ANALYZING THE DIFFICULTIES ENCOUNTERED BY NON-ENGLISH DEPARTMENT STUDENTS IN READING COMPREHENSION SECTION
OF TEP (TEST OF ENGLISH PROFICIENCY)
SKRIPSI
BY
INTA FADILAH NPM 217.01.073.049
ISLAMIC UNIVERSITY OF MALANG
FACULTY OF TEACHER TRAINING AND EDUCATION ENGLISH EDUCATION DEPARTMENT
SEPTEMBER 2021
ANALAYZING THE DIFFICULTIES ENCOUNTERED BY- NON ENGLISH DEPARTMENT STUDENTS IN READING COMPREHENSION SECTION
OF TEP (TEST OF ENGLISH PROFICIENCY)
SKRIPSI
Presented to
Faculty of Teacher Training and Education University of Islam Malang
In partial fulfillment of the requirements for degree of Sarjana in English Education Department
BY
INTA FADILAH NPM 217.01.073.049
ISLAMIC UNIVERSITY OF MALANG
FACULTY OF TEACHER TRAINING AND EDUCATION ENGLISH EDUCATION DEPARTMENT
SEPTEMBER 2021
1
ABSTRACT
Fadilah, Inta.2021. Analyzing The Difficulties Encountered by Non-English Department students in Reading Sections of TEP test (Test of English Proficiency).Thesis, English Education Department Faculty of Teacher Training and Education Islamic University of Malang. Advisor 1: Dr.
Muhammad Yunus, M.Pd Advisor II: Dr.Dwi Fita Heriawati, M.Pd.
Keywords: Students’ Difficulties and Strategies, TEP(Test of English Proficiency), Reading Comprehension Sections
Language testing in education is a needed as a tool to measure students understanding and ability about the subject that had been studied by the students.
Proficiency test is one of the types of test that often used in Indonesia as a
measurement the people ability in language.TEP (test of English Proficiency) is that the test that executed by P2BA (PusatPengenmabanganBahasaAsing) University of Islam Malang as a requirement before doing thesis examination. Reading
comprehension is one aspect of language skill that students should be mastered by the students. Unfortunately many students are still failed to pass the test. Therefore, the researcher conduct a research to find out the difficulties faced by non-English department students’ in TEP test of reading sections and the strategies do the students do to overcome the difficulties.
This research employed descriptive qualitative. The data were collected by using questionnaire. The questionnaire consisted of two parts related to the students’ difficulties and strategies in TEP test. The data analyzed by using descriptive qualitative. The respondents of this study were 32 students eight semesters at Mathematic education students of University of Islam Malang in the academic year 2017/2018.
The finding showed that there are some students’ difficulties in TEP (Test of English Proficiency) in reading section. The students’ difficulties in TEP test are the difficulties that related to language knowledge, difficulties related to motivation, difficulties related to background knowledge, difficulties related to reading
comprehension process and the difficulties related to the lack of reading strategies.
To overcome the difficulties, there are some strategies used by the students. The
results of findings showed that the strategies used by the students to overcome the difficulties in TEP test on reading section are the strategies use key words to search main idea, strategy for identifying the purpose in reading, strategy skimming the text and strategy repeat reading text to increase their understanding.
Based on the result of the research above, it can be concluded that there are some difficulties in TEP test (Test of English Proficiency) in reading section that faced by non English students during the test. Therefore, the student is advised to pay more attention to the test and have some preparation before doing the test. The students are also accustomed to increasing the vocabulary, understanding about grammar and read English text as often as they can so that the students can be minimize the difficulties in TEP test in Reading sections.
1 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION
This chapter presents some topics related to the introduction of the study.
They are Background of the Study, the Research Problem, the Objective of Study, Significances of the Study, Scope and Limitation of the Study, and the Definition of Key Term.
1.1 Background of the Study
One of the methods to measure students’ abilities and knowledge is by using test, testing method not only uses to measure students’ abilities but also it can be helping the teacher to assess and identify the students’ strengths and weaknesses.
