issues), U (2) = 19676, Z, -2.663, p = .008 and in factor 2 (paragraph level issues), U (2) = 19169, Z, -3, p = .003. The result points out the presence of a significant difference between learners, take on additional English lessons with regard to their difficulties in writing using the English Language. That is, learners who undertake out-of-class English lessons would have fewer problems when writing in English than learners who do not take additional English lesson.
Conclusion
Conclusively, I gathered from the research that a majority of students have problems in writing in English as opposed to writing in Arabic. The most prevalent issues are centered on paragraphing in English writing. Several students reported to having problems in this section; moreover it was evidently indicated in the writing samples given to them. The teaching practices are wanting and cooperatively the teachers agree that they are bored with their classes. Most of the students experience anxiety and a tremendous lack of motivation when tackling different aspects of the English language. According to the statistics, it is apparent that English writing need stringent attention.

References
Al-Mahrooqi, R, & Denman, C. (2015) issues in English Education in the Arab World. Newcastl upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
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