THE DIFFICULTIES IN READING COMPREHENSION FACED BY THE SECOND SEMESTER STUDENTS OF ENGLISH EDUCATION DEPARTMENT OF BORNEO TARAKAN UNIVERSITY
This research aimed to determine the difficulties in reading comprehension faced by the second semester students of English Education Department at Borneo Tarakan University and the difficulties factors they faced in reading comprehension. A descriptive qualitative method was employed, with a sample consisting 79 students from the English Education Department, divide into two groups: local A1 (34 students) and local A2 (45 students). Six students were selected for interviews using a purposive sampling technique. Data collection methods include observations, tests, and interviews. The data analysis involved steps of data collection, reduction, display, and conclusion verification. The test results revealed that 32 out 79 students (45.71%) did not meet any CEFR Level category, 24 students (32.29%) were categorize as Basic User-Waystage (A2), 9 students (12.86%) as Independent User-Threshold (B1), and 5 students (7.14%) as Independent User-Vantage (B2). Among the 13 skills tested, the easiest was “Skill 2: Recognize the Organization of Ideas” with mean score of 47. The next easiest was “Skill 5: Find Unstated Detail.” With mean score 45. The most difficult skill was “Skill 8: Find Definition From Structural Word,” with mean score only 9. Internal factors contributing to these difficulties included psychological aspects, lack of self-motivation, and insufficient vocabulary mastery, with the letter being the most significant. External factors included the lecturer’s teaching techniques, the learning environment and the students’ background knowledge, with the learning environment being the most dominant external factors.