An Analysis of Students’ Difficulties in Answering Structure and Written Expression of TOEFL

This study investigated the students’ difficulties in answering structure and written expression of TOEFL by last year English Department students of Universitas Negeri Padang. The aims of this study were to find the students’ difficulties in answering structure and written expression of TOEFL and to find the reasons or causes of the students’ mistakes. The participants of this study were 25 students. This descriptive study used two instruments in the research; structure sub-test and interview. This study used proportional stratified sampling to choose the sample. The study found that the last year English students of Universitas Negeri Padang had problems in 11 items among 18 items assessed. There were three most difficult items; negation, reduced form, and parallel structure items. The reasons behind the students’ mistakes were ignorance, careless, dubious, oblivious and miscast. The first two reasons were the biggest causes of students’ mistakes.