The particular dialect or language that a person chooses to use on any occasion is called a code 543 Copyright © 2023 The Author IDEAS is licensed under CC-BY-SA 4.0 License Issued by English study program of IAIN Palopo IDEAS Journal of Language Teaching and Learning, Linguistics and Literature ISSN 2338-4778 (Print) ISSN 2548-4192 (Online) Volume 11, Number 1, June 2023 pp. 543 - 550 Students’ Difficulties in English Writing at Tenth Grade in Senior High School *Doni fransiskus Purba1, Sahlan Tampubolon², Erika Sinambelaᶾ *Corresponding author: Doni fransiskus Purba (doni.purba@student.uhn.ac.id) 1,2,3 Universitas HKBP Nommensen, Medan, Indonesia Received: 2022-12-03 Accepted: 2023-04-03 DOI: 10.24256/ideas.v11i1.3795 Abstract This research discussed about students’ difficulties in writing recount text at tenth grade SMAN 1 Selesai Kab. Langkat. The problem of this research were the students’ difficulties in writing recount text and factors that cause students’ difficulties in writing recount. The objective of this research was to find out the students’ difficulties in writing recount text and to describe the factors that make students have difficulties writing recount text. This research was qualitative descriptive. The source of the data of this research was tenth grade SMAN 1 Selesai Kab. Langkat. Total of the were 24 students. The researcher used test and gave a questionnaire as the instruments. The researcher analyzed the data by editing the data, reducing the data, tabulating the data and the last taking conclusion. The researcher found some facts in the field. First, it was found that the answer that students’ difficulties in writing recount text were difficulties in developing the content, organization, vocabulary, language, and mechanics. The data were got from students’ test that had been analyzed. Beside that, the causes of the students’ difficulties in writing recount text were grammatical weakness, knowledge and understanding, less practice, and educational background Key Word: Difficulties, Recount text, Students Introduction As an international language, English represents media interaction and communication between people from different parts of the world. Learning to improve social relationships and knowledge is very important. When students learn English, they focus on mastering four language skills, namely listening, speaking, reading and writing. Reading and writing are useful for written expression, and speaking and listening are useful for oral expression. Writing is one of the best ways to improve students' ability to communicate in English. Writing is absolutely necessary for several reasons. First, writing http://u.lipi.go.id/1457703302 mailto:doni.purba@student.uhn.ac.id Doni fransiskus Purba, Sahlan Tampubolon, Erika Sinambela Students’ Difficulties in English Writing at Tenth Grade in Senior High School 544 is a form of communication with other people in the world. Second, almost all occupations require the ability to write. Finally, writing can be accepted as one of the characteristics of an educated person. Writing is absolutely necessary for several reasons. First, writing is a form of communication with other people in the world. Second, almost all occupations require the ability to write. Finally, writing can be accepted as one of the characteristics of an educated person. Harmer (2004:33) states Writing often helps in preparation for another activity, especially when students write down sentences to introduce the discussion activity. According to Rass cited in Lestari et al (2020:262) said, “Writing is a difficult skill for native speakers and non-native speakers; because writers must be able write it in multiple issues such as content, organization, purpose, audience, vocabularies and mechanics such as punctuation, spelling, and capitalization”, it is because there are some aspects that the students should learn to make a good writing. Writing is distinct from other language skills. Students learn a message that has been formulated by someone else by reading and listening. During speaking, students express themselves through their own thoughts and feelings, occasionally involving a discussion partner, leading to colloquialisms. On the other hand, For written communication to be effective, the writer must be truly proficient. Also, one of the language skills that students should be proficient in is writing. In writing, The ability to employ grammar to create texts or sentences and a command of vocabulary are requirements for students. Because it will be used in many aspects of life, it is a crucial ability. People are meant to be able to express themselves through writing. For this reason, As part of their writing assignments, all students in the writing classroom are usually requested to create simple texts such narratives, recounts, descriptives, procedures, discussions, reviews, spoofs, and expository essays. On this case the researcher focuses on the difficulties writing in recount text. One of the text kinds that students in senior high school are required to master is recount text. Recount text is a text which retells past events or experiences. All of those parts should be understood by the students, and they should be able to write this text. In reality, students frequently struggle while writing and listening to recount texts. Most students feel difficult and confused to produce recount text correctly. The reason of choosing the topic is the researcher have done small observation to students where researcher did research, and