Academic Writing Teaching Method for Arab Students: A Case Study in a Health Sciences University in the U.A.E

Abstract

This study examines the difficulties faced by Arab students in the tertiary level in creating a well-written paragraph in English academic writing. The participants were approximately 40 students from RAK Medical and Health Sciences University located in Ras Al Khaimah in The United Arab Emirates. The study’s significance is to propose potential methods and solutions for academic English instructors to improve the students’ performance by designing a writing course based on the pre-and post-tests that were used to monitor students’ progress in writing before and after the course of Academic writing. Pre-tests were conducted to analyze the needs of the students. The analyses revealed that the participants had trouble using the writing fundamentals like grammar, vocabulary, and sentence structure. After implementing the course topics, the results of the post-tests showed changes in the students’ academic writing performance. The study concludes that to obtain the best results from the courses of English Academic writing, the course should be based on the difficulties faced by the students. It also shows that before applying any academic writing course, the instructor has to carry out an error or needs analyses to identify the weak points of the group, then the course can be designed accordingly.