Abstract :
The aims of this study were to find out the EFL undergraduate students?understanding toward plagiarism and the EFL undergraduate students? reasons behind plagiarism.The participants of this study were six final
semester students of English education study program of UIN Raden Fatah Palembang.in selecting the participants was maximalvariation sampling ofpurposive sampling method.I used qualitative method in this research study.In order to find out students?
understanding toward plagiarism and the reasons behind plagiarism,the data gained from intervie were analyzed by using thematic analysis.This
study found that most of students have an understanding of plagiarism,
and also found there were several reasons for plagiarism bystudents:1)
Pressure of assignment and time saving;2)Easy to do(copy-paste from
internet);3)Feeling less interested tothesubjectorlecturer;4)Desireto
getgoodgrades;5)Environmentinfluence;6)Lackofconfidenceinability;
and7)Theprevalenceofplagiarism andassumedtherewerenosevere
sanctionsforplagiarists.