The particular dialect or language that a person chooses to use on any occasion is called a code IDEAS Journal of Language Teaching and Learning, Linguistics and Literature ISSN 2338-4778 (Print) ISSN 2548-4192 (Online) Volume 12, Number 1, June 2024 pp. 477 - 486 Copyright © 2024 The Author IDEAS is licensed under CC-BY-SA 4.0 License Issued by English study program of IAIN Palopo The Students' Digital Reading Comprehension Challenges on Academic Text Nur Laila1, Mukhlash Abrar2, Marzul Hidayat3, Suska Rika Mukti Rahayu4 nur_laila@unja.ac.id,1, mukhlash.abrar@unja.ac.id2, mhiday2012@gmail.com3, suskarikamr17@gmail.com4 Universitas Jambi, Indonesia Received: 2024-3-30 Accepted: 2024-04-16 DOI: 10.24256/ideas. v12i1.4955 Abstract This research aims to explore the challenges of digital reading comprehension on academic text faced by third-semester students at Jambi University. In conducting this research, the researcher used descriptive qualitative methods. Five participants participated in this research and met the criteria desired by the researcher, such as active third-semester students, students who had completed reading for academic purposes courses, and students who were willing to be involved in this research. The researcher used semi- structured interviews as an instrument in data collection. The data is then processed through three stages, namely, data reduction, data display, and drawing conclusions or verification. The final results reveal that there are two categories in the challenges of digital reading comprehension on academic text. The first category is technology issues which include low reading interest, eye strain, internet connection, concentration, and too much information. Meanwhile, the second category is academic reading comprehension challenges which include vocabulary, complex sentences, and unfamiliar topics. In conclusion, students face challenges in digital reading comprehension on academic texts, especially in aspects technology and comprehension. Keywords: Academic Reading challenges, Reading comprehension, Digital media. Introduction Reading is one of the skills in English subject. Reading English is an important part of language learning as it helps students develop other related skills such as grammar, vocabulary, and writing. Not only in the learning process, reading is 477 http://u.lipi.go.id/1457703302 mailto:mukhlash.abrar@unja.ac.id2 mailto:mhiday2012@gmail.com mailto:suskarikamr17@gmail.com Nur Laila, The Students' Digital Reading Comprehension Challenges on Academic Text 478 needed in various aspects of life. Reading is often considered a boring activity, so innovative strategies are needed to increase students' interest in reading. The development of the times and technology makes reading also experience changes. If previously reading was only through sheets of text, now reading is switching to digital form. So, today many people have used digital technology as a media to read. This reading activity is also known as digital reading. According to Nordquist in research from Lim F.V. & Toh, W. (2020), digital reading is defined as the activity of information from texts presented via digital devices such as computers, tablets, smartphones and e-readers. The digital reading process often involves the consumption of multimodal texts, which include a combination of images, videos, and other media elements in addition to verbal language in a text (Buccellati, 2008). This type of digital multimodal text can include e-books, interactions in social media, and articles published on the website. The use of digital reading materials is very widespread, and students can easily access them via their smartphone devices. This can be an effective means of improving students' reading comprehension abilities. Digital reading is part of English as a foreign language students' academic activity in this digital era. Accessing reading material through digital media online is indeed easier, more practical, faster, more effective, and efficient. Almost any type of reading material can be obtained according to readers wishes in a matter of minutes or even seconds. Besides that, digital reading activities can be done anytime and anywhere. Digital reading does bring many benefits to students. Especially in meeting educational needs such as finding learning materials and lectures in the form of e-books, scientific journals, and others. But behind these many advantages, there are still many students who find challenges and difficulties in digital reading. In the context of research on digital reading, there are challenges that readers face when interacting with text via a screen, such as difficulties in switching between browsers and challenges in maintaining focused attention. On the other hand, readers develop special strategies when carrying out digital reading activities, such as searching with keywords. Therefore, understanding how students engage in bold reading for academic purposes is significant, as well as exploring how they overcome obstacles that arise in the bold reading process. There are several studies related to the difficulties in students' reading comprehension. Nindya (2021) researched to find out the challenges faced by English learners when reading in an online environment. The results of the study indicate that students do face some problems when reading in an online environment. In addition, Yolanda (2019) conducted research on students' 479 difficulties in understanding English reading texts. Previous studies have addressed the same issue, but before delving into the topic, it is very important to identify the research gap. After reviewing the existing literature, it becomes clear that most of the studies focused on digital reading in general, without a specific focus on reading comprehension of academic texts. As a result, this