Students’ Needs on English Reading Comprehension Materials in Indonesian Higher Education

This study aims to determine the needs of students related to English reading materials at the university level. The total number of students who became the research sample at Muhammadiyah Parepare University was 46 students. This study used a quantitative method by means of which students filled out a questionnaire with three assessment indicators namely frequency, interest and level of proficiency in reading comprehension of English. The findings of this study indicate that reading articles from magazines and newspapers, e-mail, and online articles, reading English manuals or booklets, reading reports, textbooks, and book references, understanding and interpreting the meaning of graphs, tables, and figures, understanding specific information, understanding general information, and identifying main ideas are materials needed by students in teaching English in reading comprehension skills.


INTRODUCTION
According to how reading is approached, reading in a foreign language has various shapes and has a significant effect on learning (Celik, 2018). It is a necessary requirement for longterm teaching and involvement in almost all facets of society (Marx, 2015). It includes a collaborative process where readers use efficient reading techniques to create a useful picture of a text (Gilakjani & Sabouri, 2016). Additionally, according to Gilakjani and Ahmadi (2011), reading is an interactive process in which users create a relevant depiction of text using their schemata. Reading comprehension is another term used in English education. Ahmadi (2017) asserts that the capacity for rapid word understanding is a prerequisite for reading comprehension. When reading terms that are difficult to grasp, students use too much of their processing power, which hinders their comprehension of what is being read. Reading are separated into two main categories. They are lengthy and involved readings (Mart, 2015;Celik, 2017;Gilakjani and Sabouri, 2016;Miftah, 2013).
Numerous studies have shown that reading frequently can improve one's linguistic skills. (Mart, 2015). The goal of this reading exercise is to read a number of books for pleasure, knowledge, and language development (Miftah, 2013). She also says that in order to improve language and proficiency, it should be combined with other language-focused learning and substantial reading. According to Celik (2018), extensive reading is defined as a student's independent activity; however, the supervisory roles of the teachers are of utmost significance, and it should be noted that a true extensive reading necessitates reading a lot of material and being exposed to the target language in that way. It enables students to understand how the language elements they learned in intensive reading are used in phrases (Mart, 2018). Learners read a page in this form of reading to understand the content and become familiar with the writing techniques Gilakjani and Sabouri, 2016). Additionally, he says that by reading, students will be able to exercise these strategies in a fundamental way using a variety of resources. These techniques can either be learner-or text-related. According to Miftah (2013), the majority of ESL/EFL students can comprehend English with just intensive reading. Additionally, she adds that in order to help students improve their reading comprehension skills, teachers should give them both rigorous and comprehensive reading assignments. These assignments should be combined to help readers understand a text. Besides, Mart (2015) states that reading comprehension emphasizes careful study of vocabulary and syntax, placing more of an emphasis on correctness than fluency.
According to Celik (2018), focused reading is about improving in the target language through reading under the direction of an instructor. He continues by saying that the purpose of intensive reading is to obtain detailed meaning by addressing various topics. This gives the reader the chance to use a variety of reading skills, including identifying the main idea, extracting the minor ideas, scanning for specific information, and paying close attention to a particular vocabulary and grammar. In carrying out the English learning process for biology students at the Universitas Muhammadiyah Parepare, they have not been equipped with English reading material that suits their needs. So that the English competence possessed by students was still relatively low. This was demonstrated by the survey findings, which showed that 52.17% of students still considered their level of English proficiency to be elementary. Additionally, it was discovered from the distribution of the questionnaire's findings that 62.22% of students said they wished to select their English-learning subject in accordance with their needs. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to explore further the needs of students regarding the reading comprehension materials that they wished to be taught in their majors. From this research, it was hoped that it would be taken into consideration in developing English material, especially on English reading comprehension skills.

