An ethnographic study of the difficulties faced by secondary school students while writing in english:The case of third year students in Bouhrine Echerrif and Mati Ahcen secondary schools

Abstract

The current study aimed at investigating the different writing difficulties that are faced by third year secondary school students while writing in English in Mati Ahcen and Bouhrine Cherrif secondary schools, during the academic year 2015-2016. Three research tools were used: a questionnaire, classroom observation, and analysis of students’ papers. The questionnaire was administered to 80 third year secondary school students in order to figure out their opinions about the writing skill and its main aspects that present challenging areas for them. The classroom observation was conducted for about two months, the process of learning to write in English was observed naturally. We, also, analysed the students’ papers to figure out the main aspects of writing that secondary school students make errors in. The results obtained revealed that third year secondary school students face many difficulties while writing in English and that grammar, organization, mechanics are the most challenging aspects of writing encountered by the students. This confirms the pre-mentioned hypotheses