Jordanian Students’ Engagement in IELTS Writing Preparation Course: a Case Study

Abstract

Many English foreign learners and particularly the Arab learners in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan encounter several obstacles when learning the English language skills including writing that is considered a crucial skill in communication. Jordanian learners committed many kinds of errors when writing including grammatical and semantic errors. So, the objective of this study is formed to highlight this critical issue of the possible solutions to enable students to overcome the problem of committing errors. Using the case study approach, teachers were introduced to semi-structured interviews to give their opinion about the reasons behind the errors the candidates committed and the solutions to fix the problem. The results showed that, the inadequate syllabus design of materials, and the traditional methods of teaching could be considered among the reasons behind committing errors. Regarding the solutions, the study proposed adopting new methods of teaching that encourage the communicative approach in classrooms will lead to reducing errors. Moreover, improving the syllabus design and train the inexperienced teachers lead to the same result of reducing the number of errors in writing. Finally, the study recommends that much attention to the teaching methods of writing, material design and to the status of English language must be paid by all who concern and related to the education philosophy in Jordan.