Nasim Ghanbari

Argumentative writing is the most important genre which undergraduates need to learn in order to meet their academic requirements. Regardless of the different disciplines in the academic context, the development of a well-formed argumentative essay is regarded as an important skill, particularly in the arts, humanities, and social sciences. Nevertheless, many studies in different native and non-native contexts have indicated many problems that undergraduates have experienced when developing an argumentative essay. To shed more light on how undergraduate students deal with argumentation in the Iranian EFL academic writing context, the present study was conducted. For this purpose, a total of 66 argumentative essays written by undergraduate students was analyzed. In addition, a group of 30 undergraduate students majoring in English literature and 6 writing instructors were interviewed. The findings of the analysis of the students’ texts showed that the students had difficulties in different aspects of argumentative essay development. In particular, the concept of argumentation was poorly conceived and tackled by the learners. Teachers also had a tacit knowledge of argumentations lacking a coherent approach for teaching the argumentative essay. In sum, the study proposes that the failure to develop an argumentative essay by the Iranian undergraduates entails several academic, cultural, and pedagogical grounds. Implications for improving argumentative writing development in EAP contexts are also provided.