The particular dialect or language that a person chooses to use on any occasion is called a code 1861 Copyright © 2024 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 12, Number 2, December 2024 pp. 1861-1882 Transitivity Analysis in Narrative Writing of Grade 9 Students of Junior High School Firgiawan Setia Budi1, Istiqomah Nur Rahmawati2, Yulan Puspita Rini3 firgiawansetiabudi@gmail.com1, istiqomahnurrahmawati@radenintan.ac.id2, yulanpuspitarini@radenintan.ac.id3 1,2,3English Education, UIN Raden Intan Lampung Received: 2024-11-30 Accepted:2024-12-18 DOI: 10.2456/ideas. v12i2. 5889 Abstract This study aims to analyze narrative texts written by 9th-grade students using transitivity analysis. The subjects were selected by several teachers who believed the class was suitable for the study based on their perspectives. Out of the 32 students involved, only 14 wrote narrative texts that met the established criteria. The remaining texts included 6 recount texts, 11 descriptive texts, and 1 procedural text. This study analyzed 14 student-written narrative texts to see how they use language to tell stories. The analysis showed that students focused mostly on actions (material processes) and used fewer descriptions or thoughts (mental and relational processes). The results of this study revealed that although students could write narrative texts, there were still variations in the use of incomplete generic structures and less varied language features. This can be seen in the results of the transitivity process percentage, material processes showed a rate of 52%, mental processes (22%), verbal processes (8%), behavioral processes (5%), relational processes (12%), and existential processes (1%). These results do not indicate that students' writing follows the grammatical features that apply to narrative texts, where material and mental processes dominate. This study provides insight into students’ narrative writing skills and the use of transitivity in their writing. It provides a basis for developing more effective curriculum and instructional strategies in teaching narrative text in grade 9. The study also identified several limitations, including the limited sample size and manual analysis, which may affect the generalizability of the findings. Recommendations for further research include the use of linguistic analysis software and expanding the research sample. Keywords: Junior High School, Narrative Writing, Transitivity Analysis http://u.lipi.go.id/1457703302 mailto:firgiawansetiabudi@gmail.com mailto:istiqomahnurrahmawati@radenintan.ac.id mailto:yulanpuspitarini@radenintan.ac.id Firgiawan Setia Budi, Istiqomah Nur Rahmawati, Yulan Puspita Rini External Conflicts Found in Kenneth Grahame’s “The Wind in the Willows” Novel 1862 Introduction Writing is a vital English skill that students must master to enhance their overall language abilities. To achieve mastery, students need to develop a strong vocabulary, a solid grasp of grammar, and an understanding of effective paragraph writing rules. These skills enable students to express their opinions, thoughts, feelings, and experiences clearly (Zemach & Islam, 2006). According to David Nunan, writing is a very complex cognitive activity that requires writers to organize and organize ideas in written form simultaneously (Nurwanti, 2022). This involves managing content, format, sentence structure, vocabulary, spelling, and letter formation at the sentence level. Beyond individual sentences, writers must also be able to organize and integrate information into cohesive paragraphs and texts. Narrative writing is a unique form of text that tells a story through chronologically connected events. This type of writing is often imaginative or fictional and aims to entertain the reader. This is supported by Knapp and Watkins (2005) who state that narrative text is an important language skill for students, as it allows them to explore their imagination, develop critical thinking, share experiences, and improve their communication skills through writing. According to Djatmika & Wulandari (2013), narrative text is organized into three main components: orientation, complication, and resolution. Additionally, narrative text is characterized by specific language features, including prepositions, temporal connectives, adverbs, adverbial phrases, adverbs of time, noun phrases, and various verb tenses (past tense and past perfect tense) and also includes both direct and indirect speech (Susilawati, 2017). In narrative texts, specific grammatical aspects need to be utilized, such as action verbs, nouns, pronouns, noun phrases, time connectives, adverbs or adverbial phrases, and the past tense (Muliani et al., 2019). Knapp and Watkins (2005), state that the grammatical features of narrative text include action verbs, temporal connectives, past tense, and mental verbs, which also often incorporate metaphors, rhythm and repetition, and short phrases or single words to make the story livelier and more interesting. This text has a detailed analysis of the grammatical structures used is needed to understand how students construct narratives in their texts fully. One of the relevant analytical tools is the transitivity analysis. Transitivity analysis is a linguistic concept that deals with the relationship between actors, actions, and objects in sentences, which can provide deeper insights into how students construct meaning in their narrative writing. By looking at how students use transitivity, we can see how they create story plots, develop characters, and describe settings. This analysis also shows how students use language to create certain effects, like making the atmosphere tense or showing a character's emotions through the actions in the sentence. Transitivity, which is part of the ideational meaning, is connected to the "field." The "field" refers to the specific social processes and actions where language is used (Purwandari et al., IDEAS, Vol. 