Exploring EFL students’ critical thinking in writing analytical exposition text: an SFG-based analysis

Abstract

This study was conducted to explore students’ critical thinking skills in writing analytical exposition text. The aim of this study is to describe the element of critical thinking reflected in students writing analytical exposition text. The research design used content analysis case study. The data were obtained from five students’ text in Class XI. The instruments used in this research were the students’ writing artifacts which main instrument. The data were analyzed with transitivity system of systemic functional grammar and critical thinking indicators from Watson Glaser II (2010). The study found that: First, students’ ability in writing the argument is still weak and irrelevant with the topic and thesis. Second, the students’ texts are not in line with the language feature of analytical exposition text that is relational process. Based on the results is teacher can more concern to help students in producing a good text by using critical thinking.