THE EFFECTIVENESS OF CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS IN ENHANCING THE ARGUMENTATIVE WRITING SKILLS

Abstract

This study aimed to test the effectiveness of the Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) approach in enhancing the argumentative writing skills. It focused on addressing the challenges vocational students face in constructing critical and logical arguments within English language learning. The researcher employed   two groups of 40 students and saw how they participated in argumentative writing lessons delivered through Fairclough’s three-dimensional model. To measure the impact of the teaching method, the researcher used a pretest-posttest design. Before the instruction began, the researcher assessed the students’ writing knowledge and then the writers evaluated their progress after the lesson. The collected data were analysis using t-test to determine the statistical significance of the intervention. The findings indicated that the Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) approach is effective in enhancing students’ argumentative writing skills.  This is supported by the t-test results, which yielded a significance value of 0.000, falling below the 0.05 significance threshold. Therefore, the alternative hypothesis (Ha) is accepted, and the null hypothesis (Ho) is rejected. The findings demonstrate that the Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) framework significantly enhances the coherence and critical depth of students' argumentative writing.