Exploring Students’ Use of Subject Noun Phrases and Subject

Pronouns of their Thesis Writing Majoring in English Language at

Universities in Ternate of North Maluku

Nurprihatina Hasan

and Sutaryo

English Letters Study Program, Faculty of Culture Science, Universitas Khairun, Ternate, Indonesia;

English Language Education Study Program, Faculty of Teacher Training and Education, Universitas Khairun, Ternate,

Indonesia

Keywords: Subject noun phrases, Subject pronouns, Qualitative research, Content analysis.

Abstract: One of the main characteristics of academic writing in English is the language used in texts which is more

complex than in spoken language. This can be seen from the use of noun phrases in an academic text which

is denser than in a spoken one. This article is part of the research which is to explore the students’ use of

subject noun phrases and their pronouns in sentences of their thesis writing. This qualitative research used

documents in the form of the ‘Background’ section of ‘Chapter I Introduction’ of ten thesis from the

students who graduated in 2018 at English Letters Study Program of Universitas Khairun to collect data.

The data collected were analyzed using content analysis. Findings from the data analysis were discussed.

1 INTRODUCTION

Scientific writing as part of the tasks that must be

carried out by students in academic life at a

university is a productive skill that must be mastered

by students to express their ideas in written form.

Tarigan (1987: 7) said that writing is one of the

language skills used for direct communication. In

addition, Rimes (1983: 76) states: "Writing is a skill

in which we express ideas, feelings, and thoughts

arranged in words, sentences and paragraphs using

eyes, brain, and hand". Students can communicate

ideas and opinions through written forms such as

communication through various forms such as

letters, messages, or invitations. In the academic

field, communication of ideas in the form of written

works such as summaries, scientific works such as

research proposals, and student research reports such

as theses and dissertations are commonplace for

students. It can be concluded that writing scientific

papers is related to a process where the final product

of writing is not produced in a short time or in an

instant manner (immediately), but through a long

stage. First, the students must think about the topic,

do a mapping to understand the topic while looking

for various information related to the topic.

Furthermore, whatever type of scientific writing to

be written, various ideas related to the topic are

written in words and sentences arranged in a number

of paragraphs to produce writing according to the

rules of good scientific writing.

Various forms of scientific papers such as books,

reports, results of translations, essays, conference or

seminar papers, scientific journals, research

proposals, theses, dissertations, and abstracts are

writings that are made to fulfill a task requirement at

a college or university. Scientific papers are also

used for various publications that are read by

teachers or lecturers, or which are presented at

conferences or seminars. "Academic writing could

include any writing assignment given in academic

settings" (Student Learning Centre Flinders

University, 2017).

The life of students is always dealing with

activities in writing scientific papers. It is a routine

activity carried out by students in fulfilling the

duties of lecturers and researchers in fulfilling their

academic obligations. Each task in the form of

scientific papers mentioned above must fulfill the

elements or characteristics as a scientific writing.

Good scientific papers must have a number of

characteristics such as aspects of formality,

160

Hasan, N. and Sutaryo, .

Exploring Students’ Use of Subject Noun Phrases and Subject Pronouns of their Thesis Writing Majoring in English Study Program at Universities in Ternate of North Maluku.

DOI: 10.5220/0008898701600167

In Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Teaching and Learning (ICTL 2018), pages 160-167

ISBN: 978-989-758-439-8

accuracy, objectivity, explicitness (explicitness),

complexity, and other scientific rules. The

complexity of languages in scientific papers,

especially those in English, can be seen from the use

of noun phrases, especially those that function as the

subject or subject matter of the sentence.

For students who specialize in English Language

and Literature, each of these documents must be

written in English. This is a challenge because

English rules are very different from Indonesian,

which is both their mother tongue and their official

language. That is why students must strive aside

from having to master the structure of English

sentences, word choices and paragraphs in English,

they must also know and be able to apply the

principles of writing scientific papers in good

English. Various obstacles are often faced by

students in writing scientific papers in English

because English is a foreign language that is only

used formally when they are in school or university.

Based on the problems stated above and

considering the importance of writing scientific

papers for students when they are dealing with final

assignments such as thesis writing, the researcher is

interested in conducting research with the title: '

Exploring Students’ Use of Subject Noun Phrases

and Subject Pronouns of their Thesis Writing

Majoring in English Study Program at Universities

in Ternate of North Maluku'.

