AN ANALYSIS OF STUDENTS’ DIFFICULTIES IN READING COMPREHENSION AT SMPN 1 LAWANG

Reading comprehension is a fundamental basic skill in English language learning, alongside writing, speaking and listening skills. In Indonesia, learning English as a foreign language often results in students not receiving sufficient instruction in reading comprehension. This becomes problematic as students face various challenges in learning. This research aims to identify the various difficulties students experience in reading comprehension. Not only that, the factors causing student difficulties need to be discovered through this research. A mixed-method approach, incorporating both quantitative and qualitative techniques, was used in this study, with questionnaires and interviews serving as data collection tools. Simple random sampling was used in this research to determine the research sample. 32 students from an eighth-grade class at SMPN 1 Lawang were selected as samples in this study. From the research results, it was found that several difficulties experienced by students included difficulties related to vocabulary, difficulties in understanding reading text, and also difficulties related to generic structure and grammar. Students also face difficulties in concentrating and predicting sentences that will appear in the text while reading. Additionally, it was found that students' lack of motivation to read, lack of interest in reading texts, also teachers' unclear explanations were significant internal and external factors contributing to these difficulties. In conclusion, there are several difficulties and causal factors faced by eighth-grade students at SMPN 1 Lawang in reading comprehension.