Abstract :
It aims at answering the following questions: (1) Are the Eleventh Grade Students of SMAK Sint Carolus Penfui Kupang able to understand text they read? (2) What is the ability level of the Eleventh Grade Students of SMAK Sint Carolus Penfui Kupang in comprehending a reading text? (3) What are the difficulty encountered by the Eleventh Grade Students of SMAK Sint Carolus Penfui Kupang in understanding the reading text? While the objectives of the study are: (1) to find out whether or not the Eleventh Grade Students of SMAK Sint Carolus Penfui Kupang comprehend the reading text. (2) to find out the ability level of the Eleventh Grade Students of SMAK Sint Carolus Penfui Kupang in comprehending the reading. (3) to find out the difficulty encountered by the Eleventh Grade Students of SMAK Sint Carolus Penfui Kupang in understanding the reading text. In conducting the study the writer used Normative Survey Method. The subject of the study was the Eleventh Grade Students of SMAK Sint Carolus Penfui Kupang in the School Year 2016/2017. In collecting the data, the writer prepared 2 (two) reading texts followed by some multiple choice and essay questions. There were 10 (ten) test items of multiple choice for reading text number 1 (one), and 10 (ten) multiple joice for reading text number 2 (two). So, the total number of the test items was 20 (twenty). The students were given 90 (ninety) minutes to read the texts and answer the questions. The result of the study shows that: (1) the Eleventh Grade Students of SMAK Sint Carolus Penfui Kupang in the School Year 2016/2017 are able to understand the text they have read. (2) the ability level of the Eleventh Grade Students of SMAK Sint Carolus Penfui Kupang in the School Year 2016/2017 in comprehending the reading text was classified as ?average?. It is determined by the total percentage of the correct answers for the whole test that was 56.18 % and the grade was 5.6. It was also found that there was one student (9.09%) at very good level whose grade was among 8.6 up to 9.5. Besides that, there was one student (9.09%) at fairly good level whose grade was among 6.6 up to 7.5. Furthermore, there were five students (45.45%) at average level whose grade was among 5.6 up to 6.5. There was one student (9.09%) at poor level whose grade was among 3.6 up to 4.5. Lastly there were three students (27.27%) at very poor level whose grade was among 2.6 up to 3.5. Based on the result above, the writer would like to offer some suggestions for both English teacher and the Eleventh Grade Students of SMAK Sint Carolus Penfui Kupang: (1) The English teacher should give the students more exercises in the classroom interaction or as homework dealing with English reading text. (2) The English teacher should give the students more exercises dealing with writing a complete or a correct word.