STUDENTS’ READING COMPREHENSION PROBLEMS AT ENGLISH EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM OF BENGKULU UNIVERSITY IN THE ACADEMIC YEAR 2022/2023

This research aims to know students’ problems in reading comprehension at English
education student Bengkulu University in the Academic Year 2022/2023 and to know
the causes. This research is using mix-method, quantitative and qualitative. The sample
for this research was 92 students at English education student Bengkulu University in
the Academic Year 2022/2023. Data collection was carried out by using a questionnaire
and interview. The questionnaire consists of 23 items representing 6 factors of student
reading comprehension problem adapted from Lisiana et al. (2021) and Westwood
(2001). The questionnaire has been validated using expert judgment. The reliability of
this instrument was obtained using the Cronbach's Alpha formula in Microsoft Excel
software. The results of the study showed that student have difficulties in vocabulary
knowledge (25.02%), students environment (20.11%), lack of strategies (18.17%),
learner’s background (15.15%), teaching method (15.15%), and length of text (7.02%).
There are three internal factors that cause student problems in reading comprehension
: English vocabulary contains words with multiple meanings, longer texts require
students to reread multiple times to grasp the main ideas, the pressure they feel when
reading English texts, they face difficulties when reading a text without any prior
knowledge or experience. Then the external factors is the method of lecture in reading
classes, students use different strategies in reading comprehension so they can’t make
collaborative to other students.
Keywords : Reading Comprehension, Student’s Problem