The objectives of this study are: First, to identify

aspects that are characteristic of the complexity of

English, especially the use of subject noun phrases,

subject pronouns in students' English theses. Second,

to investigate the obstacles faced by students in the

use of subject noun phrases, subject pronouns in

their English language thesis.

2 LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Definition of Scientific Writing

Some experts define the term of scientific writing. In

English, scientific papers are often associated with

the term of academic writing or scientific paper. The

Indonesian Institute of Sciences, often abbreviated

as LIPI (2012) defines scientific papers as the

writing of R & D results and / or reviews, reviews,

reviews, and systematic thinking as outlined by

individuals or groups that fulfill scientific rules.

Meanwhile, academic writing is defined as "any

writing done to fulfill a requirement of a college or

university, used for publications that are read by

teachers and researches or presented at the

conference" (Flinders University Student Learning

Center, 2017). In other words, academic writing is

intended as "any writing assignment given in an

academic setting".

From some of these definitions, it can be

concluded that scientific papers are written results of

in-depth studies conducted either individually or in

groups in the academic environment and follow

scientific principles. In short, it can be said that

scientific papers contain at least four important

elements, namely the results of R & D or study, the

perpetrators of either individuals or groups,

scientific rules, and in the academic environment. It

should be underlined that in the academic

environment such as in universities, scientific papers

are not only made by lecturers and researchers, but

also commonly done by students in various forms.

Elbows in Murray and Moore (2006: 22) argues that

all people involved in the academic world are

optimistic that they can write well. But there is

another problem that is important for people to write

is that they cannot avoid the writing process itself.

Based on these opinions, it is important for those

who are associated with writing scientific papers to

know various forms of scientific writing as well as

to understand and be able to apply scientific rules in

scientific papers.

2.2 Various Forms of Scientific Writing

There are various forms or genres of scientific

writing. According to the Student Learning Center,

Flinders University (2017) scientific writing

includes scientific papers, namely books, reports in

the form of books, translations, essays, research

papers and articles, conference papers, scientific

journals, thesis, dissertations, and abstracts.

Furthermore, LIPI (2012) mentions various forms of

scientific papers such as scientific books, scientific

magazines / journals, and proceedings.

Of the various forms of scientific writing, there

are several forms of scientific writing that are

usually made by students when studying in a

college, namely translations, essays, papers and

research articles, conference papers, scientific

journals, theses, theses, dissertations, and abstract.

2.3 Scientific Writing Rules

There are several scientific rules that must be

fulfilled in every scientific paper. LIPI (2012)

defines scientific rules as a standard rule and

generally applies relating to science. Furthermore,

LIPI (2012) proposes generally accepted scientific

Exploring Students’ Use of Subject Noun Phrases and Subject Pronouns of their Thesis Writing Majoring in English Study Program at

Universities in Ternate of North Maluku

161

rules in scientific papers, namely logical

(sequential), objective, systematic (following the

rules of a systematic mindset), reliable (tested and

valid), design (planned and have a design),

accumulative (a collection of various sources

recognized for its truth). In terms of the language

used in scientific papers, Gillett (2017) underlines a

number of characteristics of English scientific

papers, namely: ‘formal, precise, objective, explicit,

accurate, hedging, responsible, and complex.

Underlining the opinions of Halliday (1989), Gillett

(2017) asserts that 'Formality' means that scientific

writing avoids the use of: unofficial or colloquial

expressions such as imprecise words namely stuff, a

lot of, thing, sort of, big, nice, like; abbreviated

words like can, don't, don't, don't, etc; and the form

of a double verb like put off, bring up.

Meanwhile, 'precision' means using exact or

specific information. For example, not writing "a lot

of people" but "50 million people". 'Objectivity'

means that what is emphasized is the information or

argument that you want to convey not you. For this

reason, the use of words ‘I, me, myself, you should

be avoided in English scientific research. For

example, not "In my opinion, this is a very

interesting study", but "This is a very interesting

study." Another example, not "You can easily forget

how different life was 50 years ago.", But "It was

easy to forget how difficult life was 50 years ago."

Furthermore, 'explicitness' means there is a

connection between one idea and another which is

characterized by the use of signpost words (signs)

both in sentences and paragraphs, for example,

however, similarly, in addition, because, for

example. "Explicitness" is also related to the need to

write sources that become references in scientific

papers, for example "McGreil (1977: 363-408) has

shown that ...", and not "Researchers have shown

that ...

'Accurate' is related to the accuracy of using words

in scientific papers. For example when using the

words "money", "cash", "currency", "capital" or

"funds" in accordance with the right context.

'Accurate' is also related to the correct spelling of a

written word.

