Snowball
Snowball
Snowball
COMPREHENSION
(A Case Study at English Department of Muhammadiyah Aceh
University)
THESIS
Submitted by
KHAIRULMAN
NIM. 231324264
Student of Fakultas Tarbiyah dan Keguruan
Department of English Language Education
Alhamdulillah, All praises are due to the Almighty Allah, who has blessed
and given me the chance, inspiration, and power to finish this thesis. Peace and
salutation is being upon to our beloved Prophet Muhammad SAW who has shown
Syarwan Ahmad, M.LIS and Dr. Nashriyah, MA as my main supervisor and co-
Mizar who have always motivated and supported me with all their prayers,
affection and love. I also thank to my beloved sister, Irma wirdani and my young
brother, Mazida, and all relatives and grandparents who have patiently given their
support to me.
Students, who have participated and shared ideas in finishing this thesis. May
The last but not least, the writer realizes that this thesis is far from being
perfect. Therefore, the writer hopes that there are many constructives ideas and
suggestions for the writer to make this thesis better. Hopefully, this thesis can give
contribution to the development of translation studies of English Department in
Khairulman
vi
ABSTRACT
Name : Khairulman
NIM : 231324264
Faculty : Fakultas Tarbiyah dan Keguruan
Major : Department of English language Education
Thesis Working Title : Exploring Students’ Obstacles in Reading Comprehension
(A Case Study at English Department of Muhammadiyah
Aceh University)
Main Supervisor : Dr. Syarwan Ahmad, M.LIS
Co-Supervisor : Dr. Nashriyah, MA
Keywords : Students obstacles, reading comprehension.
vii
TABLE OF CONTENT
CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION
A. Background of Study ........................................................ 1
B. Research Question............................................................. 7
C. Research Objectives .......................................................... 7
D. Significance of the Study .................................................. 7
E. Research terminology ....................................................... 8
1. Obstacles ....................................................................... 8
2. Reading Comprehension ............................................... 8
viii
CHAPTER IV: RESEARCH FINDING AND DISCUSSION
A. The Brief Description of Muhammadiyah
University Aceh .................................................................. 28
B. Data Description ................................................................. 30
C. Discussion .......................................................................... 36
REFERENCES ........................................................................................ 40
APPENDICES
ix
LIST OF APPENDICES
x
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
A. Background of Study
comprehend and to produce spoken and written texts through four language skills:
many short functional texts and monolog also essay in the form of procedure,
description, recount, narrative, and report. For this reason the teacher must have
from the style of modern human life, especially in education. Indication of the
importance of reading for education can be seen of them through the many
the basic skill in study. Reading is a skill essential for formal education and for an
individual‟s success in society. So this reading skills will continue to hold its role
radio but oral information remains limited and temporary. While the written
needed.
1
2
Reading is one of the most important skills in learning. Reading also plays an
important role in almost every course of study. Many students do their reading not
only for understanding the material given by teachers, but also for understanding
any text that they find in their daily activity. Kenneth Beare (2016) states that
students should have in learning English as foreign language. Students will read to
learn many things in their reading, such as learn about new information and ideas.
enables the reader to create a mental representation of the text (van den Broek &
To comprehend a text, Westwood (2001, p.31) argues that readers must use
information they already possess to filter, interpret, organize and reflect upon the
incoming information they get from the text. He think that efficient interpretation
locating the main idea, making connections, questioning, inferring and predicting.
therefore, comprehending the English reading text is not an easy thing, so that is
why there are many students find difficulties in comprehending the English text.
a strategy to deal with these obstacles such as skimming and scanning. Harmer
(2001, p. 202) stated that skimming is a technique in looking for a text to get a
quick idea of the gist of a text. While, scanning strategy is the strategy for quickly
(Brown,2001). Both of the strategies help the students to read in a more focused
strategy to quickly looking for the idea and specific information of the text.
was found that student met difficulties in comprehending the text given. Students
sometimes could not construct the meaning from text that they read. They found
confused with determine main idea in a text. It indicated that their reading
make sense of what they read by relating experiences and knowledge that are
means that making inferences makes conclusions based on information from the
text. Inferring means going beyond the words of the text to make a judgment
about what is not there but is implied. Readers make inferences about how
characters feel although the authors may not have explicitly written about the
characters‟ feelings. Oakhill (1993) shows that the specific difficulties of poor
should have difficulty with text integration and inferences, there is no evidence
that students have straight forward memory deficit. However, the research with
adults has shown that working memory relates to comprehension skill. Besides,
the students are difficult not only in making inferences to connect up the ideas in
text but also inferring the meanings of particular words from context.
understand. Students begin by learning the definition of main idea and then
applying this definition to identify the main idea in sentences and short texts.
