Perceived influence of formal second language education on first language writing

The aim of this study was to investigate the perceived influence of formal second language education on first language writing. More specifically, the study investigated the participants' perceptions and beliefs about the influence of their training in English writing on the way they write in Bahasa, the official name for the national language of Indonesia. The analysis of available data proceeded in three different but linear directions following the order of the research questions of the study. First, much of the analysis process revolved around insights into issues related to the participants' writing development, their English learning, and their writing practice in both Bahasa and English. The analysis revealed that most factors of the influence of the participants' training in English writing on the way they write in Bahasa could be divided into three categories: preconditions, media, and actual influences. Second, the notion of good writing was also used to capture the participants' insights into their rhetorical choices and the principles that may have informed such choices. It was found that the participants tended to associate the notion of good writing and its characteristics with certain textual, cultural, and circumstantial qualities. This was helpful to further explain the contribution of factors identified under the above mentioned three categories to the occurrence of the influence.;On a practical level and as permitted by the scope of this study, the participants' perceptions and beliefs helped identify various problematic issues related to the way in which writing had been taught in many Indonesian schools and to how writing in general had been practiced or treated by the local culture. The participants' perceptions and beliefs also pointed to some aspects, which had been largely responsible for the problematic development of their and others people's writing skill. These aspects, in turn, invite a number of suggestions and recommendations related to how writing instruction could be improved in Indonesia.