AN ANALYSIS OF THE SECOND YEAR STUDENTS’ ABILITY IN IDENTIFYING KEY IDEA IN A SENTENCE AT ENGLISH DEPARTMENT OF BUNG HATTA UNIVERSITY

Abstrak

Abstract

This research was attempted to describe students’ ability in identifying key idea. The design of this research was descriptive. The population of this study was the second year students at English Department of Bung Hatta University. The members of this population were 108. To get the sample, the researcher used cluster random sampling. The number of sample was 40 students. The data of this study were gathered by using reading testin identifying key idea in the short answerform. Before the researcher gave the real test, she tried out it. The result of the try out was used to analyze item difficulties, item discrimination and the reliability of the test. It was found that the reliability of the test was very high (0.94). Based on the result of this research, the ability of the second year students in identifying key idea was moderate(72.50 %). It was found that the ability of students in identifying simple key idea in simple sentence was moderate (67.50%). Then, the ability of students in identifying combined key idea in compound sentence was moderate (82.50%). And, the ability of students in identifying related key idea in complex sentence was moderate(85%). Based on the findings, it can be concluded that the ability of the second year students in identifying key idea was moderate. In line with this conclusion,the lecturers are suggested to improve students’ ability in identifying key idea through asking the students to look for printed or online material about key idea exercises.

Key words: Ability, Reading,Key Idea