Electronic Theses and Dissertation

ABSTRACT
Siti Raisha. 2017. The Investigation of EFL Students’ Reading Comprehension Problems and Reading Strategies. A Case Study to the Fifth Semester of Undergraduate Students at English Education Department at Syiah Kuala University of 2014/2015 Academic Year. Thesis. Graduate Program in English Language Education of Syiah Kuala University.
Advisors: (1) Prof. Dr. Usman Kasim, M. Ed.(2) Dr. Iskandar Abdul Samad, MA.
Key Words: reading comprehension, reading problems, reading strategies.
The objectives of this study were: (1) to identify the reading comprehension problems which are faced by the students of English Education Department at Syiah Kuala University in reading English text, (2) to find out the efforts which are made by those students in overcoming their reading problems, (3) to investigate the reading strategies which are employed by them and (4) to identify the reading strategy which is dominantly employed. The study involved fifty undergraduate students of English department students of Syiah Kuala University of 2014/2015 academic year. The methods used in this study were qualitative and quantitative study in nature in which the instruments used were questionnaires and interview. The techniques of data collection were conducted through questionnaires and interview. The data collected were analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively. The findings indicated that the students experienced reading comprehension problems both on linguistic and non-linguistic areas. Unfamiliar vocabulary is the biggest students’ reading comprehension problem with the average percentage of 81% (M=3.2), followed by syntactical problems such as difficulty in understanding compound complex sentences (76%, M= 3.0), and conditional sentences (74%, M=2.8). The findings from interview revealed that the students made some personal efforts such as improving vocabulary knowledge, reading frequency and habit as well as improving their content knowledge to overcome their reading problems. The result also revealed that students use various kind of reading strategies. Some strategies reached at high level use, while some other strategies reached at medium level use. The most frequently used reading strategies were skimming (M=4.48). In conclusion, the fifth semester students of English Department of Syiah Kuala University of 2014/2015 academic year encountered several of reading comprehension problems including linguistic and non-linguistic reading problems. They also did some efforts in overcoming their reading comprehension problems. Further, they used some of reading strategies frequently and some other strategies infrequently.

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