The Ability Students of Indonesian Language and Literature Education to Appreciate the Literature Works and the Obstacles they Faced Atika Wasilah 1 , Rosmawaty 2 , Safinatul Hasanah Harahap 3 , and Achmad Yuhdi 4 {atikawasilah@gmail.com 1 , achmadyuhdi@gmail.com 4 } The Indonesia Language and Literature Education Study Program, Faculty of Language and Art, Universitas Negeri Medan, Indonesia, 20221 1,2,3&4 , Abstract. The Indonesian Language and Literature Education Study Program students (PBSI) Universitas Negeri Medan should have good abilities in appreciating literature works, especially the works arose at the beginning of the modern Indonesian literature, literature works of the library class, new poets, 45, 66, to 2000's. However, many of them at the beginning level have never read the literature works. Therefore, this research is aimed to describe the ability of first year students to appreciate and criticize modern Indonesian literature works. This research used a descriptive method by conducting a survey of PBSI students' abilities in appreciating the literature works. The research data were obtained from the students’ answers based on the test questions given. The questions are in multiple choice objective questions which consist of 60 questions. Then, the interviews were conducted with several students to obtain the data that related to the obstacles they faced. The research results indicate that (1) The ability of PBSI Universitas Negeri Medan students 2022 in appreciating the literature works is in the moderate average category with an average value of 67.13. There are 2 students or 6.25% who had a very good category, 3 students or 3.37% had a good category, 12 students or 37.5% of students had moderate category, meanwhile 15 students or 46.87% had less category. Through the results obtained, further research is certainly needed to improve the students' ability to appreciate literature works by using various learning methods and strategies that are able to provide stronger inspiration and motivation. (2) Some difficulties that the students faced are partly because of the students’ experience in reading literature works is still low. Several students also were found that this condition was caused partly because the approach used in learning literature was not able to motivate them to read literature works comprehensively. Keywords: Literature appreciation, students, PBSI Universitas Negeri Medan. 1 Introduction The literature learning is mainly intended to lead the abilities in oral and written, as well as being able to appreciate and criticize the literature works, therefore in learning literature there ICIESC 2023, October 24, Medan, Indonesia Copyright © 2024 EAI DOI 10.4108/eai.24-10-2023.2342318