This is also supported by (Saragih, 2016) stated that a test is a preferred tool to assess language learning achievement and competency. Test can be used for teacher to assess and analyze the students’ qualities and shortcoming. Besides, test can measure how far students’ understanding about the material.
Language testing in education is a needed as a tool to measure students’
understanding and ability about the subject that had been studied by them. In language testing there are four types of testing; proficiency test, achievement test, diagnosis test, and placement test. Proficiency test is one of the types of test that often used in Indonesia as a measurement the people ability in language.
Proficiency means having sufficient command of the language for a particular purpose (Pratiwi, 2017 ). The kinds of proficiency test are Test of English as a Foreign
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Language (TOEFL), Test of English for International Communication (TOEIC), Cambridge First Certificate in English Examination (FCE), International Student Admission Test (ISAT), International English Language Testing System (IELTS), Cambridge Certificate of Proficiency in English Examination (CPE), Association of Language Testers in Europe (ALTE), Pearson Test of English Academic (PTE Academic), and others.
In this case Universities of Islam Malang the English language proficiency is measured by test that is Test of English proficiency (TEP). The students have to take the test due to measure English proficiency level, and also as a requirement before doing thesis examination. TEP (Test of English Proficiency) adapted from TOEFL test, Intuitional testing program (ITP). There are three sections of the TEP test. They are listening comprehension sections in section one, structure and written expressions in sections two, and sections three reading comprehension sections.
TEP (Test of English Proficiency) is test that executed by P2BA ( Pusat Pengambangan Bahasa Asing) University of Islam Malang as a requirement before doing thesis examination. Standard score for TEP for English education students at least 500 for TEP score to pass the test, meanwhile for non- English education should have at least 450 score.
However, there is a big discrepancy between expectations and reality; there are still many students who fail to pass the test .Based on the data for post test TEP preparation for FKIP Universities Islam Malang in academic year 2021 there are 320 students who follow the test consist of students from English Education Department, Mathematics Education Department, and Indonesia Literature Department. There are
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51% students who pass the test than 49% students failed and must retake the test. It can be seen that failure rate for TEP test is still relatively high even though nearly 50% of students pass the test, therefore researcher want to know the difficulties that faced by non- English student when doing the test. In this case the researcher chose non- English students as the object of this research because non- English student not too familiar with English proficiency test and experienced many difficulties. Then researcher also wants to know what strategies they use to overcome the difficulties.
Non- English students in this study mean Mathematics Education Students as the object of this study.
Test of English Proficiency comprised of three section namely listening comprehension in section one, then structure and written expression in section two and in section three reading comprehension. According to (Fitri, 2017) Listening comprehension sections measure the ability to understand conversations and talk in English. The ability to recognize appropriate language for written English is
measured by the structure and written expression sections. The ability to read and comprehend brief passages is measured in the reading comprehension sections.
Reading comprehension is one aspect of language skill that students must be mastered. Reading is a basic skill that can improve student’s vocabulary, fluency, speaking and writing, and finally can help the students to master their target language (Hung & Ngan, 2015). To obtain and absurd information from reading material, students are obliged to have a good understanding ability. (Febriani et al., 2019) Seems to support this idea she state that each subject requires reading comprehension because each lesson is derived from the act of reading. Therefore students are
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required to have a good understanding of capabilities. In this study, the researcher focused her study on analyzing the difficulties faced by non-English learners in answering reading comprehension section of the TEP test. The difficulties faced by students in answering the reading comprehension sections of TEP test referred to the categories of items of reading comprehension in section three.
Based on the information presented above, the researcher interested to find out the difficulties faced non-English department students in TEP test of reading section and the strategies do the students do to overcome the difficulties. Accordingly all over the statement above the researcher motivate to do the study entitled “Analyzing the difficulties encountered by- non-English department students in reading
comprehension sections of TEP test (Test of English Proficiency)”.