12, No. 2, December 2024 ISSN 2338-4778 (Print) ISSN 2548-4192 (Online) 1863 2022). This meaning includes the ideas and experiences being shared, showing how language works in different situations. Language reflects the activities, relationships, and cultural settings where communication happens, shaping how we understand the message. It highlights the importance of context in how we interpret and convey meaning through language. The role of transitivity analysis can be used as a tool to identify language patterns in sentences in text (Agustina & Suarnajaya, 2021). Transitivity analysis is a grammar system that shows different types of processes to describe experiences. It reflects real-life experiences as they are written in the text (Halliday & Matthiessen, 2014). The transitivity system is included in the experiential metafunction and is the overall grammatical source for interpreting ongoing events (Martin et al., 1997). This is also supported by the opinion of Geoff Thompson who states that the analysis of transitivity is a system used to describe the whole clause, not just the verb and its object (Nurwanti, 2022). Transitivity analysis is a configuration that represents processes, participants in it, and the existence of circumstances that act as helpers (Butt et al., 2012; Halliday & Matthiessen, 2014; Martin et al., 1997). The transitivity system describes different types of actions and ideas in a sentence. These include activities of doing/happening (material), thinking/feeling/seeing (mental), saying (verbal), behaving (behavioral), being/describing/having (relational), and existing (existential) (Halliday & Matthiessen, 2014). Analytical transitivity plays an important role in education, especially in improving students' writing skills. Transitivity analysis helps students in academics by teaching them to follow rules and systems when generalizing information. According to Emilia and Hamied, analytical transitivity in Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) can help students improve their writing skills (Zein et al., 2019). A transitivity system in experiential grammar helps students clearly and systematically understand how to create meanings in writing or words (Septiani & Kurniawan, 2023). This analysis also has a fairly important role in the world of education, where it can play a role as a tool to assist teachers in improving more effective teaching (Ismail, 2019)After doing a transitivity analysis, we will see a list of actions (process types), people or things involved (participant elements), and extra details like time or place (circumstance elements) used in writing or spoken words, as mentioned earlier. Teachers can use these results to assess students' writing skills. Following its function, transitivity analysis is carried out to analyze the structure of experiential meaning that appears in a clause, whether it is in the form of speech such as oral discourse or song, or writing such as text. In this study, the researchers wanted to examine the experiential meaning that is present in the Firgiawan Setia Budi, Istiqomah Nur Rahmawati, Yulan Puspita Rini External Conflicts Found in Kenneth Grahame’s “The Wind in the Willows” Novel 1864 writing of narrative texts written by ninth-grade students, such as what type of process appears dominantly in the text, the elements of participants present, and the element of circumstance that acts as additional information about the state described by verbal group or process. Many researchers have conducted studies on transitivity analysis, including its application in news reports (Fadilah & Kuswoyo, 2021; Zhao, 2022), short story (Jaelani et al., 2023), song lyrics (Sigalingging et al., 2022), oral discourse (Ali et al., 2021; Haryadi & Suardi, 2018; Mushtaq et al., 2021), there are also various genres of texts written by students, such as descriptive texts (Apendi & Mulyani, 2020; Nurwanti, 2022), recount text (Sianipar et al., 2021), or analytical exposition text (Septiani & Kurniawan, 2023). These studies discuss how various processes function and their roles in sentences, influenced by participants and circumstances. For instance, Septiani and Kurniawan (2023) discovered that the predominant processes in the writing of eleventh-grade students were material processes (45.6%) and relational processes (43.6%). In contrast, mental processes accounted for only 6.8%, verbal processes accounted for 1.94%, and existential and behavioral processes for 1.94% and 0.0%, respectively. These results suggest that students are not yet sufficiently proficient in writing analytical exposition texts and need to enhance their understanding, as mental processes should frequently appear in such texts (Septiani & Kurniawan, 2023). Apart from that, there are also several studies that examine narrative text genres, including narrative texts in textbook (Mulyanti et al., 2022), coursebook (Nugraha, 2024), narrative text written by vocational school students (Agustina & Suarnajaya, 2021) and text written by English department students (Zein et al., 2019). Many prior studies on transitivity analysis focused on professional or published texts, such as articles, political speeches, or literary works, which were frequently created by adults or professional writers. While these studies have provided useful insights into how language generates meaning in various circumstances, they rarely look at the narratives of younger students. Specifically, insufficient emphasis has been placed on student-generated texts in an EFL context, particularly narrative writing by junior high school students. This study fills that gap by studying Grade 9 students' narratives to see how they employ linguistic processes to tell stories. By focusing on an understudied population, the study sheds new light on the challenges and strengths of young EFL learners in narrative writing. While transitivity analysis is often associated with examining professional