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The following test is for questions number 3 and 4
Dear Rudi, On behalf of all the staffs we sincerely congratulate you on your success as the
Jakarta City’s Best Journalist 2012. We hope this will support you to write more articles.
Manager of Reader Publisher Rendi
… 4. “… will support you to write more articles.”
The underlined word closest meaning with … A.
make B.
disturb C.
suggest D.
motivate
Figure 4.8 A Greeting Card Taken from English UN 2012
Question number 4 in figure 4.8 asked about the vocabulary item in context. It asked about the synonym of English word support. The word support
was kind of a stimulus for the test takers to retrieve relevant knowledge about an English vocabulary item motivate. The word Support means giving
encouragement to someone or something because you want them to succeed “Support”. Hence, this question represented recalling behavior as Anderson
Krathwohl 2001, p. 69 states that recalling leads students to retrieve relevant knowledge from their long-term memory when given stimuli to do so. The same
case happened to the following question.
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3. Which sentence expresses the admiration? A. Hope this makes you happy.
B. We are very proud of you. C. Keep up the good work, son.
D. We heard about your result as the best.
Figure 4.9 A Question Taken from Greeting Card in English UN 2014
This question also represented recalling behavior because it led the test takers to retrieve their prior knowledge about English admiration expressions
when given stimuli Anderson Krathwohl, 2001, p.69. The stimuli here were the question itself and the choices. The test takers had to recall the materials about
English Expressions they got before. For instance, the choice A was an English expression of hope. The choice B was the English admiration expression which
must be the answer. The choice C was an English expression of motivating someone. The choice D, however, was not an expression; it was just a statement.
Briefly, the test takers had to work on their memorization in order to answer the question.
2. Employing Understanding Level of Thinking Skills
Based on the data, 16.4 of the questions represented understanding level of thinking. These questions mostly asked about the purpose and the main idea of
the passages. Hence, they led the test takers to gain the massages delivered in the passages. That was why these questions were categorized into remembering level
of thinking. It is supported by Anderson and Krathwohl 2001, p. 70 that remembering occurs when students are able to construct meaning from the
instructional messages. Additionally, these questions represented summarizing
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behavior as summarizing is one of behaviors employed in understanding level of thinking Anderson Krathwohl, 2001, p. 70. Thus, the examples of English UN
questions which represented summarizing behavior were presented in Figure 4.4 and 4.5.
Question number 4 in figure 4.6 asked about the main idea of the passage. It directed the test takers to construct representative messages from the whole
passage. The test takers had to determine the topic of each paragraph in order to summarize the messages. For instance, the first paragraph told about the reason
why the author wrote the letter in which she wanted to tell about her trip to Ranau Lake in Lampung. The second paragraph told about how she went to Ranau Lake
Bandar Lampung. Next, the third paragraph told about her days in Ranau Lake. The last paragraph told about her impression of her visiting to Ranau Lake. That
was why this question was categorized into summarizing behavior. As Anderson and Krathwohl 2001, p. 73 sated, summarizing led students to construct a
representative meaning of the whole information given. Accordingly, defining main topics of paragraphs or texts was considered as summarizing behavior
Anderson Krtahwohl, 2001, p. 73. Another example of English UN questions which represented summarizing
behavior was question number 2 in Figure 4.7. This question asked about the purpose of the text. It directed the test takers to construct information about the
purpose that the author wrote the greeting card. Here, the test takers had to know the main point of the text first then defined its purpose. As Anderson and
Krathwohl 2001, p. 73 note, defining the main point was the task involved in
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summarizing behavior. Furthermore, the purpose of the text was to congratulate someone on his success since the main point of the text was congratulating
someone. Thus, by determining the purpose of the text, the test takers construct a meaning which represented the content of the passage. It was supported by
Anderson and Krathwohl 2001, p. 73 that summarizing involves students to construct a representative meaning of the whole information.
3. Employing Applying Level of Thinking Skills
After discussing about remembering and understanding, this part came to the last behavior which was employed in the three-year English UN for Junior
High School. This behavior was applying. The applying behavior presented questions which mostly led the test takers to use their prior knowledge and
concepts. It meant that the test takers also involved their remembering and understanding level in answering the questions. It was supported by Churches
2008 that students cannot apply if they did not remember the knowledge and understand the concept first. Moreover, the questions which represented applying
behavior mostly asked about the use of English and tenses in appropriate sentences. It meant that the test takers were supposed to find answers of several
cases by using their prior knowledge and concept about English vocabulary items and tenses. It was supported by Anderson and Krathwhol 2001, p. 77 and
Forehand 2010 that applying occurs when students were able to solve new problems by considering their prior knowledge they had in minds.
Moreover, the three consecutive years of English UN for Junior High School employed executing behavior of applying level Anderson Krathwohl,
