TEACHERS DIFFICULTIES IN TEACHING READING COMPREHENSION

DURING ONLINE CLASSROOM

Author: Amelia Afriani
Jambi University
Afrianiamelia4@gmail.com

Abstract
This research aimed to find out the difficulties that Junior High School English teachers
face in teaching reading comprehension during the online classroom. The site of this research
was at Sekolah Menengah Pertama Negeri 5 Kota Jambi. The subjects of this research were
three English teachers that teach 8th grades students in SMP N 5 Kota Jambi. This research
uses a descriptive qualitative research design. The data of this research were obtained
through individual interviews with six questions in total. For implementing an online
classroom, English teachers that participate in this research use several applications included,
including WhatsApp, Google Classroom, and YouTube. The finding showed that the
strategies used by English teachers for teaching reading comprehension through online
classrooms were reciprocal teaching and QARs (Question-Answer Relationship) strategy.
Through teaching and learning activities during the online classroom, teachers faced
difficulties because of the learner's readiness and the transition from face-to-face to online
teaching that teachers experienced. Therefore, this research discusses the difficulties
experienced by English teachers, thus it is hoped that readers especially English teachers who
experienced similar difficulties can use this research to increase their variety of learning
activities and overcome the difficulties they are faced.
Key Words: Teacher's difficulties, Reading Comprehension, Online Classroom.

INTRODUCTION
Teaching reading comprehension at Junior High School, English teachers are expected
to prepare the students with a good reading skills foundation. The teacher also has to prepare
the students with the ability to read for comprehension to enable them to answer the question
based on the texts they read. However, teaching reading comprehension is not easy because
the students are expected to elicit the main idea, understand what they read, get explicit and
implicit information, and gain details from a simple text after reading. English teachers must
use appropriate teaching strategies to achieve all the learning objectives, and it became
English teachers' challenges in teaching reading comprehension for Junior High School
students.
However, in 2020 the challenges that English teachers must face are not only to
preparing appropriate strategies for the classroom but also having to face the challenges of
having to teach online. Because in March 2020, Indonesian face Coronavirus Disease 2019 or
Covid-19 that spread very quickly and it affected all aspects of life include the education
system. The Ministry of Education and Culture (Kemendikbud) directed face-to-face learning
to online classrooms to prevent this virus's spread. As a result, the education system in 2020
using Pembelajaran Jarak Jauh (PJJ), or distance learning method, it is a term used for
learning methods that use technology and the internet to facilitate the learning process
without meeting face-to-face, and it involves students and teachers.
Regarding the transition from conventional learning to online learning, teachers must
face difficulties in implementing it because they are not used to it. Therefore, this study will
find out what difficulties are experienced by English teachers when teaching reading
comprehension in online classrooms.
METHOD
In this research, a descriptive qualitative research was used to find out teachers
difficulties in teaching reading comprehension during online classroom. The setting took
place in SMP N 5 Kota Jambi, located in Jl. M. Yamin, Payo Lebar, Kec. Jelutung, Kota
Jambi, Prov. Jambi. The participant of the research were the three of English teachers that
teach 8th grades of students. The procedure followed the guidelines of the qualitative research
procedure by Creswell (2012).
The data for this research was collected from interview section, such are notes and
interview transcript. The data collection prosesses are related from one to another. Firstly,
the researcher prepared the interview session and the questions that related to the topic. After
that, researcher will conduct a structured interview with the participant of the research. Then,
the researcher will organize the information and refitting the data. Finally, the researcher read
carefully the result of the interview and analayses the data that had been transcribed.
Meanwhile, the analysis prosesses are based on Miles and Huberman (1984). The
process of data analysis involves three activities; data reduction, display data, and conclusion
drawing or verification. Since the researcher will use structured interview, this data analysis
will be started with data reduction. Reducing data means summarizing, choosing the main
things, focusing on the essential things, looking for themes and patterns. This technique can
be assisted with the help of electronic devices, such as voice or video recorders. After
reducing the data, the researcher will be displaying the data. In qualitative research,
displaying data can use brief descriptions, charts, relationships between categories, and
flowcharts. However, researchers will display data in the form of narrative text. Furthermore,
the last step is conclusion drawing or verification; the conclusions drawn from this study
should answer three of the research questions.
RESULT AND DISCUSSION
Theme 1: The English Teachers Strategies and Media in Teaching Reading
Comprehension
The researcher found that every teacher has their strategies in teaching reading
comprehension. P1 used Reciprocal teaching, and the rest of the participants used the QARs
strategy in teaching reading comprehension. For example, P1 expressed:
 “Strategi mengajar yang saya berikan adalah materi berupa catatan, maksudnya
menyuruh anak mencatat sehingga anak-anak juga ikut membaca selagi mencatat.
Kalau lagi mengajar daring kan susah memantau anak-anak apakah paham dengan
materi yang dikasih, nah kalau memberi tugas catatan nanti saya bisa tahu apakah
mereka bisa paham atau tidak dengan materinya.” (P1).
"Teaching strategy that I gave was learning materials such as notes. It means asking the
students to take notes, so they also read the text while taking the notes. When teaching
online is hard to see the students if they were understood the given materials. If I give
them the assignment to take a note, I will know if they can understand the materials or
not." (P1).