METHOD
This study used a quantitative approach to analyze student needs related to reading comprehension skills at the university level. The students who became the research sample were biology education students at Universitas Muhammadiyah parepare, totaling 46 students. Data obtained from the results of the distribution of student needs analysis questionnaires were then processed using Microsoft Excel. The questionnaire filled out by students has gone through a validation process by experts in terms of construct validity and content validity. The validity of the content was valued by considering three indicators, having a good foundation, legally acceptable, good sense and logic. The validity of the content has two indicators, namely well associated and not contradictory.  Table 1 shows that most of the students are sometimes practicing their reading skill. Even though some of them are always and usually practicing their reading skill, yet, most of them are in the sometimes, seldom, and never classification. This problem shall be fixed by giving them many interesting reading text, so that they are motivated to read the English texts.  Table 2 shows that most of the students have not mastered the reading skill yet. It is showed by the data percentage that most of the students are in the fair classification. In order to solve this, the researcher will develop the material by putting some activities related to reading skill so that the students can improve their reading skill.  Table 3 portrays that most of the students state that reading skill is important to be studied.

FINDINGS
Besides, the data also shows that some of the students also state that it is ordinary, unimportant, and very unimportant to be studied. This is problematic, because in order to improve students' reading skill, they need to have an understanding that reading is an important skill. Therefore, in developing the materials, the researcher will put some tasks which are commonly found in our daily activities. Therefore, the students will realize that reading is very important skill

DISCUSSION
Word recognition and understanding are two linked reading processes (Pang et.al, 2003).
They add that comprehension is the process of understanding words, phrases, and linked text, whereas word identification is the process of recognizing how written characters correlate to one's spoken language. To comprehend written text, readers usually use prior information, vocabulary, grammatical proficiency, familiarity with text, and other strategies. (Pang et.al, 2003).
Additionally, according to Merkuri & Boboli (2012), reading involves pre-reading activities, during reading activities, and post reading activities.
a. Pre-reading Activities

1) Setting the Purpose of Reading
First, the instructor explains to the class why literacy is important. The goal of reading is to gain a general understanding of the text, acquire new information, expand one's lexicon, and become accustomed to the structure of a news story. In order to read newspaper stories and accomplish the aforementioned goal, the instructor then presents various reading strategies, such as skimming, scanning, and close reading. The students can choose the best reading technique for a specific genre with the help of this exercise. Additionally, by using these techniques, students can develop the ability to cope with new words without consulting dictionaries.

2) Signpost Questions
In order to inspire the students and activate their prior information, the teacher poses queries. At this point, the instructor only displays the text's title (and any accompanying images, if any) and asks the students to guess the subject based on the answers to the prior questions, their prior knowledge, and the title of the text. The instructor will pose some queries in response to the students' predictions to help the class concentrate on the key ideas in the text. The instructor will then ask the class to anticipate the language's manner and tenor as well as the text's basic structure. Students are urged to actively participate and use their prior information to help with reading comprehension. The three tasks mentioned above are therefore carried out as a class in order to generate as many ideas as feasible. Speaking with the instructor and other students could help with reading by providing and exchanging relevant information.

3) Skimming in Groups
The students are now shown the entire text by the instructor, which is written on a sizable sheet and mounted on the board. To help the students, the instructor first demonstrates scanning techniques. Following the demonstrating, the instructor quizzes the students. The students are then instructed to read the material quickly and have group discussions about the aforementioned topics. In order to gain a broad perspective and determine the type and subject matter of the text, the skimming techniques are presented. At this point, discussion with classmates and the instructor may provide a broad overview of the subject and format of the text, and students may be able to extrapolate what the text is about.

4) Scanning (in groups)
In order to educate students how to locate the relevant information in a text that would be required for effective reading comprehension, scanning exercises are introduced. The students may find particular knowledge about the text's subject with the help of this activity. The instructor requests the students to respond to the questions created at stage three of the prediction exercises, then writes the answers on the board to help with scanning. The answers to the previously created queries either support or refute the readers' forecast.

5) Breaking up the Text (in groups)
Each group receives a handout from the instructor that contains the text divided into its various sections. The students are then asked to outline the texts in their respective groups. The students are urged to show their outlines to the other student groups once they have finished summarizing the readings. With the help of this exercise, students can examine each section in greater depth, carefully gather specific information, merge information from different sections, and comprehend the text's main idea. Additionally, the students get a chance to communicate English when they present the outlines to the class. To further develop and amplify the users' comprehension, group exercises introducing skimming, scanning, and text-breaking are introduced. Teachers and students with better levels of English literacy may serve as models and offer suggestions for vocabulary use, explanations, classification, comparison, exemplification, asking, and word pronunciation.

