Students’ Writing Problems and Understanding Ability in Explanatory Texts at SMAN 2 Lubuklinggau
Keywords:
English language teaching, writing problems, writing ability, explanatory textAbstract
This research is intended to find out the students’ difficulties viewed from the writing aspect, students’ understanding of explanatory texts, and the factors that influence their problems in writing explanatory texts. This research employed a mixed-method case study design that involved 35 students in grade XI IPA 4 of SMAN 2 Lubuklinggau in the academic year 2022-2023. The data were gathered using tests (a writing and an understanding test) and a semi-structured interview. The writing test was analyzed using a checklist table. The understanding test was analyzed by counting the correct answers, and the interview data were analyzed using an interactive model. The results showed that students had difficulties in content, organization, grammar, vocabulary, and mechanics aspects. However, the student’s difficulties in grammar were not excessively high because they used Google Translate. Furthermore, students’ understanding of explanatory texts was in a less category because their scores were predominantly under 65. Moreover, some possible factors influenced students’ problems in writing and understanding explanatory texts; knowledge of generic structure, grammar, vocabulary, mechanics, determining a topic, and developing a main idea, students’ interest in writing lessons of explanatory text, learning English, and teachers’ roles for the feedbacks that students need to evaluate and refine their mistakes in writing and understanding explanatory texts. In conclusion, students’ ability in writing and understanding explanatory text lessons still needs to improve to achieve the learning objectives. The English teacher should find effective teaching strategies to solve the students’ problems in writing and understanding explanatory texts
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