According to P1, she prefers to focus on giving the students materials and asking them
to take the notes based on their understanding. With an online situation, P1 stated that it is
challenging to make sure the student's comprehension towards the given text, but with this
task, she believes it will make the students read the given text and make their understanding
by taking the notes from the information they got from the text.
Based on the explanation above, the strategy that P1 used is similar to Reciprocal
Teaching because, as stated by Palinscar & Brown (1984), this strategy guide reading
comprehension that encourages students to develop the skills that effective readers and
learners do automatically (summaries, question, clarify, predict and respond to what they are
reading). In this case, P1 uses this strategy in online classroom, so she just asked the students
to send her the result of their summaries so she can see the students understand the text.
As the utterance below, P1 uses WhatsApp Group and gives the task from Google
Classroom to control and give the students the task. She used the source from YouTube as a
Video explanation about something or materials that she wants the students to understand.
The video that she used is such as a text video without sound or oral explanation.
“Medianya saya melalui WA (Whatsapp) dan GCL (Google Classroom). Sumbernya
biasanya saya dari Youtube. Iya dari Youtube, saya cari video orang menerangkan
dengan tulisan saja.” (P1).
"for the media, I use WA (Whatsapp) and GCL (Google Classroom). For the source,
usually I use YouTube. Yes, from Youtube, I search for videos that explained just in
text." (P1).

Unlike the P1 strategy, P2 and P3 have the same strategy in teaching reading
comprehension in online classrooms. The similarity of their strategy that they use presented
by one of the following statements as follow:
“Pertama memberikan teks dan mengintruksikan untuk membaca dan memahami teks
tersebut ee kemudian mencari arti kata-kata sulit, sebagai cara juga untuk menambah
 kosakata bagi mereka. Lalu memberikan tugas seperti mereka harus menjawab
pertanyaan yang disiapkan sesuai dengan teksnya.” (P2).
"First, I gave a text and instruction to read and understand the text, after that find the
meaning of the difficult words, as the way to enrich their vocabulary. And then, I gave
an assignment like they must answer the question already provided due to the text."
(P2).

“Memberikan teks, teks itu ee dari buku pembelajaran ee difoto. Setelah itu
instruksikan kepada siswa untuk ee membaca teksnya di rumah dan supaya membuka
kamus atau google translate di hp. Setelah itu kerjakan soal berdasarkan teks yang
telah ee diberikan.” (P3).
"I gave a text, and the text is from a learning book. I take a picture of the text in the
book. After that, I instructed the students to read the text in their house and open the
dictionary or Google Translate on their phones. And then do the questions based on the
text that has been given." (P3).

Based on the statements above, P2 and P3 use Question answer relationship (QARs)
strategy in teaching reading comprehension to the students in an online classroom. This
strategy allows the teacher to give the accessible material or text to the students to accept the
text and focus on answering the questions based on the text. The teachers used the QARs
strategy to see if the students understand the text they read. If the students could answer the
questions, it means they understood the text given by the teacher, but if they could not answer
the questions, the students did not understand the text. According to Pearson & Johnson
(1978), the type of question asked is must guide the student's comprehension based on the
information they got from the text to answer the question.
As the statements below, P2 and P3 explain what media they use to teach reading
comprehension in online classrooms. P2 uses WhatsApp and teaching video or video text
from YouTube. She also uses reading material from the book, took the picture, and sent it to
WhatsApp Group Classroom. The media that P2 uses is similar to P3. She uses 8 th-grade
learning books. She uses the same method with P2. They took a picture of the text in the book
and sent it to the Classroom Group via WhatsApp group.
“Dari melalui Whatsapp dan video pembelajaran atau ee teks video dari Youtube. Ee
dari ini juga bahan bacaan, buku terus difoto dan dikirimkan ke WA (Whatsapp).”
(P2).
"From WhatsApp and learning videos or text videos from youtube. From reading
material, took the picture from the book and sent it to WA (WhatsApp)." (P2).
Different from P1 and P2, P3 answered the question about teaching media very briefly.
“Buku pembelajaran kelas 8.” (P3).
 "8th-grade learning books." (P3)