According to Aulls (2009), the main idea usually appears in one complete
sentence; it is the most important statement that explains the topic of a paragraph;
it is related to the majority of sentences in the paragraph; it may occur at any point
of the problems in learning English that the students had. Most of students obtain
a low score on a test in reading test. They admit that they do not understand the
passages; therefore they cannot find right answers to the questions. The students
cannot understand the text because they do not know the meaning of vocabularies
and they cannot find the mind idea. And they also find difficulty in inferences. In
addition, they lack of motivation to read. This can be due to the assumption that
reading is not their daily needs. They even think that reading is boring.
From the explanation above, the researcher can conclude most of students
at Muhammadiyah deal with some problems in comprehending text. They did not
understand what the text about because they lack of vocabulary. They are
uncomfortable with the language therefore they are easily frustrate when they
find some difficult words. This statement is still in a temporary and still needs
word with the result is they are confused with the meaning of the text. William
(2016) states, “There are a series of problems that hinder children‟s reading
In some previous studies are found that students get obstacles in reading
problems at the single-word level and poor comprehends have difficulties at the
this is just focus on problems at the single-word level and poor comprehends to
difficult. But the researcher wants to adopt about the difficulties in reading
Based on the problems above, this study is designed to find out the
obstacles that often arise in English teaching and learning process such as making
inference, determine main idea ,and to know and to analyze students strategy in
B. Research Questions
The research quenstions proposed in this study based on the problems of the
C. Research Objective
Hopefully, the significances of this research can be useful for the students
1. For the students, this research is expected not only to increase students‟
mastery, determined main idea and also how to make inference in long
2. For the English teacher, the researcher is hoped to be the one of some
inference reading.
3. For the other researcher, it is hoped that the research could be one of
E. Research Terminology
1. Obstacles
AS Hornby (1986), says the word obstacle means something in the way
which stop progress to make it difficult. Obstacle is a situation, an event that make
condition.
the way which stop progress to make it difficult and must be avoided or
overcome.
2. Reading comprehension
Pang et al. (2003) stated that reading is about understanding written texts.
It involves both perception and thought. It is also an interactive process that goes
on between the reader and the text, resulting in comprehending the text. The text
9
present letter, words, sentences, and paragraph that encode meaning. The reader
uses knowledge, skills, and strategies to determine the meaning. So, it means
reading is one of the skills which has to be mastered, because by reading, the
REVIEW OF LITERATURE
The purpose of reading is to make the reader gets the information of the text. If
someone wants to get the information which is written in the text, he should know
the meaning of the words and also the ideas of the text. By reading such as
newspaper, messages, etc, the reader will know everything. For students, the
ability to read will open up new world and opportunities. By mastering reading
skill, the students will be able to read everything especially in English language
by themselves.
between the reader and the text, the reader has to perform a number of
interpret the message by assigning meaning to the string of words, and finally
understand what the author‟s intention was.in the process there are three
process. The process through which the dynamic interaction of the reader‟s
background knowledge, the information inferred by the written language, and the
10
11
reading situation contextis constructing meaning”. This research shows that the
context. Besides, the researcher wants to show about the strategies in reading
Comprehension means making sense of what one reads. Active readers are
research defines that comprehension has developed for students in reading skill.
more pieces of information. Those pieces of information can come from long-term
memory (prior knowledge), but in reading comprehension at least one piece must
come from the text. The pieces of information can be simple or quite complex
ideas.
language. To comprehend text, one‟s decoding skills must allow for fluentreading
(reading that is as smooth and full of expression as when we talk), thus allowing a
skill for reading. Comprehension is the reason for reading. If readers can read the
words but do not understand what they are reading, they are not really reading.