6) Brain Storming (as a whole class)
The instructor can use this procedure to verify answers provided at the fifth stage and explanations provided at the sixth stage to see if the students have understood. After reviewing each part, jot down any additional thoughts on the board.

7) Pre-teaching Important Words (as a whole class)
Teaching new and crucial terms for reading comprehension is essential before beginning reading exercises. Before beginning reading exercise, readers are able to get ready and learn any new vocabulary or terminology that would be required to comprehend the text. Vocabulary terms are divided into those that can be inferred from context and those that are less crucial to understanding the text. The students are able to broaden and relate their existing knowledge and acquire new knowledge of the genre by introducing and describing the aforementioned linguistic characteristics of the text.
b. During Reading Activities

1) The Text (as a whole class)
With the help of this exercise, the students will learn how the genre of the text was achieved. At this point, the instructor leads the class in a discussion of the text's characteristics, including its genre (a recount of an event from a newspaper article), social purpose (to inform readers about events that are thought to be newsworthy and interesting), schematic structure, and linguistic characteristics appropriate to the genre, and more.

2) Stop and Think (in pairs)
The instructor instructs the students to read the text aloud in couples after the practice.
The students are urged to speak about what they have just read, paraphrase it, pinpoint the key ideas, and come up with queries in pairs for each passage. The students can use this exercise to increase their listening and speaking skills, engage prior knowledge and connect it to the new material, and verify their comprehension of the text.

3) Reciprocal Teaching (as a whole class)
The entire class engages in a conversation at this point to create questions, create recaps, anticipate, and explain the text. This will make the purpose of reading more clear, focus attention, reactivate prior knowledge, and allow you to assess the material, keep an eye on predictions, and draw inferences. The instructor can keep an eye on the students' progress and determine whether they are able to use new words, communicate ideas and concepts, and make connections between ideas.

4) Finding the Main Idea (as a whole class)
The teacher invites the class to identify the primary concept in a sentence or a piece of writing. This exercise serves as a review of the prior activities and identifies and separates the essential information from the less important information in the text. It also summarizes the concepts and verifies comprehension of the content. By discussing the concept with classmates, the students are able to prevent misconceptions regarding the subject.

5) Signal Words (as a whole class)
Signal words-words that denote a specific text pattern-are taught to demonstrate how they work in the text. For instance, "so" denotes a cause and effect, and "after" denotes the text's chronological order of occurrences. It's possible that readers will approach the text in new or different ways after learning these terms and their functions.

6) Key Words (as a whole class)
In order to separate the essential words from the less important words in the text, the instructor requests the students to find key words. By requesting the students to recognize the words. To help students improve their lexicon, helpful, significant, and commonly used words and discourse markers should be added to individual or group data libraries. Writing these phrases on a sheet of paper to hang on the wall or in student journals helps the students practice reading in subsequent class tasks.
c. Post-reading Activities

1) Cloze Passages (as a whole class)
This exercise is intended to help readers increase their knowledge, comprehend how the text is put together, and delve deeper into the material. Finding chains in the text and understanding how the chains are used to make the text logical could help readers become better readers. By demonstrating how the instructor or more experienced readers finish the passage, you can serve as an example of effective reading techniques and help students who struggle with reading comprehension gain a deeper understanding of the context.

2) Comprehension Questions (individual)
Students are given comprehension questions in order to check their comprehension of the entire text's material and to keep track of each student's knowledge. Each pupil is given a set of question sheets with a variety of queries to complete on their own. Before going on to the next activity, the instructor examines the students' responses after they have finished the exercise to make sure they comprehend the context. The data gathered at this point is used to assess the linguistic proficiency of the learners as well as to demonstrate their progress to different partners.
Using the data gathered at the stage in the subsequent course, the instructor can enhance the program.

3) Compare Ideas (in pairs)
Students are given charts on which to ask their partners questions and record their responses. Students can practice listening, speaking, and writing skills, connect personal experiences to the subject, and concentrate on their ideas before the final debate stage by questioning, conferring, and sharing their ideas with peers.

