THE READABILITY OF READING TEXTS IN ENGLISH TEXTBOOKS FOR THE EIGHTH GRADE STUDENTS IN MEDAN IN THE ACADEMIC YEAR OF 2015/2016.

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THE READABILITY OF READING TEXTS IN ENGLISH

TEXTBOOKS FOR THE EIGHTH GRADE STUDENTS IN

MEDAN IN THE ACADEMIC YEAR OF 2015/2016

A THESIS

Submitted to Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Sarjana Pendidikan

By:

BARLI KIFLI

Registration Number: 2123121005

ENGLISH AND LITERATURE DEPARTMENT

FACULTY OF LANGUAGES AND ARTS

STATE UNIVERSITY OF MEDAN

2016

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DECLARATION

I have familiarized myself with the University’s Policy on Academic integrity.

Except where appropriately acknowledge, this thesis is my own work, has been expresses in my own words, and has not been previously submitted for assessment.

I understand that this paper may be screened electronically or otherwise for plagiarism.

Medan, September 2016

Barli Kifli

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ABSTRACT

Kifli, Barli, Registration Number: 2123121005. The Readability of Reading Texts in English Textbooks for the Eighth Grade Students in Medan in The Academic Year of 2015/2016. A Thesis. English Educational Program, State University of Medan, 2016.

This study focused on the readability of reading texts in English textbooks for grade VIII students in Medan in the academic year of 2015/2016. This study attempted to find out whether the English reading texts were appropriate or not in terms of the readability level for the target students. This study was categorized as descriptive qualitative research. The source of the data were six reading texts which consist of descriptive, recount and narrative texts selected from three English textbooks entitled English for Junior High School VIII published by Mediatama, English on Sky 2 published by Erlangga, and English in Focus published by Pusat Perbukuan Departemen Pendidikan Nasional, for grade VIII in Medan which were designed under guidance of Kurikulum Tingkat Satuan Pendidikan (KTSP). The Dale and Chall original formula was used to analyze the data from the textbooks. The findings of the study showed that the average readability score of the six texts in English in Focus textbook was 6.0. It indicated that the reading texts in English in Focus textbook is appropriate for the eighth grade students since it’s level is for the seventh and eighth grade. The average readability score of reading texts in English on Sky and English for Junior High School VIII textbook were 5.7 and 5.5. The scores indicated that the reading texts in both English on Sky and English for Junior High School VIII textbook were too easy for the eighth grade students since the textbooks’ level was for the fifth and sixth grade.

Keywords: Readability, The Dale and Chall Original Formula, Readability Formula, English Textbooks for Eighth Grade Students.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

First of all, the writer would like to thanks to Allah SWT and the Prophet Muhammad SAW for the blessings during his academic year at English and Literature Department Faculty of Languages and Arts (FBS) State University of Medan in completing the thesis. The writer is also very grateful to the following people:

 Prof. Dr. Syawal Gultom, M.Pd, the Rector of State University of Medan.

 Dr. Isda Pramuniati, M.Hum, the Dean of Faculty of Languages and Arts (FBS) State University of Medan for her advice and encouragement to complete the study.

 Prof. Dr. Hj. Sumarsih, M.Pd, the Head of English and Literature Department as well as Dra. Meisuri, M.A, the Secretary of English and Literature Department and his Thesis Consultant for their encouragement and motivation during the writing of the thesis. Syamsul Bahri, S.S, M.Hum the Head of English Literature Study Program and Nora Ronita Dewi, S.Pd, S.S, M.Hum, the Head of English Education Program for their encouragement to complete the thesis.

 Rika, S.Pd., M.Hum, his Thesis Consultant, who have already motivated him to finish the thesis by giving advices, supervising, giving comments and corrections during completing this thesis.

 Dra. Masitowarni Siregar, M.Ed and Rafika Dewi Nasution, S.Pd, M.Hum his Thesis Reviewers, who have given him some valuable critics and suggestions to furnish her thesis.

 All the Lecturers of English and Literature Department during his academic years at State University of Medan, who have taught and given knowledges, encouragement and invaluable advices to complete this thesis to him.

