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Abstract
There have been many studies examining the interference of the First Language (L1) into English which causes errors through texts produced by students. The results of investigations from mainstream research show four levels of language that are affected by the influence of L1, but academic writing does not only consist of physical processes and their output. There is a significant process that can determine the occurrence of this interference, namely the prewriting process. This study examines the prewriting process in the form of a thinking process with the language used. The results of research conducted on students of the English Language Education study program at University of Timor in 2024-2025, found three stages of mental processes that fall into the category of psycholinguistics (encoding), namely determining basic ideas and concepts (using local languages), constructing structured ideas and concepts (using creole languages), and finalizing ideas and concepts (using Bahasa Indonesia). The reasons for the interference of Indonesian into English in the draft of the student's research proposal were also found because Indonesian is included in the Language Learning (LL) group while other languages are acquired languages (LA) where previous studies have not clearly make boundaries and differences between them.