Grammatical difficulties and professional writing skills in English job application letters: evidence from English as a foreign language (EFL) students at the University of Kisangani, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC)
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.51867/ajernet.7.2.110Keywords:
Employability, EFL Students, Job Application Letters, Professional Writing, Syntactic Errors, University of KisanganiAbstract
Professional writing plays an important role in academic and professional integration, particularly in contexts where English is learned as a foreign language. This study explores the grammatical and organizational difficulties encountered by students of the Department of Letters and English Civilizations at the University of Kisangani when writing job application letters in English. Although these students have received several years of English instruction, many still experience difficulties producing formal written documents that respect professional conventions. This study combined quantitative and qualitative approaches. Twenty-two undergraduate students from BAC 1, BAC 2, and BAC 3 participated in a classroom writing task in which they were asked to write a job application letter based on a simulated employment announcement. The analysis drew on principles from error analysis and interlanguage theory to identify the most frequent linguistic difficulties in students’ written productions. The results show that grammatical errors were more frequent than organizational ones. The most common problems involved verb forms, subject–verb agreement, sentence construction, articles, and prepositions. Structural weaknesses were also observed, especially in paragraph organization, letter formatting, and the use of appropriate salutations. The analysis further indicates that these difficulties persist even among advanced students, suggesting that prolonged exposure to English instruction does not automatically lead to effective mastery of professional writing. The study attributes these challenges to the influence of French and local languages, limited exposure to authentic professional writing situations, and insufficient practice in genre-based writing activities. It therefore recommends strengthening professional writing instruction within university English programs through contextualized writing practice and greater emphasis on workplace communication skills.
Downloads
References
[1] Hyland, K. (2003). Second language writing. Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511667251
[2] Selinker, L. (1972). Interlanguage. International Review of Applied Linguistics, 10(1-4), 209-231.
https://doi.org/10.1515/iral.1972.10.1-4.209
[3] Ellis, R. (1997). Second language acquisition. Oxford University Press.
[4] Lingoso, D. L. (2019). The use of relative pronouns by undergraduate students at the University of Kisangani (Unpublished dissertation). University of Kisangani.
[5] Weigle, S. C. (2002). Assessing writing. Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511732997
[6] Kolin, P. C. (1988). Successful writing at work. Houghton Mifflin Company.
[7] Ilunga, B. (2008). Error analysis in undergraduate students' composition (Unpublished dissertation). University of Kisangani.
[8] Corder, S. P. (1967). The significance of learners' errors. International Review of Applied Linguistics, 5(4), 161-170.
https://doi.org/10.1515/iral.1967.5.1-4.161
[9] Ferris, D. R. (2003). Response to student writing: Implications for second language students. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781410607201
[10] Crystal, D. (2003). English as a global language (2nd ed.). Cambridge University Press.
[11] Graddol, D. (2006). English next. British Council.
[12] Coleman, H. (2011). Developing countries and the English language: Rhetoric, risks, roles and recommendations. British Council.
[13] Alred, G. J., Brusaw, C. T., & Oliu, W. E. (2009). The business writer's handbook (10th ed.). Bedford/St. Martin's.
[14] Miryanti, M. (2012). Error analysis on writing application letters found in JPAC of Politeknik Negeri Bandung. Jurnal Pengembangan Humaniora, 12(3), 147-160.
[15] Mojica, L. A. (2010). An investigation on self-reported writing problems and actual writing deficiencies of EFL learners in the beginners' level. TESOL Journal, 2(1), 24-38.
[16] Ristiyanti, D. (2011). Grammatical errors in students' writing. Journal of English Teaching, 4(2), 45-56.
[17] Creswell, J. W. (2014). Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches (4th ed.). Sage Publications.
[18] Dörnyei, Z. (2007). Research methods in applied linguistics. Oxford University Press.
[19] Berelson, B. (1952). Content analysis in communication research. Free Press.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2026 John Mbula Nyangonda, Dimanche Lingoso Lifengo, Evariste Loke Lobanga, Arthur Cimwanga Bandibanga Shambuyi
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