 Euis Sri Wahyuningsih, M.Pd, the administration staff of English Department, who much helped him to fulfill this thesis.

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 Her beloved parents, Dr. Zulkifli, M.Sn and Dra. Risda, who had patiently given him encouragement, financial support, their endless love and their prayers, as well as his beloved sister and brothers, Rully R Kifli, Sally Silvia Kifli, and Zakiya Talita Kifli who had been good siblings all the time. His special girl, Fariza Yusrizal, who had forced him to finish his thesis.

 His best friends since the first year of college, Krisman, Rian, Naldi, Jovi, Theo, Simon, Dubes, Dio, Iqbal, Arif, Ratna, Shely, Chandra, Markus, Juan, Fajar and Amin, who had supported him to finish his thesis.

 His all beloved classmates in English Education B 2012 for the support and time in motivating and accompanying him during the academic years.

Medan, August 2016 The writer

Barli Kifli

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Pages

ABSTRACT ... i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ... ii

TABLE OF CONTENTS ... iv

LIST OF TABLES ... vi

LIST OF APPENDICES ... vii

CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION ... 1

A. The Background of the Study ... 1

B. The Problem of the Study ... 3

C. The Objective of the Study ... 4

D. The Scope of the Study ... 4

E. The Significance of the Study ... 5

CHAPTER II. LITERATURE REVIEW ... 6

A. Theoretical Framework ... 6

1. Reading ... 6

a. The Definition of Reading ... 6

b. Reading Comprehension ... 7

c. Reading Materials ... 8

2. Textbook ... 10

a. The Definition of Textbook ... 10

b. The Advantage of Using Textbook ... 10

3. Genre of Texts ... 11

a. Descriptive Texts ... 11

b. Recount Texts ... 12

c. Narrative ... 13

4. Readability ... 13

a. The Definition of Readability ... 13

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B. Relevant Studies ... 25

C. Conceptual Framework ... 26

CHAPTER III. RESEARCH METHODHOLOGY ... 28

A. Research Design ... 28

B. The Population and Sample ... 28

C. The Technique of Collecting Data ... 29

D. The Technique of Data Analysis ... 29

CHAPTER IV. DATA ANALYSIS, FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION ... 30

A. Data and Data Analysis ... 30

B. Research Findings ... 38

C. Discussion ... 42

CHAPTER V. CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS ... 27

A. Conclusions ... 43

B. Suggestions ... 43

REFERENCES ... 45

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LIST OF TABLE

Table Page

Table 2.1. Dale-Chall grade-correction chart ... 16

Table 3.1. Sample selection chart ... 22

Table 4.1 Analysis of reading texts in English in Focus Textbook ... 31

Table 4.2 The Analysis of English on Sky Textbook ... 33

Table 4.3 Analysis of English for Junior High School VIII Textbook ... 34

Table 4.4 Comparison Between Analysis’ Result of Each Genre ... 36

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vii

LIST OF APPENDICES

Pages Appendix A. Analyzed Reading Texts ... 48 Appendix B. Dale List of 3,000 Words ... 62

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1 CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION

A. The Background of the Study

The use of textbook has been very dominant in the teaching learning process, especially in teaching and learning a foreign language. In Indonesia, textbook has always been a media used in most schools and most grades.

A textbook is designed under the guidance of National Curriculum Standards, one of the curriculum applied in Indonesia is the Kurikulum Tingkat Satuan Pendidikan (KTSP). Based on the KTSP, there are four language skills presented in English language textbook. They are speaking, listening, writing and reading. Reading is the one highly associated to the textbook. In regards with reading skill, the standard competency based on the KTSP is the students are able to understand short functional texts and genre based texts. For VIII grade students the genres are descriptive, recount and narrative which means the reading texts in the English textbooks for the VIII grade students consist of those text types.

In Indonesia, there are many textbooks from different publishers which are designed based on the KTSP. It means there are textbooks which contain the same text types, but the topic and the difficulty can be different. Teachers should be able to select a textbook with suitable difficulty of the reading materials. Difficulty of a reading material can be determined by measuring the readability of the material.