texts and literary works, its use in student writing is restricted. This study fills the gap by using transitivity analysis on narratives created by junior high school students. It illuminates how young students use language resources to generate meaning, providing useful insights for educators and curriculum designers seeking to improve students' writing skills. IDEAS, Vol. 12, No. 2, December 2024 ISSN 2338-4778 (Print) ISSN 2548-4192 (Online) 1865 The motivation for this research arose from the phenomenon observed in the use of transitivity analysis within the narrative writing of these students. This study examines how the transitivity system analyzes student writing to describe actions, events, and situations. This analysis can highlight common patterns and areas where students excel or struggle, informing curriculum development and teaching strategies. From a teaching perspective, analyzing students' narratives helps educators identify specific needs and tailor their instruction to address these areas. It also enables the development of targeted interventions to assist students in enhancing their writing skills. Despite prior studies, which mostly examined professional or adult-authored texts, this study looks into how Grade 9 EFL students develop narratives using transitivity processes. Such a focus is important since young learners' writing, especially in a foreign language context, frequently reflects their developmental stage and educational environment. This study advances our understanding of how children acquire narrative skills by assessing their use of material, mental, and relational processes, as well as identifying particular areas where instructional support may be required. Method This study employs a qualitative descriptive approach to analyze narrative texts written by 32 ninth-grade students. Descriptive research studies focus on detailing the characteristics of individuals or groups. In contrast, diagnostic research studies examine the frequency of occurrences or their association with other factors (Kothari, 2004). The subjects were purposively selected based on recommendations from several teachers, who assessed, based on their perspective, that this class has advantages over other classes in terms of student learning interest, discipline, and ease of management, especially for English teachers who teach in the class, giving the impression that the class is a class that is quite capable and can be used as a research subject. Although this approach allows the selection of participants who are relevant to the research objectives, there is a potential for bias because the selection of participants depends on the subjective assessment of the teacher. Therefore, the results of this study should be considered with caution, given the limitations in sample representation that may not fully reflect the overall student population. The qualitative descriptive method is selected to provide a detailed and comprehensive overview of the student's narrative writing skills. By offering in-depth information, descriptions can transport readers to a research location or help them visualize the research findings (Creswell, 2012). The data for this study were collected from narrative texts written by the students in a junior high school in Pesawaran. The students were asked to write narrative texts during their regular classroom activities. The texts were then Firgiawan Setia Budi, Istiqomah Nur Rahmawati, Yulan Puspita Rini External Conflicts Found in Kenneth Grahame’s “The Wind in the Willows” Novel 1866 collected and analyzed based on their generic structures and language features. The analysis was conducted in two stages. First, the texts were examined to identify students' writing's generic structures and linguistic features. In the second stage, the students' narrative texts were analyzed further using Halliday's transitivity framework. To ensure accuracy and reduce bias, the transitivity study was carried out manually using a structured, step-by-step process. First, each narrative text was divided into distinct clauses. Second, using Halliday's transitivity paradigm, each clause was assigned to one of six process types: material, mental, verbal, behavioral, relational, or existential. Third, the participants and circumstances of each clause were recognized and categorized. Finally, the frequencies of each process type were calculated and compared across all texts. The principal researcher completed this technique twice, each with a one-week delay, to guarantee consistency. Any differences were rectified by reanalyzing the sentences and comparing them to theoretical definitions. Below is an example of a step-by-step analysis in analyzing a transitivity system. Figure 1. Step-by-step analysing transitivity To verify the analysis's credibility, a second researcher with experience in systemic functional linguistics reviewed the transitivity classification. She separately examined a subset of the data, and inter-rater agreement was calculated. Disagreements were discussed until a consensus was found. Furthermore, the data were reviewed after one week to detect and correct any potential flaws or anomalies. One disadvantage of manual analysis is the possibility of subjective interpretation, especially in borderline circumstances where processes can fall into numerous categories. To address this, the researchers rigorously followed Halliday's definitions and investigated previous studies for comparable examples. Furthermore, manual analysis was supplemented with software-based cross- Identify Clause The forest was dark and scary at night Determine the Process Type (was) relational process>being/ describing Identify Participants (The forest) Carrier (dark and scary) Attribute Identify Circumstances (at night) circumstance of time Analyze the Clause Process: Relational (was) Participants: Carrier (The forest), Attribute (dark and scary) Circumstances: Time (At