An Analysis of Difficulties in Intensive Reading Faced by Eight-Grade Students of State Junior High School 5 Kota Kupang in The School Year 2022/2023

Abstract

The title of this research is an analysis of difficulties in intensive reading faced by eighth-grade students of state junior high school 5 Kota Kupang in the school year 2022/2023. Based on the background of this research there were two problems which were investigated, namely: (1) What are the difficulties faced by the eighth-grade students of state junior high school 5 Kota Kupang in intensive reading? (2) What factors contribute to the difficulties in intensive reading faced by eighth-grade students of state junior high school 5 Kota Kupang? Thus, the aims of this research are: (1) To know the difficulties in intensive reading faced by eighth-grade students of state junior high school 5 Kota Kupang. (2) To identify factors that contribute to difficulties in intensive reading faced by eighth-grade students of state junior high school 5 Kota Kupang. The research methods used in this research were qualitative and quantitative method with tests and interviews as the techniques of data collection. Test was used to answer research problem number 1 and interview was used to answer research question number 2. The data sources of this research were the eighth-grade students of junior high school 5 Kota Kupang in the school year 2022/2023. The results of this research show that (1) students found difficulties in intensive reading in grammar and information structure aspects. (2)  the factors that contribute to students’ difficulties in intensive reading were students' background, teaching techniques, and learners’ environment. Based on the results of this research, there are suggestions for students, teachers, and other researchers. First, to improve students’ intensive reading skills, they have to read a lot of articles or books with different topics and also find their interest in reading. Second, Teachers need to try different methods of teaching English in classroom especially to improve students’ intensive reading skills.