LLT Journal, e-ISSN 2579-9533, p-ISSN 1410-7201, Vol. 23, No.

2, October 2020

LLT Journal: A Journal on Language and Language Learning

http://e-journal.usd.ac.id/index.php/LLT
Sanata Dharma University, Yogyakarta, Indonesia

STUDENTS’ PERCEPTION ON READING COMPREHENSION

PROBLEMS IN NARRATIVE TEXT
*Gita Rosita Sari1, Asih Santihastuti2, and Eka Wahjuningsih3
Jember University, Jember
[email protected], [email protected], and [email protected]
*correspondence: [email protected]
DOI: 10.24071/llt.v23i2.2211
received 15 November 2019; accepted 5 May 2020

Abstract
This survey study aimed to know the students’ perception on reading
comprehension problems of narrative text. The sample participants were randomly
selected from the tenth grade students of SMAN 2 Jember in academic year of
2019/2020. Questionnaire adopted from Xiubo & Zhang (2006) was used to collect
the students’ perception and it was translated into Indonesian. The result showed
that the students still experienced some problems in reading narrative text. Based
on the result of the questionnaire, the most problematic aspect that hinder the
students’ reading comprehension was “Motivation” (65.6%), followed by
“Strategies” (63.7%), “Background Knowledge” (63.3%), “Reading Process
(60%)” and “Language Knowledge (55.4%)”. The result implied that the teacher
should focus on fostering students’ motivation by giving intensive course and
reading assignment based on the students’ interests. In order to see further into the
problem faced by the students, future reseacher could use direct assesment by using
diagnostic test or other measurement.

Keywords: students’ perception, reading comprehension problems, narrative text,

survey study.

Introduction
Reading in another language is more difficult than reading in the first language
(Nation, 2009, p.3). It is due to the reasons that readers should recognize the words
and sentences, and also understand the purpose of the text genre. Narrative text is
one of genres studied by the secondary students, and for some of them, they still
experience some problems in comprehending it. As it was found by Al-khaleefah
(2017, p.35) that there were various difficulty encountered by the students in
reading narrative text because it posed not only lexical difficulty but also rhetorical
structuring of its action throughout the story. In other words, students need to equip
themselves with sufficient reading skills to understand different genres, including
narrative text.
Regarding to Al-Khaleefah’s statement, it is implied that teacher should learn
about the students’ problem in order to help them to improve students’ reading
comprehension and make them better readers. One of the ways to identify students’
problem is by asking their perceptions. As it was found by Coddington et al (2009)
that the result of students’ perception contributed in predicting students’ reading

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problems and also recording the students’ achievement in reading. In other word,
the result of perception will be beneficial for students and teachers as an evaluation
in teaching learning process. The teacher can fix the students’ reading problems by
giving the right solution, such as provide suitable activities and provide effective
activities in reading process including jigsaw and peer tutoring, for example.
The issue of students’ perception on reading comprehension has been
conducted by some researches in different classes with different purposes, such as:
students’ perception in reading comprehension between narrative text and
expository text (Al-Khaleefah, 2017; Dickens & Meisinger, 2017; Repaskey et al,
2017), students’ pereption on reading difficulty in narrative text (Margaret et al,
2013), students’ perception on reading difficuly (Kheirzadeh & Elahe, 2012; Zuhra,
2012; Jayanti, 2016), students’ perception on pre-reading activities (Vindy & Carla,
2015), students’ perception in reading motivation (Coddington & Guthrie, 2009;
Brown et al, 2016). Among all previous studies, it was none in particular focusing
on the students’ problem. However, Jayanti (2016) finding out that the result of
students’ perception in reading difficulty will be beneficial for the teacher to
provide suitable activities or task that could help them to deal with the students’
problems in reading. Meanwhile, Repaskey et al (2017) found that the girls have
strong preference in reading narrative and expository text, but the boys only showed
strong preference in reading expository text. Therefore, I am interested in
conducting a research which only focused on students’ perception on reading
problems of narrative text. Considering the information above, this research
involves two research problems. First, what is the most problematic aspect of
reading comprehension that students face? Second, what pedagogical implications
can be drawn from the research?