night) IDEAS, Vol. 12, No. 2, December 2024 ISSN 2338-4778 (Print) ISSN 2548-4192 (Online) 1867 verification methods, while some data peculiarities necessitated manual changes. This study analyzed narrative texts using linguistic analysis software (UAM Corpus Tool 6) and manual methods. The software was used to effectively handle vast amounts of data and find broad trends, such as the frequency of process types across clauses. However, many nuances in the data need manual interpretation, especially when clauses displayed unclear or mixed processes that the machine could not reliably define. By combining these methodologies, the study achieved a balance between efficiency and depth of analysis, so improving the validity and trustworthiness of the results. Below is an example of the display when data is analyzed using UAM Corpus Tool: Figure 2. Data display of transitivity analysis using UAM Corpus Tool Results Analysis of Students' Narrative Text In this section, the researchers present a list of students studied based on generic structure based on Djatmika & Wulandari (2013) who said there are three generic structure components in narrative text, including orientation, complication, and resolution. The researchers examined all students' writings in one class consisting of 32 students by identifying whether each student's writing was appropriate based on the existing narrative text structure. Table 1. Analysis of the Generic Structure of Student Writing Subjects Generic Structure Text Type Orientation Complication Resolution Student 1 - - - Descriptive Student 2  - - Recount Student 3   - Narrative Student 4  - - Recount Student 5 - - - Descriptive Student 6   - Narrative Student 7    Narrative Student 8    Narrative Firgiawan Setia Budi, Istiqomah Nur Rahmawati, Yulan Puspita Rini External Conflicts Found in Kenneth Grahame’s “The Wind in the Willows” Novel 1868 Student 9  - - Recount Student 10 - - - Descriptive Student 11   - Narrative Student 12 - - - Procedure Student 13    Narrative Student 14    Narrative Student 15    Narrative Student 16  - - Narrative Student 17 - - - Descriptive Student 18 - - - Descriptive Student 19  - - Recount Student 20    Narrative Student 21  - - Recount Student 22 - - - Descriptive Student 23  - - Narrative Student 24 - - - Descriptive Student 25 - - - Descriptive Student 26  - - Recount Student 27 - - - Descriptive Student 28   - Narrative Student 29 - - - Descriptive Student 30   - Narrative Student 31 - - - Descriptive Student 32    Narrative The figure below is a classification of student writing based on the analysis of generic structure and text type carried out. Figure 3. Number and Percentage of Students' Text Type 14; 44% 6; 19% 11; 34% 1; 3% Students' Text Type Narrative Text Recount Text Descriptive Text Procedure Text IDEAS, Vol. 12, No. 2, December 2024 ISSN 2338-4778 (Print) ISSN 2548-4192 (Online) 1869 In the table and figure above, it can be seen that not all students write according to the systematic structure of writing narrative texts, some even write non-narrative text stories. Of the 32 students, at least half of the total students, namely 14 students (44%), write stories according to the type of text requested, namely narrative text. Of the other 18 students, 6 students (19%) wrote recount text, 11 students (34%) wrote descriptive text, and 1 student (3%) wrote procedure text. From the data above, 14 students will be the focus of the research subjects related to the analysis of the transitivity of students' narrative writing. However, not all students who write narrative texts have the right generic structure. There are 14 students who write with orientation, 12 students who write with complication, and 7 students with resolution. Figure 4. Generic Structure of Students' Writing (Narrative Text) Analysis of Grammatical Features in Students' Narrative Text In this section, the researchers analyze the linguistic elements of 14 students who wrote narrative texts based on action verbs, temporal connectives, past tense, and mental verbs, also often incorporating metaphors, rhythm and repetition, and short phrases in the students' narrative texts (Knapp & Watkins, 2005). Table 2. Analysis of Language Features of Students' Writing (Narrative Text) Subject Language Feature Action Verb Temporal Connective Past Tense Mental Verb Meta phor Rhythm and Repetition Short Phrase Student 3     - -  Student 6      -  Student 7     - -  14 12 7 0 5 10 15 Generic Structure (Narrative Text) Orientation Complication Resolution Firgiawan Setia Budi, Istiqomah Nur Rahmawati, Yulan Puspita Rini External Conflicts Found in Kenneth Grahame’s “The Wind in the Willows” Novel 1870 Student 8      -  Student 11     - -  Student 13     - -  Student 14     -   Student 15     - -  Student 16    - - -  Student 20     - -  Student 23  -  - - -  Student 28  -    -  Student 30    - - -  Student 32     - -  Total 14 12 14 11 3 1 14 Based on the table above, most of the students who wrote narrative text have applied the language features in narrative texts consisting of important features of action verbs, temporal connectives, past tense, and mental verbs, as well as supporting features that make the story livelier and more interesting, namely metaphors, rhythm and repetition and short phrases as conveyed by Knapp & Watkins (2005). For important features in narrative texts such as action verbs, 14 students appeared, 12 students presented temporal connectives, 14 for past tenses, and 11 for mental verbs. While supporting features that make narrative texts more entertaining such as metaphors, 3 students used them, rhythm and repetition, 1 student, and 14 students used short phrases. Transitivity Analysis of Students' Narrative Writing Table 3. Distribution of Transitivity Processes Students’ Narrative Text Subjects Type of Process Material Mental Verbal Behavioral Relational Existential Student 3 3 1 - 2 1 - Student 6 11 1 - - 2 - Student 7 9 5 2 1 3 - Student 8 9 