LEXICAL DENSITY AND GRAMMATICAL INTRICACY IN THE STUDENTS’ ENGLISH TEXTBOOK OF GRADE XI VOCATIONAL SCHOOL.

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LEXICAL DENSITY AND GRAMMATICAL INTRICACY IN

THE STUDENTS’ ENGLISH TEXTBOOK OF GRADE XI

VOCATIONAL SCHOOL

A THESIS

Submitted as the Partial Fulfillment of the Requirement for the Degree of Sarjana Pendidikan

By:

NANDA AULIA PUTRI

Registration Number 2121121006

ENGLISH AND LITERATURE DEPARTMENT

FACULTY OF LANGUAGES AND ARTS

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ABSTRACT

Aulia Putri, Nanda. Registration Number: 21211211006. Lexical Density and Grammatical Intricacy in the Students’ English Textbook of Grade XI Vocational School. English Educational Program, State University of Medan, 2016.

The study analyzes about lexical density and grammatical intricacy which aim to construe the lexical density index and the grammatical intricacy index of the texts of English textbooks for eleventh grade of vocational school, to find out the highest level of lexical density and grammatical intricacy which formed in the reading texts and then both are classified based on the categories which is conducted in this study. This study was conducted by using descriptive qualitative method. The data of this study were English reading texts in Get Along with English textbook for grade eleventh vocational school published by Erlangga. The results are: there are seven reading texts which are classified into medium level of frequency, they are descriptive text (A), descriptive text (B), discussion text (A), report text (A, report text (B), procedure text (B), and procedure text (C). There are four reading texts are classified into low level of lexical density, they are procedure text (A), recount text (A), recount text (C), and recount text (B), whereas to classify grammatical intricacy index, the results are all of reading texts are included into low level of frequency by using scale zero to ten. The results imply that the reading texts may be quite comprehended by eleventh grade of vocational school students because most of reading texts are classified into medium level category with the highest indices are: (1) the LD is 4.65; (2) the GI is 4.66. Although the index of GI is higher than LD by using the scale zero to ten, it is still classified into low level of frequency. The students face the difficulties to understand the texts because there are more clause complexes indeed. It is suggested that further textbook writers to concern with the lexical density of the reading texts, and for the teachers also have to adjust the teaching materials with the genre of texts which being taught so that the students can achieve the goal of the study.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The researcher would like to express her deepest gratitude to Allah Swt, the Almighty and Most Beneficial for His Grace, Guidance, Praise, Honor, and Mercy that has been given to the researcher so that she finally accomplished her

thesis entitled: “Lexical Density and Grammatical Intricacy in the Students’ English Textbook of Grade XI Vocational School”.

This thesis is aimed to fulfill one of the requirements for the degree of Therefore, the researcher would like to express her gratitude and special thanks to:

 Prof. Dr. Syawal Gultom, M.Pd., the Rector of State University of thesis advisors, for their valuable time, knowledge, and guidance with all their patience and wisdom during the process of accomplishing this thesis.

 Dra. Masitowarni Siregar, M.Ed., and Isli Iriani Indiah Br. Pane, S.Pd., M.Hum., as her thesis reviewers, for their valuable input to furnish this thesis.

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 Administration Staffs of Digital Library, for their permission and opportunities in allowing researcher to do the observation to collect the data.

 Her beloved father, Supriadi and her beloved mother T.Ernawati, her beloved brothers: Muhammad Yazid, S.E., and Hatta Ridho. Her dearest sister Mega Lisa who always motivating and giving her wise advices.

 Her beloved classmates, English Education Regular C 2012, especially for

Plindawati Sinaga, Khairunnisa, Theresia Manalu, Diah Ayu Nanda,

Annisa Damayanti, Betharia S. Pandia, Suchroni Panjaitan,

Metaliana R. Sari, and Nurasiah Lubis, for always supporting her.

 Her beloved roommates, especially Siti Fatimah Sitepu, Neni Astika, Riski

Setia Ayu, Herliana Ema, Khairani Siregar and Masdoharni Hasibuan

for the love and support. of this thesis. She hopes that this thesis would be useful for those who read and interest in the field of this study.

Medan, Augustus 2016 The researcher,

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English language Teaching (ELT) textbook has a vital and supported part to play in everyday job of English teaching and learning process. It can be guidance for the teachers to convey the teaching materials to students, to facilitate the teaching and learning process so that the teachers can get more knowledge by more reading the textbooks. Besides, it can also be a source for teachers who have limited teaching experience to teach the students so that the process of teaching and learning can fulfill the objectives as stated in the syllabus and lesson plan.