Readability of a reading material can be measured by considering various factors, some of them are words difficulty and sentence length which have been

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considered as the direct cause of difficulty in comprehension (Anderson & Davison, 1986, p. 3; Dubay, 2004, p. 1).

Appropriate readability of a reading material will motivate the students to enjoy reading the materials. In result it will be easier for the students to comprehend their reading materials and surely, it will help their learning process. In contrary, inappropriate reading materials will make the students bored and frustrated, furthermore if the students are forced to read a reading material which is too difficult for them, the students will not only fall behind in their education but will also have a miserable time (Flesch, 1949, p. 147). This statement is supported by Researcher’s observation in SMPN 1 Hinai, where Researcher found the reading materials in the textbook used by IX grade students in SMPN 1 were too hard for the students and it resulted less enthusiasm by the students to read their textbook and difficulty to follow the learning process. From the statements, it can be said that readability plays a critical role in a learning process.

In accordance with that, many researchers from various places studied the readability of reading materials in various schools and found different results. Tobathei and Bagheri (2013, p. 1029) conducted a study to find out the readability of some reading passages in English textbooks taught at Iranian senior high schools and found out that the reading passages are too difficult for the readers. Another study by Browne (1996, p. 1), who conducted a study about Japanese EFL Reading Texts, He found out that the difficulty of the Japanese EFL Reading texts varied from low to high difficulty. Different with the study conducted in Indonesia by Rahmawaty (2012, p. 1) who studied the readability of reading texts in English

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Textbooks used by the tenth grade students, it was found out that the reading texts are too easy for the students.

Those three studies indicate that not all reading materials are readable for the students, therefore, it is necessary to measure the readability of a reading material. In measuring the readability of a reading material, there are some readability tests available. The readability tests are readability formulas, cloze test, checklist, scales, and text levelling. The popular one is readability formula which measures the readability of a text by using the vocabulary difficulty and length of text as factors to measure. Readability formulas are objective in giving prediction of a text difficulty, while no other tests provide the same objectivity like the readability formulas do (Dubay, 2004, p. 3). Also, readability formulas are valid for a broad spectrum of English readers that includes non-native as well as native readers. In other words, they work quite well to predict the relative EFL/ESL difficulty of English academic texts (Greenfield, 2004, p. 11).

Therefore, this study focused on the use of readability formula to analyze the readability of the reading texts which are based on the genre of descriptive, recount, and narrative taken from the three English textbooks used by eighth grade students in Medan.

B. The Problem of the Study

Based on the background above, the problem of the study was formulated as follow:

- What are the readability of the English reading texts which consist of descriptive, recount and narrative texts in English textbooks for grade VIII

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students in Medan in the academic year of 2015/2016 according to The Dale and Chall Original Formula?

C. The Objective of the Study

In relation with the problem of the study, the objective of this study was to describe out the readability of the English reading texts which consist of descriptive, recount and narrative texts in English textbooks for the grade VIII students in Medan in the academic year of 2015/2016 by using The Dale and Chall Original Formula.

D. The Scope of the Study

This research measured the readability of reading texts which consist of descriptive, recount and narrative texts from three English textbooks, English for Junior High School VIII published by Mediatama, English on Sky 2 published by Erlangga, and English in Focus published by Pusat Perbukuan Departemen Pendidikan Nasional, for grade VIII in Medan which were designed under guidance of Kurikulum Tingkat Satuan Pendidikan (KTSP). It is important to analyze the readability of the English reading texts used by the students. Suitable English reading texts for students’ level can help them improve their reading comprehension.

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After conducting this research, the researcher expected that the result of the study will give these following benefits:

1. Theoretically, the result of the study would enrich and strengthen the knowledge of the theories on readability of English reading texts in the teaching of reading comprehension.