"Hedging" is related to caution in expressing ideas

through the use of cautious language or vague

language. For example, the use of words "seem,

believe, may, often, definite, and definitely".

Finally, 'responsibility' relates to claims made in

scientific papers. That is, if an author claims a

statement then the person concerned must provide

evidence and justification.

From these two opinions, there is a link between

scientific rules proposed by LIPI (2012) and Gillett

(2017). For example, the logical term (LIPI, 2012) is

in line with the meaning contained in the term

'explicitness' (Gillett, 2017; objective (LIPI, 2012) in

line with 'precision' (Gillett, 2017); reliable (LIPI,

2012) in line with 'responsibility' (Gillett, 2017) and

accumulative is also in line with the meaning of the

term 'explicitness'.

'Complexity' is related to the fact that written

language is more complex than spoken language.

'Complexity' in written language in English includes,

among others, in sentence arrangement, more

commonly used noun phrases, subordinate clauses,

complement clauses with that / to, long series of

prepositional phrases, nominalization, attributive

adjectives, and adjective groups as complements.

The noun phrase as the subject consists of various

compositions as outlined in the following examples

of sentences:

a). Problems related to the concept of a delinquent

subculture.

b.) If a student of British politics demanded to guide

his research, the compiler would have little difficulty

about the first and most significant maxim in the

creed.

c). Nicolson's account is far too discreet, and

obscures some of the most important features of the

crisis.

d). The three main works are all rather slight when

they come to the complexities of the Liberal attitude

during the crisis.

e). The first step towards understanding the crisis of

1931 is to distinguish between different types of

coalition government.

Noun phrase in sentence a). certain problems

associated with a delinquent subculture consist of a

combination of adjectives, nouns, adjectives derived

from passive verbs, prepositions, articles, nouns,

prepositions, articles, adjectives and nouns with the

core nouns 'problems'. This includes a relatively

long form of the subject noun phrase.

The noun phrase of the subject in sentence b). a

student of British politics, derived from a

combination of articles, noun words, prepositions,

adjectives, and nouns with the core nominal word

'student'. Meanwhile, sentence noun phrases c).

Nicolson's account is a form of a personal noun that

functions as an adjective and noun word 'account'. In

section d). The three main works, this noun phrase is

a form of the word article, adjectives for numbers,

adjectives, and nouns with the core noun ina works'.

Finally, the noun phrase in the sentence e). The first

step towards understanding the crisis of 1931 is a

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combination of articles, adjectives in the form of

ordinal numbers, prepositions, gerund-shaped verbs

that function as nouns, articles, nouns, prepositions,

and numbers with the 'step' core noun.

Some of the examples above illustrate that the

noun phrase of the subject in English is relatively

long consisting of various combinations of words.

The noun phrases mentioned above also show that

the noun phrase of the subject is usually an object

not a person or often also called impersonalization,

meaning that the noun phrases of the subject place

more on the topic being discussed than the person.

Meanwhile, because the subject noun phrases are

usually nouns, then the subject pronouns are usually

used such as 'this, that, these, those, they, and it'.

It is important to underline that all these rules

must be fulfilled in every scientific paper. Moreover,

scientific papers that deal with English must pay

close attention to scientific rules that must also be

met in terms of the language used. Murray and

Moore (2006; 11) state: 'academic writing as being

characterized by a dynamism that is often frustrating

for those who are charged with the responsibility of

doing it' shows that scientific writing is

characterized by dynamic activity so that is

something important but can make the writer feel

frustrated because it is an obligation for them to

solve it. In this regard, students as persons who are

responsible for their writing must be able to

complete the task properly.

2.4 Format of Scientific Writing

The format of scientific writing depends on the form

or genre of scientific writing. For example, the essay

format is different from the thesis format. But in

general, the structure of scientific writing consists of

three important parts, namely introduction, body,

and conclusion. Particularly for scientific papers in

the form of theses which are the focus of this

research are divided into several chapters which

include the Introductory Chapter, Literature Review

Chapter, Methodology Chapter, Analysis and

Interpretation Chapter, and Conclusions and

Suggestions Chapter. Especially at the beginning of

the Introduction Chapter there is a Background text

and this text is the main concern of this study.