Theme 2: The Purposes of Teaching Reading Comprehension to the Students

For this research, every teacher revealed different purposes of teaching reading
comprehension to the students. The first purpose is to enrich the student's vocabulary, the
second purpose is to make the students understand the passage, and the last purpose is to
teach the students about the kind of passage.
The first was mentioned by the first participant, P1:
“Tujuan saya adalah agar anak paham dan tahu tentang vocabnya… Paham dan tahu
maksud dan arti dari materi yang telah saya berikan.” (P1).
"My goal is the students understand and know about the vocabulary… understand and
know the meaning from the material that I gave." (P1).

P1 stated that she wants the students to understand and know the meaning of the
vocabulary from the passage that she gave. In other words, she wants to enrich her student's
vocabulary through teaching this reading comprehension.
The second purpose was mentioned by the second and third participant:
“… Tujuan utama dari reading comprehension ini adalah ee siswa bisa paham isi dari
teks tersebut sehingga diharapkan siswa mampu untuk menjawab dengan baik
pertanyaan-pertanyaan dari teks tersebut.” (P2).
"… "The main objective of teaching reading comprehension is that the students can
understand the contents of the passage so that it is hoped that the students will be able
to answer well the questions from the text." (P2).

P2 stated that the primary purpose of teaching reading comprehension to the students is
to make them understand the contents of the passage, so they will get the information from
the passage to answer the questions given by the teachers.
P3 has conveyed the same statement as P2. She stated that students might know the
purpose of reading comprehension from the book they have. Moreover, P3 want the students
to answer the question related to the passage they choose in the book to see the students
understand the passage or not:
“Jika pembelajaran reading comprehension, ee kita beri teks di dalam buku ee
kemungkinan siswa mengetahui tujuannya karena ee siswa punya bukunya masing-
masing. Setelah itu mengerjakan latihan kan ee latihan itu sesuai dengan apa yang kita
kasih teksnya. Jadi tujuannya supaya siswa paham dengan teks yang diberikan di grup
itu.” (P3).
"If learning reading comprehension, ee we give the text in the book, it is possible that
the students will know their purpose because they have their books. After that, do the
exercises, right? The exercises are following the text we gave. So, the goal is for
students to understand the text given in the group. "

The last purpose revealed by P2 that also want the students to know what kind of
passage that they read:
 “… Sementara tujuan lain dari pembelajaran reading ini kan untuk menentukan tujuan
dari teks tersebut juga, bagian-bagian teksnya, dan ciri-ciri teks tersebut.” (P2).
"Meanwhile, the other purpose of this learning activity is to determine the purpose of
the text as well, the parts, and characteristics of the text. " (P2).

In the following statement, the participants stated that the strategies they used in
teaching reading comprehension in the online classroom had not yet achieved the expected
goals:
“Saya rasa selama daring ini belum tercapai semuanya, hanya ada beberapa anak yang
mencapai tujuan pembelajaran yang saya buat. Karena ada anak yang memang
mencatat dan mengumpulkan ke saya karena setiap memberikan materi, saya suruh
kumpulkan melalui GCL.” (P1).
"I think since this online classroom, the goals have not been achieved. Only a few
children have achieved the learning goals that I made. Because there were children who
did take the summary and collect it to me because every time I gave the material, I
asked them to collect it through the GCL." (P1).