4) Discussion (as a whole class)
Discussing the subject with others enables readers to connect the text's theme to their own experiences and deepen their comprehension. The following questions are made with the intention of guiding the class debate. The solutions are not provided in the book, so the students must come up with their own theories on the subject.
Additionally, Gilakjani and Sabouri (2016) add the process of reading as follows: a. The Bottom-up Model The tiniest linguistic units, such as phonemes, graphemes, and words, are first decoded in this paradigm before meaning is constructed from the smallest to the largest units. The reader applies prior knowledge to the material they discover in the writings.

b. The Top-down Model
The users pay attention to the next lines rather than reading the entire text. They make an effort to decipher words or sentences. The heading of the reading text, which enables readers to limit the breadth of their reading, is where readers start their forecasting. Then, depending on what they read in the text, they alter their theories to reflect the writer's intended message.
c. The Interactive Model The best word processing is achieved with this approach. This approach should be used by teachers to develop reading lessons that will improve the proficiency of L2 learners. The participatory model serves as the foundation for the reciprocal teaching approach to reading education. There are four main viewing techniques involved.
According to Gilakjani (2016), there are three types of theories of reading comprehension.
They are mental representations, content literacy, and cognitive processes.

1) Mental Representations
In a text-only environment, the viewer makes use of prior information to forge a more accurate and coherent mental image. While some prior knowledge is needed to create a text-base, this knowledge is more general and is required for deciphering texts generally, as opposed to the prior knowledge required to create a scenario model, which is more particular with respect to the text's content.

2) Content Literacy
The capacity to read, comprehend, and learn from writings on a specific subject is known as content literacy. General literacy skills, topic-specific literacy skills, and prior content understanding are the three different types of content literacy. The general and subject-specific literacy skills point to a more general form of knowledge that is not dependent on the specifics of a given book.

3) Cognitive Process
Syntactic and semantic principles are naturally and unconsciously applied, and more specific prior information is also activated. Because comprehension is an unconscious process, when we read a document without having any trouble understanding what we read, the process is more connected to perception than problem solving.
Gilakjani (2016)  next or what viewpoints the author will present to support a debate while they are reading.

5) Summarizing
The material in a text is combined by readers to further explain in their own terms what the text is about. Summarizing is an important tactic that helps viewers quickly recall text. By using this technique, readers can become conscious of text structure, what information is important, and how different viewpoints connect to one another.

6) Visualizing
Readers can visualize a document to better understand the cognitive processes involved in reading. This ability demonstrates how a viewer understands a document. The ability to visualize is crucial when writing story writings. When reading story texts, readers can quickly comprehend what is occurring by picturing the setting, the characters, or the way a plan will work.

7) Comprehension Monitoring
With this approach, readers can recognize when they grasp what they read and when they don't, and they can use the appropriate techniques to increase their comprehension.
Successful readers are aware of their mental processes and monitor them while reading.
Reading comprehension is improved by having good reading skills, so they are crucial for people (Kay, 2015). According to him, it is impossible to expect students to be effective readers if they do not possess understanding of reading skills. As a result, they are unable to reach the degree of understanding needed to pass exams in their own areas. For this reason, colleges should teach reading skills so that students can manage cognitive issues. The ability to read opens up new realms and possibilities, according to Pang et al. (2001), who argue that learning to read is a crucial educational objective for both children and adults. It allows us to learn new things, appreciate literature, and perform daily tasks that are essential to contemporary living, like perusing newspapers, job postings, instruction manuals, maps, and so forth.

CONCLUSION
The results of this study indicated that the materials needed by students in teaching English in reading comprehension skills are reading articles from magazines and newspapers, reading emails and articles on the Internet, reading English booklets or manual books, reading reports, text books, and book references, understanding and interpreting graphic, table, and picture meaning, understanding the specific information, understanding the general information, identifying the main idea, making conclusion, guessing the words meaning based on context, understanding the lecturer's slide in English language, understanding the author's characters and the point of view, recognizing terms when reading and making notes when reading.