School West Sumba students’ reading motivation, difficulties and strategies more

Tue, Aug 8, 13:30-14:05 Asia/Makassar

In order to enrich students’ knowledge and collect important information, students need to have good reading skills. Good reading skills can be built and sharpened by having good reading motivation. Good reading motivation can be initiated by engaging students with reading materials. Motivation in reading can affect students’ reading comprehension, and without motivation, students may have poor reading comprehension. However, it is inevitable that students may face difficulties in their reading which may decrease their reading motivation. In rural areas in Indonesia, there are several obstacles which may affect students’ reading motivation such as lack of learning resources, inadequate facilities, language barriers, and unsupportive parents. Therefore, to maintain their motivation, students need to equip themselves with appropriate reading strategies. The objective of this study is to investigate the English reading motivation, difficulties, and strategies of West Sumba senior high school students. This study uses a descriptive quantitative approach with a survey. The items in the surveys were used to collect data regarding the students’ English reading motivation, difficulties, and strategies. The results of this study indicated varying levels of reading motivation for four different motivational variables, namely self-efficacy, intrinsic, extrinsic, and social issues. Common difficulties faced by students in their reading activities are their interest in watching television or playing with their gadgets rather than reading, problems with their parents, and lack of English reading sources. The strategies that students did to overcome these difficulties were limiting their screen time and asking their teacher to provide more time for them to read English materials in class.