Analysis of English Foreign Language Students’ Ability to Understand the Elements of "The Three Billy Goats Guff" Story

Abstract

The study investigated the students' ability in determining elements of story namely characters, setting and plot of "The Three Billy Goats Guff" story and what factor influence the students’ ability in determining the element of the story. The method of the study used descriptive analysis to obtain the data from the test and questionnaire to 19 students of junior high school 65 North Bengkulu. The result of the study showed that the mean score of the student in determining the element of story was

74. It meant that the students’ ability was in the range of quite capable. The ability of students in each element was in the range of able for determining characters, setting of places, and setting of time which the mean score was 81, 78,76 in sequence. For the three elements of plot of story specifically orientation, complication and resolution were in the range of quite capable. The main score of each element of the plot in sequence were 69, 68, 69. Furthermore, the major factors influenced the students’ ability in understanding the elements of the story were 63% of students strongly agree that they could not concentrate in reading, 53 % of students strongly agree that they were not familiar with the short story, and 42 % of students strongly agree that they do not understand the English words and lack of available collection of books. Therefore, it can be said that the students were quite capable to determine the elements of story.