CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION
3.1.4. Students’ difficulties when learning reading
Options Results
Students Percentage Students‟ limitation of vocabulary & grammatical structures 120 89
Students‟ lack of background knowledge 62 46
Time limitation 19 14
Students‟ lack of appropriate reading techniques 96 71 Table 2. Problems students face when learning reading
Table 2 represents problems which students are facing when dealing with while-reading tasks. Actually, there are several elements that can be counted on. The most difficult problem is the limited capacity of vocabulary and grammatical structures. 120 students in the survey (89%) assumed that if they experienced lots of new or difficult vocabulary and grammatical structures from the text, their motivation for reading would surely be decreased. The next one (71%) is the lack of appropriate reading strategies. It is obvious that students cannot do reading tasks easily if they do not have appropriate reading strategies. Therefore, it is very important for teachers to suggest their students essential reading strategies needed for each kind of reading tasks. 62 out of 135 students (46%) blamed on the lack of background knowledge to the topic of the reading text. Only 19 students (14%) thought that they did not have enough time for their reading.
From the above respondents, it could be safe to conclude that the biggest problem is the limitation of vocabulary and grammatical structures. Reading strategies are found to be a less challenge than vocabulary and grammatical structures. In the area of background knowledge, students find that they do not know anything in some aspects. Therefore, they have many difficulties when reading a strange topic. Some possible explanation considered by the researcher is that grade-10 students have very limited vocabulary, focus much on new words, lack of suitable techniques and are too dependent on teachers, peers or dictionaries.
3.1.5. Students’ effort for improving reading ability
In order to improve reading ability, all the students need a lot of effort. The statistics in Chart 8 shows that when having difficulties in reading, most of students (53%) waited for their teacher‟s correction; 26% asked the teacher for help and 24% discussed with their friends to find the right answers. This reveals a fact that in reading classes, the teacher might not encourage students to work in pairs/ groups to save time and have a better result in reading. Their reading lessons, therefore, cannot be effective as the students passively depend on their help. Only 16% chose searching for reading materials on the Internet. It is obvious that students cannot benefit from relevant reading materials, especially on the Internet. In short, what students have done seem to be unsuitable and ineffective. Teachers should guide students to look for best solutions to their students‟ problems easier. Added to that, it is advisable to use appropriate techniques for each kind of activity.
53%
26% 24%
16%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
A B C D
Chart 8. Students’ ways of overcoming difficulties
3.1.6. Students’ preferences for participation in while-reading tasks
As can be seen from chart 9, 61% of the students preferred working in groups of three to five. 27% were fond of working in pairs. Only 12% of the students were in favor of working individually. Actually, group work enables the students to activate their existing knowledge of the topic, to share their experiences, to increase the students‟ motivation for reading and to enhance the participation of the students. Working in pairs gives chances for the shy students to speak out. Perceiving the advantages of group work or pair work, teachers will succeed in stimulating their students to participate in reading activities and students will have opportunities to improve their reading ability.
12%
27%
61%
work individually work in paires work in groups
Chart 9. Students’ preferences for participation in while-reading tasks 3.1.7. Students’ expectation towards teachers’ reading techniques
As can be viewed from table 3, the students wished to get a great deal of support from their teachers to overcome difficulties in learning reading. The majority, 73% of all students expected to get essential reading techniques, which reveal that the grade 10 students lacked sufficient reading techniques. They need to be provided with more reading techniques to become effective readers. 66% of the students in the survey wished to have more different kinds of reading materials suitable to their abilities and interests. It is true that students want to read what they like and what are relevant to them. 84 students involving in this study (62%) would like their teachers to encourage them to activate their previous knowledge into reading texts. 59% desired to acquire new key words needed for the reading text so that they could deal with reading tasks easily. It is not surprising to see that only 3% wanted to read the text as many times as they expect. It is hoped that teachers are
supposed to be instructors that need to be flexible in teaching techniques so that they can help students overcome difficulties in language learning, especially in learning reading.
Options Results
Students Percentage Encouraging you to activate your previous knowledge
into reading texts 84 62
Offering you as many chances to read the passage as you
expect 4 3
Providing you with certain key words 80 59
Suggesting you essential reading techniques needed for
each kind of reading tasks 99 73
Exploiting different kinds of reading materials suitable to
your reading ability and your interest 89 66
Table 3. Students’ expectation towards teachers’ reading techniques 3.2. Data analysis and discussion of the teachers’ survey questionnaire 3.2.1. Teachers’ attitude towards reading skill
The results obtained from survey questionnaire for the teachers revealed that, 8 out of 9 (89%) teachers have positive attitude towards reading. To them, reading is important and beneficial to their students. However, only one teacher (11%) did not highly appreciate the important role of reading. The reason for this can be the fact that this teacher focused most on teaching grammar and vocabulary.
3.2.2. Teachers’ attitude towards while-reading tasks
As regards the tasks, over half of the teachers agreed that reading tasks were OK. One of them said tasks were good while two other teachers thought they were bad for the reasons that the tasks in each lesson were not balanced. Some lessons had too many tasks, so time allowance was not enough. In addition, there was not a variety of activities in each lesson.
The types of tasks in this lesson seemed similar to ones in the others. Asking and answering questions, multiple choice exercises and T/F exercises are the most common in
every lesson. These monotonous tasks did not increase students‟ interest and motivation and led to poor involvement in the classroom.
Comment field very bad bad OK good very good
Tasks 0 2 6 1 0
Table 4. Teachers’ attitude towards while-reading tasks
Through the statistics collected, a fact was improved that, reading skill is important to students. And most of the teachers were aware of the suitability of while-reading tasks.
Various tasks make reading lesson more effective.