school, facility, and even quality of the test itself also becomes parts of that could affect students’ teaching and learning condition
7
. All of the examples above could affect the achievement of students. It could be said that the better the quality of the
external factors the better students’ achievement will be. Improving the condition of internal factors and external factors is believed as
one way to improve their achievement. Students’ depression and anxiety for example should be reduced into a lower level. On the other hand the improvement of facility
and the test themselves for examples becomes necessary. Facing those facts, then it would be a good movement if there are some
improvements done to English subject in UN. One of the improvements could come from improving the quality of the test, as one of the factors that is believed to affect
students’ achievement.It will not become an easy task, but not impossible either. On the other hand the job will be easier with the data that have been collected from UN
’s result for the previous years. All the test items that had been used could become a
good reference to improve both the listening section and reading section tests. Based on that condition the researcher thinks that using the old test items for a
comparison study will bring good effect on improving U N’s test material . The result
can be used in order to become one of the references in order to improve the quality of English test in UN. To add number of references that can be used to improve the
quality of English test in UN the researcher conducts this comparative study between UN English test in senior high school level academic year 20102011 and 20112012.
The years are chosen based on the result of achievement on those two academic years and the consideration that both years are still representive to be used as the object in
this study. To avoid a too broad scope in this research, the researcher will limit the study
only on the readability level of the texts in reading section of UN English subject. From the description above, the researcher believes that this comparative research of
7
Kurt Singer, Membina Hasrat Belajar di Sekolah, Bandung: CV Remadja Karya, 1973, p. 11.
readability level of UN English subject’s texts academic year 20102011 and
20112012 is important and need to be done. As by doing this research therefore we can find the differences between those two
tests’ texts readability. The data can be used to give a simple portrait about achievement on comprehending reading texts on
English test in National Examination academic year 20102011.
B. Identification of the Problem
From the description above, there will be several problems that can be identified:
- There is a sharp decrease of English subject’s scores in UN for academic year
20102011 and 20112012. -
The decreasing of test quality will decrease students’ achievement in UN.
C. Limitation of the Problem
In order to avoid misunderstanding in the study, the researcher will limit and focus the study only on the problems related to
brief portrait of students’ achievement in comprehending reading texts in UN for senior high school in two academic years
20102011 and 20112012. The limitation of the problem based on the assumption that reading section
scope is bigger, 35 items, than the listening section, 15 items. Therefore the researcher
believes the score for reading contributes more in students’ achievement. Those two years are chosen based on the gap of score between those years.
Which happen within only one year.
D. Formulation of the Problem
After creating the limitation of the problem, the researcher would like to formulate
the research problem into: “How was the portrait of students achievement in comprehending reading texts in the National Examination or UN academic year
20102011 and 20112012? ”
E. Purpose of the Study
Based on the formulation of the problem, then this research was created in order to describe the
portrait of students’ achievement in comprehending reading texts in UN test academic year 20102011 and 20112012.
F. Significance of the Study
This study is created in order to help any people interested in the study. However, it is also specially designed to:
a. Give a new data about the condition of reading test, especially in giving
portrait of comprehending reading texts for English in UN academic year 20102011 and 20112012.
b. To help the government who has the authority to conduct UN in Indonesia.
The researcher hopes that the government, in this case ministry of education of Indonesia, will create a better formulation of texts of English subject in UN
for Senior High School. c.
To encourage the English teachers in Indonesia, especially senior high school teachers, as the one that directly related with students. By this study, the
researcher hopes that teachers could have more portraits about the condition of students’ achievement in comprehending reading texts.
d. To let English students in Indonesia, especially senior high school students.
By this study, the researcher hopes that students will know what kind of categories that can be said as a good text. The researcher also hopes that the
students in twelfth grade can use this study as one of their references for UN. e.
For researchers or educators who have interest in doing the research about UN, especially in case of to improve the quality of UN. This research could be
used as the references. On the other hand the way of the researcher does this comparison study could be also used by those interesting in comparative
study.
7
CHAPTER II THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
A. Nature of UN
In modern education system, students’ progress and achievement must be able to
be measured and improved. Based on that condition, modern education always does what is known as evaluation. Literally, evaluation is the noun form of the word
evaluate. In Dictionary of Language Testing evaluation is describe as The systematic gathering of information in order to make a decision. Within a
language education programme, evaluation may be carried out to provide information about the programme to stakeholders, such as sponsors, managers,
teachers or parents, and to make decisions about the future of the programme. Where the effectiveness of the instruction is under investigation, language test are
frequently as one component of the evaluation; typically pre- and post-testing, or achievement testing would be carried out, with or without a control group of
subjects
1
In educational world, experts have given some definitions about evaluation. There are several definitions stated by experts, just like what is stated by Soenardi
Djiwandono that evaluation is an effort to make sure that the goals of teaching and learning process that have been planned in a period of time are accomplished.
2
I n line with Soenardi’s idea about evaluation is what is stated in th book Reading
to Learn in the Content Area, Richardson says that evaluation in education is how the judgment about
individual’s performance made.
3
In simple definition, evaluation is a process done by teacher, school, or government in order to know whether the teaching and learning process has reached
what has been targeted before. The result of evaluation will be used to do some
1
Alan Davies, et al. Dictionary of Language Testing, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002, p. 56.
2
Soenardi Djiwandono, Tes Bahasa Pegangan Bagi Pengajar Bahasa, Jakarat: PT Indeks: 2008, p. 1.
3
Judy S. Richardson, et. al. Reading to Learn in the Content Area, Belmont: Wandsworth Cengage Learning, p. 33.
improvements in a courses or even reconstructed of the system, depending on the result itself.
There are several things that can be done in order to evaluate a teaching and learning process, one of them is test. Posner in his book
“Analyzing the Curriculum”, defines that
“A test is a set of questions with an accepted set of presumably correct answers, designed to gather information about some individual characteristics like
achievement. Scoring a test usually requires the assignment of a score according to the number of correct responses given, though more complex methods are used in
certain circumstances. “
4
On its going, people create several types of tests with various purposes. Soenardi Djiwandono, for example divided test into two main types based on the way of
creating the test: -
Teacher-made test, is the type of test that created by teacher. This kind of test is used for small-scale.
- Standardized test, as the opposite of the teacher-made test this test is used for
a large-scale. This kind of test is created with high standard, good planning, and has been checked by the pilot test.
5
Next, Hughes also divided tests into two main types: -
Progress Achievement Test, this kind of test is done during the teaching and learning process. Simply this kind of test is done to continually do the
improvement during teaching and learning process. -
Final Achievement Test, just like its name this test is done at the end of the courses. After all of the materials have been delivered. This test evaluate the
4
George J. Posner, Analyzing the Curriculum, New York: The McGraw – Hill Companies, Inc., 2004, p. 238.
5
Soenardi Djiwandono, op. cit., p. 73.