Literature Review
This part present some aspects related to the theories of this research. They
cover about the theory of perception and reading comprehension problems.

The Theory of Perception

Perception is a process of the formation of an opinion and is linked to
experience, expectations and the general impression (Devito, 2009, p.56). Steward
and Stylvia (1974) also stated that perception is a process as one selectively
perceiver, organizes, and interpretation based on experinces. Similar with that
opinion, Demuth (2013) stated that perception is the result of considerable
intelligence and it influenced by the perceiver’s history. According to Forgus and
Melamed (1976), perception is the process of information extraction to determine
how individuals interpret their surronding. In other words, perception can be formed
when the individual has the experience or knowing the surrounding.
According to Lowell (1913, p.78) there are 4 stages on which the opinions can
be formed. First stage is where the impressions are formed which are positively or
negatively. The second stage, the issue is debated and the controversy in the mind
begins to settle which helps the perceiver to take up a definite position on either
side. The third stage, the perceiver takes a definite side and the fourth stage is
reached when the action on the perception becomes necessary. From the four stages
above, the output of perception can be divided into two kinds: positive perception
and negative perception.

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Reading Comprehension Problems

Students’ perception toward reading problems refers to the process of how the
students recognize and interpret their problems in reading comprehension. The
information was obtained by distributin the questionnaire (Coddington & Guthrie,
2009). Gunning (2002, p.7-13) divided the reading problems into: (1) Problems of
language knowledge, (2) Problems of background knowledge, (3) Problems of
motivation, (4) Problems of reading strategies, and (5) Problems of reading
knowledge. In means that the students’ problems in reading comprehension not
only come from one aspect, but there are some aspects of reading problems that
may be faced by the students.
First, problems of language knowledge or condition when the reader lacks
mastery of five aspects of language knowledge, including phonologycal knowledge,
semantic knowledge, syntactic knowledge, morphemic knowledge, and pragmatic
knowledge. Second, problems of background knowledge or the condition when the
readers find the differences between their own previous knowledge and what the
author intended in the text (Xiubo, 2006). Another problem of background
knowledge is difficulty in understanding some cultures loaded words and phrases
eventhough the readers know every word in the text (Gunning, 2002, p.8). Third,
problems of motivation or the students have less motivation in reading. Less
motivation in reading is also the reason why the students face problems and cannot
achieve the target in reading comprehension (Alderson, 2000). If the students are
not interested in the topic they are reading, they might face difficulty and failure in
reading comprehension. On the contrary, if the students are really interested in the
topic, it can be come an important factor because positive motivation plays
significant role in reading development which promotes comprehension, so that the
students may be motivated to read other topics. Fourth, problems of reading strategy
or the condition when the students used inappropriate strategy in reading
comprehension. If the readers have a good strategy in reading comprehension, they
can process the text efficiently. On the contrary, if the readers have bad strategy
they will face problems in reading comprehension. In conclusion, reading strategy
shows how the readers comprehend a text, how they read a text, and what they do
when they face difficulty in reading comprehension (Michele et al, 2004). The last,
problems of reading process or the condition when the students cannot concentrate
themselves till the end of a passage (Gunning, 2002, p.60). Sometimes, the readers
seem to forget what they have already read, and have to move backward and reread
it (Alderson, 2000). In short, there are some aspects of reading problems that can
hinder the students’ reading comprehension.

Method
Design of the Study
The design of this research was survey study because it involved collection
of data by asking questions and recording participants’ answers to them (Breakwell
et al, 2013, p.58). In line with what Haughn (2017) said that survey research is used
to gather the opinions, beliefs and feelings of selected groups of individuals. Then,
according to Creswell (2012, p.376), survey research designs are quantitative
research when the researcher to do a survey to a sample or to the population of
people to describe the attitudes, opinions, behaviors, or characteristics of the

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population. Survey study used for various purposes to estimate population

characteristics. The goal of this survey study to determine the percentage of senior
high school students who have positive or negative perception on reading problems.
In undertaking surveys the researcher defines the study population and draws the
sample. The sample must be representative of the population. The researcher could
use different procedures of sampling including random sampling, stratified random
sampling and cluster sampling.
According to Creswell (2012, p.376), the procedures of the research were done
as follows:
1. The researcher collected quantitative numbered data using questionnaires (e.g.,
printedquestionnaires) or interviews (e.g., one-on-one interviews).
2. Then, the researcher statistically analyzed the data to describe trends about
responses to questions.
The researcher interpreted the meaning of the data by relating results of the
statistical test.

