The Students’ problems in Reading Tasks
doing reading tasks. The other problem is they are not creative in realizing and solving the problems. Most of the students do not have a habit to open a
dictionary to find out meaning. They also never behave creative to make a note for vocabulary.
W : Apa kesulitan adik-adik dalam reading bahasa Inggris? What
are your problems in reading? S
:Mengartikan……. Finding the meaning W
:Mengartikannya yang sulit ya, …? it’s difficult for you to find the meaning, isn’t it?
S :Ya yes.
W :Kalau ada vocab gitu biasanya adik-adik gimana kalau tidak
tau artinya? How do you usually do if you find difficult words or vocab?.
S :Yaa ………tertawa malu, seolah bingung bagaimana
menjawabnya. Yes….smile embarrassedly like being confused how must they answer.
W :Apakah adik-adik buka kamus kemudian mencari artinya?
Ditulis gak? do you usually open your dictionary and find the meaning?
S :Tidak…ya……..ditulis ya ada yang menjawab tidak tapi
malu ketauan No,…yes we write them some students answered “no” slowly and the others said yes.
W : Kalau adik……tidak? How about you?
S : Ditulis …….. I write too
W :Yang tidak tadi siapa? Tidak ditulis ya?........ya tidak apa-apa
jujur ja adik-adik gak papa. Who said no? it’s fine just trust me, no problem….
S :Ya yes
W :Kalau untuk text, misalnya text Descriptive, text Recount, text
Narrative apa yang adik-adik gak paham dari text itu? What difficulties do you have about texts, for example for
Descriptive, Recount and Narrative text? S
:seperti bingung tidak menjawab being confused to answer W
:Kemarin apa yang membuat adik-adik sulit dalam mengerjakan test kenaikan kelas kemarin? what’s your
problems in doing your final semester test last week? S
:Gak bisa mengartikan lho mbak,….gak bisa mengartikan. Soalnya sulit. I could not know the meaning, I didn’t
understand the questions and the test was so difficult.
W :Tidak tau artinya, apa lagi adik-adik? Bacaanya sulit?
Pertanyaanya paham gak adik-adik? you could not understand the meaning, the passages were too difficult, and do you
understand the questions? S
:Gak no . Interview 2, Column 4-19
In addition, the students of SMPN I Tanjungsari, Gunungkidul do not understand grammar well. They cannot know why the sentences in a text
should be arranged and they also cannot find correct sentences to understand their reading of texts. They still do not understand the pattern of present and
past tense. They are also still confused about Subject plural and singular. Moreover, they cannot match the S and the appropriate Verb or auxiliary.
Based on the problems, it is a must to design learning grammar in designing the reading materials intensively for grade VIII students of junior high
schools. The strategy that can be used to slve the problem is giving texts with
the topics that can encourage students to read. Through suitable texts that involve interesting topic for reading, students are expected to be motivated to
read because they want to know about the content of the text. It can also be supported with interesting and appropriate illustrating pictures. Through the
attractive pictures, students can be persuaded to know then afford to read. Of course, in reading students will find some difficult words or
vocabulary. Due to their interest for understanding the meaning of the text or the passage, the students will try to find the meaning. They can be guided by
their teacher or open a dictionary to find out the meaning. This activity will help the students to enrich their vocabulary. Understanding vocabulary will
help students to do reading easily. If the students begin to be interested in reading, it will cause them to have a reading habit. A reading habit will help
them to be familiar with reading. Being familiar can improve the students’ ability in reading so the expectation of good mark in English test or
examination can be achieved.