examining EFL students dificulties whene writing a master dissertation

Abstract

Writing a master’s dissertation is a significant milestone in the academic journey of graduate students. The primary aim of this dissertation, which consists of two chapters, is to investigate the difficulties encountered by EFL master students during the process of writing their dissertations, as well as the possible reasons behind them. In this study, two major hypotheses were set. The first one is that the majority of students do face difficulties when writing their dissertations and the second one is that these difficulties may include writing academically, conducting research, personal, and social difficulties. As for research design, a mixed method is employed. A questionnaire is administered randomly to a sample of EFL master 2 students at Mila University Center in addition to semi-structured interviews directed at the supervisors. Our findings confirmed that students do actually struggle with various difficulties throughout the process of dissertation writing, among which we mention academic writing problems, research methodology problems, supervisory, technological, personal, and collaborative problems. Interview results for the most part align with students’ reports and confirm the existence and the multitude of the encountered challenges.