Date of Award
January 2022
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Department
English
First Advisor
Kim Donehower-Weinstein
Abstract
This is a qualitative research that investigates the experiences of undergraduate Saudi female and male students majoring in English at Taif University, Saudi Arabia. These students were part of different sections of a course that teaches academic English writing and research in an English as a Foreign Language context. These Saudi female and male students draw on their perceptions of three main points; First, how they experienced the academic English writing course in sex-separated classrooms. Second, how the current sex-separated classrooms influence their learning of English and how if this hypothetically change to mixed-sex classrooms their experiences in learning English might change. Third, this research explores the students’ practice of “Translanguaging” learning English in general and writing in specific in their sex-separated sections of the academic English writing course. The focus on translanguaging in this research considers it as a break and shift from the traditional standard way English and academic English writing is taught to non-native speakers/ learners of English. This is a phenomenological study that uses feminist standpoint theory as its main theoretical analysis of the phenomena explored. Major findings of the study include clear discrepancy in the way women are taught English and academic English writing compared to men, the feeling of pressure shared between women to master English, the relatively shared excitement about mixed education by women, and that the practice of translanguaging in itself is gendered, since female students experience less flexibility and tolerance in using Arabic in the classroom than men.
Recommended Citation
Alsaadi, Rana, "The Experience Of Saudi Students Writing Academic English In Sex-Separated Classrooms" (2022). Theses and Dissertations. 4249.
https://commons.und.edu/theses/4249