2. Practically a. For Teachers

It could give a new perspective for the English teachers in using, selecting, adapting, or designing reading text materials that are suitable for the students’ educational level.

b. For the Researchers of Textbooks

It could give them consideration on how to make good materials for reading that are appropriate for the target students.

c. For Other Researchers

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43 CHAPTER V

CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION

A. Conclusion

since it’s level is for the seventh and eighth grade. The readability of the six

representative texts in English on Sky and English for Junior High School VIII indicate that the reading texts in both English on Sky and English for Junior High School VIII textbook are too easy for the eighth grade students since the textbooks’ level is for the fifth and sixth grade.

B. Suggestion

The following are the suggestion for English Teachers, Researchers of Textbooks and other Researcher

1. For English Teachers

It is recommended for English teachers to understand and to know the readability of the reading materials given to their students. Teacher should

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find reading materials which are appropriate for the students. Appropriate reading materials can help the students to improve their reading comprehension.

2. For Researchers of Textbooks

The researchers of textbook should give more concern about the readability of the reading materials in the textbooks that they research. They should match the readability of the reading materials to the target students. It is better if the writers can provide information about the readability of the reading texts in the textbook.

3. For Other Researchers

There are many other textbooks offered by other publishers and also there are other types of readability tests and other readability formulas. The other researchers can use them as the subject of the research and type of test to implement in the research. The writer hopes that this research can give more information for further research.

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REFERENCES

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Anderson, R. C. & Davidson, A. (1986). Conceptual and Empirical Bases of Readability Formulas. Center for the Study of Reading, 1(2), 1-63.

Asem, B. (2013). Evaluation of Textual Readability – An Analysis of Its Varying Approaches. International Journal of Research in Humanities, Arts and Literature, 1(4), 7-12.

Brown, Janssen & Trace. (2012). A Preliminary Study of Cloze Procedure as a Tool for Estimating English Readability for Russian Student. Second Language Studies, 31(1), 1-22.

Browne, M. (1996). Japanese EFL Reading Texts: How Readable Are They?. Working Papers in Applied Linguistics, 8, 1-12.

Danielson, K. E. (1987). Readability Formulas: A Necessary Evil? Reading Horizons, 27(3), 178-188.

Dole, J. A. & Osborn, J. (1989). Reading Materials: Their Selection and Use. Center for The Study of Reading, 1(1), 1-16.

Dubay, W. H. (2004). The Principles of Readability. California: Impact Information.

Dubay, W. H. (2006). The Classic Readability Studies. Costa Mesa: Impact Information.

Fenner, A. B. & Newby, D. (2000). Approaches to Materials Design in European Textbooks: Implementing Principles of Authenticity, Learner Autonomy, Cultural Awareness. Austria: European Centre for Modern Languages. Flesch, R. (1949). The Art of Readable Writing. New York: Harper & Row.

Georgescu, D. & Bernard, J. (2007). Thinking and Building Peace Through

Innovative Textbook Design. France: United Nations Educational,

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Greenfield, J. (2004). Readability Formulas for EFL. JALT Journal. 26(1). 5-24. Handayani, Sri. (2014). The Readability of Science: Students’ Book for Junior High

School Year VIII Viewed from The Lexis and Grammatical Aspects (A Content Analysis of Science Lesson of Junior High Schools of Surakarta). Macrothink Institute International Journal of Language Testing, 4. 12-25. Harmer, J. (1991). The Practice of English Language Teaching. London: Longman

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Knowledge and Interest. Journal of Language Teaching and Research, 4(5), 1028-1035.

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43 A. Conclusion

This study was conducted to describe out the readability of the English reading texts which consist of descriptive, recount and narrative texts in English in Focus, English on Sky 2, and English for Junior High School VIII for the grade VIII students in Medan in the academic year of 2015/2016 by using The Dale and Chall Original Formula. The readability of the six representative texts in English in Focus textbook indicates that the texts are appropriate for the eighth grade students since it’s level is for the seventh and eighth grade. The readability of the six representative texts in English on Sky and English for Junior High School VIII indicate that the reading texts in both English on Sky and English for Junior High School VIII textbook are too easy for the eighth grade students since the textbooks’ level is for the fifth and sixth grade.