Exploring Critical Thinking and Writing Challenges in EFL Students’ Argumentative Essays
Abstract
This study investigates the critical thinking elements and challenges encountered by EFL university students in writing argumentative essays. Guided by Cottrell’s (2005) framework consisting of writer’s position, reasons, evidence, counterarguments, and conclusion. This qualitative content analysis examined students’ argumentative essays alongside semi-structured interviews. The participants were second-year English education students at a private university in, Serang-West Java, Indonesia. Findings reveal that while students demonstrated certain elements of critical thinking, such as stating positions and providing basic reasons, they often struggled with integrating strong evidence, addressing counterarguments, and maintaining coherence. Linguistic limitations, restricted vocabulary, and lack of argumentative strategies emerged as the main challenges. The study highlights the pedagogical need for explicit instruction in critical thinking and argumentative writing, offering insights for EFL instructors to design more effective practices.
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