STUDENTS' DIFFICULTIES IN READING RECOUNT TEXT 4.7

4.2       Discussion

The research result proved that there were five difficulties that encountered by the second semester Student at Broadcasting and TKJ Classes of SMK N 3 Kota Bengkulu in reading recount text. The first  was finding main and specific ideas test. The Broadcasting class correct answer average scores for Finding main and specific ideas tests indicated that the most of the students were still low in comprehending reading recount text, especially in find the main and specific ideas in reading the text. According to Pressley et al. (1997) the weak readers are generally passive and do not attempt to connect ideas in the text to what they already know. Successful readers, however, actively draw on their background knowledge to connect to and within the text (van den Broek & Kremer, 2000). It was also similar with TKJ class who still had some difficulties in comprehending the recount text.

Comprehending whole text test aims to know students’ difficulty of understanding in the whole text. The Broadcasting class average score indicated that the class had good abilities in understanding the text. The class had less difficulties in understanding the whole text. The background knowledge is very important to the student to comprehend, if they want to decide in choosing the good answers.  Their enough background knowledge and vocabulary helped them to answer the question correctly. However, there were some students still had some difficulties in answering the comprehending whole text test. In TKJ class, some students had low correct answer scores. It was caused by their limited of background knowledge. In similiar, O’malley (1995) states the lack of background knowledge also makes difficult to students in comprehending text.

It was also same the as making conclusion test, the TKJ class still had some difficulties to answer this test type. It was caused by their poor abilities to comprehend the text, especially in making conclusion and draw passage (Puspita, 2001). In other hand, Long-term memory in turn effects through its contents and organized structure the ability to understand the applied lan­guage and its abstractness as well as pragmatic and other meanings of language (Numminen, 2002). It means students with short-memories will have difficulty in making conclusion about the text. In this test type, Broadcasting class did not have many difficulties in making conclusion and drawing passage. It was proved by their correct average score that was high. It means the class had good ability in comprehending the recount text.

The third test type was vocabulary test. It aims to know students’ difficulty of vocabulary (O’malley, 1995). In vocabulary test, The data showed that Broadcasting students had less difficulties in reading recount text. It means the Broadcasting class had enough vocabulary mastery to comprehend the recount text well. This test type aims to know students’ difficulties of vocabulary mastery. The correct average scores of comprehending whole text, making conclusion and vocabulary test concluded that Broadcasting students had high ability to comprehend recount text and was able to qualify the English subject minimal score standard (KKM). In TKJ class, their correct answer average scores of vocabulary test showed that they still had some difficulties in answering the question.  It was caused by their low vocabulary mastery.

The last test type was grammar test. Grammar test aims to know students’ difficulty of grammar. Gambrell et al (2002, P. 151) states lack of grammatical knowledge creates difficulty for student in reading text. Broadcasting and TKJ correct answer scores  proved that both class had poor grammatical  mastery. It was caused by their poor grammatical and functional mastery, so they still had some difficulties in discriminating the correct answer grammatically.