The studies that have been carried out that is

relevant to this research are what have been

conducted by Parkinson and Musgrave (2013),

Ansarifar, Shahriari, and Pishgadham (2017), and

Hasan (2017). Parkinson and Musgrave (2013)

conducted a study entitled "Development of phrase

complexity in the writing of English for Academic

Purposes students." This study focused on the use of

noun phrases using the developmental progression

index hypothesis suggested by Biber, Gray, and

Poonpon (2011) to find out the academic writing

produced by two L2 postgraduate level writers. The

first group was those who are preparing postgraduate

studies while the second group was those who have

already registered for postgraduate studies. Noun

phrases in the form of two sets of data were

identified and pre-and post-modifiers (words that

describe the noun phrase) were manually coded. The

findings confirmed the proposed developmental

index where a less proficient group used the

attributive adjectives in the nominal phrase as

previously thought. Also, the use of noun modifiers

by more advanced groups (more proficient groups)

in their numbered phrases was closer to the norm as

in the publication of academic papers rather than

noun phrases used by less proficient groups. In

short, less proficient students used modifiers in the

form of adjectives as pre-modifiers in their nominal

phrases. Meanwhile, more proficient students used

noun pre-modifiers and prepositional phrases in their

number phrases.

Ansarifar, Shahriari, and Pishgadham (2017)

conducted research entitled "Phrasal complexity in

academic writing: A comparison of abstract written

by graduate students and experts in applied

linguistics." They also relied on the hypothesis used

by Biber, Gray and Poonpon (2011) about a series of

stages predicting development in examining the

complexity of the formation of the use of noun

phrases. Primarily, the purpose of their study was to

compare abstracts by L1 MA Persian authors, L1

Persian PhD writers, and authors of publications in

applied linguistics in terms of the characteristics of

noun phrase modifications. Their findings indicated

that the L1 MA authors group was differed

significantly from the publication expert group in the

use of four types of modifiers (types of modifiers),

namely: pre-modifying nouns; -ed participles as

post-modifiers; adjective-noun sequences as pre-

modifiers; and multiple prepositional phrases as

noun post-modifiers. Meanwhile, the L1 PhD group

did not show any significant differences in using

noun modifiers when compared with the expert

group of authors, except for the use of multiple

prepositional phrases as noun post-modifiers. The

findings from this study helped understand how

academic writing is more complex along with

experience.

In the context of Indonesia especially in North

Maluku, Hasan (2017) carried out research with the

title 'English Language Formality in students' thesis

Exploring Students’ Use of Subject Noun Phrases and Subject Pronouns of their Thesis Writing Majoring in English Study Program at

Universities in Ternate of North Maluku

163

specialized in English Language Study Program in

Ternate of North Maluku' with the object of studens'

thesis in three universities in Ternate City , North

Maluku. Findings showed that from 12 Background

text of students' thesis from four study programs

specializing in English in three different universities

in North Maluku province, there was still found the

use of English that is not in accordance with the

provisions of English language formality. For

example, there is the use of informal language

expressions such as 'like', followed by 'a lot of' and

'thing'. The 'like' word was found in the thesis text of

the students of the English Literature Study Program

at the Faculty of Literature and Culture of Khairun

University and STKIP Kie Raha. It was also found

that the use of the word "a lot of" was found in the

thesis text of students of the English Language

Education Study Program at North Maluku

Muhammadiyah University and students of the

English Language Education Study Program, FKIP,

Khairun University. Meanwhile, the use of the word

'thing' was proven to be used in the thesis text of the

students of the English Literature Study Program at

the Faculty of Literature and Culture of Khairun

University and STKIP Kie Raha. The abbreviated

words found are ‘etc’ and ‘e.g. The word 'etc' was

found in the thesis text of students of the English

Language Education Study Program at

Muhammadiyah University and English Education

Study Program Students, FKIP, Khairun University.

Whereas the word ‘e.g. 'was found in the students of

the English Language Education Study Program at

the Muhammadiyah University of North Maluku.

The research above relates to the rules of

scientific writing with a focus on research on aspects

of the formality of English. This research is still

related to the rules of scientific writing but is more

focused on aspects of the complexity of English,

especially in the use of subject noun phrases as has

been done by Parkinson and Musgrave (2013) and

Ansarifar, Shahriari, and Pishgadham (2017) and

how subject pronouns but more specifically

involving S1 students who have written their thesis

in English.

3 METHOD

3.1 Research Design

This research was a qualitative research because the

researcher wanted to know in detail the phenomena

being studied rather than trying to associate between

two or more variables. In addition, the data obtained

were in the form of text (words) from student thesis

documents and not in numerical form, and analyzed

to find thematic descriptions through text analysis

rather than statistical analysis. Creswell (2012) states

that in qualitative research "at each stage of the

research process: exploring a problem and

developing a detailed understanding of a central

phenomenon; ... collecting data based on words ...;

analyzing the data for description and themes using

text analysis.

