Factors affecting the ability to write essays in English of second-year students majoring in English at Nam Can Tho University

Abstract

Writing is considered an important skill. For second-year students majoring in English at Nam Can Tho University, writing essays in English is a mandatory subject. However, in the process of writing essays, students encounter many difficulties. To find out the difficulties and find solutions, 28 questions designed on a Likert scale were used for analysis with the participation of 100 second-year students and 100 senior students majoring in English language for comparison. In addition, five sophomores and five seniors participated in interviews to learn more about the research problem. The results show that there are many difficulties for second-year English Language students at Nam Can Tho University in writing essays in English. Factors include being influenced by the style of writing essays in Vietnamese, students not being proficient in grammar and not having enough vocabulary with spelling mistakes, lack of additional writing practice at home, limited learning ability and not having critical thinking in writing essays. Some external factors include lack of reference materials, personal factors and too many other course assignments affecting writing essays in English. For 4th year students, factors that hinder the ability to write essays in English include not having many ideas for the essay they are about to write, grammar mistakes, spelling mistakes, lack of vocabulary, being influenced by their mother tongue. Some external factors are due to students' personal problems such as part-time jobs, health problems, psychological problems such as stress, lack of reference materials.