Exploring the Challenges Faced by Iranian TEFL Students in their Doctoral Dissertation Writing

Writing a dissertation is a laborious task that requires adequate knowledge of the field as well as writing skill. This study tried to uncover the PhD candidates’ main challenges in writing a dissertation. The participants of this study were 30 PhD EFL male and female candidates on the point of writing their dissertation. A semi-structured interview with series of open-ended questions was employed to gather the data. The study adopted mixed-methods design in which the data were collected through qualitative content analysis and then were subjected to statistical procedures through SPSS. Cohen’s Kappa (κ) was used to report intra and inter rater reliability which were found to be .89% and .88%, respectively. The data analysis indicated that all candidates encountered various problems such as linguistic challenges, lack of knowledge about SPSS, APA and copyright law, poor planning and time management, finding novel topics, personal problems that impede them from the due schedule, finding the related literature, finding the participants and getting institutes to participate, negotiation with thesis supervisor and advisor, loss of interest and difficulty in finding the required instrument. Moreover, based on the findings of the present study, it is recommended that more practical courses on research be embedded in the curricula and more attention be paid to the existing courses in order to overcome the encountered challenges as described by the PhD students. The results can be of help to the policy makers, curriculum developers, instructors and students