METATHESIS: JOURNAL OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE LITERATURE AND TEACHING
p-ISSN: 2580-2712
Vol. 2, No. 2, October 2018 PP 253 - 264
e-ISSN: 2580-2720
DOI: 10.31002/metathesis. v2i2.958
The Analysis on Students’ Difficulties in Doing Reading
Comprehension Final Test
Ratih Laily Nurjanah
Universitas Ngudi Waluyo, Jl. Diponegoro No.186, Ungaran,
50513, Indonesia
Received: 1st October 2018 Revised: 4th November 2018 Published: 5th November 2018
Abstract
Reading is one of skills considered important in language learning and
like the other skills, the mastery is influenced by some factors. This
research is an attempt to find out the difficulties faced by students in
doing reading comprehension to find the perfect technique or method
to overcome the problem and answer the research questions (1) what
difficulties are faced by students in doing reading comprehension test?
(2) what are the causes of the difficulties? (3) what methods or
learning activities are applicable in the classroom to overcome the
difficulties?. The method of this study is explanatory multi-method
strategy by first giving test to students then analysed the results of the
test. A questionnaire was distributed to find out students’ expectation
to the class. The findings show that students face problem related to
vocabulary knowledge or mastery. These problems are related to poor
habit of reading and less interesting reading comprehension course
they have in the classroom. Students need more interactive learning
activities to be applied in the classroom such as games, or audio visual
media to keep them interested in the lecture or reduce the anxiety. So
here, the teachers should be more aware of problems faced by students
and provide more interactive teaching techniques.
Keywords: Vocabulary, Reading Skill, Reading Comprehension,
Students’ Difficulties
Introduction
Reading comprehension is considered as one of prominent English skills for
learners. In this skill, students are required to catch some implied and stated
information from the text by interpreting or analyzing the sentences to really get
the answers for the questions.
Students have various problems in doing reading comprehension test related
to their level of mastery. Students with rich knowledge of vocabulary will find
that reading comprehension is easy. So will those with good knowledge on
grammar. Each student may face different difficulty from others causing different
needs on teaching methods and learning activities.
This study aims to determine the difficulties faced by students in doing
reading comprehension test to decide which methods and learning activities are
applicable in the classroom to enhance their skills.
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Ratih Laily Nurjanah The Analysis on Students’ Difficulties in Reading Comprehension Test
The problems in this research are lecturer is often unaware of the difficulties
faced by students in doing reading comprehension test while to overcome the
problems, it is very important to know the causes of the difficulties as well. By
finding the causes, lecturers can give students the best treatment to help them
overcome the difficulties.
Language Learning
Learning language involves mainly 4 skills; listening, speaking, reading, and
writing. Lately, an idea stated that actually pronunciation and memorization also
hold roles as backbones of everything else (Boehme, 2013). This idea is quite
reasonable since students, during the activities of learning language; they also
practice how to pronounce words correctly. In this case, speaking is the mental
aspect of putting forth thought into speech, pronunciation is the physical aspect, as
stated by Boehme (2013). And students in their learning process, they must
memorize everything started from vocabulary to grammatical rules. This can
cause some difficulties for students; moreover, the language learnt is not their first
or second language.
Some activities or learning methods and techniques are proposed by
researchers in previous studies to help students overcome the problems showing
up during their learning progress. In speaking class, students can involve in role
play or drama activities which force them to create a conversation based on their
favorite topics (Hillyard, 2016). The existence of English Conversation Club is
also a kind of support for the speaking skill improvement. For listening skill,
music can be the best media to enhance students’ listening skill (Hidayat, 2013).
Related to reading skill, some games related to especially reading comprehension
are aimed to help students become more enjoy in reading class activities
(Klimova, 2015) Writing is one skill considered as a complex productive skill
since it requires the mastery of grammatical rules which can be confusing and
frustrating for students. Writing skill demands high knowledge to develop a text
that can be gained thorugh reading activities (Deshpande, 2014).
Reading Comprehension
Understanding text covers catching some information from text. Reading
comprehension demands students to comprehend a text shown by answering some
questions related to text. This activity can be difficult for students considering
their low frequency of reading habit.
Iftanti (2012), in her study states that most EFL students did not have good
reading habit though they formally learnt English at school. It can be caused by
less motivation given by teacher or parents at home. Reading habit is a repeated
form of reading practice which means the activity needs to be done regularly.
Reading comprehension requires familiarity with the topic to motivate students in
reading it. Usually people are interested in reading when they think that the
reading will be useful for them. This is why the topic given in the classroom
should be the one the students think they need.
Referring to classroom activities, reading comprehension involves some
questions in various forms. Some of them are; finding main ideas, vocabulary
knowledge related to synonyms and antonyms, or answering detail questions.
