Available online at: http://journal.uny.ac.id/index.php/ljtp LingTera, 7 (2), 2020, 196-204 https://doi.org/10.21831/lt.v7i2.30187 lingtera.ppsuny@uny.ac.id Mapping cohesive device usage to analyze non-native writers’ needs in academic English Ashadi Ashadi *, Margana Margana, Siti Mukminatun Universitas Negeri Yogyakarta. Jalan Colombo No.1 Karangmalang, Yogyakarta, 55281, Indonesia. * Corresponding Author. E-mail: ashadi@uny.ac.id Received: 15 February 2020; Revision: 9 July 2020; Accepted: 20 December 2020 Abstract: Native or non-native English-speaking academics are compelled to write scientific artic- les in internationally reputable indexed journals today. With high demand of academic English, more and more articles are rejected by the editorial board for various reasons, mainly in the cohesion and coherence of their writing. This research seeks to map the types and patterns of cohesive device used to support the coherence of scientific articles. Employing a descriptive qualitative approach, this study compared the use of cohesion devices (CD) by both groups’ writing (native & non-native) to further bridge the difficulties faced by non-native writers in shaping their academic writing cohesively and coherently. This study may also serve as a needs analysis that allows for the creation of models, materials, and teaching approaches to scientific article writing for learners of English as a foreign language. Keywords: cohesive device, coherence, academic writing, non-native speakers, needs analysis How to Cite: Ashadi, A., Margana, M., & Mukminatun, S. (2020). Mapping cohesive device usage to analyse non-native writers’ needs in academic English. LingTera, 7(2), 196-204. doi:https://doi.org/10.21831/lt.v7i2.30187 This is an open access article under the CC–BY-SA license. INTRODUCTION Writing is an important skill in the teaching and learning process through which students can convey ideas, thoughts, and opinions to readers to build communication and information sharing. Furthermore, writing is a productive skill where students produce messages through written text (Andayani et al., 2014; Purwanto, 2019; Septiawan, 2020). So, they have to compile elements of language skills such as word choice, spelling, and grammar structure so that language is easy to understand. Harmer (2007) adds that writing must be well organized so that it is understood by the reader. The quality of writing is determined by the ability to communicate ideas into good writing (Hyland, 2019). In the writing process, students must be able to arrange sentences in a logical structure so that readers can understand the meaning of the text. Halliday and Hasan (2014) add that the text is best regarded as a semantic unit: the unit is not of form but of meaning. This means that the text must have meaning in the form of sentences for language users or people who use language for communi- cation. According to Renkema (2004) seven criteria play roles in understanding a text, namely cohesion, coherence, informativeness, intentionality, acceptability, situationality, and intertextuality. Thus, a text must keep these elements to be understood by the reader. In addition, people need to have knowledge of cohesion to be able to produce communicative texts. A text will be stronger if the author considers aspects of cohesion and coherence. It is cohesive when elements are bound together and are considered meaningful to the reader (Bahaziq, 2016). Halliday and Hasan (2014) defined cohesion as a semantic relationship between one element and another in the text. It occurs when the elements interpret other items that connect with each other. So, cohesion is a linguistic bond or linguistic device that has links to discourse or text unity. Cohesion is one of the basic characteristics that determine the quality of writing. It happens when one element depends on another in a text, which means they are connected to one another.