TITLE:
Identifying Learners’ Difficulties in ESL Reading Comprehension
AUTHORS:
Yomana Chandran, Parilah M. Shah
KEYWORDS:
ESL Learners, Identify, Reading Comprehension, Difficulties, Secondary School Students
JOURNAL NAME:
Creative Education,
Vol.10 No.13,
December
16,
2019
ABSTRACT: Reading is one of thefundamentalskills in language learning andall English as Second Language (ESL) learnersneed to acquire it in order to master a language. However, statistics show that Malaysians are not reading enoughespeciallytheschoolstudents who are labeled as reluctant readers. This is deeply reflected in their reading comprehension which is one of the tested components in the SPM examination. Therefore, this studyaimed toidentifythelearners’ difficulties in ESL reading comprehension.Thus, a surveywas conducted among80 upper secondary students in Johor.Questionnaires wereused in the survey andgivenout to the respondents involved. The data obtainedfrom the surveywereanalysed using SPSS.There were five categories of reading comprehension difficulties among the upper secondary school students.Based on the analysis, itwasfound thatmost ofthestudents have agreed that the main difficulty faced by them in ESL reading comprehension is related to the reading process.Finally, the implications of these findings on ESL reading comprehension difficulties were discussed from the aspects of what the teachers could do in their teaching practices to address this issue and provide ways to solve them.