STUDENTS' DIFFICULTIES IN READING RECOUNT TEXT

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

1.1  Background of Research

Readers are not reading yet if they do not know what they read. According to Bajwa (2007) reading is a gateway to the world of knowledge and understanding. It is not simply pronouncing the words rather it is recognizing the words with their complete understanding. It is an ability which readers gain after having good awareness of grammar, phonology, and semantic of target language; social and culture knowledge and the knowledge of the target subject. There are many printed materials such as story books, texts, novels, magazines and newspapers written in English. Many students may have some desires to read many books because of reading they can know much information about world development and knowledge. Students are expected to be able to communicate in English since English has important role in facing global challenges. Dey (1993) states that researchers can not do a research before they read many sources of related books. It means how well they read them may determine how they well create a good research. Reading in qualitative data analysis is not passive. Readers read to comprehend, but intelligibility is not their only nor even our main goal.

In Indonesia, Senior High School (SMA) and Vocational High School (SMK) are on the same level but both have different curriculum, so both have also different purposes in some target language. According to Okoro (1993) the primary purpose of vocational education as any form of education is to prepare persons for employment in recognised occupations. There are significant differences between General and Vocational school. International Education (2009) explains that for the most part, general and academic education is seen as that which builds analytical skills, knowledge and critical thinking, while VET (Vocational Education and Training) develops craftsmanship, practical experience and practical problem-solving.

Students in Vocation High School (SMK ) has some materials of reading text, one of them is recount text. In reading recount text, however, students still have some difficulties. Identification of reading problems are important for teachers. They must find out some methods to teach the recount text in order to help students solve their reading problems. Firdawati (1998) grouped the problems of students in Vocational  School  into the following terms :

1.      Lack of background knowledge in reading text.

2.      Difficulties in enlarging topic.

3.      Limited time in reading.

4.      Lack of reading materials.

5.      Lack of reading comprehension strategies.

Most of students do not realize that English is important for them. The students tend to study vocabulary or pronunciation and also especially reading included it as important things.

Abdollahzadeh (2009) states that there are two reasons why reader still have some difficulties in comprehending texts ; first, the reader’s limited experience and domain relevant knowledge and second, appropriate texts. Beside that, comprehension difficulties have many causes such difficulties with word recognition and decoding, fluency, and poor short-term or working memory. Thus, comprehension process can be challenging for any student with impoverished language and background knowledge (Kieffer, 2010:600).

Comprehending reading text is one of the elements that should be mastered by the students. Student can use their background knowledge in reading text. It can help them, but the lack of background knowledge also makes difficult to student in comprehending reading text. Background knowledge interacts with information in the text. It can be clear differences in comprehending text between people who have background knowlegde about the text and people who have not.

Based on the writer’s experiences, students also have problem where they can not clearly differenciate between narrative and recount text. Narrative and recount text, both use past tense form of sequences of event. This problem is so clear when student in writing. If the teacher instructs them to write recount text, they write narrative text that has a conflict in it. In fact, conflict is an essential difference between narrative and recount text.

Based on the background above, it is important to the researcher to conduct a research about “Descriptive Analysis of Students’ Difficulties in Reading Recount Text at SMK N 3 Kota Bengkulu”.

1.2 Research Questions

What were the difficulties faced by the second semester student at Broadcasting and TKJ Classes of SMK N 3 Kota Bengkulu in finding main and specific ideas, comprehending whole texts, making conclusion, vocabulary and grammar tests in reading recount texts?

1.3 Limitation of the Research

The limitation of the research focused on the second semester Student at Broadcasting and TKJ Classes of SMK N 3 Kota Bengkulu in reading recount text?

1.4 Objective of the Research

1. To describe the difficulties of the second semester Student at Broadcasting class of SMK N 3 Kota Bengkulu in reading recount text.
2. To describe the difficulties of the second semester Student at TKJ Class of SMK N 3 Kota Bengkulu in reading recount text.

1.5 The Significance of The Research

1. The result of this research would be beneficial for English teacher in developing teaching reading at the second semester students of Broadcasting and TKJ classes of SMK N 3 Kota Bengkulu.

2.  It would be useful for English teacher to guide the students in developing their ability in reading recount text.

3.  For other researchers, it was expected that the result of this research will help them in finding references or resources for further research.

1.6                                                  Definition of Key Terms

1.         Descriptive analysis is to analyze the data and then describe facts or results sistematically. 

2.       Recount text is to tell sequence of events that happened in past time.

3.      SMK /Vocational school is a school which prepare the students to get jobs with some specific skills.