LESS PROFICIENT LEARNERS’ WRITING STRATEGY USE IN ARABIC AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE

Abstract

Writing is a complicated process and involves a number of strategies. Writing entails composing, means the ability to state or restate the information in the form of description or narratives, or the ability to transform information into texts, as in argumentative writing. The major purpose of this study was to investigate the writing strategies (WS) employed by the less proficient learners of Arabic as a foreign language (AFL) in the essay composition. The data for this study were provided by six second year diploma level learners in the Fathih Institute of Sri Lanka which was established for teaching and learning foreign languages, using think aloud, observation and retrospect interview when they write an essay in Arabic as the measurement instrument. It was found that the learners depended on rhetorical strategies in using mother tongue for generating and translating the ideas into Arabic language. Hence, did not solidify their position in mastering metacognitive WS in planning, monitoring and evaluating strategies. Though, a positive correlation was found between rhetorical, cognitive, communicative and social strategies. In terms of allegation for coaching, strategy instruction has been revealed to be an effective approach for teaching writing to students. Thus, instructors may require guiding the students to figure out a way to organize their ideas by writing practices. The instructors may need to help students how making their place affirmation visibly and organize their outlooks more reasonably in the writing activities.