Pamungkas (2010:23) is quoted by Keban, Muhtar, and Zen mentions that a textbook is one of many kinds of instructional materials used in learning and it is usually in written, tightly organized, and greatly condensed. They provide the basis for the content of the lessons, the balance of skills being taught and the kinds of language practice the students take part in. Materials should make the students learn. They should also be the resource books for ideas and instructional activities as well as giving teachers rationales for what they do.

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texts. In English classroom, textbook is used to serve the learners’ needs about English language skills such as providing the materials and exercises to the

students, giving additional explanation beside the teachers’ knowledge. It can be

concluded that textbook is a tool of transferring the knowledge.

Reading material is one of the contents that are put in the textbook besides listening, writing task, some exercises and some conversation scripts that consist of some feeling expressions. Reading commonly forms of text that is read by the students. There are some skills of reading text are comprehending the content of text, vocabularies enhancing, pronouncing words, and mastering the grammar. As stated by Harmer (1998:68) that reading texts also provide opportunities to study language: vocabulary, grammar, punctuation, and the way we construct sentences, paragraphs and texts. Lastly, good reading texts can introduce interesting topics, stimulate discussion, excite imaginative responses and be the springboard for well-rounded, fascinating lessons.

Reading based genre is formulated in Vocational Schools’ textbooks based on

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In reading session in classroom, commonly there are some long texts or dense text which make students are hard to understand the content of text and grasp the information such as report text, narrative text etc. Most of students tend to be bored when reading the long text because they have not understood about the content of the text and the difficult vocabularies. And the last, it can make the teaching and learning process cannot go well and the objectives cannot be fulfilled. Actually, the difficult text must have more lexical density than grammatical Intricacy, because the more lexical density especially lexical items which a text has, the more difficult the text is.

Nowadays, students are lack of reading intention. They are fast to get bored when reading the text. Even, every student should be able to understand every reading text in the textbook which is instructed by the teacher. It is covered in the curriculum of the unit level of education. In the curriculum, reading material

should be relevant to the students’ needs. The teachers are free to determine the

teaching strategy or media to make the reading activity more active and

interesting as based on the students’ communicative competence which is relevant

to the students’ condition and needs. So that it can improve the students’ reading

ability and intention by comprehending and understanding the content of text based on the situation given in English subject.

From the points or the characteristics above, the purpose can be achieved by the current existing text in terms of grammatical intricacy and lexical density, so that materials for teaching should be selected, researched and even designed

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Lexical density is the term most often used for describing the proportion of content words (nouns, verbs, adjectives, and often also adverbs) to the total number of words. By investigating this, we receive a notion of information packaging; a text with a high proportion of content words contains more information than a text with a high proportion of function words (prepositions, interjections, pronouns, conjunctions and count words). Grammatical Intricacy (GI) refers to the complexity of sentence patterns that are employed in the text. A compound complex sentence is more difficult to understand than one in its grammatical intricacy. In other words, grammatical intricacy is concerned with the number of clause in a clause complex and the depth of the clause. By applying the two theories to the lexical density it is expected to discover the problems of reading text for students.

The researcher has considered that by doing the research on grammatical intricacy (GI) and lexical Density (LD), the researcher expands the analysis in text by describing the GI and LD that are related to the text comprehending. Assumption appeared in which meaning is also influenced by how English sentences in text is formed as the technically easy influenced and how the English words well posted to support the sentence forming. They can be high, medium and low difficulties.

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textbook because it is to fulfill the students’ needs and the syllabus design. Even in that level, English reading text should also be constructed and adjusted in well structured form in order to make them able to get involved in communication of using English, spoken as well as written in accessing information in this global information age. Also, to measure and know whether the textbook that is used by

the vocational school is appropriate with the students’ needs and the syllabus

design.

Based on the explanation above and analysis of English textbook “Get Along

With English” published by Erlangga in 2010 of grade eleventh SMK Negeri 2 Sei Rampah, there are several reasons why the researcher chooses the textbook. First, it is one of the textbooks that are appropriate with the current curriculum. Second, it is often used by most schools in Sei Rampah and the reading material is

appropriate for the students’ needs. Third, the writer wants to know the level of

lexical density by conduction Halliday;s theory and grammatical intricacy of reading textbook for vocational school level by conducting Castello’s theory because both are more clearly and briefly understandable.

