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AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE CHALLENGES FACED BY ENGLISH-MAJORED STUDENTS IN WRITING MA THESES

Dublin Core		PKP Metadata Items	Metadata for this Document
1.	Title	Title of document	AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE CHALLENGES FACED BY ENGLISH-MAJORED STUDENTS IN WRITING MA THESES
2.	Creator	Author's name, affiliation, country	Nguyen Van Anh; English Teacher, Can Tho City, Vietnam
2.	Creator	Author's name, affiliation, country	Thai Cong Dan; English Senior Lecturer, School of Foreign Languages, Can Tho University, Can Tho City, Vietnam
2.	Creator	Author's name, affiliation, country	Thai Phan Bao Han; English Lecturer, Faculty of Social Sciences, Can Tho University of Technology, Can Tho City, Vietnam
3.	Subject	Discipline(s)
3.	Subject	Keyword(s)	thesis writing, English-majored students, MA graduation thesis, research methodology, academic challenges
4.	Description	Abstract	This study investigated the challenges that English-majored students faced when writing their MA graduation theses and explored supervisors’ suggestions to improve thesis quality. Writing an MA thesis played a crucial role in developing research skills, yet many students struggled with various components such as referencing, literature review, introduction, and methodology. Data were collected through a thirty-seven-item questionnaire answered by 30 MA students and interviews conducted with 6 experienced supervisors, both face-to-face and via phone. The findings revealed that referencing caused the greatest difficulty, followed by issues with the literature review and methodology sections. In contrast, students rarely struggled with the title and discussion parts. Most students felt confused at the beginning of the writing process and did not know how to start. Supervisors emphasized the importance of early instruction in research methodology, clear guidelines, structured schedules, and ongoing support throughout the thesis process. They also recommended tools like thesis-writing guidebooks and the use of positive feedback to enhance student motivation. The study suggested that universities should provide systematic support, including supervisor training and student workshops, to address these common challenges. These measures helped students meet deadlines, improved writing quality, and made the thesis process more effective for both students and supervisors.   Article visualizations:
5.	Publisher	Organizing agency, location	Open Access Publishing Group
6.	Contributor	Sponsor(s)
7.	Date	(YYYY-MM-DD)	2025-07-25
8.	Type	Status & genre	Peer-reviewed Article
8.	Type	Type
9.	Format	File format	PDF
10.	Identifier	Uniform Resource Identifier	https://oapub.org/lit/index.php/EJALS/article/view/629
10.	Identifier	Digital Object Identifier (DOI)	http://dx.doi.org/10.46827/ejals.v8i3.629
11.	Source	Title; vol., no. (year)	European Journal of Applied Linguistics Studies; Vol 8, No 3 (2025)
12.	Language	English=en	en
13.	Relation	Supp. Files
14.	Coverage	Geo-spatial location, chronological period, research sample (gender, age, etc.)
15.	Rights	Copyright and permissions	Copyright (c) 2025 Nguyen Van Anh, Thai Cong Dan, Thai Phan Bao Han This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. The research works published in this journal are free to be accessed. They can be shared (copied and redistributed in any medium or format) and\or adapted (remixed, transformed, and built upon the material for any purpose, commercially and\or not commercially) under the following terms: attribution (appropriate credit must be given indicating original authors, research work name and publication name mentioning if changes were made) and without adding additional restrictions (without restricting others from doing anything the actual license permits). Authors retain the full copyright of their published research works and cannot revoke these freedoms as long as the license terms are followed.