An Investigation of the Difficulties Faced by EFL Students in Undertaking a Research Dissertation The Case of Second Year Master Students of English at the University of Abbes Laghrour, Khenchela.
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Date
2017
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UNIVERSITY OF ABBES LAGHROUR-KHENCHELA
Abstract
ABSTRACT The study at hand seeks to explore the process of conducting academic research by novice research students in English as a second/foreign language (ESL/EFL). It attempts to uncover the difficulties facing students of Master as regards carrying out a research dissertation in the main. The study took place at the department of English, with students of Master 2, at the University of Khenchela during the academic year 2016/2017. For going about the investigation under consideration,The research methodology adopted in this study is a descriptive one. Data was gathered through a double-questionnaire technique, in which one was administered to a sample of forty five (45) students while another to a total of ten teachers (10). The findings obtained from data analysis reveal two main categories of difficulties which seem to frequently encounter students, and under each of which falls a set of problems. First, difficulties relate to human factors, such as lack of self-confidence in undertaking research. A respective number of teachers admittedly reported on their inadequacy of masterful skill of supervision mostly due to the gap between their interest and the research topics addressed by supervisees. In addition, some participant students emphasised supervisors unavailability and insufficient assistance providence as one major problem along the research course. The second category of difficulties is more technical and associates to external factors, such as uncertainty of the research process and approach being opted for in terms of suitability; the huge amount of misleading information about research themes confusingly to take in as content regarding relevance; difficulties in determining which data to address, elicit and how to categorise for analysis; inappropriateness of analytical procedures and findings reporting; as well as problems concern time and material (financial at most) limitations. Other difficulties may be due to superficial knowledge of reformulation and paraphrasing leading to fear of traps of plagiarism.