the researcher found that in the school many students still have difficulties in writing, and the school is located in rural area, so the lack of English facilities in the place such as English courses and the students in the school are less interested in English learning. In light of the explanation provided above, the researcher conducted studying to identify the difficulties students have while writing recount texts with a generic structure. This research conducted at SMAN 1 Selesai Kab. Langkat and the research title “the Students’ Difficulties in English Writing on Tenth Grade in SMAN 1 Selesai Kab. Langkat. in this research the researcher has a question to find data What are the students' difficulties in writing recount text at tenth grade of SMA Negeri 1 Completed Kab. Langkat. What are the factors that cause students' difficulties in writing recount text at tenth grade of SMA Negeri 1 Completed Kab. Langkat. IDEAS, Vol. 11, No. 1, June 2023 ISSN 2338-4778 (Print) ISSN 2548-4192 (Online) 545 Method In this research, the researcher used descriptive qualitative as research design. According to Sugiyono (2006: 13), The state of natural objects can be examined through qualitative research. The researcher used descriptive qualitative method which aims to know what are students’ difficulties in writing on grade tenth in SMAN 1 Selesai kabupaten langkat. Frankel & Wallen, in Hasibuan (2019: 31) states that qualitative research is characterized by verbal description as its data. It’s means that data of the study was analyzed by describing, identifying and analyzing the text. The population of this research was the students of Senior High School 1 Selesai Kabupaten Langkat and the researcher decided to use the sample of this research is especially the students in grade X, which in the grade ten, there are 7 classes. The researcher decided to choose only one class as the sample of this research. Research instrument is a tool used to measure natural and social phenomenon observed. In this research the researcher used students’ writing of recount text as an instrument to analysis students’ difficulties writing recount text as a source of the data. In this research, the researcher used questionnaire to collected the data. Questionnaire is one type of collecting data from subject of the research. The questionnaire has some question for the students answer. The researcher gave the questionnaire to the students, then questionnaire was analyzed to knew the causes of the difficulties in writing recount text that students faced. The data in this study was collected from students‟ writing of recount text on tenth grade of students of senior high school and was conducted by using documentation. According the procedure of collecting data were: 1) The material about recount text was explained. After explaining the materials, the researcher taught the students how to did the test of writing recount text. 2) The teacher asked the students to wrote a recount text based their experience into 3 paragraphs that consisted of orientation, event, and re-orientation. 3) The students‟ writing was collected and checked by giving circle the wrong word or sentence in their writing. After collecting the data, data analysis was done by analyzed the whole data obtained. A qualitative method is kind of research without using any calculation or statistic procedure. Analyzing data refers to a method of treating the data was collected by the researcher. Data analysis is the process of systematically searching and arranging the students’ writing, and questionnaire transcripts that researcher accumulated to increase his own understanding of them and to enable him to present what researcher discovered to others. The data of this research was analyzed from students‟ writing. The research analysis to students’ writing to found out the students' difficulties in writing recount text. Result and Discussion Findings Table 1. The result Types of Difficulties, Frequency, and Percentage No Types of Difficulties in Writing Frequency Percentage 1 Content 12 50% 2 Organization 3 13% Doni fransiskus Purba, Sahlan Tampubolon, Erika Sinambela Students’ Difficulties in English Writing at Tenth Grade in Senior High School 546 3 Vocabulary 4 17% 4 Grammar 9 37% 5 Mechanics 3 13% From the data analysis, the researcher found that the most common difficulties that students faced in writing recount text was in content. In content, there are twelve students that lack of understanding in writing recount especially determined which part of orientation, event, and re-orientation. The second, the difficulties that students faced in writing recount text was in language. In Grammar there are nine students that did mistake in changed the first verb to the second verb. The third, the difficulties that students face in writing recount text was in vocabulary. In vocabulary, there are four students that did mistake in writing some words when the wrote their story. The fourth and fifth, the difficulties that students faced in writing recount text were in Organization and mechanic. There were three students in organization and mechanic did mistake while wrote a recount text. Additional analysis from the data, the researcher found that there were some words that some students did error when wrote recount text. the most common error made by students in recount text is omission. Omission error is dominant error in writing because students always omitted letter in their writing. The second error that the students made wrong selection. Third error that