knowledge and previous experience, information in the text, and the stance the
aspect of all of the definition and meaning, if readers cannot understand the
During reading the reader constructs different representations of the text that are
inherent in the text, on the relationship between the text and the knowledge and
abilities of the reader, and on the activities which the reader is engaged. It means
that a reader‟s must be domain knowledge interacts with the content of the text in
difficult in text, its‟ mean that the readers are not enough to comprehend in a text.
understanding words. True comprehension means making sense of what you read
and connecting the ideas in the text to what you already know. It also means
remembering what you have read. In other words, comprehending means thinking
13
connecting the main idea in text and remembering context. Comprehension is the
reason for reading; it encompasses the learning, growing, and evolution of ideas
interacting with text through the combination of prior knowledge and previous
experience, information in the text and the stance the reader takes in relationship
to the text (pardo, 2004). This means that the readers look the construct meaning
making meaning from text. The aim is to get a thorough understanding of what is
explained in the text rather than to get the meaning of isolated words or sentences.
representations of meaning from text ideas during the reading process. Therefore,
undertaking that involves many levels of processing. One of the most basic
aspects of understanding is the ability to deal with unfamiliar words found in the
text. Readers who struggle with word-level tasks use valuable cognitive space that
canbe allocated for deeper levels of text analysis. In predicting the meaning of
has been read, that is a complex skill that requires the use of various strategies to
between the main idea and supporting details, and summarize. Therefore, the
Reading is a thinking process. Effective readers know that when they read,
what they read is supposed to make sense. They monitor their understanding, and
when they lose the meaning of what they are reading, they often unconsciously
select and use a reading strategy (such as rereading or asking questions) that will
help them reconnect with the meaning of the text. Reading skills and strategies
known information, identifying the main idea, and generating and answering
all readers, no matter what their skill levels, benefit greatly from direct instruction
Yusuf and Amanda (2008), says that in the process of learning, learning
strategies take an important role. The appropriate use of learning strategies can
language learning including reading skill is prominent because they are tools for
strategies are regarded as an important aspect of language learning since they can
help students to overcome reading problems. Classify learning strategies into two
types as follow.
a. Metacognitive Strategies
For example, as students are studying for a test they might ask themselves, “Are
gap in my knowledge, do I know what to do about it? Can I repair the gap so that
aware of the cognitive resources they have to accomplish a goal, they check the
their attempts, they test, revise and evaluate their strategies for learning, and they
1984).
include looking at the pictures provided in text, reading the question before read
whole passage and other strategies which provided a way for students to
control over their reading. Before reading, they might clarify their purpose for
b. Cognitive Strategies
to read a passage several times, each time for different purpose such as to get the
reading behaviors as skimming a text to get the general idea, scanning a text for a
structure. Good readers proceed generally from front to back of documents when
reading. They are selectively attentive. They sometimes make notes. They predict,
paraphrase, and back up when confused. They try to make inferences to fill in the
gaps in text and in their understanding of what they have read. Good readers
purposely try to integrate appropriate the text. They do not settle for literal
meanings but rather interpret what they have read, sometimes constructing
time of significant transition and adjustment. Stress arising from this period of
nature. At times, this stress can become so severe that it poses a serious threat to
academic progress. These resources can offer additional support and aid in the
the needs of these students is important in order to increase the probability that
they will achieve their educational goals. It means that the students get difficulty
Some people (2013), says that having reveal personal difficulties, the
students may wish/expect to continue to receive further support from them and
ask for quite a lot of their time. If they are unwilling to be referred to someone in
a more appropriate role, they may experience quite a lot of pressure to provide
this support directly. They may feel concern for the student and worry that they
may feel rejected if they do not offer support. It means that the students‟ needs are
more concentration, if the students do not concentrate for education, the students
have difficult with our skill. Therefore, the students should understand with our
students can increase their knowledge. If the students do not read, students get
information. We offer some reasons for why it is important for students to be able
to correctly read and offer suggestions for how to help develop this type of
19
the tasks they are assigned. These difficulties concern mainly three aspects:
retrieved from different textual sources, and making use of conventional forms
adopted by the academic community. Many students are unfamiliar with tasks like
this and some of them explicitly admitted, it had been difficult for them to
understand what they are expected to do. These difficulties may be related to
