Cognitive Problems of EFL Students in Writing Argumentative Essay

Abstract

In the English Teacher Training and Education Study Program at the University of Islam Malang (UNISMA), every student must have and master writing skills. One of the writing skills that students must have is writing paragraphs and essays in English well and correctly. In the latest research according to Suhartoyo et al. (2020) it was revealed that all student participants agreed that argumentative essays were a problem because they discussed various components that had to be discussed. The problems vary from introduction, statement, development, contradiction/rebuttal, conclusion, organization, grammar, vocabulary use, and mechanics. Qualitative descriptive methods were used in this research. This research uses a qualitative case study approach, to examine writing errors made by 4th semester English students, and this research was conducted at University of Islam Malang. There were 5 participants who were randomly selected from 4th-semester students majoring in English education and asked to be interviewed sequentially. The analysis results show that they give different types of answers. They expressed that in writing argumentative essays, opposing points of view, structure, and mechanics were challenging because they were not used to writing argumentative essays so they needed to get used to it and learn more about the subject matter of the essay they were going to write. Keywords: Cognitive Problems, Argumentative Essay.