According to P1, she considered that the learning strategy that she used to teach reading
comprehension online had not achieved her teaching goals, which she previously said that the
learning objective was to enrich the student's vocabulary. She said that only a few of the
students achieved this goal because the rest of her students did not submit their assignments
and made her unable to assess whether the child understood the text given or not.
P3 gave the same statements as P1:
“Belum. Karena kalau online kan, gimana ya… tidak semua siswa mengikuti, hanya
sebagian. Kalau tatap muka kan kita langsung mengajar itukan dia hadir, mengerti
atau apakan ee dia bisa bertanya dan kita kan bisa menjelaskan langsung.” (P3).
"Not yet. Because online, how ya… not every student follow, just a half. If face to face,
we can teach directly, they attend the class, understand or what ee they can ask and we
can explain directly." (P3).

P3 stated that in teaching online classrooms, the goals had not been achieved. That is
because not every student follows the class, just half of them. Furthermore, it made her hard
to achieve the goals. Not like face-to-face method, it will make her easy to teach the students
because she knows all of the students attend the class.
Different from P1 and P3, P2 have another statement:
“Ya untuk sekitar tujuh puluh persen lah. Ya karena kan kalau daring itu banyak
kendala. Mulai dari sinyal kadang, anak ee masalah kuota, ee ada juga yang eee
berbagi android dengan saudaranya. Ya jadi gagalnya tiga puluh persen karena
masalah teknisnya lah ya.” (P2).
"Yes, for about seventy percent. Yes, because online, there are many obstacles. Starting
from the signal, sometimes, they have a quota problem. Some share their Android with
their siblings. Yes, it was thirty percent failure because of technical problems." (P2).
 According to P2, about seventy percent she achieved the teaching purpose that she
made. That thirty percent is because of technical problems, the students have difficulty with
signal, quota problem, and have to share their gadget with their siblings.

Theme 3: Teacher's Difficulty in Teaching Reading Comprehension in Online

Classroom
The researcher found out the difficulty teachers faced during teaching reading
comprehension in online classrooms. As stated by P1 below:
“Secara daring kesulitannya pasti ada, tidak semua anak yang mengerjakan tugas
mencatat dan juga tidak semua anak mempunyai kuota untuk melihat materi yang
sudah saya kirimkan.” (P1).
"There must be difficulties online, not all children do the summary tasks, and not all
children have a quota (internet access) to see the material I have sent." (P1).

From the statements, P1 admits that she faced the difficulty because not all the students
have internet access and makes them unable to see the material that she sent and did not do
the summary tasks. Based on the reason, it included the difficulty in the 'learners’ readiness'
category. According to Hung, Chou, Chen & Own (2010), learners' readiness to attend online
learning is an important issue discussed in the literature. Having devices such as cell phones
and internet access (quota internet) is one example of learners' readiness whom their parents
should support. However, economic factors are also an obstacle for students' parents to
support their children in the online learning method.
Besides P1, P2 also experienced the same difficulty, as in the following statement:
“… Ya karena kan kalau daring itu banyak kendala. Mulai dari sinyal kadang, anak ee
masalah kuota, ee ada juga yang eee berbagi android dengan saudaranya. Ya jadi
gagalnya tiga puluh persen karena masalah teknisnya lah ya.” (P2).
"… Ya because online, there are many obstacles. Starting from the signal, sometimes,
they have a quota problem. Some share their Android with their siblings. Yes, it was
thirty percent failure because of technical problems." (P2).

