Exploring Students Understanding in Differentiating Descriptive Text and Procedure Text

The aim of this research was to describe about students understanding in differentiating descriptive text and procedure text, to know the students’ obstacles in differentiating descriptive text and procedure text at the second grade and to know students face difficulties in differentiating descriptive text and procedure text at the second grade of SMPN 4 Langsa. The method of this study was qualitative with descriptive design. Subject of the study was one teacher and 10 students of VIII.2 of SMP Negeri Negeri 4 Langsa. The data were collected by using observation, interview and documentation. Based on the result, the students were able to differentiate the descriptive and procedure text. The students understood the meaning of the text properly and also understood the components contained in the text such as a language features. Meanwhile, the students obstacles in differentiating descriptive text and procedure text can be classified into three groups, such as limited vocabulary knowledge, did not got information about theme clearly, and translating language. Furthermore, The students faced difficulties in differentiating descriptive text and procedure text due to lack of understanding of text meaning. They originate from a lack of understanding of the explanation of the meaning of the text, the teacher's explanation was too fast, and the last reason was because students did not memorize material had just been explained and learned.