INVESTIGATING AMBIGUITY IN EFL STUDENT WRITING
Rio Giovano Setiawan
Abstract
Various interpretations are the indication that ambiguity happen in communication process. At time EFL students’ writing indicating various interpretations, it is possible for the reader to misinterpret the meaning of EFL student writing. This current study focus on investigating ambiguity types in EFL student writing. In order to achieve the goal, 66 English Teacher Education Program students of Satya Wacana Christian University were involved in this study. The participants' writing assignments were copied and analyzed using Norton's (1975) Ambiguity Classification. The data obtained further being classified in to Scopes of Ambiguity proposed by Sennet (2011) and described in qualitative. The findings revealed that EFL students tend to make ambiguous statement especially in uncertainty as the most ambiguity types. Based on the results of this study, teachers are recommended to emphasize students with more intensive writing assignment together with peer feedback to measure their writing understanding. Further implication of this study lies on finding the method to teach ambiguity to EFL learner and reduce ambiguity especially in EFL context.
