Evaluating Saudi University Students’ English Writing Skills ‎Using an Analytic Rating Scale

Majed A Al-Mudhi

Abstract


The purpose of this study was to investigate the extent to which Saudi university students master the main aspects of ESL Composition Profile proposed by Jacobs et al. (1981). The study also aims at analyzing Saudi English-majors students’ text length features and examining whether they are associated with their text quality aspects. It analysed the essays written by 88 students studying English language at Prince Sattam bin Abdulaziz University in Al-Kharj and Al-Imam Muhammad bin Saud Islamic University in Riyadh. The study yielded a number of results. The most important of which is that Saudi students can produce essays of analytic quality features at a level that ranging from poor to fair. A positive correlation was also found between text length and writing quality aspects in the students' essays. Based on these findings, the researcher provided a number of pedagogical implications and some suggestions for further research were provided.


Keywords


Writing Skill, ESL composition Profile, Text Length

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References


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