EFL University Students’ Difficulties in the Essay Writing Process
(1) Universitas Islam Negeri Maulana Malik Ibrahim Malang
(*) Corresponding Author
Abstract
Research on foreign language writing has shown that most EFL students faced some difficulties to produce a good composition in English. However, attention has mainly been directed to explore errors found on students’ written work. Little is known about what difficulties students have in the writing process. The present study investigates difficulties students faced in the six steps of writing process, namely choosing a topic, gathering ideas, outlining or organizing ideas, writing the first draft, reviewing the content and structure, as well as revising and making final correction. This study applied a qualitative method by using questionnaire and interview to collect the data. The subjects were English Language Education students who were taking an Essay Writing course in the third semester. The findings indicate that students face difficulties in all steps of essay writing process. Among those six steps, outlining and gathering ideas are claimed as the most effortful steps students have to pass. Writing the first draft and revising are the next two steps considered as challenging. Lastly, choosing a topic and reviewing content and structure are also demanding for small part of students. The difficulties students have and suggestions they propose are presented in this study. Those could be a basis for doing some improvements at institutional as well as individual level.
Keywords
Full Text:
PDFReferences
Alemu, M. (2020). The role of pre-writing strategies to enhance the students’ idea generating abilities: the case of first-year computer science students of Haramaya University. International Journal of Education and Literacy Studies, 8(1), 40-47. https://doi.org/10.7575/aiac.ijels.v.8n.1p.40.
Alfaki, I. M. (2015). University students’ English writing problems. International Journal of English Language Teaching, 3(3), 40–52. https://doi.org/10.37745/ijelt.13.
Alisha, F., Safitri, N., & Santoso, I. (2019). Students’ difficulties in writing EFL. Professional Journal of English Education, 2(1), 20-25. http://dx.doi.org/10.22460/project.v2i1.p20-25
Ariyanti, A., & Fitriana, R. (2017. EFL students’ difficulties and needs in essay writing. In International Conference on Teacher Training and Education 2017 (ICTTE 2017) (pp. 32-42). Atlantis Press. https://doi.org/10.2991/ictte-17.2017.4.
Ashrafiany, Fatsah, H., & Basalama, N. (2020). The students’ writing difficulties in writing an essay based on cognitive process. Lingua Jurnal Pendidikan Bahasa, 16(1), 61-69. https://doi.org/10.34005/lingua.v16i1.560.
Bailey, S. (2018). Academic Writing: A Handbook for International Students (5th ed.). New York: Routledge.
Bulqiyah, S., Mahbub, M. A., & Nugraheni, D. A. (2021). Investigating writing difficulties in essay writing: tertiary students’ perspectives. English Language Teaching Educational Journal, 4(1), 61-73. https://doi.org/10.12928/eltej.v4i1.2371.
Creswell, J. (2013). Qualitative Inquiry and Research Design: Choosing among five approaches (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications.
Creswell, J. (2014). Educational Research: Planning, Conducting, and Evaluating Quantitative and Qualitative Research (5th ed.). Sydney, NSW: Pearson Australia.
Fareed, M., Ashraf, A., & Bilal, M. (2016). ESL learners’ writing skills: Problems, factors and suggestions. Journal of Education and Social Sciences, 4(2), 81-92. https://doi.org/10.20547/jess0421604201.
Flick, U. (2008). Managing Quality in Qualitative Research (Qualitative Research Kit). London: SAGE Publications.
Harmer, J. (2004). How To Teach Writing. United Kingdom: Pearson Education Limited.
Kamberi, L. (2013). The significance of teacher feedback in EFL writing for tertiary level foreign language learners. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 70, 1686-1690. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2013.01.241.
Mahnam, L., & Nejadansari, D. (2012). The effects of different pre-writing strategies on Iranian EFL writing achievement. International Education Studies, 5(1), 154-160. https://doi.org/10.5539/ies.v5n1p154.
Maysuroh, S., Maryadi, L, I., & Supiani, S. (2017). Students’ English writing process and problems: a case study at Hamzanwadi University. Voices of English Language Education Society, 1(1), 1-10. https://doi.org/10.29408/veles.v1i1.388.
Suprapto, M. A., Anditasari, A. W., Sitompul, S. K., & Setyowati, L. (2022). Undergraduate students’ perceptions towards the process of writing. Journal of English Language Teaching and Linguistics, 7(1), 185-195. http://dx.doi.org/10.21462/jeltl.v7i1.765.
Toba, R., Noor, W. N., & Sanu, L. O. (2019). The current issues of Indonesian EFL students’ writing skills: ability, problem, and reason in writing comparison and contrast essay. Dinamika Ilmu, 19(1), 57-73. https://doi.org/10.21093/di.v19i1.1506
Wijaya, M. S. (2017). Students’ thesis statement in essay writing class. English Education: Jurnal Tadris Bahasa Inggris, 10(2), 274-290. https://doi.org/10.24042/ee-jtbi.v10i2.1751
Zemach, D. E., & Rumisek, L. A. (2004). College Writing: From Paragraph To Essay. Oxford: Macmillan.
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.30998/scope.v7i1.13793
Refbacks
- There are currently no refbacks.
Copyright (c) 2022 Maslihatul Bisriyah
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License