The Influence of Local Language Practices on Academic Writing: The case of Second-Year EFL Students at College of Education – Ajelat, University of Zawia
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.65405/z2cf6p55Keywords:
Local language influence, academic writing, EFL students, L1 interference, contrastive rhetoric, Arabic-English writingAbstract
This study examines the influence of local language practices on the academic writing of second-year EFL students at the Faculty of Education, Ajelat College, Libya. A quantitative survey design was adopted, and data were collected from 50 students through a structured questionnaire focusing on first-language use during English academic writing and related writing difficulties. Descriptive statistical methods, including means and standard deviations, were used for data analysis. The findings indicate that students rely heavily on Arabic during idea generation and sentence construction, which contributes to difficulties in cohesion, organization, grammatical accuracy, and writing efficiency. Although students demonstrate some awareness of differences between Arabic and English writing conventions, their ability to reduce first-language interference remains limited. The study concludes that local language practices significantly shape EFL students’ academic writing.
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