Students’ Difficulties In Learning Reported Speech (A Study at the Third Semester Students of English Department)

The aims of this research were to identify and to figure out the causes of students' difficulties in constructing reported speech. This research was designed by using mixed method approaches. In this research, 20 students of third semester of English department students of UIN Ar-Raniry were chosen as the sample by using purposive sampling. The subject of study was students’ reported speech tests which are identified by referring to Azar classification and Richard's theory on causes of difficulties. The findings showed that the number of difficulties is 381 of the total where 159 incorrect answers of verb form were found as the most common difficulties. Regarding the causes of difficulties, Richard suggests three causes of difficulties in students’ reported speech. The main cause of the difficulty was intralingual in which its number 256 of the total. Furthermore, the findings suggested that the lecturers apply appropriate techniques and strategies in teaching reported speech in order to reduce the possible mistakes.