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METATHESIS: JOURNAL OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE LITERATURE AND TEACHING p-ISSN: 2580-2712
Vol. 2, No. 2, October 2018 PP 253 - 264 e-ISSN: 2580-2720
DOI: 10.31002/metathesis. v2i2.958
In reading comprehension, Lee (2017) stated that there are 6 skills considered
essentials, they are:
1. Decoding
Decoding is related to an early language skill called phonemic
awareness which is part of a broader skill called phonological
awareness. Phonemic awareness enables kids to hear individual sounds
in words (phonemes). It also allows them to “play” with sounds at the
word and syllable level.
2. Fluency
To read fluently, students need to instantly recognize word. Fluency
speeds up when they can read and understand text. It is also important
when students find irregular words, like of and the, which cannot be
sounded out.
3. Vocabulary
To understand what stated in text, people need to understand most of
the words in the text. Having a strong vocabulary is a key component
of reading comprehension. Students can learn vocabulary through
instruction but they typically learn the meaning of words through
everyday experience and also by reading.
4. Sentence Construction and Cohesion
Understanding how sentences are built might seem like a writing skill.
Connecting ideas within and between sentences, is called cohesion.
But these skills are important for reading comprehension as well.
Knowing how ideas link up at the sentence level helps students get
meaning from passages and entire texts. It also leads to something
called coherence, or the ability to connect ideas to other ideas in an
overall piece of writing.
5. Reasoning and Background Knowledge
Most readers relate what they read to what they know. So it is
important for students to have background or prior knowledge about
the world when they read. They also need to be able to “read between
the lines” and extract meaning even when it is not literally written.
6. Working Memory and Attention
These two skills are both part of a group of abilities known
as executive function. They are different but closely related.
When kids read, attention allows them to take in information from the
text. Working memory allows them to hold on to that information and
use it to gain meaning and build knowledge from what they read.
Working memory and attention are part of executive function.
The ability to self-monitor while reading is also tied to that. Kids need
to be able to recognize when they do not understand something. Then
they need to stop, go back and re-read to clear up any confusion they
may have.
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Ratih Laily Nurjanah The Analysis on Students’ Difficulties in Reading Comprehension Test
Vocabulary
Francie (2017) in his article proposed the importance of vocabulary on reading
success that can be summarized into;
1. Comprehension improves when you know what the words mean. Since
comprehension is the ultimate goal of reading, students cannot
overestimate the importance of vocabulary development.
2. Words are the currency of communication. A sohisticated vocabulary
improves all areas of communication — listening, speaking, reading and
writing.
3. When children and adolescents improve their vocabulary, their academic
and social confidence and competence improve, too.
It shows that Vocabulary represents one of most important skills necessary
for teaching and learning a foreign language. It is the basis for the development of
all the other skills: reading comprehension, listening comprehension, speaking,
writing, spelling and pronunciation. Vocabulary is the main tool for the students
to use English effectively.
Intentional vocabulary acquisition is memorizing straightforwardly term after
term with their respective translations from a list. Intentional learning is quick and
usually preferred by learners, but it is also superficial. Learners find vocabulary in
an isolated, often infinitive form and remain incapable of using it correctly in
context. Moreover, intentionally learned vocabulary sinks faster. Recommendable
vocabulary acquisition pushes learners to every term, embedding it deeply and
solidly in the mental lexicon (Aitchison in Alizadeh, 2016). In other words,
students are expected not only memorize the words and the meanings but also use
them in the correct context.
According to a research done by Rohmatillah (2014), there are some factors
causing difficulties in learning vocabulary (1) the difference between written form
and the spoken form in English, (2) the large number of words students have to
learn or master, (3) the limited knowledge about words, (4) the complexity of
word knowledge. Knowing a words involves much more than knowing its
dictionary definition, (5) causes of lack of understanding of grammatical of the
words, (6) the incorrect pronunciation is often caused by the lack of sound
similarity between English and the students‟ native language. From the factor
number 3, it is clearly stated that knowledge of vocabulary is really important in
the process of mastering vocabulary.
Some previous studies proposed games as media to teach vocabulary. A study
held by Silsüpür (2017) found that in reality, there was not a significant difference
between the results of the quiz. Similarly, the findings of the questionnaire
indicated that the participants preferred learning through vocabulary games rather
than traditional way. The findings also revealed that games reduce negative
feelings during the learning process. It suggested that teachers should reconsider
the role of games and appreciate their educational value. In other words, negative
feelings can also influence the process of learning in the classroom and fun
activities such as game can reduce the feelings to make students feel more
comfortable and master or understand the lesson better.
