Efl Students’ Use of English Tenses Across Different Sections of Their Bachelor’s Theses

This study analyzed the use of English tenses in Bachelor’s theses written by EFL students of the English Education Department at UIN Ar-Raniry. Specifically, it aimed to identify the types of tenses used, examine their distribution across the five main thesis sections (Introduction, Literature Review, Methodology, Findings and Discussion, and Conclusion), and evaluate the accuracy of their usage both formal and functional. This research employed a quantitative descriptive design through document analysis. Data were collected from 20 complete bachelor’s theses defended in 2026 and analyzed using a coding sheet. The findings revealed that Present Simple was the most frequently used tense (61.1%), followed by Past Simple (21.8%). The distribution of tenses varied across sections: Present Simple dominated in the Introduction, Literature Review, Findings and Discussion, and Conclusion, while Past Simple was most prominent in the Methodology section. Modal verbs increased notably in the Conclusion. In terms of accuracy, 73.70% of the tense instances were accurate, while 26.30% were inaccurate. Functional errors (69.57%) were more dominant than formal errors (31.10%), suggesting that students had greater difficulty selecting the appropriate tense according to the rhetorical purpose of each section rather than in forming the verb correctly. These findings suggest that EFL students need more explicit instruction on the rhetorical functions of tenses in academic writing.