study aims to explore more deeply the challenges students face in digital reading comprehension on academic text. This research seeks to answer the following question: 1) What challenges do the students have in digital reading comprehension on academic text? Method In this research, researcher used a qualitative descriptive research design. Cresswell (2012) states that qualitative research is used to investigate a problem with the aim of understanding a particular phenomenon. A qualitative descriptive research design was chosen because this research focuses on certain phenomena in the context of the digital era. The case of this research is the activities in digital reading, especially on academic reading text. For the researchs location and subject, this research was conducted in the English study program at Universitas Jambi and the subjects were five third- semester students of English education study program in at Universitas Jambi. In selecting participants, there are several criteria that need to be considered: 1. Active students, 2. Students who have completed reading courses for academic purposes, 3. Students who are willing to interact in this research and give participant consent to the questionnaire that has been distributed. The researcher only took five participants, in line with Creswell (2007) who states that the number of participants in qualitative research is usually 5 to 10 participants. Apart from that, the reason the researcher chose 5 participants was to deepen the information provided by the participants. So, the data obtained is more detailed. In this study, the researcher collected the data through interviews. The interview technique in this research was applied using a semi-structured method. Sugiyono (2016) explains that semi-structured interviews provide more freedom in their implementation compared to structured interviews. The interview protocol was designed by taking into account the theories explained in chapter two and adaptation instruments from several previous studies (Nindya, 2019, Yolanda, Nur Laila, The Students' Digital Reading Comprehension Challenges on Academic Text 448 0 2019, Estika, S., 2018; Badriyah et al. 2020; Rachmanita et al., 2022). After completing data collection, the researcher then carried out data analysis. Before entering the data analysis stage, researcher made interview transcripts as a first step to simplify the analysis process. According to Miles and Huberman (1984), the data analysis process involves three main activities: data reduction, data display, and conclusion drawing or verification. Result The researchs findings consist of main points based on the research questions. The research question focused on exploring academic reading comprehension challenges using digital academic media. Academic Reading Comprehension Challenges Using Digital Academic Media According to the students who participated in this research, they emphasized that digital reading activities cannot be separated from the learning process. In the context of digital reading, they admitted that they faced several challenges in digital reading comprehension on academic text. The challenges of students' digital reading comprehension on academic text are divided into two categories, namely technological issues and academic reading comprehension. Table 1: The result of interviews (simple calculation) Category (N) Theme/Topic (N, %) Technological Issues (5 participants) Low Reading Interest (4 participants, 80%) Eye Strains (5 participants, 100%) Internet Connection (4 participants, 80%) Concentration (5 participants, 100%) Feel bored (2 Participants, 40%) Too Much Information (4 participants, 80%) Paid Journal (2 Participants, 40%) Academic Reading Comprehension Challenges (5 participants) Vocabulary (4 participants, 80%) Grammar (1 Participants, 10%) Complex Sentence (4 participants, 80%) Unfamiliar Topic (4 participants, 80%) 481 Technological issues From the results of data analysis, the first topic that emerged in the challenge of digital reading on academic text was technological issues. Technology issues cannot be separated from digital reading activities. In the category of technological issues, the researcher revealed that there are five sub-topics, namely: low reading interest, eye strains, internet connection, concentration, and too much information. 1. Low reading interest Based on the data obtained, the first challenge encountered was low reading interest. Reading interest can have a big influence on a person's reading comprehension. When someone has a high interest in the topic or material they are reading, they tend to be more focused and engaged in the reading process. In reality, students do not have a high reading interest in reading academic material. In a research interview, P3 stated: “I'm not really interested in reading using digital media. I am more interested in reading through print media.” (P3) Based on interview data from participants, participants did not have a high reading interest in digital reading. Some students admitted that they were more interested in reading through print media. 2. Eye Strains Eye strain is the most frequently felt challenge when reading using digital media. Five out of five interview participants admitted that they experienced eye strain when reading academic material using a smartphone. P1 stated: "Usually, if I read using a smartphone for too long it makes my eyes hurt and strain" (P1) This can be caused by several factors. In the interview results, P4 stated that: "Sometimes it is very difficult to read on a small screen, starting from the font size to the screen brightness which is difficult to adjust." (P4) Nur Laila, The Students' Digital Reading Comprehension Challenges on Academic Text 448 2 Based on interviews, P1 stated that the challenge they faced was eye strain when reading for too long using a smartphone. Apart from that, P4 stated that the challenges they faced in eye strain were caused by the brightness of the smartphone screen light. 