A Study on Students’ Difficulties in Learning English Vocabulary

Abstract

This study aimed to identify the difficulties faced by students in learning English vocabulary at Pesantren Yapid At-Taubah. The subjects of this research were one English teacher and several students selected through purposive sampling. This study employed a qualitative research design. Data were collected through classroom observations and interviews and analyzed through four stages: data collection, data condensation, data display, and drawing conclusions. The results indicated that students faced numerous challenges in acquiring English vocabulary, such as issues with pronunciation, the length and complexity of words, grammatical structures, limited comprehension of meanings, and struggles with listening comprehension. These difficulties indicate that vocabulary learning is influenced by multiple interconnected factors, including memorization but also pronunciation, structure, and contextual usage. Consequently, students face challenges in recognizing, understanding, and applying English vocabulary in both spoken and written forms.