THE DIFFICULTIES IN LISTENING NEWS ITEM TEXT FACED BY THE TWELFTH GRADE STUDENTS OF SMA NEGERI 4 PALANGKA RAYA

Listening is the most important skill for language learning because it is the most widely used skill in daily life. In learning foreign language, students still faced obstacles in comprehending listening material. This research was carried out to find out the difficulties that student faced in listening news item text and the dominant difficulty. The research finding can be used to enrich the theories and method regarding to students’ listening skill development. The participant of this research was XII MIPA 1 of SMA Negeri 4 Palangka Raya, consisted of 35 students. This research used descriptive qualitative method. The instruments of this research were students’ task and questionnaire related to news item text. Students’ tasks were short answer and fill the blanks. Students’ task is given to identify students under and above the passing grade. Then, the questionnaire is given to students under the passing grade using Google Form in order to find students’ difficulties in listening news item text and to identify specific challenges in understanding news item text. The result of this research indicated that the twelfth grade students of SMA Negeri 4 Palangka Raya faced some problems when they listen to news item text, they are; (1) related to the materials (lack of vocabulary (92,3%) and unfamiliar grammar (84,6%)); (2) related to the speakers (various accents that used by the speaker (92,3%) and speed rate of the speaker (84,6%)); (3) related to the listener (inability of the students itself to understand what the speakers are saying (84,6%)). There were five dominant difficulties, they were unfamiliar vocabulary, unfamiliar grammar, various accents, speakers’ speed, and the inability of the students to understand the information. This findings prove that in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learning, students face varieties of difficulties when learning listening. It means that students need to improve their listening skill since they know they still face some difficulties in learning listening skill, especially grammar, vocabulary, and accent sections.