Abstract
The purpose of this study is to discuss students’ reading ability and the reading strategies they use when they read English texts. This study employs a descriptive-qualitative approach. The data were gained by using two instruments; a reading comprehension test and a questionnaire on reading strategy. The respondents of this research were 243 third year students from four senior high schools located in coastal area in Bengkulu city. The results of students’ reading comprehension test showed that the students’ reading ability is categorized as poor. This study also found that the students use reading strategies in medium frequency. It means that the students do not make use of reading strategies maximally. Furthermore, the analysis of the questionnaire also showed that the most frequently used strategies are finding the main idea of the text, guessing the meaning of difficult words and using background knowledge while reading, while the least frequently used strategies are looking at the text closely, finding specific information and interpreting graph, diagram and table. It is predicted that the students’ low reading ability was influenced by the way the students use reading strategy and the sociocultural factor of the students who live in coastal area.
Highlights
Reading ability is crucial in today’s world
This study reported that students who were taught metacognitive strategies had significantly higher reading comprehension score than those on control group
This study revealed that students who were taught cognitive and metacognitive strategies had improved reading comprehension
Summary
Reading ability is crucial in today’s world. The ability to read is vital in the development of the quality of human life, such as in communicating, educational process, adding knowledge, and building a career. To be more specific, reading has an important role in someone’s English learning process. The very famous slogan of Nuttal (1982) says that the best way to improve speech is to live in an environment that uses that language. The second way is to read extensively the various readings that use the target language. This implies that in order to use a foreign language well, language learners need inputs that use the target language.
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