Having difficulty with learner's readiness, P2 revealed that she also had difficulty in
teaching. That is because there are students that not understand the passage even. She already
tried to give motivation or to instruct to see the dictionary. According to Anderson, Imdieke,
and Standerford (2011), the main challenge in teaching online is to disconnect between the
way teachers were taught to teach and how they must be delivered in an effective online
classroom. In the statement above, P2 relies on giving motivation to the students, like when
teaching face-to-face. In an online classroom, teachers should find an interesting way to teach
the students and make engagement from it, so the teacher might not feel less control over
how to teach in an online classroom. This difficulty is a part of transitioning from face-to-
face to online classroom, this issue is related to the instructors.
Unlike P1 and P2, P3 answers that the difficulties she faced are a combination of all the
participants' difficulties in this research experience. Based on the P3 statement, she faced
difficulty with the learner's readiness and difficulty because of the transition from face-to-
face to an online classroom. This statement validated in the interview:
 “Ee, sulit kalau bagi saya. Karena kadang kalau online itu ada siswa yang tidak punya
hp, tidak ada kuota, terus mungkin sinyal. Jadi ee kalau bagi saya mungkin kurang
tercapai. Masalah teknis. Kalau siswanya sebagian siswa bisa, sebagiannya enggak
karena dari dasar belum belajar, baru ketemu pelajaran Bahasa Inggris di SMP kan.
Jadi sulit untuk dia pahami gitu kan, apalagi online ini. Tapi dengan kita sering terus
terus terus mungkin bisa lah sedikit-sedikit. Itulah tadi tuh lebih enak tatap muka dari
pada online.” (P3).
"Ee, it is difficult for me. Because sometimes in online method, there are students who
do not have smartphones, internet access, and signals. So yeah, for me, it might not be
achieved. Technical problem. Some students can learn, some do not because they have
not yet learned from the basics, and they just met English lessons in SMP, right? So, it
is hard for them to understand, especially since this is an online classroom. However, if
we keep on going, maybe it can be a little bit. That is why better face-to-face than the
online classroom." (P3).
Furthermore, after explaining the participants' difficulties, the researcher asked how
they dealt with those difficulties. Three of them explained the same thing. They solved those
difficulties by giving motivation to the students and continuing to ask them to do assignments
according to the instructions given. As the statement below:
“Ya terus dengan memotivasi siswa lah setiap kali pertemuan daring itu, atau kadang
juga saya ee japri (percakapan pribadi via Whatsapp) mengingatkan tugasnya, ini
tugas yang belum, mungkin seperti itulah.” (P2).
"Ya with continue to motivate the students every time in the online meeting, or
sometimes I ee private chat reminding them of their assignments, the unfinished task,
maybe something like that." (P2).

Similar with P2, P3 also explain the same thing like the statements bellow:
“Ya memberi motivasi kepada siswa, untuk tetap semangat belajar jangan malas
belajar walaupun kita belajarnya online. Jadi rajin-rajinlah selalu mengingatkan
tugasnya belum kumpul gitu, dan ee lain sebagainya lah. Tapi paling penting itu
motivasi belajar siswa lah, beri semangat.” (P3).
"ya giving motivation to the students, to keep spirit for study even study online. So, be
diligent to always remind them about the assignment that has not yet been gathered, and
so on. However, the most important thing is student's motivation, encourage them."
(P3).
According to the statements, P2 and P3 tried to continuously motivate the students to
study through the online classroom and constantly remind them to collect the assignment to
assess their abilities. In both ways, P2 and P3 overcome the difficulties that were previously
described.
 Meanwhile, P1 also asked the assignment to the parents of the students. This is because
the students did not respond it and P1 must text the parents to make sure the students do the
assignment. This statement validated in the interview with P1:
“Saya selalu menagih tugas catatannya setiap pertemuan di kelas yang saya ajar, dan
juga saya akan menghubungi orang tua anak yang tidak mengumpulkan catatan dan
tugas lainnya.” (P1).
"I always asked the summary assignment for each class meeting I teach, and I will also
contact the parents who do not collect the summary assignment and other assignments."
(P1).

CONCLUSIONS
The researcher proposed the following conclusion:

The strategies that the 8th-grade teacher used in teaching reading comprehension in an

online classroom in SMPN 5 Kota Jambi were two strategies; (1) Reciprocal Teaching and

(2) QARs (Question-Answer Relationship) strategy. They use WhatsApp Group chat and

Google Classroom as their media in teaching online. For source of the material, they use

video on YouTube and the book course.

The teachers faced two difficulties in teaching reading comprehension to their students;

(1) learner's readiness. The teachers admit that it is difficult to achieve the learning goals they

have made when teaching reading comprehension due to student's readiness. Not a few

students are constrained by devices and internet access so that they cannot participate in

online learning that the teachers have prepared. (2) teacher's difficulty because of the

transition from face-to-face to an online classroom. It is happening because the teachers find

it difficult to teach online because they are just familiar with conventional methods. They

have not found an exciting teaching strategy to attract students' attention when teaching

reading comprehension. It causes students to be less interested in learning and doing the

assignments given by the teachers, so it also impacts learning goals that are not achieved.

ACKNOWLEDMENTS
 In this paper, author would like to thanks Mr. Tubagus Zam Zam Al Arif, S. Pd., M. Pd
and Mrs. Duti Volya, S. Pd., M. Pd as the thesis supervisor, without them the author could
not imagine how this paper is.

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