3. Internet connection Internet connection is the most important part of accessing reading materials online. However, internet connection is still a common problem faced by students when reading digitally. This is in line with the statement from P1: “I happen to live in Batanghari, an area that is not a city. So sometimes if there is a power outage the network is lost. There are also some internet cards that are not supported there. That becomes an obstacle when you want to access reading material on the internet." (P1) Based on the statement, the challenge faced when reading digitally is an unstable internet connection. An unstable internet connection is usually caused by environmental factors where students live. Especially for participants who live in certain areas that are not cities. 4. Concentration Academic reading certainly requires concentration to understand the content of the reading text. However, students often find it difficult to maintain concentration when reading academic material using a smartphone. One participant expressed P2: "I often divert my attention. For example, if there is an interesting notification, I will be curious to open it. So, you lose concentration when you're reading." (P2) On the other hand, P5 stated: “It may be difficult to focus because people now have little attention for reading”. (P5) Based on this data, notifications are the cause of difficulty concentrating when reading using a smartphone. Apart from that, not many people spend time playing on their smartphones to read because they are more interested in social media. 5. Too much information Finding reading material on the internet is not easy. The more sources there are, the more students need to read. In the interview, P1 stated: 483 "Sometimes when we read reading material or reading material on the internet, there are lots of sources, we have to make sure whether it is true or not." (P1) Based on this statement, participants experienced difficulty in choosing the correct information or source when reading digitally. This is caused by choosing inappropriate keywords in the search. Keyword misalignment will make search results difficult to find. Academic Reading Comprehension Challenges Based on interview data, academic reading using digital media not only provides challenges in aspects of technology issues but also aspects of students' reading comprehension. The researcher found three subtopics related to academic reading comprehension challenges, namely: vocabulary, complex sentences and unfamiliar topics. 1. Vocabulary Vocabulary is an important aspect of reading comprehension of texts. However, Vocabulary is one of the most challenging aspects encountered by students. Limited vocabulary mastery makes students find it difficult to understand academic reading. One participant stated: "Personally, for academic texts, I still lack mastery of vocabulary. Sometimes I have to find out the meaning, especially using Google Translate" (P1) Based on interview data, participants stated that the challenges they faced in vocabulary were due to their knowledge of academic vocabulary which was still limited and not yet understood. Academic texts tend to use more standard vocabulary. Students find it difficult to understand the reading text. Therefore, participants as EFL students certainly need a lot of knowledge about academic vocabulary to learn it. Nur Laila, The Students' Digital Reading Comprehension Challenges on Academic Text 448 4 2. Complex Sentences Academic texts tend to use complex sentence structures and specialized vocabulary that can make comprehension more difficult for unfamiliar readers. P5 stated: “Most academic texts use complex sentences. It's so complex that it's also difficult to interpret one by one. So, the complexity exceeds the abilities I just learned" (P5) The use of complex language makes students confused and do not know the meaning of the content of the reading text. This is because academic texts often use complicated sentence structures. 3. Unfamiliar Topics In academic texts, there are many topics that have just been studied and sound foreign to students' ears. For this reason, students must make extra efforts to understand the contents of reading texts with unfamiliar material. In an interview, one of the P4 participants stated: "Maybe at first in high school, I only studied general topics, whereas when I entered college, I read a lot of texts with unfamiliar topics. Usually because the topic is unfamiliar it becomes more difficult to understand" (P4) Academic reading comprehension can be considered to be more difficult when the topics discussed are unfamiliar to the reader. In this case, it could be due to previous educational background. Conclusion The results of this study indicate that students experience several challenges in reading comprehension of academic digital texts. Based on the data collected, there are two categories, namely technology problems and academic reading comprehension challenges. In the technology problems category, there are five factors that challenge students when reading using digital media, namely, low reading interest, eye strain, internet connection, concentration, and too much information. Meanwhile, in the academic reading comprehension challenge category, there are three main factors that become challenges for students which include vocabulary, complex sentences, and single topics. 485 References Almendo, T. (2020). Challenging efl students to read: digital reader response tasks to foster learner. Teaching English with Technology, 21-41. Badriyah., Tarihoran, N., & Rahmawati, E. (2020). 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