2 - 1 3 - Student 11 4 2 - 2 1 - Student 13 2 3 4 1 - - Student 14 10 8 5 - 1 - Student 15 7 2 - - - - Student 16 3 - - - 2 - Student 20 4 5 - - 1 1 IDEAS, Vol. 12, No. 2, December 2024 ISSN 2338-4778 (Print) ISSN 2548-4192 (Online) 1871 Student 23 4 - - 1 - - Student 28 2 2 - - 1 - Student 30 3 - - - 1 - Student 32 9 3 2 - 3 - Total 80 34 13 8 19 1 The table above shows transitivity processes in sixteen student writings that fall into the narrative text category. It can be seen from the total distribution of the process, that all types of transitivity processes appear in student texts, starting from material there are 80 times, mental appears 34 times, verbal appears 13 times, behavioral appears 8 times, relational appears 19 times, and existential appears 1 time. Table 4. Transitivity Process Used in Students' Narrative Text Process Frequency of Appearances Percentage (%) Material 80 52% Mental 34 22% Verbal 13 8% Behavioral 8 5% Relational 19 12% Existential 1 1% Total 155 100% Figure 5. Transitivity Process Used in Students' Narrative Text 80; 52% 34; 22% 13; 8% 8; 5% 19; 12% 1; 1% Transitivity Process Material Mental Verbal Behavioural Relational Existential Firgiawan Setia Budi, Istiqomah Nur Rahmawati, Yulan Puspita Rini External Conflicts Found in Kenneth Grahame’s “The Wind in the Willows” Novel 1872 Table 4 and figure 3 show the percentage of each process analyzed in all student narrative texts, material process (52%), mental process (22%), verbal process (8%), behavioral process (5%), relational process (12%), and existential process (1%). The findings of this study indicate that material processes dominate in narratives written by grade 9 students. This may be related to several aspects of writing skills and the teaching methods applied. The dominance of material processes may reflect students' focus on physical actions and concrete events in their stories, which is typical of their writing developmental stage. The data demonstrated that some students did not adhere to the narrative form, with a few writing texts that lacked a clear orientation, complication, or resolution. This could be due to a lack of exposure to story styles or insufficient practice in developing complicated narratives. Furthermore, some students' limited usage of mental and relational processes may suggest a lack of experience articulating abstract ideas or character relationships in English. Future teaching strategies should fill these gaps by including focused exercises that help students build their capacity to use various process types in their narratives. In addition, teaching methods that emphasize the use of action verbs and event descriptions may also contribute to this result. By understanding these relationships, teachers can be more effective in designing teaching strategies that help students develop different types of processes in their writing, such as mental and verbal processes, to create richer and more diverse narratives. Below, the researchers present examples of clauses from student narrative texts that appear in each process. 1) Material Process There are at least 80 material process clauses that appear in the analyzed data. Process material represents doing (action) and happening. Some components appear in the process material, namely actor, process (material), and goal. In this study, process material appears in each student's writing as presented in Table 3. Below is an example of a clause that shows process material. Data 1. Example Clause of Material Process And I continued reading It (the book) Actor Pr. Material Goal As can be seen in data 1 above, the process material is used to explain what the actor does, namely "continued read", and someone who performs the Action is called the actor, namely "I". And "the book" acts as the goal carried out by the actor. IDEAS, Vol. 12, No. 2, December 2024 ISSN 2338-4778 (Print) ISSN 2548-4192 (Online) 1873 2) Mental Process A mental process is something that represents a mental state, be it perception, thinking, or feeling. The mental process consists of senser, mental process (perceptive, cognitive, and affective), and phenomenon. The data reveal 34 instances of mental processes. Below is a clause that states the mental process: Data 2. Example Clause of Mental Process He didn't know what to do Senser Pr. Mental (cognitive) Phenomenon Data 2 above shows that the mental process of “didn’t know” refers to the cognitive type of the senser “he” towards a certain situation or in this process it is called the phenomenon of “what to do”. 3) Verbal Process A verbal process is a process that shows saying or reporting something. Verbal process consists of sayer, process (verbal), and receiver, and there is one more optional explanation in the verbal process, namely verbiage which acts as a noun that expresses the verbal process. From the existing analysis data, there are 13 clauses used in the analyzed student writing. Below is one of the clauses that states the verbal process that appears in the student's writing: Data 3. Example Clause of Verbal Process The fox Boasted How clever she was Sayer Pr. Verbal Verbiage As can be seen in the data above, the verbal process used is “boasted”. “The fox” acts as the sawyer and “how clever she was” refers to the verbiage or explanation of the verbal process. Meanwhile, the receiver is not in the clause because there is no object being addressed. 4) Behavioral Process The behavioral process is a process that shows physical and psychological activities. This is a process that refers to mental process and material process. The behavioral process consists of behaver as the doer of participant, process (behavioral) and other optional participants such as range, phenomenon, or circumstantial. There are 8 behavioral processes in the analyzed writing. The following is an example of a clause from a behavioral process: Firgiawan Setia Budi, Istiqomah Nur Rahmawati, Yulan Puspita Rini External Conflicts Found in Kenneth Grahame’s “The Wind in the Willows” Novel 1874 Data 4. Example Clause of Behavioural Process Astronaut Alex looked out the window Behaver Pr. Behavioral Circ. Place From data 4, we can see that the behavioral process here is “looked”. It indicates that the behaver “astronaut Alex” expresses the behavior “looked” to something that is targeted, namely “out the window” as the circumstance place. 