Problems of teaching reading at my school

English is becoming popular in the last two decades in Indonesia. The use of English has interested many linguists and practitioners to conduct researches about how to develop most of Indonesians’ language competence. It impacts, surely, on the education curriculum and the material design to get strategic ways that can be implemented in classroom practice. Furthermore, it is also aimed at developing the four language skills; they are speaking, reading, writing, and listening. The current policy of Indonesian education ministry has allocated 20% listening comprehension skill test and 80% reading comprehension skill test for national examination. It means that the need of developing reading skill has got portion more than the other language skills. However, there are some gaps that may occur during the teaching and learning process, such as difficulties of developing reading habits, inadequacies of supporting facilities, and lacks of innovation in teaching.

Banyuwangi is a small city in East Java province in Indonesia. There are four major tribes living in Banyuwangi, they are Osingnese, Maduranese, Chinese and Javanese. It, of course, influences the language used by the students. For an instance, if a student who speak Osing meets the other student who speaks Osing they will use Osing language. However, if the student who speaks Osing meets the other student who speaks Madura, they will use Indonesia. The numbers of different languages used by the students sometimes will make them difficult to learn English. It often makes sense that the popularity of English use sometimes is not in line with the students’ motivation in learning English. Moreover, it also will affect their reading habits. It also means that the need to develop the students’ reading habit is very much necessary. Therefore, it is often suggested that the teachers can develop the students’ interest in reading by providing them books which are appropriate with their level.

This year, MAN Banyuwangi accepted around new 400 students who were allocated in 10 classes which meant that there were 40 students in one class. Next, the total number of the students who study at this school is around 1080. Logically, it should be supported by adequate facility to accommodate such a great number of students in achieving the target of language learning. Such reality should get a good attention from the stakeholders including government, education ministry, and school. However, an expectation does not always meet its reality. When the students require some appropriate facilities, the school cannot provide them or they are not in a good condition. So it makes both of the teachers and students cannot run the teaching and learning activity well. Thus, it not only wait for the response of the government to develop the appropriate facility but also try to find a way how to figure it out. 

The other factor that influences the achievement of students in developing their language competence is that they are guided by the professional teachers. The professional teachers are expected not only to have up to date reference of related theories but also competence in pedagogy. In many cases, it is often found out that many teachers have ability to teach but they do not have an up to date teaching strategy so that the language teaching tends to be monotony. Furthermore, the integrative teaching that is promoted to open a new perspective of developing the four language skills seems to fail in practical concept. The confusion that the English teachers mostly have is that how to teach reading effectively, it means that the students are not only able to read aloud the text but also able to comprehend, understand, and synthesis the idea stated in the text. Therefore, the teachers are expected to upgrade their understanding towards the current issue of language teaching and improve their professionalism.

From the discussion above, it is clear that there are four major gaps in teaching English that should be solved, especially reading, they are 1) there is a difficulty in developing reading habits of the students as English becomes the foreign language in Indonesia; 2) there are few facilities that can support the need of language learning; and 3) there is a lack of innovation in teaching related to current issue of language teaching and learning.