LINKING INSTRUCTION TO COMPREHENSION: FIRST-YEAR EFL STUDENTS’ STRATEGIES AND CHALLENGES IN IDENTIFYING MAIN IDEA AND MAKING INFERENCE

Oleh :
Adisty Nur Ramadhani - K2219002 - Fak. KIP

Reading comprehension remains a persistent challenge for first-year English as a Foreign Language (EFL) students, particularly in identifying the main idea of a text and making inferences from information that is not explicitly stated. This study examined how first-year EFL students enacted reading strategies taught in the classroom, the challenges they encountered when identifying main ideas and constructing knowledge-based inferences, and how instructional practices supported or failed to support their strategy use. A descriptive qualitative design was employed involving second-semester students of the English Education Study Program at a public university in Surakarta, Indonesia. Data were collected through a questionnaire completed by 44 students, an independent reading task completed by 11 selected students, semi-structured interviews, and students' written worksheets, and were analyzed using Miles and Huberman's interactive model of data condensation, data display, and conclusion drawing, with source and technique triangulation used to establish trustworthiness. The findings show that students generally applied basic reading strategies, such as identifying the topic, skimming, scanning, and activating prior knowledge, but the quality of their inferencing depended heavily on whether a structured scaffold was used; many students, particularly those without such a scaffold, relied on literal restatement rather than deeper interpretation. The study implies that EFL reading instruction should provide more explicit modeling, guided practice, and metacognitive strategy training to help students transfer classroom learning into independent reading and to strengthen higher-order comprehension skills.