B. The Problems of the Study

The problem of the study will be formulated as the following:

1. How is the lexical density level formed in the reading texts of Get Along with English?

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3. Which text of the genre which has the highest lexical density and grammatical intricacy found in the reading texts of Get Along with English?

4. How is the level of difficulties of the English textbook of grade XI vocational school students?

C. The objectives of the Study

In the line with the problems of the study, the objectives of the study are: 1. To find out the lexical density which is formed in the reading texts of Get

Along with English

2. To find out the grammatical intricacy which is formed in the reading texts of Get Along with English

3. To find out the type of genre which has the highest lexical density and grammatical intricacy in the reading texts of Get Along with English

4. To know the level of difficulties of the English textbook of grade XI vocational school

D. The Scope of the Study

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reading texts and written in 5 types of genre. The 5 types of genre which will be analyzed are report, recount, descriptive, discussion and procedure texts.

E. The Significance of the Study

The findings of this study are expected to be useful theoretically and practically.

1. Theoretically

a. The result of this research can be useful for the teacher to choose the appropriate learning media or strategy for the text based on the complexity of lexical density and grammatical intricacy in the text.

b. The result of this research can be a reference for those who want to conduct a research about lexical density and grammatical intricacy.

2. Practically

a. The teacher can select the textbook which is most suitable in teaching and learning process and the students’ needs.

b. The teaching material designers who want to design appropriate texts in English teaching or English curriculum design for vocational school level

whether the text is difficult or not based on the students’ needs.

c. The author, to adjust the genre of texts in the next textbook publisher with

the students’ needs so that it can be appropriate to use in each school in

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CHAPTER V

CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION

A. Conclusion

After analyzing the lexical density and grammatical intricacy of the English reading texts in the textbook for vocational school of grade eleventh, conclusions can be drawn as follows:

1. The reading texts are formed by noun which followed by verb and adjective. The more lexical items (noun, adjective, verb, and adverb) the text has, the more difficult text is because the text is denser and complicated. The length of text is not the main factor to the text has the highest lexical density, but the number of lexical items indeed.

2. The grammatical intricacy level of Get Along with English textbook is lower than the lexical density level. It means that the textbook in this research is the written text. Grammatical intricacy which means spoken form can be identified in the textbook, but the proportion of the clause complex in each text actually is almost balance, it’s because the style of writing and the characteristics of the text itself.

3. The highest lexical density among the eleven texts that written in five genres (report, recount, procedure, descriptive and discussion texts) are

found in the Descriptive text entitled “Activity 10” (4.65) which is

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discussion texts) were found in procedure text (C) entitled “How to Make

a Cake” (4.66) which is also categorized to low level of text because there

has not been found more clauses in the text. It can be concluded that the determination of grammatical intricacy can be determined based on the genre of text. Procedure text has the highest grammatical intricacy because this kind of text forms of spoken. But to put in the textbook, it must be transcribed into a text.

4. The English textbook which entitles Get Along with English of grade XI vocational school has medium level difficulties. It means that all of vocational school students in Sei Rampah use the same difficulties level of the English textbook.

B. Suggestion

Based on the conclusion to the findings pointed above, there are some suggestions are needed to be considered in conducting the related research, they are:

1. For the teachers, they should choose the suitable method and teaching material to teach and explain the genre of text. It’s to fulfill the aim, the ability level of students and their needs because each genre of text has different level of lexical density so it certainly has different teaching materials, so that the students feel attracted to study. Besides, the teachers also should select the textbook which is most suitable in teaching and

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2. For the textbook author, although most of reading texts in the textbook are classified into medium level of difficulties, they also should design the appropriate texts in English teaching or English curriculum design for vocational school level with the suitable needs. It is suggested to design the next textbook by considering low level of clause complex and medium lexical density because it is in written text, it means to the vocabularies of words which have to be adjusted with their levels, so they can enhance the vocabularies based on their needs, not only the generic structure.

3. Anyone interested in understanding of reading text should be familiar with Grammatical Intricacy and Lexical Density (LD). It is very clear who is difficult in processing the text must be caused of GI and LD in the text which is reading.

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LEXICAL DENSITY AND GRAMMATICAL INTRICACY IN THE STUDENTS’ ENGLISH TEXTBOOK OF GRADE XI VOCATIONAL SCHOOL.