ENGLISH FOR BIOLOGY

“ THE PROBLEM IN READING OF ACADEMIC READING COMPREHENSION”

Supporting Lecture : Dr. Zulyusri, M.P

Irma Sufianingsih
22031076
BIOLOGY EDUCATION D

DEPARTMENET OF BIOLOGY
FACULTY OF MATHEMATICS AND NATURAL SCIENCE
UNIVERSITAS NEGERI PADANG
2024
 PREFACE

Praise be to Allah SWT for the blessings of his grace, and that we were given the
opportunity to be able to compile a working paper entitled “The Problem that Someone Faces
in Reading” is properly and correctly, and on time.

This paper is structured so that readers can find out what mostly problem in reading
and how to improve skills of reading so that we can reading in English so well in our daily
life. This paper deliberately chosen because in this day we were found pretty much people
who couldn’t reading in English well and we have to fix it as fast as we can.

Hopefully this paper can give a broader insight to all the readers. Although advantage
and disadvantages, author receive all of the criticism and suggestion. For the attention. Thank
you.
Author

27 February 2024
TABLE OF CONTENT
 CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION

A. Background of the paper

In This day English language being so important to learning about, because
English is international language and the way to communicate in general.
Learning about English is so complex because there consist of four basic skills
that is listening, speaking, reading and writing. And also have three additional
skills that is grammar, pronounciation, and vocabulary. All of the content are so
important and should to know in order to can mastering English well. In some
respects, listening is a very individual activity. A speaker does not implant a
massage in the listener’s mind (Kurniawati, 2015).
To acquire English especially as a lingua franca, students need to master four
English skills such as speaking, reading, listening, and writing. In Indonesia,
English is a foreign language and it makes the teaching and learning procces is
not that easy although some student have learned English since they were in
kindergarten ( Oktaviani & Mandasari, 2020). If student want to proficient in
English, they have to acquire as much English vocabulary as they can because
vocabulary is one of the most important components in English. According to
Endarto and Subekti (2020) vocabulary is one of basic and important pillars in
mastering English. The more words they pick up, the more he/she becomes
proficient in that language. Thus, vocabulary is taught to students in the teaching
and learning procces at English Education. In learning vocabulary, students will
also need to train their listening activity will be the best choice for acquiring
vocabulary since it can provide interesting activity with the opportunity to learn
some new words and to become familiar with recognizing the spoken forms of
known words. By increasing vocabulary, student’s ability for better
understanding in listening, speaking, reading, and writing will likely increase
(Oktaviani, 2016).
Reading comprehension is an important aspect of learning a foreign
language, yet is believed that the traditional teacher-centered approaches to
learning cannot accomplish improving EFL learner’s ability ( Atai & Nazari,
2011). According to Djudin (2017), such traditional approaches do not help
student acquire higher order thinking skills in which problem solving abilities are
 emphazide. Reading comprehension is one of the Indonesian language skills that
must be developed at school. This is because understanding reading has become
something essential and indispensable for students because of the success of
students who largely depend on their ability to read. If student’s reading
comprehention is lacking, there is the possibility of failing in learning or at least
students will experience difficulties in making progress (Somadoyo, Nurkamto &
Suwandi, 2013).
Reading has important benefits because reading can broaden one’s horizons
and knowledge ( MS & Rachmadtullah, 2018). Reading needs to be applied when
children are as early as possible when children enter formal education institutions
(Wigfield, Gladstone, & Turci, 2016). By reading, students are expected to
obtain various information, including content, and understand the meaning of
reading. The fact that can be seen so far is the low reading skills of students
because there are still many students who are lazy to read or the title interest in
reading students ( Hahnel, Goldhammer, Nauman, & Krohne, 2016).
Academic reading texts are challenging as they are longer than general
reading, the paragraph are more dense, and contain complex sentences and
difficult vocabularies. In order to read effectively, students must bring their prior
knowledge and adequate vocabularies in the procces of reading ( Westwood,
2008). Hirano (2015) reported that students felt greater challenge when reading
academic text in English. English reading task are common in higher education.
Students are often assigned to read various English reading sources such as
textbooks and journal articles. Low motivation and interest when reading text in
English influence students success in English reading (Cahyono & Widiati,
2006). Students usually refuse to engage in further reading comprehension tasks
unless teachers assign them. In addition, students who failed to bring their prior
knowledge related to the given text are more likely to disengage with the reading
task (Neuman, Kaefar, & Pinkam, 2014 ; Zuhra, 2015).

