ENGLISH STUDY PROGRAM STUDENTS’ DIFFICULTIES IN READING ELT JOURNAL ARTICLES

This study aims to determine the difficulties faced by English Education Study
Program students' at Bengkulu University in reading ELT journal articles. The
population in this study amounted to 109 students of the 6th semester English
Education Study Program students' at Bengkulu University, the sample of this
study amounted to 84 students from three classes A, B, and C which were taken
randomly. Data was taken using a questionnaire made based on Sulistyo's (2011)
theory of factor understanding reading. The results of the questionnaire validity
test obtained 25 valid and reliable with a Cronbach's Alpha value of 0.891. The
results showed that students have difficulties in 5 aspects, among others: (1)
Linguistics Factor especially in Identifying Grammatical Competence. (2)
Organizational Structure Knowledge especially on textual competence. (3) Micro
Reading especially on Identification of topics, main idea, and detail information,
Understanding inferring logically and assumptions, and Utilizing Several Clues in
Sentential. (4) Reading Strategies especially on Understanding discourse markers.
(5) World Background Knowledge on this term, student don’t have any
difficulties
Keyword: ELT Journal Articles, Difficulties