3.2 Research Subjects

The research subjects were not humans but in the

form of objects, especially texts on the Background

of Chapter 1 of undergraduate thesis (S1) students

who specialize in English language and literature

graduated in 2018 at both public and private

universities in Ternate. The total number of subjects

of this research is Background text in Chapter I of

English-language theses are 37 (thirty seven) theses

with details as follows: 10 (ten) theses of English

Letters Study Program, Faculty of Cultural Studies

and 10 (ten) theses from the English Language

Education Study Program of the Faculty of Teachers

Training and Education, both from Khairun

University. Then, 10 (ten) theses from English

Language Education Study Program of North

Maluku Muhammadiyah University, and 7 (seven)

thesis from the College of Teacher Training and

Education (STKIP) Kie Raha, North Maluku. The

ten theses from each faculty or college were

randomly selected without considering the gender of

the owners of the thesis.

3.3 Location and Time of Research

This research was conducted at Khairun University,

and the College of Teacher Training and Education

(STKIP) in Ternate City for a period of 3 (three)

months from August to October 2018.

3.4 Data Collection Technique

The research data were in the form of documents

(Creswell, 2012). In this case, the researcher

collected a total of 40 English-language theses in

2018 graduates stored in the Library or Study

Program specializing in English Language and

Literature at Khairun University, Muhammadiyah

University, and the College of Teacher Training and

Education. Then, the researcher read and gave codes

in the Background section of Chapter I text from

each of the student's thesis for further analysis.

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3.5 Data Analysis Technique

The data collected in the form of photocopies of text

Background of the first chapter of the student's

thesis were then analyzed using Content Analysis

according to the focus of the research in this study,

namely the use of subject noun phrases and subject

pronouns of English in the English thesis text

section.

4 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

4.1 Results

The following data analysis is divided into three

parts. Part I is the analysis of the data of

'Background' thesis from respondents from the

English Letters Study Program at the Faculty of

Cultural Studies. There are ten theses consisting of

five 2017 theses and five 2018 theses.

Analysis of the data in the 'Background' section

of ten student theses shows that noun phrases are

more likely to use a single noun in the form of

people's noun names or other people such as "Myth

is one of reliance ...", "Mythopoeic is exploring ...",

"Twilight is one of the novel ... ". In addition, also

used noun phrases with modifiers in the form of

adjectives, articles, or demonstrative words such as:

"Literary works help the ...", "This novel is the first

series of ...". Only a few more complex noun phrases

are used either by using nouns or prepositions and

nouns relative to: "The legend of the vampire is

trusted by", " Novel 'Twilight' as the fiction which is

released in twentieth century brings a different

image ... "," The part of the story is still consistent

with ... "

The data also show that the ten students used

pronouns either referring to people or objects, for

example: "It can save ...", "They can go out ...", "It

makes the researcher ...". In its use, it is often that

the pronouns are not appropriate or in line with the

verb used. For example in the phrase "She meet with

..." the right verb is "meets" if simple present tense

or "met" if simple past tense.

Meanwhile, Part II, the analysis of 'Background'

text data from the ten thesis of the students of FKIP

English Language Education Study Program (five in

2017 and five in 2018) show a more similar finding

with the thesis of English Letters Study Program's

students. Data show that more single nouns are used

in the composition of noun phrases, followed by

noun phrases consisting of noun words with pre-

modifiers in the form of adjectives or articles or

demonstrative words. For singular nouns are for

example in the phrase: "Language is used as means

of ...", "Language can be considered as ...", "People

use language to ...", "English is the foreign language

...", "Dictation is one technique that ... "," Students

will listen the text ... ". The use of noun phrases with

pre-modifiers is in the form of adjectives or article

words or pointers can be seen in the following

example: "The technique or method must be relevant

in ...", "Therefore, the researcher is interested in

using ...", "The activities are preferred by ... " Also,

there are only a few uses of noun phrases with nouns

or prepositions such as: "As one of international

language, most of the world used English in ...",

"Aim of this research is students' dictation ..." (see

Table 2).

The data also shows that the ten students used the

pronominal in the 'Background' text of their thesis

either referring to people or objects, such as: "He

feels helpless whenever ...", "They learn more in

grammar ...", "It is one of the parts of speech ... ".

Also found is the use of pronominal which is out of

sync with the verb used, for example: "That are very

important that ..."

