An Analysis of Vocational High School Students’ Difficulties in Reading Comprehension

Abstract

The aims of this study was to find out the difficulties of students at SMKN 2 Rangkasbitung in reading comprehension and compared with aspects of decoding and retention difficulties. As well as internal and external factors. This study used descriptive qualitative method. The data that was needed by this study is direct data, namely through questionnaires with students. The results show that, students who have difficulty reading in the aspect of comprehension as big as 22%, decoding difficulties 23%, and retention difficulties 24%. For internal factors as big as 15%, and external factors 16%. Based on the results, it can be conclude that almost of 29 students in (APH 1) class at SMKN 2 Rangkasbitung have difficulty in reading comprehension, decoding, and retention aspect. Dominant difficulty in the aspect of reading comprehension namely, they often misunderstand the meaning of sentences. Next the decoding aspect with the dominant difficulty is, they find it difficult to pronounce words and recognize words out of context. Then the retention aspect with the most dominant difficulty is, they have a hard time connecting what they read with previous knowledge. And internal factors that dominate their reading difficulties is, they feel afraid when reading English texts. And for external factors, they lack reading facilities at school.