AN ANALYSIS OF THE SECOND YEAR STUDENTS’ DIFFICULTIES IN COMPREHENDING PARAGRAPHS OF THE EDUCATIONAL NEWS OF JAKARTA POST AT ENGLISH DEPARTMENT

Abstrak

The purpose this research was to study the difficulties of the second year students of English Language Teaching Department of Bung Hatta University in comprehending the paragraphs in the educational news of Jakarta Post. The population of this researchwas the second year students of English Department of Teacher Training and Education Faculty of Bung Hatta University. The population members was 102 students, and the size of sample was 32 students. The researcher used cluster random sampling technique to get representative sample. The instrument used to get the data was reading test in the form of multiple choice. To know the reliability of the test, the writer used Split-Half method and Pearson Product Moment Formula, then the result of correlation coefficient was analyzed by using Spearmen-Brown formula. The result of this study showed that in general the second year students of English Language Teaching Department had difficulties in comprehending paragraphs of educational news of Jakarta Post. It was proved that there were 20 students (62.5 %) who were categorized had difficulties and 12 students (37.5 %) had no difficulties. The finding of this research lead the researcher to conclude that the second year students of English Language Teaching Department of Bung Hatta University had difficulties in comprehending the paragraphs of educational news of Jakarta Post.

Key words: reading, difficulties