B. Problem Formulation
1. What the most people’s problem in reading English?
2. How to improve reading skill in order to mastering English well?
C. Purpose of the papper
1. Tell the most people’s problem in academic reading English
2. Tell the important of academic reading comprehension
3. Tell effective way to academic reading in English well
 CHAPTER II
THEORY AND DISCUSION

The scince of reading and its implications for instruction have often focused
on the role of systematic phonics instruction for young, beginning readers. What
has received less attention is that reading development continues well into middle
childhood. In fact, middle grade readers who have mastered word recognition are
still developing the language comprehension skills needed to grasp the meaning
of the words on printed age. These language comprehension skills work in
concert with topic knowledge levels and awareness of strategic reading procces,
among other factors, to support text comprehension ( Perfetti & Stafura, 2014).
Within the broad bucket of language comprehension skills, recent research has
further specified the central role of a reader’s knoeledge of word, sentence, and
discourse, level language patterns routinely found in academic text-patterns
collectively referred to as academic language ( Nagy & Towsend, 2012).
When we use the term academic texts, we are referencing the types of
informational print routinely found in text books and instructutional materials.
we focus on these texts because they pose challenges to middle grade readers. We
are not suggesting, however, that the canon read in schools should be solely
drawn from academic communities or necessarily contain academic language. In
fact, as we argue below, teaching a broader array of texts is needed to achive our
ultimate instructional goal of enabling students to use their entire communicative
repertoires (Rymes, 2014). Fluidly, and to comprehend the language of others, as
they move within and between multiple communities of practice.
In relation to text comprehension, readers may struggle to make meaning
from text when given little agency to align or resist the academic indetities
ascribed to them by the writer’s uses of academic language ( Hall, 2016). In a
micro-analysis of the language used by high school students in the context of
class discussion that occurred during an academic language unit in an English
classroom (Philips Galloway et al, 2019). These three keys understanding offer a
dynamic view of the skills and practices required to comprehend the academic
language commonly found in school texts, and also inform our understanding of
the mechanism that my lead to individual differences in this development.
Arguably, the most skilled readers (and communicators) among us are those who
can most flexibly use multiple language repoitores to understand and evaluate a
text’s pragmatic effectiveness and clims. By reading a range of texts, readers
move within and between comuunities of practice and the discourses that
characterize these xommunities, which supports the development of critical
rhetorical flexibility (Cummins, 2017).
To further inform the science of reading, we propose that attention to the
three key understanding within existing psycjological models of reading
comprehension will bring greater attention to (1) the precise language skills and
language focused practices that support skilled comprehension of textsread in
school settings, (2) The socio-culturally situated nature of the language of texts
and readers, (3) the role of reader identify and agency in reading events involving
academic language comprehension (Philips et al, 2020).
The success of learning in higher education solely lies on the skill of reading
and writing. One would not be able to produce a good quality piece of writing
without researching through numerous of reading materials. University reading
poses a greater challenge to students because they read for academic purposes.
Unlike other types of reading, academic reading requires deeper and critical
analytical skill to engage with various kinds of text (Sohail,2015). Several
research have underlined difficulties of students in reading academic texts (Shen,
2013 ;Sultana, 2016). Students reported the difficulties in understanding
vocabularies and mentioned the need of lecturer’s assistance in vocabularies and
difficult terminologies. Another difficultly is also found when students have to
read long academic reading text. Phaktili and Li (2011) found that students
encountered problems synthesizing information and producing academic pieces
of writing. These difficulties are influenced by factors such as linguistics
proficiency, motivation, self-regulation, academic background, self-efficacy and
