Exploring the Challenges of Dissertation Writing among EFL Students

Abstract

Dissertation writing is considered one of the most challenging academic tasks in higher education, especially for EFL students who are required to manage both academic writing and research-related tasks in English. The present study aims to investigate the major challenges encountered by Master’s Two Didactics students at Mila University during dissertation writing. More specifically, it seeks to answer the following research questions: What are the main challenges encountered by Master’s Two EFL students during dissertation writing? What linguistic, methodological, psychological, and supervisory difficulties do they experience? What recommendations can help improve their dissertation writing experience and academic performance? To conduct the investigation, a descriptive approach was adopted, and a questionnaire was used as the research instrument. The collected data were analyzed using SPSS statistical software. The participants of the study were 51 Master’s Two Didactics students from a total population of 95 students during the academic year 2025/2026. The findings revealed that students experienced various difficulties during dissertation writing, particularly in paraphrasing, academic vocabulary, referencing, cohesion and coherence, research organization, and data analysis. The results also revealed that psychological factors such as anxiety, academic pressure, lack of confidence, and time management difficulties negatively affected students’ dissertation writing performance. The study recommends strengthening academic support and effective supervision in order to improve students’ research experiences and academic writing performance.