1.2 Research Problem
The research problem of this research can be stated as follows:
1. What is the difficulty faced by non-English department students’ in TEP test of Reading sections?
2. What strategies do the students do to overcome the difficulties?
1.3 The Objective of this Study
The research’s objectives are as follows, based on the problem of the study:
1. To identify difficulties encounter by Non-English Department student’s in TEP test of reading section.
2. To observe strategies applied by Non-English Department students to overcome the difficulties encountered in TEP test of reading section.
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1.4 Significance of the Study
This study is expected to be able to provide significant theoretically and
practically. Theoretically, the result from this study can be utilized as references for future research study. The findings of this study may provide useful information for Non-English students’ ability, so later on they will find out the difficulties and the strategies soon which face by the students who take a TEP test. Practically, the finding of this study hopefully can gives the information about the difficulties that faced by non English students in TEP (Test of English proficiency) of reading sections and give information about the students’ strategies applied by Non-English
Department students to overcome the difficulties encountered in TEP test of reading section.
1.5 Scope and Limitation
The research focuses on non English department students as the object of this study and the researcher wants to know the difficulties faced by the non- English student in TEP test (Test of English Proficiency) not all non English students as sample in this research. The researcher chose mathematic students as the subject of this study, and the researcher also conducted this study to investigate strategies used by Non-English students to overcome the difficulties encountered in TEP test of reading sections.
Limitation of the study is the researcher cannot identify the difficulties for all sections test in TEP, the researcher only focus on the difficulties encountered on reading section and the strategies that used by non- English students on reading sections.
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1.6 Definition of Key Terms
Identifying a key term is crucial section to facilitate the reader in understanding the content of the study. Key term is employed as a point of reference to seek out other words information. In order to create more obvious information and to anticipate misunderstanding, here are the key terms defined as follows:
Test of English Proficiency (TEP) is test that executed by P2BA (Pusat Pengambangan Bahasa Asing) University of Islam Malang as a requirement before doing thesis examination. This test adapted from TOEFL test.
Students Difficulties refers to problem or troubles encountered by Non- English students in doing TEP test.
Reading Comprehension is one of the sections in TEP test that in this section measures the ability to read and understand short passages.
Non- English department students are as a group of learners who have particular specialization which is Non- English student. In this study Non- English students refers to Mathematic students as the object of this study.
39 CHAPTER V
CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTIONS
This chapter presents some point about conclusion and suggestions of the research related to what has been analyzed and discussed.
5.1. Conclusion
The researcher discovered several students’ difficulties based on the findings.
The difficulties in the reading section of the TEP test (Test of English Proficiency) The researcher concluded that the students’ difficulties in TEP test are the difficulties related to language knowledge, difficulties related to motivation, difficulties related to background knowledge, difficulties related to reading comprehension process, and the difficulties related to the lack of reading strategies. These difficulties can be seen from the results of the findings.
As seen from the results of findings, the researcher found some students’
strategies to overcome the difficulties in TEP test on Reading Section. The researcher concluded that the strategy used by Non-English students are the strategies use key words to search main idea, strategy for identifying the purpose in reading, strategy skimming the text and strategy repeat reading text to increase their understanding.
The result of the study can be proved from result of the findings.
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5.2. Suggestions
From the explanation above, there are some general points to be recommended regarding students’ difficulties and strategies in TEP test. These some suggestion will be helpful recommendation for Students, and further researcher.
5.2.1. Students
The students can use the information provides to minimize the difficulties during the process of answering TEP test in reading section. By knowing the strategies, hopefully the students can apply this strategy while doing the TEP test in reading section.
5.2.2. Further Researcher
Regarding the limitations of this study, it will be better for future researcher to conduct such kind of the research by using multiple instruments in order to know other students difficulties and the students’ strategy in TEP test on reading sections.
For future researcher hopefully this research can be as framework for
conducting such research. The future researcher have to more focus on the difficulties and the strategies in TEP test on the other section in the TEP test such as in the listening section and structure and written expression section.
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