Previous studies revealed that genre awareness and reading habits partially correlate with reading comprehension. This article reported the results of a study aiming to find out the contribution of genre awareness and reading habits towards the development of students’ comprehension of reading English texts. The participants of this study were 68 students of the Department of English of a state-owned university in East Java, Indonesia, in the 2020/2021 academic year. These students took the three reading courses (Intensive Course, Basic, and Intermediate Reading courses) and were assumed to have been familiar with genres and have developed some reading habits. This research employed a correlational design, involving two predicting variables (genre awareness and reading habits), and one response variable (comprehension). The data were gathered using three instruments: an objective test to measure students’ genre awareness, an online questionnaire to identify students’ reading habits, and an objective test to measure students’ reading comprehension. The data were analyzed using multiple linear regression analysis aided by SPSS/PASW Program. The results showed that the data are normally distributed so that conclusions can be drawn accurately that genre awareness and reading habits partially and significantly contribute to reading comprehension. The results also indicated that genre awareness and reading habits simultaneously and significantly contribute to reading comprehension, as shown by the results of the analysis that genre awareness and reading habits contributed 0.203 or 20.3% to reading comprehension. The rest (79.7%) was attributed to other variables outside the variables under study. This study concludes that good genre awareness and good reading habits help students develop good reading comprehension. The results provided in this paper can be used by English teachers as an alternative to help their students improve their genre awareness and cultivate good reading habits.

Reading comprehension is an essential skill that students need to master. It helps students to develop their knowledge, skill, and memory to prepare for real life challenges. However, students in Indonesia still experience reading comprehension problems. Both PISA and the National Reading Index show that Indonesian students’ literacy in Indonesian text is low. Previous research also indicate that most Indonesian students do not understand English texts especially narrative text. This study aimed to identify what problems the senior high school students faced in reading English texts and how many percent of them faced reading comprehension problems. The design of the study was a survey. The findings of this research reveal that 52% of the students had problems in vocabulary and 43.2% of the students had problems in background knowledge when reading English texts. Therefore, the students need to exercise more on their vocabulary and background knowledge skills by reading more narrative text. Keywords: reading comprehension problems, survey, narrative text Abstrak: Pemahaman membaca adalah keterampilan penting yang harus dikuasai oleh siswa. Ketrampilan tersebut dapat membantu siswa untuk mengembangkan pengetahuan, keterampilan, dan memori mereka untuk menghadapi tantangan di kehidupan nyata. Namun, siswa di Indonesia masih mengalami masalah dalam memahami bacaan. Survey dari PISA dan Indeks Literasi Nasional menunjukkan bahwa literasi siswa Indonesia dalam teks bahasa Indonesia masih rendah. Penelitian sebelumnya juga menunjukkan bahwa sebagian besar siswa Indonesia tidak memahami teks bahasa Inggris terutama teks naratif. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengidentifikasi masalah apa yang dihadapi siswa sekolah menengah atas dalam membaca teks bahasa Inggris dan berapa persen dari mereka yang masih ada masalah di pemahaman bacaan. Desain penelitian ini adalah survei. Temuan penelitian ini mengungkapkan bahwa 52% siswa memiliki masalah dalam kosakata dan 43,2% siswa memiliki masalah dalam pengetahuan latar belakang saat membaca teks bahasa Inggris. Oleh karena itu, siswa perlu lebih banyak melatih kosakata dan keterampilan pengetahuan latar belakang mereka dengan membaca lebih banyak teks naratif. Kata kunci: permasalahan dalam memahami bacaan, survei, teks naratif

The research aimed at the use of picture series to improve the students’ speaking ability of tenth graders in narrative text. In accordance with the findings of preliminary study which showed that the students’ speaking performance was low, the researcher chose speaking as the focus skill to be improved. The skill was chosen because the students faced many difficulties to perform this skill, such as the lack of vocabulary, the coherence in speaking, and the difficulty to express the ideas. The study applied a classroom action research that was conducted in two cycles consisting of five meetings. The subject of this research was 34 tenth grade students of SMAN 4 Malang. The findings of the research revealed that using picture series improved the students’ speaking score in some aspects of speaking skills, comprising fluency, pronunciation, content, and coherence. Besides, it could make the student eager to be involved in the teaching and learning process.

Teaching is a rewarding activity, but it can be really frustrating when teachers fail to make their students learn. Teachers in the Department of English of our University stumble on a group of students from a particular region in Indonesia. Our observations on these students in our own classes, feedbacks from teachers in other classes, remarks from the chair of the students' association, and the results of an interview with them reveal problems in entry behaviour, academic achievement, initative, motivation, class responses, and self-discipline. The teachers find it hard to deal with these students and think that these problems are rooted in the so-called cultural differences, but are they really cultural? This article describes these problems, addresses their reasons from the perspectives of culture and pedagogy, and explores possibilities to overcome them.

In the Program Pendidikan Profesi Guru Dalam Jabatan (In-service PPG Program), as in other teacher training programs, lesson plans are a prerequisite for peer teaching. In this program, seven out of 17 sessions are allotted for lesson plan writing, finalization, presentation, discussion, and revision. This arrangement is meant to enable the PPG students to develop lesson plans, discuss them with their facilitators and fellow students, get feedbacks, and improve them. At the end of this process, the students are expected to produce acceptable and feasible lesson plans. Do the students fulfil this expectation? To answer this question, all the components of their lesson plans are analyzed. The analysis focuses on the lesson plans the students prepared for high school level. Keywords: lesson plan, in-service, PPG, ELT