the students made addition and ordering. The researcher employed the questionnaire to students to find the causes difficulties that students faced. Based on the analysis of questionnaire, the research found that the factors of students’ difficulties in writing recount text were grammatical weakness, knowledge and understanding, less practice, and educational background. Discussions In this part, the researcher would like to discussed about the students’ difficulty in writing recount text, the most dominant difficulties in writing recount text, and the causes of students’ difficulties in writing recount text produced by students of tenth grade in SMAN 1 Selesai Kab. Langkat. The research employed a writing test as the data analysis of the research. Then, the research collected the data to identify the students’ difficulties in writing recount test. Then, the researcher identified students’ difficulties in writing recount text. Based on review of related to literature, there were five difficulties faced by students. Those difficulties were content, organization, vocabulary, Grammar, and mechanics. It supported by Husna, which is stated that the students faced difficulties in vocabulary, organization, mechanic and grammar. By Ida Yulianawati, which is stated that the students faced difficulties in use of tenses, use of vocabulary, and use of specific participant Based on result of the data, there were five aspects of students’ difficulties in writing recount text, first the students had difficulties in content. Second, the students had difficulties in organization. Third, the students had difficulties in vocabulary. Fourth, the students had difficulties in Grammar. The last, the students had difficulties in mechanics. In the other word, the researcher also found that the most dominant difficulties in writing IDEAS, Vol. 11, No. 1, June 2023 ISSN 2338-4778 (Print) ISSN 2548-4192 (Online) 547 recount text is content and language. The researcher employed questionnaire to tenth grade that consist of 24 students. The question of questionnaire consisted of ten question which is according to theory in previous chapter such as: grammatical weakness, knowledge, and understanding, less practice, and educational background. Question number one and three were investigated the causes of students’ difficulties in grammatical weakness. Question number four and five were investigated the causes of students’ difficulties in knowledge and understanding. Question number six and seven were investigated the causes of students’ difficulties in less practice. While question number eight until ten were investigated the causes of students’ difficulties in educational background. Based on the result of questionnaire that answered by students, the causes of their difficulties in writing recount text as follow: 1) Grammatical weakness. The students did not understand clearly about grammatical rules that used in recount text. 2) Knowledge and understanding, the students had difficulty in understanding recount text. 3) Less practice. The students seldom to write recount text, and some students did not like writing recount text. 4) Educational and background. The students still confused about the material of recount text which is had been taught. It was still unclear. Therefore, they were understood enough about the material of recount text The researcher also found that mostly teachers do not have a specific class for writing. So writing, speaking, listening, and reading should be focus on their teaching time. Students needs more practice as the extracurricular such as course and practices in their writing. The economic situation that can not pay the budget of the course. Teachers should have to make assignment about writing each week for students. Doni fransiskus Purba, Sahlan Tampubolon, Erika Sinambela Students’ Difficulties in English Writing at Tenth Grade in Senior High School 548 Conclusion Based on the result of writing test, which done by the researcher about the students‟ writing recount text at tenth grade SMAN 1 Selesai Kab. Langkat concluded as below: 1) The students were still difficult in writing recount text. It can be seen based on indicator of writing. They were 12 in content, 3 in organization, 4 in vocabulary, 9 in grammar, and 3 mechanics. 2) The result of questionnaire showed that the causes of students’ difficulties in writing recount text were found some aspects such as: grammatical weakness, knowledge and understanding, limited vocabulary, less practice, and educational background. Based on the data analysis, it was found that the students made some error in their recount text writing. there are four kinds of error, namely omission, addition, wrong selection, ordering. From the data that have been analyzed, the students did error in their writing such as: the first omission is the mostly common error in students’ writing recount text with the total is 5 words. The second, in the wrong selection, there are three words that students, the next in addition, there is one word and in ordering, there is one word too. It means that the students did not know to write the word in English, they always omitted the letter, wrong selection the letter, addition the letter and ordering the letter, when they wrote the text, they just applied what they always omitted, wrong selection, addition and ordering the learned without checked in dictionary. References Alisha, F., Safitri, N., Santoso, I. (2019). Students’ Difficulties in Writing Efl. 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