The EFL students’ difficulties in discovering the meaning of new words in learning vocabulary at SMAN 1 Gedangan Sidoarjo

Vocabulary plays main thing on gaining new knowledge. Learning to read, speak, write and listen all need to use of vocabulary. Vocabulary learning strategies (VLS) have a major advantage; they allow the students to take greater control of their learning. In this study, the researcher aimed to find out the students' difficulties in finding the meaning of new words encountered when learning English vocabulary. This study using qualitative descriptive to identify and describe the problems. This research was conducted at SMAN 1 Gedangan Sidoarjo with class XI students of language (Bahasa) as the subject of research. The result of the study is that the difficulty of English vocabulary can be divided into four parts including the difficulty of understanding 2 words with same meaning, the difficulty of understanding one word with some meanings, the difficulty of understanding the word with unfamiliar concept, and the difficulty of L1 transfer and false friends. And these difficulties can be overcome by applying vocabulary learning strategies that are attractive and liked by the students so that the material received by students can be maximized and can be applied directly.