5) Relational Process A relational process is a process that expresses being and having. In relational process, it is divided into 2 types, namely attributive (participant: carrier and attribute) and identifying (participant: token and value), where each relational process can be intensive, possessive, and circumstantial. In this study, the researchers analyzed 19 clauses contained in student writing. It can be seen in the clause below: Data 5. Example Clause of Relational Process Cat and rabbit are close friends Carrier Relational: attributive: Intensive Attribute It can be seen from the clause above, that the relational process of the data above is "are" which states the explanation of the participant: carrier “Rooster and dog” has a "close friends" attribute relationship. 6) Existential Process As the name implies, the existential process is something that states the existence of something or a verbal group whose meaning states exist. An existential process includes a process (existential) and existent which is a participant that shows exist. In this study, there are only 1 clause that represent the existential process. This can be seen from the example below: Data 6. Example Clause of Existential Process There lived a girl named Nisa Pr. Existential Existent The data above shows that the existential process of the clause above is “lived” which is a verbal group that states that “a girl named Nisa” exists. In this study, researchers analyze the reasons why some students fail to follow the narrative structure or include other processes such as minimal mental and relational processes, thus lacking in creating rich and diverse narratives. Some factors that may contribute to this include students' limited understanding of IDEAS, Vol. 12, No. 2, December 2024 ISSN 2338-4778 (Print) ISSN 2548-4192 (Online) 1875 narrative elements, lack of experience in narrative writing, or ineffective teaching methods in teaching these concepts. In addition, individual factors such as motivation, interest, and language ability may also affect students' ability to construct complete and rich narratives. By understanding these factors, we can design more appropriate interventions to help students develop their narrative writing skills. The findings of this study indicate that material processes dominate in the narratives written by grade 9 students. This reflects the broader challenges in teaching narrative writing to EFL learners. The biggest challenge for students is their limited English vocabulary. In addition, students also assume that writing is difficult because they have to pay attention to various factors when they write, starting from story ideas, concepts, vocabulary, and grammar (Falihah et al., 2022). Therefore, students tend to be more comfortable using concrete and easy-to- understand action verbs, while other processes such as mental, verbal, or relational require a deeper understanding of the nuances of language and vocabulary that students possess. In addition, teaching methods that emphasize grammar and sentence structure rather than idea development and creativity can also contribute to the dominance of material processes. Teachers may need to adopt a more holistic approach in teaching narrative writing, which focuses not only on the technical aspects of language but also on the development of critical and imaginative thinking skills. By understanding these challenges, educators can design more effective teaching strategies to help EFL students develop richer and more diverse narrative writing skills. This includes providing more varied practice in using different types of linguistic processes and encouraging students to explore more complex ideas and perspectives in their writing. Discussion This study aims to analyze narrative texts written by 9th-grade students. The subjects were selected by several teachers who considered the class capable of being studied. Of the 32 students who participated, only 14 students wrote narrative texts according to the established criteria. The rest consisted of 6 recount texts, 11 descriptive texts, and 1 procedure text. This study then focused on the transitivity analysis of the 14 narrative texts. The findings of this study indicate that material processes dominate the narratives of 9th-grade students, which reflects their ability to describe physical actions and concrete events. However, the weakness is that students do not involve mental processes as stated by Knapp and Watkins who said that mental verbs also Firgiawan Setia Budi, Istiqomah Nur Rahmawati, Yulan Puspita Rini External Conflicts Found in Kenneth Grahame’s “The Wind in the Willows” Novel 1876 dominate their emergence in the narrating genre. This weakness can hinder narrating because rich and deep narratives require a deeper exploration of characters and relationships between characters. Without adequate use of mental processes and other supporting processes such as verbal, relational, behavioral, and existential, the story becomes less emotional or reflective, thus reducing the appeal and depth of the narrative. Cultural influences may have a considerable impact on the narrative styles of students. In Indonesian culture, stories frequently prioritize actions and events above internal thoughts or feelings, which may explain the significant role of material processes in students' narratives. Furthermore, students' exposure to traditional folktales or stories in their first language may favor action-driven narratives, reducing their capacity to successfully integrate