JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS’ EXPERIENCES IN OVERCOMING THEIR ENGLISH READING COMPREHENSION DIFFICULTIES

ZAHIRA KAMILA, AVITA (2026) JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS’ EXPERIENCES IN OVERCOMING THEIR ENGLISH READING COMPREHENSION DIFFICULTIES. Undergraduate thesis, UIN KH Achmad Siddiq Jember.

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Abstract

Avita Zahira Kamila, 2026: Junior High School Students’ Experiences In
Overcoming Their English Reading Comprehension Difficulties
Key words: Reading Comprehension, Challenges, Reading Strategies, Cognitive,
Metacognitive, Qualitative.
Reading comprehension is a fundamental skill essential for academic
success across various subjects. However, many Indonesian EFL students still
struggle with this skill, which may hinder their overall learning progress. Previous
studies have extensively investigated the difficulties students encounter in reading
comprehension; nevertheless, there were limited research that specifically explored
the types of cognitive and metacognitive strategies students actually employed to
overcome these challenges. This study addressed this gap by exploring the reading
comprehension difficulties of Indonesian EFL students and how they used cognitive
and metacognitive strategies to cope with them.
This study was guided by two main research questions: What challenges do
students face in improving their reading comprehension skills? And what reading
strategies do students use to overcome reading comprehension difficulties? The
objectives of this research were to explore the challenges student’s face in
improving their reading comprehension skills, and to analyze the reading strategies
that students use to overcome reading comprehension difficulties.
This study used a qualitative descriptive approach with thematic analysis.
Data were collected through semi-structured interviews and classroom observations
involving three low-achieving students, three high-achieving students, and one
English teacher, who were selected through purposive sampling with their informed
consent.
The findings revealed four main challenges: limited vocabulary knowledge,
complex text structures, lack of extensive reading habits, and unfamiliarity with
various text types. Low-achieving students tended to rely on basic cognitive
strategies such as word-for-word translation and showed inconsistent use of
metacognitive monitoring. In contrast, high-achieving students utilized more
effective techniques such as contextual inference, previewing text content, selfmonitoring comprehension, and post-reading evaluation. These differences
highlighted the crucial role of strategic proficiency in achieving successful reading
comprehension. Pedagogically, the findings suggested that teachers should
explicitly introduce, teach, and encourage the use of both cognitive and
metacognitive reading strategies as part of regular instruction to better support
students’ reading comprehension development.

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