The Study of Teaching Reading Comprehension During Online Class in English Department of University of Islam Malang: Students’ Perception

Abstract

Reading is one of basic skills in English that has an important role for exploring and getting knowledge and information, especially about English. When we read English text, we will get a lot of things about English that can improve our reading comprehension, such as new vocabularies, new information, and new reading experiences. In teaching reading comprehension, the technique used also influence the students reading comprehension, such as dividing materials, choosing suitable strategies, and matching class activities. Recently, reading class conducted through online class. Possibly, students got some obstacles while doing their first online reading class activities. This study aimed to explore the students’ perception towards teaching online reading comprehension in detail which included students’ obstacles, online reading class activities, and students’ perception towards their reading comprehension during online class. For the research design, the researcher chose descriptive qualitative research. The subjects were four students of English Department of University of Islam Malang who experienced online reading class in fourth semester which had chosen through purposive sampling. The participants chosen were two students who got higher achievements and two students who got lower achievements. Then, to obtain the data, the researcher conducted in-depth-interviews as the research instrument. The finding of the study indicated that the researcher found four main points of student perceptions. First, it was about class management and class activities, teacher managed the online reading class by utilizing WhatsApp feature, Zoom Meeting Apps and Google Classroom Apps. Then, for the reading class activity, students read and summarized several reading sources to be collected to the lecturer. Second, it was about students’ obstacles and distractions while doing the online reading class activity, they faced some obstacles in the beginning of online class such as how to use the technology and how to manage their time. Then, about students’ perception towards the effectiveness of teacher’s strategies, class activities, and about their reading comprehension during online class, all of participants said that the lecturer strategy to manage and give the class activity was effective, they also felt the improvement on their reading comprehension because of the reading activity. The last, students also delivered their perception about the things that must be implemented in next online reading class for getting better reading comprehension. Based on the findings of the study, the present study was conducted in limited scope, and it certainly has a number of limitations in its data. It is extremely better to add another instrument and get the lecturer’s point of view in the future study. The suggestions were addressed to the lecturer to be more sensitive about what the students need while doing the online reading class activities, such as additional information and feedback. The lecturer also needs to apply interactive and interesting activities for the students in order to enhance students' motivation in online reading class and be more detail in controlling in the process of doing the assignment in order to minimize cheating among students. Keywords: Teaching Reading Comprehension, Online Reading Class, Students’ Perception.