AN ANALYSIS OF STUDENTS’ ENGLISH COMPETENCE IN THE TOEFL STRUCTURE AND WRITTEN EXPRESSION SECTIONS

The objectives of this research were to find out students‟ English competence in the
TOEFL structure and written expression section, the highest percentage of the
students‟ mistakes in the Structure and Written Expression section and factors that
influencing the students‟ difficulties in responding to the Structure and Written
Expression section in the TOEFL. This research involved all of the 6th semester
students of the English Education Study Program of Universitas Bengkulu who had
passed all structure courses. The data were taken from a TOEFL test and an
interview. The result shows that majority of the students‟ English competence was
poor. More than half of the students (56%) were placed in poor category. The result
also reveals the most difficult topic in grammar section was redundancy. This topic
has the highest incorrect answer, amounting to 66%. There were two factors that
affected the students‟ performance in redundancy, ambiguity and the interference of
first language. In contrast, gerund and infinitives were the easiest topic in grammar
section. Simple rules and the most common expression were contributed to the
students‟ performance in gerund and infinitives. In responding to structure and
written expression section there were four factors that influenced students‟
difficulties, poor understanding of grammar, less focus, lack of practice and limited
vocabulary.
Key words: Students’ English Competence, TOEFL Structure and Written
Expression Section