Mauli, et al (2014) in her research about Students’ Difficulties In Finding
Main Ideas, found that there were 6 problems faced by students; low interest in
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METATHESIS: JOURNAL OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE LITERATURE AND TEACHING p-ISSN: 2580-2712
Vol. 2, No. 2, October 2018 PP 253 - 264 e-ISSN: 2580-2720
DOI: 10.31002/metathesis. v2i2.958
reading, poor knowledge on vocabulary, long sentences, poor reading strategy,
grammatical confusion, and poor knowledge on paragraph. The results showed
that the 8th grade students felt difficult in finding main ideas because they did not
know the meaning of main idea and many difficult words causing difficulties to
find main ideas in the text. From this research, it can be seen that vocabulary is
also one of big problems faced by students in reading comprehension. This shows
that there is need to overcome the problem.
AlQahtani (2015)stated that vocabulary learning is an essential part in foreign
language learning as the meanings of new words are very often emphasized,
whether in books or in classrooms. It is also central to language teaching and is of
paramount importance to a language learner. Recent research indicate that
teaching vocabulary may be problematic because many teachers are not confident
about best practice in vocabulary teaching and at times don’t know where to begin
to form an instructional emphasis on word learning (Berne & Blachowicz, 2008)
Method
The subjects of this study were 8 second-semester students of English Literature
at Universitas Ngudi Waluyo. This study adapts explanatory multi-method
strategy proposed by Creswell (Hung, 2012).
After finishing one semester teaching and learning process, students took
final examination to measure their progress of learning. The test consisted of
deciding main idea, finding antonyms, using words based on context, answering
questions about details mentioned in the text, completing sentences and
completing part of speech table. The results were then checked to get the score.
Each result was then analysed by checking the test item one by one. The number
of wrong answers in each section from each results was then noted to determine
which section consisted the most wrong answers and the least one.
Students were then given open-answer questionnaires helping to reveal their
opinions on reading comprehension skill. The questionnaires asked some
questions about how they viewed reading comprehension skill, which was the
most difficult part of the test, what is the interesting part of reading
comprehension practice in the classroom, how they viewed the lecturer’s ways of
teaching and what learning activities they enjoyed and expected the most for
reading comprehension practice.
The answers from the questionnaires were listed and compared to the list of
section with wrong-answers numbers.
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Ratih Laily Nurjanah The Analysis on Students’ Difficulties in Reading Comprehension Test
Findings and discussion
What are the Difficulties Faced by Students?
From the test results, the following list is made (in order):
Table1. Section with the number of wrong-answers
Section Number of Wrong Answers Average of
(from 5 questions) Wrong
Std. Std.2 Std.3 Std.4 Std.5 Std.6 Std.7 Std.8 Answers
1
Finding 3 3 4 2 3 4 4 5 3.5
Main Idea
Vocabulary 4 4 4 3 4 4 5 5 4.1
(Antonyms)
Using 4 4 4 2 4 3 5 5 4
Words in
Context
Answering 1 1 2 0 1 2 3 4 1.8
Detail
Questions
Cloze 3 3 3 3 3 4 4 4 3.4
Reading
(Completing
Sentence)
Completing 3 3 4 3 3 4 4 4 3.5
Part of
Speech
Table
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METATHESIS: JOURNAL OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE LITERATURE AND TEACHING p-ISSN: 2580-2712
Vol. 2, No. 2, October 2018 PP 253 - 264 e-ISSN: 2580-2720
DOI: 10.31002/metathesis. v2i2.958
Table 2. The most difficult session (in order)
Rank Session
1 Vocabulary
2 Using words in context
3 Finding Main Idea
3 Completing Part of Speech
4 Close Reading
From the test results, it can be seen that the most difficult session for the students
is Vocabulary session followed by Using Words in Context, Finding Main Idea,
Completing Part of Speech, and Close Reading.
What are the causes of the difficulties?
To answer this question, a questionnaire was distributed containing question for
each session.
Vocabulary and Using Words in Context
“Why do you think Vocabulary and Using Words in Context sessions are
difficult?”
Options Number of Respondents
1. Limited knowledge of words 4
2. Lack of memorizing ability 3
3. Not familiar with the topic 1
The results show that students feel difficult to do vocabulary session because
they have limited knowledge of words. It is hard for them to memorize new words
and differentiate the meaning especially in English there are some words with
similar meanings but they cannot be used in same context.
Adjusting which words to use related to the context of the sentence
sometimes is not as easy as it seems. Students need to understand the whole
meaning if a word.
And memorizing new words is difficult for some students. Some of them
rarely meet new words because of lack habit of reading and using new words. The
new words memorized are easily forgotten due to lack of usage. The students
might have memorized it but they rarely or even never use it in their daily
conversation nor writing activities. They keep using the words they are familiar
with without realizing that this habit can cause less improvement in their language
skill related to limited vocabulary knowledge.
