Effendi, Muhammad Nur. 2022. Reading Comprehension Difficulties Encountered by Students of English Language Education Study Program FKIP ULM Batch 2020. Sarjana’s Thesis, English Language Education Study Program, Faculty of Teacher Training and Education, Lambung Mangkurat University, Banjarmasin. Advisors: (I) Dr. Rina Listia, M.Pd; (II) Dr. Cayandrawati Sutiono, M.A.

Keywords: reading difficulties; reading comprehension; pandemic covid-19

As English is a foreign language in Indonesia, the students learning English language may find it challenging to comprehend the language. The difficulties faced by most of the students in Indonesia result in slow comprehension levels of the students and result in low scores. Despite the fact that several studies have explored reading comprehension difficulties, compared to this research has rare occasion of the Covid-19 pandemic. With the hopes of discovering new insights into the difficulties, this study conducts to analyze the challenges in reading comprehension in the English Language Education Study Program batch 2020.

The study used descriptive quantitative research. This research used a convenience sampling technique, throughout the one-week data collecting period, the researcher managed to gather 55 samples from a total population of 103 willing to take the instruments. The instruments used in this study were testing and a questionnaire, the testing designed in multiple-choice consists of 42 questions, and the questionnaire consist of 10 closed-ended statement. Then, the data from the instruments were presented in percentages and described in descriptive form.

Based on the research findings, the results of the testing were grammatical complexity and idioms based on reading test, with a total percentage of difficult items of 71,8%, and also about idioms with 70% difficult question type. The causes of the difficulties found from questionnaire; the researcher found that most students' reading comprehension difficulties were caused by the material during learning. The different material studied during lectures cause difficulties in comprehending reading material. Students were still unaccustomed to college learning since the last time they truly learned English in an offline class was when before the covid-19 pandemic. The researcher suggests that the lecturer should use a variety of learning materials that suited better with an online classes.