ADEMIC WRITING CHALLENGES OF FIRST-YEAR COLLEGE STUDENTS FROM DIVERSE LINGUISTIC BACKGROUNDS: CAUSES, PATTERNS, AND PEDAGOGICAL IMPLICATIONS

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to investigate the academic writing challenges faced by first-year college students from diverse linguistic backgrounds and to examine their causes, patterns, and pedagogical implications. A mixed-method research design was employed. Quantitative data were collected through a structured writing test and analyzed using an independent samples t-test, while qualitative data were obtained through semi-structured interviews to explore students’ experiences and perceptions of academic writing. The findings revealed significant differences between Urdu-speaking and Punjabi-speaking students in five dimensions of academic writing: sentence structure, vocabulary, cohesion and coherence, paragraph development, and mechanical accuracy. The qualitative findings further indicated that language transfer, limited exposure to English, and insufficient writing practices were associated with these difficulties. This study contributes context-specific knowledge by comparing Urdu-speaking and Punjabi-speaking first-year college students and identifying significant differences across five dimensions of academic writing. These findings provide useful evidence for developing writing instruction that considers students’ different linguistic backgrounds in the Pakistani context. The study highlights the need for explicit writing instruction, increased opportunities for writing practice, and greater consideration of students’ linguistic backgrounds in classroom teaching. Although the study is limited by its relatively small sample size, it provides useful pedagogical insights for improving academic writing instruction in multilingual educational settings.