An Analysis of Cognitive Processes in EFL Writings by Two Grade Eight Indonesian Student Writers

This research is about cognitive proceses in EFL writings by two grade VIII students of a state junior high school in Kupang, Indonesia. Its purposes are to find out: 1) cognitive processes they use in their EFL writings; and, 2) who uses those cognitive processes more completely. The data analysed were two pieces of EFL writing by the students who took part in the researchers’ study on the teaching and learning of EFL writing in 2014. The whole writing activities took place in their classroom for 45 minutes in November 2014. In writing, they were allowed to use dictionaries and discuss their writings with their peers and/or teachers. The data were analyzed based on Odell’s theory (1977) on writing measurement. It is found that both student writers use such cognitive processes as focus, contrast, classification, change, pysical context, and sequence. Yet, Text 2 by Ina is slightly more complete than Text 1 by Reky. In conclusion, both students are potentially good EFL student writers and it is their teachers’ main task to ensure that the students keep on writing in EFL and that their teachers actively help them improve not only their use of such cognitive processes but also EFL writing components like sentence/paragraph structure and mechanics.

 

Keywords: EFL writing, cognitive processes, analysis, grade VIII students, Indonesia.