ANALYZING STUDENTS’ DIFFICULTIES IN READING COMPREHENSION TEST(A STUDY AT SMA NEGERI 2 LHOKSEUMAWE)

ABSTRACT Zuhra. 2011. Analyzing Students’ Difficulties in Reading Comprehension Test. (A Study at SMAN 2 Lhokseumawe). Thesis. Graduate Program in English Language Education of Syiah Kuala University. Advisors: (1) Dr. Usman Kasim, M. Ed. (2) Abdul Manan, M. Sc., M. A., Ph. D. Key words: test, reading comprehension question types This study entitled “Analyzing Students’ Difficulties in Reading Comprehension Test” was intended to (1) find out the most difficult reading comprehension question type faced by the students in reading test and (2) why the students faced the difficulties in that question. The sample of this study was the students of XIIIPS-4 and there were 24 students of XIIIPS-4. The instruments of this study were test, questionnaire, and interview guides. Based on the analysis of the test, the writer found that the most difficult reading comprehension question type faced by the students was inference question and this question also was classified into the difficult question based on index difficulty formula. From questionnaire, the writer found that most of the students failed to answer the inference questions correctly because they did not comprehend the questions asked to them and because of their weaknesses in mastering reading comprehension questions types. From the interview guide, the writer found that the students are poor in vocabulary mastery, poor in sentence structure, and had no knowledge about reading comprehension question types. Thus, this study found that the most difficult reading comprehension question type faced by the students was inference question. There were some factors influencing the students’ difficulties in answering the questions. First, the students did not comprehend the questions asked to them and it was caused by their weaknesses in differentiating the types of reading comprehension question. Besides, it was also influenced by their weaknesses in mastering wide range of vocabulary, sentence structure, and reading comprehension question types in English.