English for Vocational Students

36 classrooms to achieve the learning objectives. This study involves English teachers from three level classes the tenth, eleventh, and twelfth and stud ents from those levels. The study investigates teachers’ understanding on the previous English curriculum and to find out teachers and students’ perception on the EFL textbooks and the role of textbook to achieve the learning objectives. 72 The next is the other investigation of textbooks usage by revealing teachers’ prevalent use of textbooks, teachers’ belief underlying the use of the textbooks, teachers’ actual use of textbooks in the classroom and textbooks use aids students’ learning. The data gained from students’ view of the way teachers using textbooks as a source of their teaching learning activity. And this data used to evaluate teachers performance during their teaching activity. The finding of this research is that students have negative response to textbook bound teachers, since the most learning activity seem mostly developing one of four skills of ELL. 73 The other study, Muslih tried to investigate English teachers experiences in writing English textbooks projects. He revealed his investigation of two English teachers within their process of writing textbooks. In which have many advantages and challenges like career improvement, teaching professionalism, financial and many others. It is recommended to teachers to realize that they could be potential material writer by learning the ways how to adapt, develop, and evaluate textbooks. 74 And the last study is investigating the use of textbooks in an Islamic school with lack of Islamic-oriented topics to be discussed, and is not relevance to it. The fact that teachers’ understanding on the school vision and missions do not affect to their teaching. They are more focusing on the achievement of the National Exam score. The Islamic sense inserted situationally when they have some Islamic moments. Thus, based on the finding it is recommended that the English teachers of Madrasah Aliyah use suitable textbooks with the school vision and missions. 75 Regarding the readability of textbook, the writer found some researchers conducted their research in this field; one of them is Daniel Kasule. Kasule did his research in investigating textbook readability and ESL learners of some primary schools in Swaziland. He uses online software tool 72 Ida Siti Hodijah. Teachers’ Understanding of The Curriculum and Their Practice of Using EFL Textbooks to Achieve The Learning Objectives. Bandung: UPI. 2012. 73 Nia Kurniawati. Teachers’ Use of Textbooks in Teaching and Learning Processes. Bandung: UPI. 2012. 74 Muh. Muslih. The Process of Writing Textbooks :A Case Study of Two English Teachers Who Write Textbooks. Bandung: UPI. 2009. 75 Tri Edi Kesumo Raharjo. The Teachers’ Use of English Textbooks at A Madrasah Aliyah in Conjunction with The School Vision and Missions :A Case study at a Madrasah Aliyah in Pangkalpinang-Bangka. Bandung: UPI. 2009. 37 to determine how readable the books are and cloze test. The result is textbooks readability stated very difficult and it confirmed by the result of cloze test that most of students frustrated by it. Therefore he suggests teachers to be aware of readability issues, since it is helpful for effective reading instruction during the critical formative years of school. 76 Elizabeth in the U.S. investigates the variance amongst the result of readability regarding the History textbook. She uses three readability formulas such as Flesch Kincaid, Gunning FOG and Fry Graph. The result shows there was a great amount of variance amongst the readability formulas regarding the U.S. history textbooks. Therefore, teachers should be aware of the variability amongst the formula and questions the readability level provided by the publishers. 77 Perekem and Agbor did their study in Bayelsa Nigeria. Their investigation concerning the readability of English language textbooks prescribed for Junior Secondary Schools and students’ performance in reading comprehension. They use Fry readability formula to assess the level of textbook readability and cloze test to measure students’ performance in reading. The conclusion reveals that even English in Nigeria as second language, however the way students’ grasp of English have not a firm base yet. It is affecting to their performance in reading which is poor. Further they suggest to publisherswriters to revise the difficult words and complex sentences in the book. 78 These previous studies can serve as the starting point of determining areas that will be examined in this research. Many spaces come up in this field which are still not much touched by other researchers. One of them is the grade level of students as a target user of textbooks. Kasule has been done his research in investigating textbook readability and ESL learners of some primary schools in Swaziland. While, Perekem and Agbor also have been done their research in the readability of English language textbooks prescribed for Junior Secondary Schools and students’ performance in reading comprehension. While Elizabeth has been done her research for all History textbooks in U.S. Meanwhile, this study is quite different with the previous one. Kasule had made use of Flesch Reading Ease online software to test the readability of the textbook followed by cloze test to measure pupils understanding towards the textbook. Elizabeth had used three formulas such as Flesch 76 Kasule. Loc. Cit. 77 Elizabeth. Op. Cit. 78 Bertola Perekem and Catherine Alex Agbor. Readability of Language Textbooks Prescribed for Junior Secondary Schools and Students’ Performance in Reading Comprehension in Bayelsa State, Nigeria. British Journal of Arts and Social Sciences, Vol. 9 No. I, 2012. 38 Kincaid, Gunning FOG and Fry Graph. Perekem and Agbor had used Fry Graph and cloze test to test both textbook readability and students reading performance. While, this study made use of Fry Graph to test the readability of English textbook and cloze test to measure students’ understanding of the textbook. By using Fry Graph the readers will see the result of readability level of students easily even for common people. Eventhough the study of Perekem and Agbor used the same formula with this study, however both study are differenent one to another. The different is the participants of this study, they are students of vocational schools in which the students have a special characters and purpose of study. 39

