ABSTRACT

Tasmiyati, Mia. 2020. Students’ Problems in Reading Comprehension at the Eleventh Grade of SMA Negeri 7 Banjarmasin in Academic Year 2020/2021. Thesis. English Language Education Study Program, Faculty of Teacher Training and Education, Lambung Mangkurat University, Banjarmasin. Advisors: (I) Dr. Jumariati, M. Pd, and (II) Elvina Arapah, M. Pd.

Key words: reading comprehension, student’s problem

Reading is one of language skills which is intended to understanding words by words, sentences by sentences, paragraph by paragraph in a text. This research purposed to find out what are the students’ problems in reading comprehension at the eleventh grade students  of SMA Negeri 7 Banjarmasin. A  study on the students’ problems in reading comprehension is necessary to map the students’ problems in order that the teachers or school can plan appropriate treatment in  the future.

This research uses quantitative method. The population is ten classes which are consist of 395 students of eleventh grade and the sample is 123 students who are selected by using purposive sampling. A questionnaire was used as the instrument.

The findings of the research show that there is a students’ problem in reading comprehension. The problems are comprehending the English texts, translating new vocabulary, finding specific information from a text, some factors associated with students boring activities in reading, low interest motivation, and inappropriate reading strategies.

Based on the result, it  is suggested to the students to motivate themselves and to be more interested in reading English text in order to increase their reading comprehension skill. The teacher have to use interesting activities to make the students more motivated  and interested to learn English.