An Analysis of Students’ Difficulties in Writing Recount Texts through Picture Series Media among Tenth-Grade Students at MPI Silo Bonto Private Islamic Senior High School in the 2025/2026 Academic Year

Abstract

Writing recount texts requires students to integrate grammatical accuracy, appropriate vocabulary, chronological organization, and coherent idea development, which remain challenging for many English as a Foreign Language learners. This study investigated the difficulties experienced by tenth-grade students at MPI Silo Bonto Private Islamic Senior High School in writing recount texts through picture series media during the 2025/2026 academic year. Employing a descriptive qualitative design, the study involved 27 students and collected data through writing tasks, classroom observations, interviews, and document analysis. Students wrote recount texts based on picture series, and the data were analyzed using Miles, Huberman, and Saldaña’s procedures of data reduction, data display, and conclusion drawing. The findings identified grammar as the dominant difficulty (61.5%), particularly in using the simple past tense and constructing sentences, followed by vocabulary (19.2%), organization (11.5%), and idea development (7.6%). Although picture series facilitated idea generation and chronological organization, some students still struggled to produce clear and cohesive texts. The study concludes that students’ difficulties primarily stemmed from linguistic and cognitive factors, indicating the need for more focused instructional support in grammar, vocabulary, organization, and idea development.