CHAPTER III RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

The existence of English textbooks in schools ought to be a mean that facilitate students to learn English. The students of vocational school mostly have a low motivation to read the books because of various factors among other the monotonous display of textbook content, the repeatation matter from the previous grades when they were in Junior High Schools and the content which quite far from their interest and competency subjects. Teachers should be aware about that, deciding and selecting the right English textbook in accordance with their learner s’ need and condition was necessary. Therefore determining the content validity of textbook was required, in order that students would not be harmed because of the teachers’ failure in selecting the textbook. Measuring the readability of English textbooks that exist in Majalengka so far was needed. In fact, it was not as well managed as we were expected. To answer the research questions mentioned in chapter I, this study will discuss the problem using the methodology as follows:

A. Design of the Study

This research will use mixed method in selecting, describing and interpreting the data and findings found in the field of study. Sequential explanatory strategy was used in presenting the answers of research questions. This strategy was initialed by collecting and analysing quantitative data followed by collecting the qualitative data. In order that the data and findings obtained will be mapped and interpreted clearly. The first step of the study would be quantitative; it was done to answer the first research question that was to what extent do the levels of readability of English textbooks Get Along with English 1 and English for SMK 1 for the tenth grade of vocational school students? Before the study came to the conclusion, it was need to answer the second research question, that was do the readability levels of English textbooks Get Along with English 1 and English for SMK 1 match to the tenth grade students’ readability at five vocational schools in Majalengka? The study need to know students’ readability of English textbooks they used. While the qualitative data were gathered from the interview of the representative teachers as well as students. It was used to assist the explanation and interpretation the findings of primarily quantitative study. 1 1 John W. Creswell. Research Design: Qualitative, Quantitative, and Mixed Methods approaches, 3 rd Ed., SAGE Publication, Los Angeles, 2009, p. 211. 40

B. The Analysis Unit

1. English Textbooks

The unit analysis of the research was the English textbooks, namely Get Along with English 1 published by Erlangga and English for SMK 1 by book centre of Ministry of Education. The analysis would be represented by passages taken from the beginning, middle and end part of each textbook.

2. The Tenth Grade Students of Vocational Schools

The other unit analysis was the tenth grade students of vocational schools. Since there was a big amount of students, they would be limited. They were 164 students of the tenth grade vocational schools. They involved 33 students of X TKJ 1 SMKN 1 Kadipaten, 29 students of X ATPH 3 SMKN 1 Maja, 30 students of X TPM-B SMKN 1 Majalengka, 30 students of X TIK 3 SMKN 1 Panyingkiran, and 42 students of X UPW SMKN 1 Palasah. This study took five classes of different major from five vocational schools in Majalengka as representatives of the schools, because of the different topography and the limited time. The representative of the north and east Majalengka was Tourism program of SMKN 1 Palasah. The representative of south Majalengka was the Agriculture program of SMKN 1 Maja. From the centre of Majalengka represented by Mechanical program of SMKN 1 Majalengka. The west of Majalengka was represented by Information and Communication Technique of SMKN 1 Panyingkiran and Computer and Networking program SMKN 1 Kadipaten.

