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The researcher intends to analyze the content validity and authenticity of English items of National Examination year 2012 for senior
high schools since National Examination is the highest standardized test employed to assess Indo
nesian students’ competence. Moreover, students’ scores of National Examination are prepared to be possibly used as a
selection tool. Due to the reasons, validity and the authenticity of the National Examination are essential to be considered.
B. Research Problems
The problems of this research are formulated as follows: 1. How valid is the content of English test items of National Examination year
2012 for senior high schools related to the lesson objectives and the test specifications?
2. How authentic is English test items of National Examination year 2012 for senior high schools related to the criteria of authenticity set by Brown?
C. Problem Limitation
The researcher intends to analyze the sets of English items of National Examination year 2012 for senior high schools. The National
Examination which is administered to Indonesian senior high school students is to measure the competence of the 12
th
grade students in order to graduate from senior high school level and continue their study to
universities. The English items of National Examination year 2012 for
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senior high schools consist of two types namely listening section and reading section. It is since both sections are necessary in National Examination according
to the Competence Standard and Basic Competence. However, the researcher focuses the analysis on both listening and reading section of English test items of
National Examination year 2012 for senior high schools. Due to the various test types of National Examination in Indonesia and
incapability to organize research in English test items of National Examination year 2012 for senior high school conducted in Indonesia, the analysis was focused
on the test items which was conducted Daerah Istimewa Yogyakarta. The researcher took sets of English items of National Examination for natural science
and social students, which was held in
SMA Bopkri 2 Yogyakarta
. This school was chosen because it becomes a representative of the English test items which is
administered in
Yogyakarta
. The set of English items of the National Examination are differentiated
into five versions type A57, type B69, type C71, type D32, and type E45. This variation is generally applied by making different test questions in those five test
items but the test questions of all five types are based on Graduate Competence Standard which contains the test specifications. Furthermore, the test types
disti nction is carried out in order to anticipate students’ fraudulence. Therefore, all
types of the test items are going to be analyzed in order to make the data more valid. The discussion of this research is focused on the validity of 2012 English
National Examination ’s test content and the authenticity of the test items.
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According to Brown 2004, validity of a test, particularly a language test like an English test, is determined by some aspects namely
face validity, content-related evidence content validity, criterion-related evidence, consequential validity, and construct validity. However, the
research is focused on the content-related evidence content validity in order to analyze the validity of English items of National Examination year
2012. The authenticity of test items is determined by the authenticity indicators claimed by Brown 2004. The indicators are the natural
language which is used in the test, the contextualization of the items, the relevance of the test topics and the learners, the presence of thematic test
item organization, and the representation of the real-world task or sources p.28.
D. Research Objectives
