A Literature Review on Factors Affecting EFL Students’ Difficulties in Thesis Writing
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.58194/jetli.v4i1.2865Keywords:
EFL students, thesis writing, linguistic difficulties, psychological factors, sociocultural barriersAbstract
This study employs a literature review method that aims to investigate the factors affecting EFL students’ difficulties in writing their undergraduate theses. Writing a thesis in English poses numerous challenges for EFL learners, as it demands strong academic writing skills, sufficient language proficiency, and an understanding of research methodology. The purpose of this research is to identify three dominant categories of influencing factors: linguistic, psychological, and sociocultural. Data were collected by analyzing ten relevant journal articles retrieved from SciSpace, Consensus, and Google Scholar using the Publish or Perish application. The results show that linguistic limitations, psychological barriers such as anxiety and lack of motivation, and sociocultural challenges like insufficient academic support significantly contribute to students' struggles. These findings are expected to assist educators in creating more effective strategies and supportive environments to help EFL students succeed in thesis writing.
References
Alyan, A. A. A. (2022). Thesis Writing Challenges Facing Palestinian EFL Master’s Students: A Qualitative Case Study. In International Journal of English Language Teaching (Vol. 10, Issue 5). https://www.eajournals.org/
Chicho, K. Z. H. (2022). An Analysis of Factors Influencing EFL Learners’ Writing Skills. Canadian Journal of Language and Literature Studies, 2(2). https://doi.org/10.53103/cjlls.v2i2.38
Ebidor, L.-L., & Ikhide, I. G. (2024). Literature Review in Scientific Research: An Overview. East African Journal of Education Studies, 7(2), 179–186. https://doi.org/10.37284/eajes.7.2.1909
Monica Lestari, D. (2020). AN ANALYSIS OF STUDENTS’ DIFFICULTIES IN WRITING UNDERGRADUATE THESIS AT ENGLISH EDUCATION PROGRAM OF MUHAMMADIYAH UNIVERSITY OF BENGKULU (Issue 1). https://fkip.ummetro.ac.id/journal/index.php/english
Muliani, R. (2020). AN ANALYSIS OF FACTORS AFFECTING STUDENTS IN THESIS WRITING IN ENGLISH STUDY PROGRAM FKIP-UIR.
Post, C., Sarala, R., Gatrell, C., & Prescott, J. E. (2020). Advancing Theory with Review Articles. In Journal of Management Studies (Vol. 57, Issue 2, pp. 351–376). Blackwell Publishing Ltd. https://doi.org/10.1111/joms.12549
Rizwan, M. S. M., & Naas, A. R. F. (2022). Factors Affecting Undergraduates’ Difficulties in Writing Thesis. International Journal of Research Publication and Reviews, 244–250. https://doi.org/10.55248/gengpi.2022.3.10.14
Rohim, A., Syah Putra, A., Abduh Almanar, M., & Education Study Program, E. (2023). STUDENTS’ DIFFICULTIES IN FINISHING A THESIS OF ENGLISH STUDY PROGRAM AT MUHAMMADIYAH UNIVERSITY OF TANGERANG. An English-Indonesian Journal for English, Education and Culture, 12(1). https://doi.org/10.31000/globish.v7i2
Santia, J., Tadris, E., & Program, S. (2022). PSYCHOLOGICAL FACTORS AFFECTING BACHELOR STUDENTS’ DIFFICULTIES IN WRITING THESIS (A Mixed-Method Research of English Students of IAIN Curup in Academic Year of 2020/2021).
Syahaq, A. M. R. (2023). AN ANALYSIS OF STUDENTS’ DIFFICULTIES IN WRITING THESES IN ENGLISH EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM OF RADEN INTAN STATE ISLAMIC UNIVERSITY.
Yuliawati, L. (2021). THE EFFECTS OF VOCABULARY AND GRAMMAR MASTERY ON STUDENTS’ WRITING SKILL. Journal of English Language Learning (JELL), 5(2), 113–118.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2025 Eldis Febriyanti

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Copyright Notice
Authors who publish in Journal of English Teaching and Linguistic Issues (JETLI) agree to the following terms:
- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0) License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgment of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgment of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work.