Students’ Reading Ability and Problems in Answering Questions of Recount and Narrative Texts at Grade VIII of SMPN 33 Padang

Reading is one of four English skills that must be mastered by students. Answering questions of recount and narrative texts was a problem that the students of grade VIII faced in reading skill. Based on a preliminary documentary of the students reading test result at grade VIII of SMP 33 Padang, it was found that their scores on reading test were not satisfying. Thus, this research was aimed at explaining their ability in this test and analyzing the problems that they faced.The study was a descriptive one. The population was the eighth grade students of SMP 33 Padang in 2011/2012 academic year. There were 46 students chose as sample by using random sampling technique. The data were collected by using a reading test and an interview. This research has proven that the students’ ability in reading test by answering the questions of recount and narrative texts was low. It can be viewed from the students’ ability who were able to answer the questions correctly; which was reflected in the percentage of the students who got excellent, good, enough and poor. This finding was supported by the qualitative data. In addition, the qualitative data indicated that the students had difficulties in other factors, namely language, vocabulary, reading indicators and type of questions. To conclude, students’ ability in answering questions of recount and narrative texts was low because they did not have sufficient knowledge of factors that affected their comprehension in reading.