Investigating PhD Students’ Awareness and Application of Systemic Functional Linguistics in Academic Writing: A Study at the Language Faculty, University of Benghazi

الملخص

The current study investigated PhD students' major challenges in academic writing, in addition to their awareness of Systemic Functional Linguistics. It also aimed to determine whether Systemic Functional Linguistics can serve as a useful pedagogical framework to support PhD students in overcoming academic writing challenges. This study was conducted at the Language Faculty of the University of Benghazi. A Google Form was designed to collect data related to the research questions. The researcher adopted a mixed quantitative and qualitative approach as the method of the study. The questionnaire was administered to 20 PhD students who participated in the study. The data analyzed reveal that PhD students face various challenges in academic writing, such as organizing ideas logically, achieving coherence and cohesion, and presenting arguments effectively. This is related to the lack of awareness of how language functions in context. The researcher hopes that the findings of this study will greatly assist PhD students in addressing their writing difficulties