From Sentences to Structure: Discourse Organization in the Writing of Multilingual Learners

Abstract

This study, From Sentences to Structure: Discourse Organization in the Writing of Multilingual Learners, investigates the discourse-level writing performance of multilingual senior high school students and the challenges they encounter in organizing ideas in academic texts. While multilingual learners often demonstrate adequate sentence-level proficiency, they frequently struggle with coherence, cohesion, and logical structuring, skills essential to effective academic writing. Guided by a qualitative–quantitative descriptive design, the research analyzed students’ written outputs using a rubric assessing content, organization, and mechanics. It explored their writing experiences through semi-structured interviews and a survey checklist. Quantitative results revealed satisfactory performance in content and mechanics but fair performance in organization, indicating that discourse-level structuring remains the most problematic area. Thematic analysis of interview data identified three major difficulties: fragmented idea organization, limited knowledge of cohesive devices, and dependence on surface-level revisions focused primarily on grammar and spelling. These findings confirm that multilingual learners often lack explicit awareness of rhetorical patterns and cohesive strategies needed to create logically connected paragraphs and sustained academic arguments. Based on the identified gaps, the study proposes an intervention plan integrating guided writing workshops, explicit instruction on transitions and discourse markers, process writing cycles, peer review, and reflective writing activities. The study concludes that teaching writing to multilingual learners must move beyond grammar-focused instruction and prioritize discourse organization. Strengthening learners’ discourse awareness can promote clearer, more coherent writing and support their broader academic communication skills.