AN ANALYSIS OF THE FIRST YEAR STUDENTS’ PROBLEMS IN LEARNING ENGLISH AT SMAN 7 PADANG

Abstrak

Abstract

Many people all over the world use English for communication either as a second language or foreign language. It shows that Indonesian students have to learn and study about English. The students still faced problems in learning English. The purpose of this research was to describe students’ problems in learning English. The researcher used the descriptive method and the population of this research was the first year students of SMAN 7 Padang. The researcher used cluster random sampling to select the sample. The data of the research were students’ problems in learning English. The researcher tried out the instrument to find out the reliability of instrument. The researcher used Variant Formula and Alpha Formula. The reliability of the test was 0.90 and it was categorized was very high level. It is indicated the test was reliable. In general, the result of this research showed that 28 out of 34 students (82.35%) had problems in learning English. Specifically, based on each indicator of students’ problem in learning English from the data analysis, 31 out of 34 students (91.18%) had problems in motivation, 28 out of 34 students (82.35%) had problems in attitude, 29 out of 34 students (85.29%) had problems in personality and the last, 27 out of 34 students (79.41%) had problems in perseverance. Based the research result, it is suggested that the students should increase their motivation and should have more spirit, because the students’ motivation was low.

Key Words: Problems, Motivation, Attitude, Personality, Perseverance