Investigating Academic Writing in EFL Contexts: Students’ Voices on Complexities and Coping Strategies

Abstract

This research aimed to investigate students’ voices regarding the complexities that contribute to challenges and the coping strategies that address academic writing challenges they use in academic writing. Through a qualitative method, four female students majoring in English Education in the eighth semester at a private university in Indonesia were chosen as participants in this study's interview. Data analysis techniques employed include analyzing the data, coding the data, and interpreting the data. The findings indicated that twelve complexities contributed, namely learners’ low motivation, lack of lecturers’ feedback, lack of translation, lack of references, lack of time, lack of research background, low students' self-confidence, lack of experience in writing, lack of proficiency in reading, lack of critical thinking skill, lack of proper preparation in writing, and lack of a supportive writing learning environment. Students used twelve coping strategies for organization, ideas development, vocabulary, grammar, and mechanics. These strategies included exercises, feedback, reading academic papers, extensive reading, Google Translate, QuillBot, Grammarly, and Mendeley for arranging academic style. The implication of this research has been discussed here.

Uncovering EFL students’ frequent difficulties in academic writing and the coping strategies: The case of a college in Indonesia

“…Then, they can imitate scholarly articles from reputable journals, take workshops, use Google Translate, and look up more research articles (Zhang & Hasim, 2023). Considering the significance of academic writing as a means of Journal on English as a Foreign Language, 14(1), 124-151 p-ISSN 2088-1657e-ISSN 2502-6615 showcasing critical thinking skills for EFL college students (Asnas et al, 2022), as well as the numerous challenges associated with academic writing and the dearth of strategies employed, identifying the most frequent difficulties faced by EFL students and their coping strategies in this current study should aid in the production of high-quality academic writing.…”

“…Journal on English as a Foreign Language,14(1), 124-151 p-ISSN 2088124-151 p-ISSN -1657e-ISSN 2502-6615 Academic writing at the university level is crucial because it demonstrates students' capacity for clear and concise communication as well as their ability to express ideas and construct well-constructed sentences (Asnas et al, 2022). Additionally, academic writing highlights students' capacity to solve problems analytically and shows students' ability to synthesize, evaluate, and express their opinions based on a variety of sources (Asnas, 2022).…”