An Analysis of the Third Year Students’ Ability in Understanding Narrative Text at English Department of Bung Hatta University

Abstrak

English is an international language and it will be a reason why the language learners all over the world should be able to use English. Reading is one of four basic skills that need to be mastered in learning English. Komiyama (2009:1) says that reading is an important skill for English language learners today because it supports the development of overall proficiency and provides access to crucial information at work and in school.There are some kinds of texts in reading. Narrative text is one of those kinds of texts which have been learned by the third year students at English Department of Bung Hatta University. Related to this, this research focused on the ability in reading narrative text, especially in understanding generic structure of narrative text (orientation, complication, and resolution).

The aim of this research was to figure out the ability of the third year students at English Department of Bung Hatta University in understanding narrative text. The design of this research was descriptive. This research was limited to the students’ ability in understanding orientation, complication, and resolution of narrative text. The number of population members of this research was 31 students. The researcher used total sampling technique to get the sample. The instrument of collecting data was reading test in multiple choice form. To know the reliability of the test, the researcher used split half technique. The reliability index of this test was 0.89 and it was categorized into very high. It means that the test was reliable.

In general, the researcher found that the third year students’ ability at English Department of Bung Hatta University in understanding narrative text was good (38.71%). In specific, their ability in understanding orientation of narrative text was very good (67.74%), their ability in understanding complication of narrative text was moderate (32.26%), and their ability in understanding resolution of narrative text was good (38.71%).

The result of this research showed that the abilityof the third year students in understanding narrative text especially about generic structure at English Department of Bung Hatta University was good. Based on the result, the researcher gives suggestions for the lecturers, students, and the next researchers. The researcher suggests the lecturers of Reading subject to improve the third year students’ ability by giving them more explanation and exercises or review especially about understanding the complication in reading narrative text.For students, the researcher suggests them to improve their ability in reading narrative text and to learn more about the complication and the resolution of narrative text in order to improve their ability in understanding the generic structure of narrative text. At last, the researcher suggests the next researchers to find out and analyze the factors that can influence the students’ ability in understanding narrative text.

Key word: Reading, narrative text, descriptive research