Problems with Academic Writing Encountered by EFL Postgraduate Students at a University in the Mekong Delta

Abstract

This small-scale survey aimed to investigate the frequent problems of EFL postgraduate students in academic writing. The subjects were 37 postgraduate students studying theand methodology of English language teaching major at a University in the Mekong Delta. Questionnaires and semi-structured interviews were used to gather the data in this study. The results of the questionnaires suggest that reference and citation, coherence and cohesion, plagiarism and paraphrasing, lexical, and grammatical problems are EFL postgraduate students' problems in academic writing. The results from semi-structured interviews indicated a variety of factors contributed to those problems. They are the difference between English and their mother tongue, lack of academic writing knowledge and experience, lack of understanding of the topic, and reference material. Realizing the existence of problems, EFL postgraduate students can find ways to overcome them. Besides that, lecturers and instructors can base on the problems and the reasons for problems to use appropriate teaching methods, approaches, and styles to support EFL postgraduate students in academic writing and minimize their problems.