West Sumba Students' Reading Interest, Motivation, Obstacles, and Strategies

Abstract

To build and sharpen good reading skills, it is essential to provide students with engaging reading materials. Without motivation in reading, students may have poor reading comprehension skills. However, students may inevitably face difficulties in their reading, which may decrease motivation levels. In rural areas in Indonesia, several obstacles may affect students’ motivation to read, such as a lack of learning resources and unsupportive parents. This study aims to investigate English reading interests, motivation, obstacles, and strategies to overcome the obstacles of West Sumba senior high school students. This study uses a descriptive quantitative approach with a survey design. The results of this study indicated that the students are interested in reading Indonesian and English texts. However, students’ interest level was not shown in reading motivation. The common obstacles faced by the students in reading activities are a lack of English reading resources, inappropriate English texts, unsupportive parents and teachers, and a preference to watch TV or use mobile devices rather than read. The strategies to overcome these obstacles were sparing time to read, asking teachers to provide more time to read English reading materials in class, asking parents to allow more reading, limiting screen time, and asking the school to provide more English books.