students‟ past schooling experience and the literacy practices they had been used
tool and students are more often asked to use it in knowledge reproduction tasks
than in knowledge construction ones. It means that students get more difficulty in
reading because students feel lazy to read. Reading comprehension is so useful for
them to obtain new insight which is called receptive skill, and Writing can help
derived from not knowing meanings of words or concepts, not capturing factual
20
information, not inferring about content, and not forming relationships among
include: a). Inferring information that is only implicit in a text. b). making
inferences to connect up the ideas in a text. And c). Inferring the meanings of
particular words from context. Three studies discuss about the difficulties in
reading comprehension. The above studies about inferring information that is only
reading task for many people due the fact that they can search for main points of
text at specific locations of paragraphs (i.e. the first, second or last sentence) but
explicit included local main idea, it is Explicit connective has two types of text
require readers to infer the underlying structure of the text, which is a difficult
task for students. Determining implied main idea is much more difficult and can
down. Determining a main idea of a text is one of the most difficult tasks in
The main idea is generally stated in the topic sentences, which is often the
first sentences in paragraph. The main idea is easier to identify when it is first or
the last sentences in the paragraph. It is more difficult to find when it is located in
drawn (Kate Nation, 2004). Therefore, if the reader does read in text, they will
infer the text that they have understood. Besides, main idea is important in text, so
that, main idea must look for firstly. After that, they do making inference in text.
Spivey ( 2011) show that most all texts have one sentence within a
paragraph or passage stating the author‟s message, or main idea. The main idea
can appear at the beginning, middle, or end of a paragraph or passage. Finding the
main idea becomes more difficult in the upper grades where the main idea may be
explicit (a complete sentence taken directly from the text) or implied (summarized
by evaluating the details in the text). The sentences in the text may have too much
detail to pick one main idea or so little information that there is no obvious
message.
The main idea helps readers recall important information. Locating the
main idea helps the reader understand the points the writer is attempting to
Whorter (2001) writes in his book entitled “Topics, Main idea, and Topics
sentences” State that the students learned earlier that the main idea of a paragraph
is most important point. The main idea is also the most general statement the
writer makes about the topic. In this brief paragraph, the main idea is expressed in
the first sentence. This sentence, known as the topic sentence, is the most general
statement in the paragraph. All the other sentences are specific details that explain
this main idea. In addition, the importance of identifying main ideas as essential to
studying effectively. .
comprehension because main idea is important information that tells more about
the overall idea of a paragraph or section of a text and most paragraphs have a
main idea that is either contained in general sentences or else suggested by several
that way, if the students do not find the inferring information that is only implicit
in a text included main idea, the students will difficult to read some books
C. Previous Study
There are some previous studies related to this research. A study entitled
problems at the single-word level and poor comprehends have difficulties at the
comprehension problem: those who have educated word recognition skills and
Problem and Strategies by Badria al Brashi from the University of UK. This study
was designed to yield data that would contribute to our understanding of the
nature of problems our students encounter in comprehending English texts and the
in the process of constructing main ideas. And they focused on main idea, global
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
A. Research Location
University. The address Jl. Muhammadiyah No. 91 Bathoh, Lueng Bata, Banda
Aceh.
B. Research design
standardized instrument is available that can validly and reliably measure program
outcomes‟‟
24
25
1. Population
the study”. McBurney, as quoted by Strydom and Venter (2002), refers to the
units; case records or other sampling units with which the research problem is
2. Sample
states that a sample is a subgroup of the target population that the researcher plans
to study for generalizing sampling. In this research, the researcher embedded self-
sampling focuses on sampling techniques that are based on the judgement of the
researcher.
data was to gain information related to the research questions stated in chapter
one. The technique used in this research will be described in detail as follow:
26
face-to-face interviews are the most common. Cohen, Manion, and Morrison
(2000, P.267) explained that the interview is not simply concerned with collecting
the same time, K. Vale ( 1996, P. 14) stated that an Interview is interchange of
view between two or more people on a topic of mutual interest, sees the centrality
An interview is using Via whats App research instrument in the form of verbal
set of questions.Because at that time the researchers could not conduct face -to -
researchers took steps to conduct using via whatsApp. The researchers asks the
have returned to their villages. and some of themdo not internet quota. The
researchers hadto to wait several days for answers from participants. The
researcher sends a questionnaire throught Whats App to yield reliable and valid
data.
