The Problems of English Reading Skills of First Year Students at Sitagu Buddhist Academy Thanlyin in Yangon of Myanmar

Abstract

This thesis entitled “The Problems of English Reading Skills of First Year Students at Sitagu Buddhist Academy Thanlyin in Yangon of Myanmar”. The objectives of this study are: (1) to study the English reading skills of the first-year students at Sitagu Buddhist Academy Thanlyin in Yangon of Myanmar, (2) to analyze the problems of English reading skills of the first-year students at Sitagu Buddhist Academy Thanlyin in Yangon of Myanmar. The study was a mixed method both of quantitative and qualitative. Questionnaires were used for collecting quantitative data from 55 students at Sitagu Buddhist Academy Thanlyin in Yangon of Myanmar and the key information from the in-depth interview was used for collecting qualitative data from 4 lecturers.       In this research, statistics including Frequency, Percentage, Mean and Standard Deviation (S.D) were used for quantitative data and a content analysis is used for analyzing qualitative data. In this study, the researcher chose 55 first-year students as sample in the academic year of 2023 to 2024. In the general background, the 54 respondents of this study were male and only one respondent was female. The 24 respondents of this research were 21 to 30 years old or 43.6% and the 31 respondents of this research were 31 up years old or 56.4%. According to the respondents of this research questionnaires, the result had shown that the participated students encountered with problems in Reading English. In the objective one, the resultant average of students’ English reading skill was  =2.402 and SD=0.854 and in the result of objective two, the resultant average of students’ English reading skill was 2.428 and SD= 1.114. 

By learning these two resultant averages, the first-year students’ English reading skill were at very low level. It meant that they had to solve many problems in English reading skills. In the result of in-depth interview, the lecturers gave some suggestions to solve the problems encountered by their students. The problems to solve were to study grammar, vocabulary, to have self-confidence or motivation, to make self-study more and practices. The researcher also suggested that the students basically should study basic grammar, vocabulary, self-study and practices, and to have self-confident and motivation. And also, they should set specific goals to improve their skill.