students academic life adjustment. Although English is ab obligatory subject
Indonesia curriculum leaners’ have limited exposure to English reading material
(Napitupulu, 2018).
Skills in reading comprehension as a process of interaction between readers
and texts in a reading event. Activity or reading where the emphasis is directed at
skills and mastering the contents of the reading. Readers must be able to master
and understand the reading they read. In this case, the element that must be
present in every reading activity is understanding (Martin-Beltrán, Montoya-
Ávila, García, Peercy, & Silverman, 2019). Understanding reading activities is an
activity that aims to obtain in depth information and understanding of what is
read. Reading comprehension is an understanding of the meaning or purpose in a
reading through writing. This definition strongly emphasizes two main things in
reading, namely the language it self and the graphic symbol of the writing that
presents information in the form of reading (Anderson, 2019).
who conducts reading comprehension activities must master the language or
writing used in the reading that is read and is able to capture the information or
content of the reading (Neumann, Padden, & McDonough, 2019). To be able to
understand the contents of a reading material well, it is necessary to have the
ability to think critically in carrying out the ability to read and understand well
(Soto et al., 2019). Understanding is one of the important aspects in reading
activities, because in essence the understanding of reading material can improve
reading skills themselves and for certain goals to be achieved. So, the ability to
read can be interpreted as the ability to understand reading material. The purpose
of reading is understanding not speed (Amin, 2019).
The purpose of reading activities is to ensure comprehension ang engagement
with the text. It is important that students can keep their reading experience as a
fruitful information and knowledge for future use. Therefore, lots of research
suggested that using authentic materials to support reading comprehension is
more interesting and stimulating (Berardo 2006). Vocabulary mastery
constributes largely to students’ reading comprehension. Sutarsyah (2008)
mentioned that the majority of academic reading texts contained low frequency
content words. Students who have low reading habit would find problems
reading these types of text.
Reading comprehension is also defined as one type of reading that aims to
understand to contents of the reading ( MS & Rachmatullah, 2018). The ability to
read is very complex and not only the ability to read it but also the ability to
understand and interpret the contents of the reading. Based on some the above
meanings, a conclusion can be drawn simply that reading comprehension is a
reading activity to understand the contents of the reading, both exexplicitly and
implicity from the reading material. Reading is a complex skill that involves a
series of other smaller skills. In order for someone to be able to reach a level of
understanding, he should experience a fairly long process. Therefore, we need to
know and master some aspects of reading comprehension. The aspects of reading
comprehension include: (a) understanding simple (lexical, grammatical,
rhetorical) meanings, (b) understanding significance or meaning (al the author's
intentions of relevance / cultural circumstances, reader reaction), (c) evaluation
or assessment (content, form), (d) reading speed is flexible, which is easily
adjusted to the situation (Torgerson, Brooks, Gascoine, & Higgins, 2019). In
reading comprehension, the reader is not only required to only understand and
understand the contents of the reading, but he must also be able to analyze or
evaluate and relate it to the experiences and initial knowledge he has (MS &
Rachmadtullah, 2018).
Satriani (2018), students admitted that their lack of reading skill resulting in
poor reading comprehension. Low skill of reading ability is associated with many
crucial aspects in reading. Students faces many aspects of difficulties in reading
comprehension such as grammar complexity, academic terms, difficult
vocabularies, leghthy sentences, and difficult topics. Students must be aware of
their own individual aspects that affect reading comprehension. High of level of
motivation combined with self-efficiacy are suggested as factors which can lead
students to success. Class sixe also contributes to students’ motivation. Academic
reading activity must be treated more as a tutorial activity rather than lecturning
subject. Smaller size of class can result in higher attention and focus while bigger
class with large number of students might result in lacking attention (Miller &
Merdian, 2020).
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