mental and relational processes. Future studies could investigate this cultural factor by comparing narratives generated by students with diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds. In this analysis, the researchers used Halliday's transitivity theory to identify and categorize processes, participants, and circumstances in students' narrative texts. The results of the analysis show that most narrative texts written by students contain various types of processes, ranging from material, mental, verbal, behavioral, relational and existential. It can be seen in table 3, that the frequency of use of the process in students' writing is material process, where 14 students use material processes in their narrative stories. Then in second place is mental process, where 11 students include the mental process in their stories. The third is the relational process, which 11 students use in their stories. In addition, 6 students include behavioral processes, 3 use verbal processes, and 2 present existential processes in narrative stories. And for the percentage of the total occurrence of each process from all students, that material process (52%), mental process (22%), verbal process (8%), behavioral process (5%), relational process (12%) and existential process (1%). According to Emilia (2011), the existing processes have different functions in genre-based texts (Septiani & Kurniawan, 2023). In this study, it can be seen that material processes dominate in students' narrative texts, showing physical actions taken by characters in the story. Followed by mental processes that describe the thoughts, feelings, or perceptions of characters. Gerot & Wignell (1994) said that material processes are the dominant processes that appear in narrative texts (Fajriah & Cahyani, 2019). This process shows students' strengths in describing actions. This is further strengthened by Knapp & Watkins (2005) who said that the sequence of action verbs (material processes) is the main one used in representing the story. However, he also said that mental verbs (mental processes) have the same role as material processes in helping to describe the thoughts, feelings, and perceptions of characters. This gives depth and complexity to the story, allowing readers to understand the character's motivations and emotions. By using mental IDEAS, Vol. 12, No. 2, December 2024 ISSN 2338-4778 (Print) ISSN 2548-4192 (Online) 1877 verbs, writers can show how characters respond to certain situations, which makes the story more interesting and realistic. The minimal utilization of mental and relational processes in students' narratives indicates a struggle in developing depth and emotional engagement in their experiences. Mental processes that expose characters' thoughts and feelings are critical for eliciting empathy and connecting with readers. Similarly, relational processes create relationships and traits, which enrich the narrative with descriptive aspects. Without these processes, stories may lack complexity and fail to reflect the nuances of character development. To solve this issue, writing curriculum should include explicit training and practice integrating mental and relational processes into storytelling. This study has several limitations that need to be acknowledged. One major limitation is the use of purposive sampling method, which relies on teacher recommendations for participant selection. This may lead to bias as the selection of participants is based on the subjective judgment of teachers. In addition, the manually conducted transitivity analysis may be prone to misinterpretation and inconsistency. To mitigate these limitations in future research, it is recommended to use a more random and representative sampling method to ensure that the selected sample reflects the student population as a whole. In addition, the use of more sophisticated linguistic analysis software may help improve the accuracy and consistency of the transitivity analysis. Thus, the results of the study will be more reliable and provide a more comprehensive picture of the use of transitivity in students' narrative writing. Pedagogical Implication From this research, there are several pedagogical implications, especially in improving students' writing skills and developing learning, that can be carried out by teachers so that teaching and learning activities are more effective. 1) Improving Understanding of Text Structure The results of the study showed that only 14 out of 32 students were able to write the requested narrative text, and among the 16 students who wrote the narrative text, only 8 students were able to write narrative text according to the existing structure. This indicates the need to improve students' understanding of the generic structure of narrative text. Teachers can design learning activities that focus more on the introduction and practice of narrative text structures, such as orientation, complication, and resolution. 2) Appropriate Use of Language Features This study also revealed that some students still have difficulty in using appropriate language features in narrative texts. Teachers can provide more Firgiawan Setia Budi, Istiqomah Nur Rahmawati, Yulan Puspita Rini External Conflicts Found in Kenneth Grahame’s “The Wind in the Willows” Novel 1878 specific exercises on the use of material, mental, and relational processes in narrative texts, as well as how to integrate circumstantial place and time to provide better context. 3) Differentiation Approach The differentiation approach is an effort to adjust the learning process in the classroom to meet the learning needs of each individual related to interests, learning profiles, and student readiness in order to achieve improved learning outcomes (Herwina, 2021). Given the variation in students’ abilities in writing narrative texts, teachers can apply different learning approaches according to the needs of each student. For example, students who are already proficient can be given more challenging tasks, while students who are still struggling can be given additional guidance and simpler exercises. 