INVESTIGATING STUDENTS’ DIFFICULTIES IN READING ACADEMIC TEXT AT A PRIVATE UNIVERSITY IN INDONESIA

This study investigated students' difficulties in reading academic texts at a private university in Indonesia. This study aimed to apprehend how students read the academic text and explore students' difficulties in reading academic texts at a private university in Indonesia. This study applied qualitative research method specifically case study design. Data were obtained from observation and interviews.
The data were analyzed using thematic analysis. The participants of this study were fourth-semester students of the English Education Study Program. The aspects that contributed to students' difficulties in reading academic text at a private university in Indonesia were: limited vocabulary knowledge, readability problems, inadequate
use of reading strategies, and lack of reading fluency. Based on the findings of this study, the students' difficulties in reading academic texts were significantly caused by limited vocabulary knowledge. This study showed that students experienced difficulties in reading academic texts due to limited vocabulary and knowledge of academic vocabulary, and confirmed that the main challenge of difficulty of lexical words. Therefore, helping students recognize and understand these difficulties is an important step to improve their understanding and comprehension of reading academic texts.