Analysis of the data from the 'Background' text

on the seven theses of STKIP Kie Raha English

Language Education Study Program students show

the following: 1. The use of single nouns is still

found in their texts such as: "Reading is the active

process ...", "Reading can make every one ... "," In

English department, reading is one of the skills that

... "," And also Reading is one of the skills which ...

"," Reading determines the successful of ... ". What

is interesting is that there was more use of noun

phrases with adjective pre-modifier, article words

and with prepositional phrases than their colleagues

in FIB and FKIP. For example, the use of noun

phrases with adjective pre-modifier and article

words: "This learning model is not only used ...",

"The goal, therefore, is to gain ...", "many problems

are found in ...", "Because short story is a piece of ...

"," From the result of observation, the same problem

was happened at ... "," So, the teacher must choose

interesting ... ". The use of noun phrases with

prepositional phrases, including using possessive

pronouns can be seen in the example sentences such

as: "All teachers in Indonesia are more specialized

teachers in ...", "When you are going to come before

...", "Because the "The students' problem in learning

narrative text can be overcome and ...", "Thus,

having abilities in translation becomes a primary

necessity for ...", "The errors in translation ... " A

sentence like this seems to come from the results of

Exploring Students’ Use of Subject Noun Phrases and Subject Pronouns of their Thesis Writing Majoring in English Study Program at

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165

paraphrasing or quoting a sentence from the

reference source used.

Data from the seven 'Background' thesis of

STKIP students also show pronouns uses such as: "It

will take time and opportunity for teachers to ...", "It

means that the ...", "So, they are so lazy to read and

...", "They have difficulties in ...", "It is associated

with ...", "Hence, they need media to help students

in ...", "As the result, it does not show a ...". Also

there are still pronominal uses that do not match the

verb used as in the sentence: "He / She also needs to

be reinforced ...".

4.2 Discussion

Data analysis from the text 'Background' thesis of

students from the FIB English Letters Study

Program, FKIP English Language Education Study

Program, and STKIP Kie Raha English Language

Education show similarities in the use of noun

phrases namely single nouns and noun phrases with

adjective pre-modifiers. Referring to the hypothesis

of development progression index from Biber, Gray,

and Poonpon (2011) as quoted by Parkinson and

Musgrave (2013) and Ansarifar, Shahriari, and

Pishgadham (2017), this indicates that the use of the

noun phrase of the three study programs can

categorized as less proficient writers in writing

academic texts on the thesis they wrote. However,

the indicators leading to writers who are proficient

in their thesis are evident from the use of noun

phrases that use complex prepositions and noun

phrases even though their portions are still small.

There are still errors in concordance with the use of

pronouns and verbs indicating that respondents still

have problems with the sentence structure,

especially related to the composition of the subject

and predicate in sentence formation.

There needs to be encouragement and more

directives to use complex noun phrases including

awareness using the sentence structure correctly

from the composition of the subject and predicate

especially by lecturers who teach "Advance

Writing" or "Academic Writing" courses.

5 CONCLUSIONS AND

SUGGESTIONS

5.1 Conclusions

The results of the text analysis of 'Background'

thesis students from FIB English Letters Study

Program, FKIP English Language Education Study

Program, and STKIP Kie Raha English Language

Education show that there are similarities in the use

of noun phrases namely single nouns and noun

phrases with adjective premodifiers. By referring to

the development progression index hypothesis

theory from Biber, Gray, and Poonpon (2011) as

quoted by Parkinson and Musgrave (2013) and

Ansarifar, Shahriari, and Pishgadham (2017), it can

be concluded that the students' use of noun phrases

from the three study programs can be categorized as

less proficient writers in writing academic texts on

the thesis they wrote. The direction to the writers

who are proficient in their thesis is evident from the

use of noun phrases that use other complex noun

phrases and noun phrases even though the portions

are still small. Also, there are still concordance

errors in the use of pronouns and verbs indicating

that respondents still have problems with the

sentence structure, especially related to the

composition of the subject and the predicate in

sentence formation.

5.2 Suggestions

From the conclusions, there is a need for strong

encouragement and direction from lecturers in the

'Advance Writing' or 'Academic Writing' courses in

practicing writing academic writing by paying

attention to complex noun phrases as distinctive

features of English academic writing, including

awareness of using sentence structure correctly from

the subject and verb agreement.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The researcher would like to thank to Khairun

University through Faculty of Cultural Studies for

the funding assistance so that this research can be

carried out well.

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