Résumé:
The present study attempted to evaluate EFL students’ writing in examinations. More
specifically, it investigated EFL Master One students’ primary focus when writing
examination essays in content modules regarding the aspects of form and content in
addition to the reasons of their focus. Thus, two basic hypotheses were adopted in this
research. The first one speculated that in writing exam essays in content modules, EFL
students focus on content at the expense of form. The second hypothesis maintains that the
main factors determining EFL students’ focus are the lack of writing proficiency and
effective training. To verify the validity of the hypotheses, two research instruments were
used to collect data: two questionnaires and an analysis of syllabus design exam papers’.
The teachers’ questionnaire was addressed to eleven teachers of content modules and, the
students’ questionnaire was addressed to sixty two Master One students at the University
of Mohammed Seddik Ben Yahia , Jijel, in addition to the analysis of exam papers to have
concrete evidence and enable us to compare the results obtained to those of the
questionnaires. Our major findings revealed that students tended to focus on content while
writing their essays in content module examinations. This focus is due to psychological,
linguistic, and situational, in addition to the lack of effective training to write in content
modules.