Participant
The participants of this research were sample of the tenth grade students of
SMAN 2 Jember in academic year 2019/2020. There were ten classes of the tenth
grade in SMAN 2 Jember that consist of eight science classes and two social classes.
Each class consists of 36 students. The researcher selected 10% of the students from
each class by using random selection method (Setia, 2016). The calculation of
selected the students in each class shows as follows:
10
𝑝𝑎𝑟𝑡𝑖𝑐𝑖𝑝𝑎𝑛𝑡 𝑓𝑟𝑜𝑚 𝑒𝑎𝑐ℎ 𝑐𝑙𝑎𝑠𝑠 = 100 × 36 𝑠𝑡𝑢𝑑𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑠 = 3.6

Then, the researcher rounded up the number 3.6 into 4. It means that there were
four participants from each class as the sample which were expected to be the
representative of the population. Thus, the total number of participants were 40.

Instrument
The data were collected by using questionnaire adopted from the survey of
Xiubo Yi & Zhang (2006) because that instrument could be applied to my study.
The questionnaire was divided into two parts. The first part consisted the data
involving personal information. The second part was questionnaire that consisted
of 20 items written in Indonesian in order to avoid misunderstanding among the
students. Questionnaire is suitable for doing survey because they can explore what
the students think and what they do (Breakell et al, 2013:30).

Data Collection
The students were asked to identify their reading problems by responding to
Likert scale (strongly agree, agree, strongly disagree). The highest score which
stated strongly agree counts 4 points while the lowest score which states strongly
disagree counts 1 point. The specification of the questionnaire was shown below on
the table:

Table 3.1 Number of Questions on Aspects of Reading Problems

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Students’ perception of Students’ perception of reading 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

reading comprehension comprehension problems
problems in narrative text related to language knowledge.
Students’ perception of reading 7, 8, 9, 10
comprehension problems
related to the lack of reading
strategies.
Students’ perception of reading 11, 12, 13, 14
comprehension problems
related to motivation.
Students’ perception of reading 15, 16, 17
comprehension problems
related to background
knowledge.
Students’ perception of reading 18, 19, 20
comprehension problems
related to reading process.

Data Analysis
The result of the questionnaire was analyzed by using Microsoft Excel. The
data analyzed were percentages of each aspects of reading problems based on the
students’ answer on the questionnaire.

Findings and Discussion

Based on the result of the questionnaire the most problematic aspect that hinder
the students’ reading comprehension was “Motivation” (65.6%), then followed by
“Strategies” (63.7%), “Background Knowledge” (63.3%), “Reading Process
(60%)” and “Language Knowledge (55.4%)”. The result of the questionnaire will
be explained more in the following section.

Table 1. Percentages of the Students’ Perception on Reading Problems

Aspects of Reading Agree Disagree
Problems % %
Language Knowledge 55.4 44.6
Reading Strategy 63.7 36.3
Motivation 65.6 34.4
Background Knowledge 63.3 36.7
Reading Process 60 40

From Table 2, it was known that “Motivation” has the highest percentage
(65.6%) among the five aspects of reading problems. It shows us that most of the
students agreed that their lack of motivation caused them difficult in reading
comprehension of narrative text. As we know, motivation is one of the most aspects

