I have chosen to look at the importance of writing skills and how to help learners write clearly and concisely using the correct grammar and structure. Traditionally, written English is given less emphasis than spoken. As a teacher of Arab learners at University level, I have found that they try to think simultaneously about many facets of writing. Word order, mixed tenses, spelling, and punctuation are just a few of the challenges L1 learners face. Add to this the challenge of the cursive system and we begin to understand why they make so many mistakes. My article suggests how we can develop learners writing skills from an early age.
Keywords: L2 learners, first language, writing difficulties
