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What did They Say about Their Reading Materials? (Sebuah Investigasi Mengenai Kesulitan yang dihadapi Siswa Kelas Satu SMP dalam Membaca Teks Deskriptif Berbahasa Inggris)


What did They Say about Their Reading Materials?
(Sebuah Investigasi Mengenai Kesulitan yang dihadapi Siswa Kelas Satu SMP dalam Membaca Teks Deskriptif Berbahasa Inggris)

Alma Prisilya
English Education, School of Postgraduate Studies, Indonesia University of Education


Abstract
Reading is one of language skills, but the lack of Indonesian students’ proficiencies in reading; and/ or understanding the reading material this time is being public concern. The data from PISA showed that Indonesia is in 57th place out of 65 countries in terms of its reading proficiency. The failure of students in understanding the reading materials is not fully their faults, moreover that they are expected to read foreign language (English); textbook or e-book. So, it is important for them to understand the English reading materials to support their reading spirits. This study aims to investigate the problems facing by students in reading English descriptive texts and their efforts to overcome those problems. This study applies qualitative method; using observation and open- ended questionnaire as the instruments. The result of this study shows that level of difficulty of the texts is causing difficulties in reading, as well as the illustration of the texts (pictures) at some point is not clear enough. Students’ reading frequency also becomes their problem. They solve the problems by making group or pair work, asking for help, looking up their dictionary, and repeating to read the text.

Keywords: problems, reading, descriptive text, English


*Copyright Alma, 2014

What did They Say about Their Reading Materials? (Sebuah Investigasi Mengenai Kesulitan yang dihadapi Siswa Kelas Satu SMP dalam Membaca Teks Deskriptif Berbahasa Inggris)