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that can influence reading comprehension (Alizadeh, 2016). Ahmadi (2017) added
that students’ motivation absolutely affects their reading. It means that students
with stronger reading motivation can be expected to have better reading
comprehension as they have enthusiasm to read further and longer. In addition,
Pourhosein et al (2012) stated that reading motivation is the large amount of
motivation that students have to concentrate their positive or negative opinions
about reading. If the students have good motivation in reading, they will develop
their comprehension by reading wide range of topic. It is also supported by Kinley
and Ben-Hur (2015) who stated that it is the belief that if the students are rewarded
certain behaviors they will get more of them (behaviors), and if they are punished
certain behaviors, they will get less of them (behaviors). In other words, teachers
or parents could be the agents to foster the positive behaviour in reading so that
students have the correct motivation to read.
The second aspect of reading problem was inappropriate reading strategies
(63.7%). The students felt lack of reading comprehension in understanding
narrative text if they used inappropriate reading strategies. Based on the result of
questionnaire, the students tended to use inappropriate strategy such as always
looked up the meaning of unknown words in the ditionary. It probably happened
because the students may think that every single word they read should be
understood so that they keep looking at their dictionary for some help in checking
the meaning. Besides, the students also tended to use reading aloud strategy which
was not part of the right strategy in reading comprehension. The students tended to
use reading aloud strategy which was not part of the right strategy in reading
comprehension. The students probably do because they assumed that reading aloud
could boost their concentration and could comprehend the text quickly. While it
was a mistake as when the students had to read out because half of their brain
concentrated on the pronunciation (Billah, 2015). Therefore, it is needed to give
model and instruction to students in apply approprite strategy in reading
comprehension.
The third aspect of reading problem was lack of background knowledge
(63.3%). Based on the result of the questionnaire, the students’s insufficent
background knowledge in reading narrative text caused them faced difficulty in
following the author’s intension which made them unable to understand the purpose
of the text. Students’ background knowledge is important in reading because
understanding the text depends on how much background knowledge they have
(Al-Jahwari & Al-Humaidi, 2015). In addition, expanding students' background
knowledge could serve as an improvement or it is not only for facilitating
comprehension processes, but also word identification (Priebe et al:2011). In sum
up, the students not only get the information from the text, but they also need to
apply their prior knowledge to process a new knowledge that intended in the text.
The fourth aspect of reading problem was difficulty in reading process (60%).
The most common problem experienced by the students during the reading process
is keeping their concentration. It means that the students process the text slowly
when reading because they have to repeat over and over again as their minds drift
away. Processing the text slowly was included in difficulty of reading process
because it made the reading process less effective and efficient. Besides, the
students should be given limited time to complete tasks that require reading
comprehension. Being a fast and efficient reader is important for not only classroom

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based lessons, but also for satisfying homework requirements and performing well
on standardized exams (Martiarini, 2013). Therefore, improving the students’
ability in processing the text is important as a part of effective and efficient reading
comprehension process.
As the final result found from the students’ questionnaire of their reading
problem is the “language knowledge” (55.4%). Based on the result of the
questionnaire, some of the students did not know the sentence structure and it
caused them difficult in understanding the text. It might happen because the
students could not get the point in the passage when they found compound sentence,
complex sentence or even it was compound-complex sentence. It could also happen
because they do not know sentence structure. Akbari (2014) stated that knowing
grammar, including sentence structure can help students to comprehend the text
correctly. The students can face the problem in reading when their knowledge about
sentence structure is limited. How the students could reading the texts with complex
sentences if they do not understand the text even it in simple sentences. Therefore,
their limited knowledge about sentence structure hinder their reading
comprehension.

Pedagogical Implications
The findings of this research have several pedagogical implications. First, the
teacher as a facilitator is responsible to foster students’ motivation in reading and
they need to pay attention on students' interests and what the teacher need to do to
keep the students motivated. According to Sari (2013), in order to improve students’
reading habit, in the first year the students should get an intensive course and
reading assignments which should meet the criteria of fun, light and short. In line
with this statement, Takaloo and Ahmadi (2017) stated that students are very much
interested in any reading material that consists of humor, fun, enjoyment, and
pleasure. Then, they should report to the class in the form of retelling or
summarizing. It is notable that the teachers need to know that the students are
motivated differently (Ahmadi, 2017). The teacher teaches so many students in a
class and of course they have different motivation in reading. Some of the students
have good reading habit, but some of them also have low reading habit. Therefore,
teacher should make an enjoyable classroom to motivate them.
Second, the teacher should teach the students about various reading strategies
and give a model in choosing appropriate reading strategies. In applying the
strategy, teachers should also consider the text type, the students’ background
knowledge, and the students’ language proficiency level. In line with the statement,
(Muslaini, 2017) stated that the choice of strategy was adapted by the teachers with
the materials, the indicators and the purpose of learning based on the syllabus and
curriculum. Based on Comprehension: The Goal of Reading (2019), there are four
strategies for reading comprehension of narrative text, including story maps,
retelling, prediction, and answering comprehension questions. The teacher can
apply one of those strategies to improve the students’ reading achievement.
However based on the result of the research, the most problematic strategy in
reading was the students always look up the meanings of unknown words in the
dictionary. Therefore, it is needed to apply new strategy to improve their reading
comprehension which focus on the students’ vocabulary.

