Does The Use of Writing Strategies Correlate to Students’ Writing Skill? A Study on Non-English Department Students

Abstract

This study aimed to reveal whether there was a relationship between the use of writing strategies and the skills of non-English students and to find out how non-English students use writing strategies in writing. The design of this study used an explanatory sequential mixed method. This study was attended by 30 non-English majoring in Indonesian language and literature education program at 6th semester students in a private university in Malang, Indonesia. The data was collected through questionnaires and interviews. The questionnaire was adapted from Mu (2005) which contains 20 statements, this uses a five-point Likert scale model that was sent online using Google Forms. The interview sessions used semi-structured model were 5 questions and conducted with 10 students, 5 students who got the highest score and 5 students who got the lowest score. The collected data from the questionnaires were analyzed using spearman correlation and descriptive statistical analysis with SPSS and reported in tabular form. The collected data from the interview were analyzed using content analysis and reported descriptively. The findings from statistical data show that writing strategies has a significant correlation with writing skills. From the results of the interviews it was concluded that students who got higher scores in writing class used all stages in writing and vice versa, for students who got low scores did not use the writing stage as a whole. Of the five strategies analyzed, it was revealed that the strategy most used by non-English students was the metacognitive strategy for writing. From the results of the interviews, those who scored high adhered to all writing methods, planned subjects for writing, and pushed themselves to successfully convey concepts through writing. Students who score low rarely use the entire writing process, limiting their ability to fully express themselves. It is hoped that this research can contribute to L2 students or teachers by providing insights about teaching or using good writing strategies. Future researchers are advised to research in a longer term with the same participation and in different and wider places to better contextualize the use of writing strategies and especially learning tasks by considering the different features of writing assignments. Keywords: Writing Strategy, Writing Skill, Non-English Students.