Indonesian EFL Students’ Perspective on Writing Process: A Pilot Study

Imelda Hermilinda Abas, Noor Hashima Abd Aziz

Abstract


The study was aimed at understanding the EFL Indonesian students’ perspective on the writing process. The pilot study involved two male Indonesian postgraduate students in Universiti Utara Malaysia. The Indonesian students were selected based on the following criteria: (1) had enough knowledge in English writing, indicated by the completion of Academic Writing and Research Methodology courses taken in UUM; (2) had written an unpublished thesis during their undergraduate studies in Indonesia and they are writing their master or doctoral thesis in English; (3) used English extensively in writing their assignments, and in daily activities. Pseudonyms were used to refer to the participants as Sukarno and Suharto. The data were collected through in-depth interviews with the participants. The interview sessions took approximately 15-20 minutes for each participant and were videotaped and audiotaped. Semi-structured interview with 15 questions and probes were used. The results showed that the two participants had positive feelings and attitudes towards writing in English. Although they had a hard time in English writing during their undergraduate in Indonesia, they become fond of writing in English in their postgraduate time due to the exposure to English extensively. In composing, they used brainstorming, drafting, pausing, revising and editing in a recursive manner.

Keywords: in-depth interview, pilot study, writing process, English as a Foreign Language (EFL)


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