C. Instrument of the Study

1. Test

The test was aimed to measure students’ comprehension of their English textbook. The cloze test was chosen to measure students’ comprehension. It was carried out by picking three passages out of English textbook. The first passage was picked from the initial part of the textbook, the second one was picked from the middle part of it and the third was picked from the last part of the textbook. Since there were two English textbooks to be investigated in this research, so there would be six passages to be comprehended by the students. After comprehending the passages, students would fill the blanks of the passage as reading comprehension measurement. The test was conducted in five Vocational Schools in Majalengka. The cloze test of Get Along with English 1 was conducted in SMKN 1 Maja and SMKN 1 Kadipaten. While, the cloze test of English for SMK 1 was conducted in SMKN 1 Majalengka, SMKN 1 41 Panyingkiran and SMKN 1 Palasah. The test was conducted in 90 minutes, therefore 30 minutes were allocated for completing each cloze test. There were three cloze tests for every textbook. Since every passage in each textbook has different length, the missing words would be different as well. For the short passage there were ten missing words, the longer one consist of fifteen missing words, the longest one consist of twenty missing words. For Get Along with English 1, the first passage consist of twenty missing words, the second one consist of ten missing words and the third one consist of fifteen missing words. While English for SMK 1, the first passage consist of ten missing words, the second one consist of twenty missing words and the third passage consist of fifteen missing words. The words were omitted in every seventh word. The deletion was started after some sentences, to allow the students get the point of the passage. Therefore, they would get into the writer’s idea and be encouraged to choose the appropriate words to fill in the blanks of the passage. The cloze test in this research was done to measure the readability of the English textbooks which were used in five vocational schools in Majalengka. How readable the textbooks were reflected by the result of the test. The result of test itself was indicating the ability of students to comprehend the textbook and to show their ability in English. The validity of cloze test was high, it was proved by previous studies. Since this research constructed cloze test under the same rule of deletion like what had been done in those studies. As claimed by Oller that “cloze test was a valid measure of general language ability... that cloze test was a valid integrative measure of general language proficiency.” 2 Further, Bachman and Palmer and also Vollmer and Sang convinced as elaborated by Fulcher and Davidson that “the cloze test was valid as a general test of proficiency whenever it was used .” 3 Especially in measuring students’ readability of a text or in reading comprehension as concluded by Bormuth in his research that using cloze readability precedure is a valid measurement of comprehending instructional material. The calculation of students’ readability by cloze test would be reliable when it was matched with the result of other readability measurement by formula. Dubay overviewed that “readability researchers have long taken pains to recommend that, because of their 2 Glenn Fulcher and Fred Davidson. Language Testing and Assessment, an Advanced Resource Book, London, Routlege Taylor and Francis group. 2007, p. 169. 3 Ibid, p. 170. 42 limitations, formulas are best used in conjunction with other methods of grading and writing texts.” 4 Further Wilson Taylor as elaborated by Dubay published that “Cloze Procedure: A New Tool for Measuring Readability.” On the other side, Bormuth in his studies proved that cloze testing made it possible to measure a number of readability variables not just on the difficulty of whole passages but also on individual words, phrases, and clauses. When the results of both cloze test and calculating by formula have a close meaning one to another, it could be called that the test was reliable. It made the criterion passages more reliable as well. 5 Daniel Kasule also did the same thing in his research. He did his research in investigating textbook readability and ESL learners of some primary schools in Swaziland. He used online software tool to determine how readable the books were and cloze test. 6 Students’ readability was examined by cloze test and the next measurement by Fry graph readability formula. The test was conducted in three sessions. There were three passages were chosen randomly from the initial, middle and last part of English textbook. The students were assigned to fill the blanks of cloze test. The blanks were the deletion words of every n th word. In this study the deletion were every 7 th or 8 th word. The words were provided to assist students filling the blanks. Every single word could be used once. The result of the test was calculated in the percentage of correct answer. The result of the calculation would be interpreted in Taylor’s reading level: Table 3.1 Taylor’s Reading Level Level Cloze Score Unassisted reading 50 —60 Instructional, Assisted reading 35 —50 Frustration level Below 35 Source: Principle of Readability. 7 When the cloze score less than 35, it could be interpreted that the students were at the frustration level. When it was between 35 — 50, the interpretation was the students were at the instructional or assisted reading level. The score of cloze test between 50 —60 could be interpreted that the students were at the unassisted reading level. 4 William H. Dubay. The Principles of Readability, Costa Mesa, CA: Impact Information. 2004, p. 19. 5 Ibid., p. 42. 6 Daniel Kasule. Textbook Readability and ESL learners. Rasa 2010, Vol. 1 No. 2 pr3. 2011. 7 Op. Cit., p. 27. 43

2. Interview Sheet

Interview was aimed to obtain supporting information which would enrich the data. The directed and integrated interview was used in this study. It was supposed get much more information whether from the responses of directed interview or from extended explanation of the interviewee. The interviewees were the English teachers of school where the test conducted and the representative students who have joined the test. The teacher was interviewed under an interview guidance which consisted of 20 questions related to the use of English textbook in their classrooms. The interview question list also asked about the content of their English textbook, regarding the words selection, the arrangement of sentences, the presentation of examples and exercises could they encourage the students to understand the textbook? And asked their opinion about their students’ understanding of the textbook and so fort. The students were interviewed as well as their English teachers. The interview guided by 20 questions related to their opinion of the their English textbook. The extent to which they can understand their textbooks based on their prior knowledge. Asking of what are the things that make them interested in reading textbooks. How were their assessments of their English textbooks they use in the classroom? How do the image influence their understangding towards the teaching materials are delivered. How the exercises and examples presented in the textbook can improve their understanding of the teaching material submitted?

D. Data, Source of Data and Sort of Data

1. Data

Data were any information or recording taken from the source of data as findings. They could be the result of test the result of Fry readability graph and interview recordings.

2. Source of Data

a. English Textbooks

The source of data was taken from English textbooks which were used in five vocational schools namely three vocational schools use English for SMK 1, the rest use Get Along with English 1. To calculate the readability level of the textbook, three sample texts were picked up from the initial, middle and end part of each textbook.