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Ratih Laily Nurjanah The Analysis on Students’ Difficulties in Reading Comprehension Test
Reading activity is considered being able to improve vocabulary knowledge
as well as listening activity. Those 2 kinds of activities helps students adding new
vocabulary.
The vocabulary knowledge mastered by students influences their ability to
use words or new words in context. It is related to their ability to understand the
meaning(s) of a word and use it according to the message of the sentence. This
session seems difficult for students because the students have lack knowledge of
vocabulary caused by the low frequency of doing activities improving their
knowledge.
Finding Main Ideas
“Why do you think Finding Main Idea session is difficult?”.
Options Number of Respondents
1. Lack of knowledge -
2. Length of sentence -
3. Poor reading skill -
4. Paraphrase confusion 8
From the results, it can be seen that students get confused in doing Finding
Main Idea session because they cannot paraphrase the main sentence in the text.
Since the main idea is different from main sentence, they have to interpret the
paraphrased form of the main sentence. And sometimes they misinterpret the
form. They cannot relate the paraphrased from to the main sentence stated in the
text.
This problem can be caused by their poor ability in understanding sentence
and catching the implied meaning of a sentence. Low frequency of reading can
also cause this problem so the students do not get used to reading and catch the
meaning of sentences they read.
Completing Part of Speech
“Why do you think Completing Part of Speech session is difficult?”
Options Number of Respondents
1. Poor knowledge of vocabulary 7
2. Poor ability on memorizing -
3. Poor knowledge on grammar 1
The students feel that their poor knowledge on vocabulary affects their ability
to do the session. This can appear in some forms; they have seen the words before
but they do not know the meaning, they know the meaning but they do not know
the form of the words in different part of speech, or they are not familiar with the
words.
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METATHESIS: JOURNAL OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE LITERATURE AND TEACHING p-ISSN: 2580-2712
Vol. 2, No. 2, October 2018 PP 253 - 264 e-ISSN: 2580-2720
DOI: 10.31002/metathesis. v2i2.958
Since the problem relates to vocabulary, this leads to the argument that the
poor knowledge is caused by poor reading habit.
Close Reading
“Why do you think Close Reading session is difficult?”
Options Number of Respondents
1. Paraphrase confusion 4
2. Grammatical confusion 2
3. Lack of knowledge of vocabulary 2
Based on the results, paraphrased sentences cause confusion for students.
They understand the sentence in the text but one it is paraphrased, they become
confused. Paraphrasing can cause another problem related to unfamiliarity with
the words used in paraphrased-sentence. Students need to find the paraphrased
sentence having the same meaning with the sentence in the text though it has
different words.
What Methods or Learning Activities are Applicable in the Classroom to
Overcome the Difficulties?
From the results, the main problem faced by students is related to vocabulary
knowledge. This can be caused by their low frequency of reading activities.
Reading can help students to gain more new words and their determination to
master vocabulary should support them to find some ways to reach it. Some
students will have a mini dictionary to write all the new words they find during
reading activities along with the meanings of the words after they look up in the
dictionary.
This activity should be initiated from the classroom by the lecturer. Some
activities can be applied to motivate students to read and help them memorize the
vocabulary.
One of the most applicable way considered fun by students and lecturers is by
doing some games instead of reading and discussing. This idea is drawn from the
results of questionnaire given to students. The results are shown below.
Q: What activities do you expect to help you enjoy reading activities in the
classroom?
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Ratih Laily Nurjanah The Analysis on Students’ Difficulties in Reading Comprehension Test
Responses
S1 1. Audio-Visual supports, games.
S2 2. Games
S3 3. Video
S4 4. Games, Video
S5 5. Songs, games, video
S6 6. Video, games
S7 7. Video
S8 8. Games and videos
The responses from students give a hint of what make the enjoy reading class
better. Some games can be used as a learning media especially in improving their
knowledge of vocabulary, such as; Taboo Words, Chaining Words, and many
more. It takes creativity from teachers to get students involved in this interactive
forms of learning.
Conclusion
From the research, it can be concluded that all of the students’ difficulties in
reading comprehension test is caused by vocabulary, especially the limited
knowledge or mastery of vocabulary.
In order to overcome the problems, students propose an interactive learning
for reading activities, both in forms of audio visual and games. Although games
are not proven to improve their ability in mastering vocabulary, it can help them
enjoy the class better resulting a little improvement though it is not significant.
Teachers as the provider of facilities should be aware of this needs and
become more creative in term of providing and involving students in interactive
techniques or methods or teaching activities.
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METATHESIS: JOURNAL OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE LITERATURE AND TEACHING p-ISSN: 2580-2712
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