Factors Affecting Adult Weekend School Dissertation Academic Writing: A Case of One University in Harare, Zimbabwe

Authors

  • Crossman Mayavo

    School of Economics, University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg 2092, South Africa
  • Precious Muzite

    Department of Educational Foundations, College of Education, University of South Africa, Pretoria 0002, South Africa

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.30564/fls.v7i2.7485
Received: 11 October 2024 | Revised: 2 November 2024 | Accepted: 4 November 2024 | Published Online: 25 February 2025

Abstract

The research looked into the factors that influence weekend adult dissertation writing at a Zimbabwean public university. The study sought to critically examine the difficulties associated with writing in an exoglossic language for the majority of adult students who use English as a second language for communication and academic writing. In this study, a phenomenological approach was used in the form of semi-structured interviews with twelve conveniently sampled weekend school students. Consent was obtained from each student before the data was collected. The study also used thematic analysis in conjunction with the capabilities theoretical framework to try to uncover the various capabilities that each student used in academic writing. The study discovered that adult academic writing for English as a second language speakers at the university level is hampered by a variety of factors, including poor time management on the part of students, a lack of writing experience, unrealistic curriculum time schedules, and supervisory attitudes. All of these factors combined to make weekend adult academic dissertation writing unavailable to students. However, the students are encouraged to improve on the negatives that affects their performance in academic writing. Furthermore, recommendations are made to university administrators and lecturers to become more actively involved in their roles in administering weekend school adult academic writing to students whose first language is not English.

Keywords:

Weekend School; Dissertation Writing; Exoglossic Language; Adult Learning; Higher Education Institutions (HEIs)

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How to Cite

Mayavo, C., & Muzite, P. (2025). Factors Affecting Adult Weekend School Dissertation Academic Writing: A Case of One University in Harare, Zimbabwe. Forum for Linguistic Studies, 7(2), 1063–1074. https://doi.org/10.30564/fls.v7i2.7485

Issue

Vol. 7 , Iss. 2 (February 2025)

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Copyright © 2025 Crossman Mayavo, Precious Muzite

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This is an open access article under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) License.