27
E. Data Analysis
The researcher used interview using via WhtasApp to get the students
conduct research in face-to-face manner. The stepsin analyzing the data are: (1)
the researcher collects data through interview by using via whatsApp. Then, the
the reserach problem.(2) After selecting the data, the reseracher displays those
data into good sentences. (3) After displaying data, the conclusions are drawn.
In this chapter, the writer presents the result of research. It involves the
the development of the College of Law ( STIH) which was founded in 1969.
admitting new students at the diploma and undergraduate levels. There are 6
have received B accreditation, the rest are C accreditation and some are still
1. Law faculty
-legal studies
2. Faculty of Economy
28
29
3. Technical Faculty
- Architecture
- Islamic Education
- TadrisBiologi
- Tadris Math
- Tadris English
6. Faculty Of Psychology
- psychology
7. Diploma Program 3
- Physiotherapy
- Hospitality
30
B. Data Description
The data were analyzed as qualitative data. This research was conducted in
one class with 12 students, to know the kind of difficulties faced by students and
comprehension. The researcher divides into two important and unimportant parts.
And from 12 respondents they answered that reading is very important and with
And second questions about the obstacles that they found in reading the
1. Unusual word
2. Lack of vocabulary
3. Background of knowledge
9. Inferring information
and specifically in English Education because by reading students know what are
the topics of the text, content, the purpose of the text, and of course with a variety
because with the reading we can understand what we have read and we can pick
comprehend it”. And another reason “reading comprehension it‟s very necessary
because we can understand reading is the ability to the process text, understand
the purpose of the text, and integrate with what the reader knows”. The ability of
process information.
limited vocabulary which when students read books or novels they find new
words that they don‟t know the meaning of the word and how to pronounce them.
Not only do they have limited vocabulary but also experience obstacles in
determining main ideas because not all main ideas are in the first paragraph and
the last paragraph of the sentence but in the middle of the paragraph it is more
explicit admitted, and also determining the main idea also sometimes make me
32
confused”. Main idea is one of the sobstacles that are often faced by the students.
Main idea will be easy to if it is at the first or the last sentence in the sentence of
the paragraph and it will be more difficult if the position is in the middle of a
sentence in a paragraph. Ajilla said that when the teacher gives questions in text
students still confused how to make inference in essay. According to Silmi “ when
teacher give a test about inference it‟s so difficult how to make inferencein a text”.
because during translating into the Indonesian language. They are lazy to look up
in a dictionary. In addition, they got difficult to take the main point of the text;
whereas they have known the meaning of vocabulary. As a result, they did not
assignments and reading long sentences they are confused to translate in Bahasa.
Nurul said that “ the obstacles that I found are when I have to translate it to
Bahasa, it pretty takes a long time to understand the meaning due to the
grammatical form, also the words that I don‟t know”. And other obstacles are lack
There are several reasons that put forward by students the first reasons,
information that we get the most easily is through readings, both newspapers,
magazines, novels, books, and so on. The lack of a reading culture among
students is the beginning of failure. The second is not doing exercise. Practice is
exercise that the teacher i got lees in understanding the meaning of the text”. The
intended training task is like doing the assignment given by the teacher, doing
our exercise function starts to try to solve the problem we feel. We will be more
relieved when we can master it ourselves. The third is less of listening profile,
listening is a skill that requires practice in mastering it. Sometimes students in the
learning process pay less attention and listen less when the teacher is explaining it
information well even just by hearing can lighten someone‟s burden. In the
between students and teachers because by listening to students can understand and
remember what has been explained. According to Silmi “English is not our
mother tongue, and also everyone is not the same though in understanding his
English”.
