The effect of vocabulary gap on EFL students' academic essay : the case of 3rd year LMD students in the English department at Bejaia university

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to decrease the problem of vocabulary gap in writing contexts. A problem faced by most third year English students at Bejaia University. They face difficulties to write coherent paragraphs and essays, and the way they use vocabulary in written contexts. In fact teaching academic essay is an efficient and flexible writing subject, to enhance students’ writing, for better performance in writing paragraphs and essays. To gather the necessary data, a questionnaire and interviews were used. Data showed that most students have not enough vocabulary to write clear and meaningful paragraphs and essays, and they use interference to express their ideas