UNVEILING GRAMMATICAL AND UNGRAMMATICAL CLAUSES IN ENGLISH WRITING PROFICIENCY TEST SIMULATIONS AMONG INDONESIAN SCHOLARSHIP AWARDEES

Abstract

Indonesian learners of English generated ungrammaticalities in International English Language Testing System (IELTS) writing simulations. Deciphering the scores based on the test’s official descriptors is also intricate. These two problems hinder self-evaluations and improvements. Hence, this study examined grammatical and ungrammatical clauses based on subject-verb (S + V) structures in IELTS writing performances completed by Indonesia’s Lembaga Pengelola Dana Pendidikan (LPDP) Affirmation Scholarship awardees during test simulations and the ratios of these two types of clauses according to the simulation score variation. To do so, we did archival research by obtaining data from teachers’ documents. Initially, a qualitative method was employed to identify the clauses as either grammatical or ungrammatical. This was followed by a quantitative method to discover the clauses’ numbers, including their proportions via an Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) test. The results showed that the grammatical clauses exhibit diverse structures, influenced by the test requirements and participants’ needs to express their ideas. Conversely, the ungrammatical clauses stem from the writers’ limited English proficiency and test pressures. The grammatical clauses outnumber the ungrammatical ones by approximately threefold. The lower proportions of ungrammatical clauses correlate with the lower scores. However, the higher proportions of grammatical clauses do not necessarily equate to the higher scores. The statistical correlation between the clause proportions and score variation is confirmed. This study ultimately enhances learning, evaluation, and improvement of the test skill, as well as understanding the descriptors and aiding the score prediction for learners and educators.