34
comprehension to know students‟ strategies were taken from interviews with the
subject. The presentation of findings, in these parts covers five kinds of reading
students can create a person‟s beliefs, awareness, and knowledge about the
processes and ways of thinking process and memory. Metacognitive is also a form
of ability to see the ability in oneself so that what is done is controlled optimally
and metacognitive is also a mental activity that makes a person can manage and
monitor the entire thought process that is done while solving a problem.
do first look at the picture before reading the question because it makes it easy for
me to answer the questions”. The students can do the planning in reading text,
how much time is used, how to start it and students can evaluate themselves that
contain the decisions that are generated based on the results of thinking and
learning.
35
obtaining information, strategies that are used such as who, what, why, when,
where, and how. According to Ajilla “ i use cognitive when i read a book toknow
more about the text”. In the reading process so students can generate or create
c. Increasing vocabulary
vocabulary, how we can succeed in learning the language. When students found
unfamiliar words, the students were looking up in the dictionary or they have
used a smartphone to find out the meaning.. Because the dictionary was the
easiest tool that can solve their difficulties in learning vocabulary. Sometimes the
students like to bring an electric dictionary and use a dictionary in their laptop.
Not only translating the words but also students could write unfamiliar words.
d. Making note
very useful information was stored there. It was necessary to keep the notebook
well-organized and also well-designed. In this case, the subject was no talking
only about a list of words that were used by students but also it makes easy when
36
the teacher gave tasks but notebooks should be tools for students to store the
vocabulary that they have learned. So, In this case, students would feel
responsible for choosing the right expressions and pay more attention to what they
e. Making a conclusion
of the text and easy to remember without having to read the text thoroughly. And
by making conclusions students can remember what was conveyed because they
wrote using their own language. Some of the students said that” when reading a
text they were sometimes making a conclusion in a small book and also write a
C. Discussions
This part presents the discussion of the research findings. There are two
research questions proposed in this study. The discussion focuses on the finding
of the two proposed research questions. The first discussion is about the obstacles
comprehension.
Reflecting on the first research problems, this research found that the
students had difficulties and matched according to the results of research using the
37
comprehension. Based on the theory that Oakhill (1993), said that students had 3
kinds of difficulty. First was difficult in inferring information that was only
implicit in a text which included the implied main idea. The second was to make
inferences to connect up the ideas in a text. The third was inferring the meaning of
particular words from context. So, the students had really difficult in reading
comprehension.
derived from not knowing meanings of words or concepts, not capturing factual
information, not inferring about content, and not forming relationships among
text, especially in a long text. The researcher had an opinion about students‟
difficulty in reading was proved by students‟ confession using the interview. The
first was lack of vocabulary, the second was making inferences to connect the
ideas in a text, and the third was determining main idea. And the last was
supported in answering the main idea and inferring the meaning. It usually could
vocabulary in the text, the student could predict the main idea and students could
reading comprehension. They were understanding the picture to the text, using
From those strategies, they mostly tended to use cognitive strategies to answer the
text quickly because it must be dealing with meaning, a reading chunk of text,
ideas of the text, predicting and inferring the text. And also sometimes students
conclude, taking note, to make it easy to memorized what the teacher explained.
CHAPTER V
A. Conclusion
Based on the research finding and discussion, the researcher had a conclusion
text.
B. Suggestion
within a short time, the findings provide much information that will be useful and
can be used by students, lecturers, and also readers who focus on reading
comprehension.
39
40
1. Students
result, it will improve their reading skills, and also they can share with
2. Lectures
students, but also for other fields to have a good result in reading. I
3. Readers
REFERENCES
Becky. L. S., M.E.d. (2011).what’s the big idea? Finding and understanding the
main Idea, free Educational handouts for teacher and parents
Danhua Wang. (2009), Factors Affecting the comprehension of global and local
main idea, Journal of college Reading and Learning, page 36
Comprehension item Difficulty for expository prose passages for each of
three item types: Main Ideas, Inferences and Explicit Statement, page 5,37
Durkin, D. (1993). Teaching them to read (6th Ed.). Boston: Allyn & Bacon.
Makar (Ed.), (2005), Using Assessment items to study students difficulty reading
and interpreting graphical representations of distributions, New Zealand:
University of Auckland
Mc whorter, Topics, Main idea, and Topic Sentences, Page : 150 For Adult
Learning and Literacy, Volume 1: Chapter Two