4) Using Transitivity Analysis in Learning Transitivity analysis can be used as a tool to help students understand and identify different types of processes in many kinds of texts. Teachers can teach this concept explicitly and provide concrete examples from the texts that have been analyzed. For example, in this study, the language features of narrative text according to Knapp & Watkins (2005) are that action verbs and mental verbs predominate in this text, so material processes (action verbs) and mental processes (mental verbs) must often appear in the types of narrative texts created by students. 5) Writing Skills Development The results of this study can be used to design a more comprehensive writing skills development program. Teachers can conduct writing workshops, peer review sessions, and provide constructive feedback to help students improve their writing skills. By applying these pedagogical implications, it is hoped that students can better understand and master writing narrative texts, as well as improve their overall writing skills.Future research can expand the analysis by exploring other text genres, such as descriptive or recount texts. Analyzing descriptive texts can provide insight into students’ ability to describe objects, places, and settings in detail, which is essential for developing their descriptive skills. By understanding how students use language to create vivid images, we can identify strengths and weaknesses in their descriptive skills. In addition, analyzing recount texts, which focus on retelling events chronologically, can complement these findings by providing insight into students’ ability to organize information and construct a coherent narrative. Recount texts emphasize the use of time markers and the sequence of events, which are essential for narrative skills. By comparing the use of transitivity processes in different text genres, we can gain a more comprehensive understanding of students’ linguistic IDEAS, Vol. 12, No. 2, December 2024 ISSN 2338-4778 (Print) ISSN 2548-4192 (Online) 1879 abilities and the challenges they face in different writing contexts. This research will help in designing more effective and contextual teaching strategies, which can improve students’ overall writing skills and also their understanding. Conclusion The results of this study revealed that there are still many students who do not understand the types and purposes of the types of texts requested, so that out of 32 students in the class, only 14 students wrote narrative texts. Among them, not all students wrote according to the complete structure, which consists of orientation, complication, and resolution. This indicates that there is a need for further understanding related to the generic structure that applies to each text genre. This study also found that the material process is the most dominant, followed by mental and relational processes. The pedagogical implications of this study include the need to improve students' understanding of narrative text structures, the use of appropriate language features, and different learning approaches according to each student's needs. In addition, transitivity analysis can be used as a tool to help students understand and identify different types of processes in narrative texts, which can ultimately improve their writing skills. Thus, this study provides valuable insights into students' abilities in writing narrative texts and the use of transitivity in their writing, as well as providing a basis for developing more effective curriculum and teaching strategies in teaching narrative texts in grade 9. This study has several limitations. First, the sample used is limited to one class in one school, so the results may not be generalized to all 9th-grade students. Second, the transitivity analysis was conducted manually, which may be susceptible to researcher subjectivity. Third, this study only focuses on narrative texts, so it does not cover other types of texts that may also be relevant to analyze. Several suggestions may be useful for teachers and other researchers in the future. For teachers, first, the results of this study can be used as a basis for developing a curriculum that focuses more on teaching narrative text structure and the use of appropriate language features. Teachers can design more interactive and interesting learning activities to improve students' understanding of narrative texts. Second, teachers can use transitivity analysis as a tool for analyzing students' writing results. This can help teachers understand how texts are constructed and how meaning is conveyed through the use of different types of processes (material, mental, verbal, relational, behavioral, and existential), participants, and circumstances. For further research, it is suggested that further research be conducted with a larger sample and cover several schools to obtain more Firgiawan Setia Budi, Istiqomah Nur Rahmawati, Yulan Puspita Rini External Conflicts Found in Kenneth Grahame’s “The Wind in the Willows” Novel 1880 representative results. In addition, the study can be expanded to cover other types of texts such as descriptive, recount, and procedural texts. Then, it is suggested that linguistic analysis software such as UAM Corpus Tool or NVivo be used to improve the accuracy and efficiency of transitivity analysis. The use of this technology can help reduce subjectivity and increase the validity of research results. References Agustina, M., & Suarnajaya, W. (2021). Transitivity Analysis of EFL Students’ Narrative Text in Vocational High School. Jurnal Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris Undiksha, 9(3), 298. Https://Doi.Org/10.23887/Jpbi.V9i3.38314 Ali, I., Mukhtar, A., Mansoor, A., & Butt, M. (2021). 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