Richards 2006, in the production step, students practice using the new structure in different contexts in order to develop fluency. This is in line with
what students do in communicating step because in communicating their conclusion, students are expected to be able to use the new structure with the
new pattern based on their findings.
c. Reading Assessment in Grade XI of Vocational High Schools
In language teaching, assessment is an ongoing process that covers a much wider domain Brown, 2004. As the consequence, there are some purposes of
assessment instead of to know the level of students’ performance in English only. It is the same as true with the assessment process in reading. Caldwell 2008
states that the basic purposes of reading assessment are identifying good reader behaviors, identifying area of weakness, determining student reading level, and
documenting student progress. From the other point of view, Nation 2009 gives several reasons for assessing reading and the skills and knowledge that are
involved in reading. These include assessing to encourage learning, assessing to monitor progress and provide feedback, assessing to diagnose problems, an
assessing to measure proficiency. By considering these, teachers can decide the technique of assessment they that may be used for a variety of goals.
Before going further to discuss about the technique of assessing reading, it is important to understand that good assessment needs to be reliable, valid and
practical Nation, 2009. In addition, Caldwell 2008 explains that a reliable test is consistent in which it yields similar results over time with similar students
under similar situations. Then, regarding the validity, assessments should reflect the skills, behaviors, or content to be measured. Meanwhile, related to the
practicality of assessments, it can be helped by giving as clear as possible explanations about how learners will answer the test and how it will be marked
Nation, 2009. As has been mentioned before, the ways or techniques can be used in
reading assessment might be chosen based on the goals have been determined. Referring to Nation 2009: 76, goals, purposes, and means of reading assessment
are presented in the table below.
Table 2: Goals, Purpose and Means of Reading Assessment
Goals of assessment Purposes
Ways of assessing Motivate
Encourage learning Reading logs
Book reports Comprehension tests
Measure achievement Monitor progress
Guide teaching Provide feedback to the
learner Award a grade
Comprehension tests Speed reading graphs
Diagnose problems Isolate reading
difficulties Provide focused help
Reading aloud Vocabulary tests
Receptive grammar tests Translation
Speed reading tests
Measure proficiency Award a grade
See if standards are achieved
Comprehension tests Cloze tests
Speed reading tests
On the other hand, based on the Act of Ministry of Education and Culture No. 1042014, reading, which includes in skill competence, can be assessed
through practice, project, product, portfolio, and writing activity. Practice test is an assessment which demand a certain activity related to specific ability from the
students. Then, project is a sort of activities starting from planning, realization, and arranging oral or written report. While assessing product is done by asking the
students to make a certain thing through some processes. In this case, the products might be those which require students’ reading ability in completing them. Next,
portfolio basically is a kind of assessment in which the students have to collect their works individually. After a certain period, eventually those will be assessed
by the teacher. Lastly, written activity such as making a short essay or letter can be also used to assess students’ skill competence.
For the materials will be developed in this research, the students’ reading skill will be assessed mainly through some practices. Furthermore, to measure
students’ achievement and reading proficiency, comprehension test are going to be arranged. Meanwhile, some vocabulary and receptive grammar tests will also
be provided as w ell in order to diagnose students’ problems or difficulties and
monitor their progress.
d. Reading Materials for Grade XI of Vocational High Schools