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Third, the teacher should concern with the students’ background knowledge
related to the topic in reading. According to Comprehension: The Goal of Reading
(2019), teachers can use previewing technic to expand the students’ background
knowledge. When students preview a text, they exploit the text into what they
already know. It will help them understand the text and provide a framework for
any new information they read. Willingham (2011) stated that the best way to boost
students’ reading comprehension is to expand their knowledge by teaching them
history, science, literature, and the arts that guide the students through a logical
sequence from one year to the next. In addition, Al-Faki & Siddiek (2013) stated
that to activate students’ background knowledge in the classroom the teacher should
apply schema-based or pre-reading activities. It was reffered that teachers should
activate students’ background knowledge before giving the students a reading
comprehension text by using suitable strategies and method.
Fourth, the teacher had a responsibility in the class to provide a model for
effective and efficient reading comprehension process. According to Stevenson
(2017) there were several steps that a teacher could apply in reading narrative text
among the students by considering the time and place at which the students read.
Each students had preference of place and time to read. Some students can
concentrate more in a quiet room, but some students can focus more in a place with
some background noise, such as a park, cafe, ect. It means that the teacher should
decide the best situation for the students by considering the students’ preferences.
Another trick is pre reading or activity to set a goal for the number of pages, the
time limitation, the techniques used or the information the students will find
(Ackerman, 2019). It is notable that students should also pause at the end of each
paragraph to summarize or paraphrase the main idea to force the students to
constantly focus and prevent them from getting lost in the text. It can also be done
with note taking and marking the text. In conclusion, the teacher should guide the
students and give a model based on those steps to hinder some problems in reading
process, then it can improve the students’ reading process.
The last, the teacher needs to take a systematic approach to vocabulary and
grammatical practice in teaching reading narrative text (Azam, 2014). In this case
the teacher could review the difficult words on the texts. Besides, the teacher could
also combine the narrative text with appropriate teaching media such as pictures,
real life object, etc to become more effective and accurate for students to produce
new vocabulary because they would spontaneously recall the words. According to
Thornbury (2002, p.47), teaching vocabulary should direct attention to the sound of
new words, particulary the way they are stressed. It suggests that when the teacher
reviews the vocabulary on the passage they should not only tell the students the
meaning of word but also how to pronounce the words correctly. It was similar with
grammatical approach in which the teacher could provide the best grammar
instruction based on the passage. When students hear and see what is proper, they
incorporate it into their own knowledge

Conclusion
The result of the questionnaire answered the research questions and showed
that some reading aspects should be carefully attended as the students think that it
was problematic for them and hinder their comprehension. Some aspects become

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the main causes of their reading problem especially in narrative text. From those
aspects students perceived that they were lack of motivation, used inappropriate
strategies, lack of background knowledge, difficulty in reading process and lack of
language knowledge as the sources of the students’ reading problems. In
conclusion, students’ reading comprehension problems posed are not only about
problems of language knowledge, but also various difficulties encountered in the
narrative text. Therefore, the teacher should consider each reading problem faced
by the students.
The findings of this research are expected to give empirical contribution for
other researchers to conduct research dealing with the similar topic with different
research design. This research can also become a kind of initial sample of research
which explores the students’ perception on reading comprehension problems in
narrative text.
Practically, the findings are expected to be useful to help the English teachers
to better understand the problems faced by the students in reading narrative text, so
that they can decide how to solve that problem in order to develop the students’
reading skills. Therefore, this research can give the teacher reflection and evaluation
in teaching learning process.

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