LEXICAL DENSITY AND GRAMMATICAL INTRICACY
OF READING MATERIALS IN ENGLISH IN FOCUS TEXTBOOK
FOR FIRST GRADE OF JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL
A THESIS
Submitted to Fulfill the Partial Requirements for the Degree of Sarjana Pendidikan
By:
AMNA APRIANY DELIMA BATUBARA
Reg. Number. 2123321003
ENGLISH AND LITERATURE DEPARTMENT
FACULTY OF LANGUAGES AND ARTS
i
ABSTRACT
Batubara, Amna Apriany Delima. Registration Number: 2123321003. Lexical Density and Grammatical Intricacy of Reading Materials in English in Focus Textbook for First Grade of Junior High School. A Thesis. English Education Program, State University of Medan, 2017.
This study aims to find out the lexical density and grammatical intricacy of English reading texts in the textbook for the 1st grade of junior hih school to measure the difficulty of the text. The objectives of the study are to find out the lexical density and grammtical intricacy which formed in the reading texts of English in Focus Textbookwhich has the highest both of lexical density and grammatical intricacy. This study was conducted by descriptive method with qualitative research. The data of this research were the English reading texts of English in Focus Textbook for First Junior High School. The data were text analyzed by using Halliday’s theory. The result of this study; 1).Lexical density formed of the texts was high based on Halliday’s theory that the texts had more lexical item than grammatical item, Text 1 was 57.31%, Text 2 was 70.83%, Text 3 was 68.75%, Text 4 was 61.36%, Text 5 was 58.82%, Text 6 was 60.86%, Text 7 was 69.23%, Text 8 was 71.42%. Grammatical Intricacy formed of the texts was high based on Halliday’s theory that the texts had more complex clauses than simple clause, Text 1 was 7, Text 2 was 4, Text 3 was 2.16, Text 4 was 2, Text 5 was 1.08, Text 6 was 1.75, Text 7 was 2, Text 8 was 2. 2).Lexical density influences the difficulty of reading texts if it has higher proportion of lexical items than grammatical items. While grammaticcal intricacy also influences the difficulty of reading texts if it has higher proportion of complex clauses in comparison with simple clauses. 3).The length of the sentence did not influence the grammatical intricacy of the texts but the more complex clauses and content carrying lexical items could make the reader difficult to process the texts.
ii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
First of all, the writer would like to thanks to Alah SWT for blessing, health and chance during her academic year at English and Literature Department Faculty of Languages and Arts (FBS) State University of Medan in completing the thesis and to completion of this final project with title Lexical Density and Grammatical Intricacy of Reading Materials in English in Focus Textbook for First Grade of Junior High School. Shalawat and salam for the Prophet Muhammad who brings us to darkness and brightness.
This Thesis is purposed to fulfill one of the requirements to obtain the S-1 degree of Sarjana Pendidikan. In fulfilling this thesis, the writer realizes that she cannot complete this final project without the help of others. Many people have
• Prof. Dr. Hj. Sumarsih, M.Pd., the Head of English Department and also
her Thesis Advisor who have guided, taught and advises her precious time in completing this Thesis.
• Dra. Meisuri, M.A., the Secretary of English Department.
• Nora Ronita Dewi, S.S., S.Pd., M.Hum., the Head of English Education
Study Program.
• Tiarnita Maria Sarjani Siregar, S. Pd., M. Hum., her Thesis Advisor
and also Academic Advisor who have guided, advised and given her precious time in completing this Thesis.
• Dr. Siti Aisah Ginting, M. Pd., and Rafika Dewi Nasution, S. Pd., M. Hum., her Thesis Reviewer and Examiner, who have given their precious
time, guidance, suggestions, and comments.
• All the Lecturers of English Department who have taught, guided, and
advised her throughout the academic years.
• Eis Sri Wahyuningsih, M.Pd., the Administration Staff of English
Department.
• Alm. Drs. Mawardy Batubara and Nurhayati, her beloved parents who
iii
• Joko Machdy Batubara, S.H., and Jaka Medya Octavianus Batubara, S.E., her lovely brothers for their support, love and pray to finishing her
thesis.
• Prof. Dr. Zainuddin, M.Pd., her kindly uncle who always helped, guided
and advised in completing this thesis.
• Maifo, Khairani and Licha, her beloved friend for the time, motivation,
laugh, happiness and who always keep sporting her with loves in every single moment in achieving S.Pd, those things are meaningful for her. • Intan, Diba, Nisa, Melina, Wirda, Steven, Roy, Ayumi, Ica, her close
friends for all of their innoncence, supports and laughters that they experienced together in achieving S.Pd.
• Her friends in Extension B 2012, her great class for the love and togetherness throughout four years.
• The last but not the least, for her friends in PPLT SMK N. 1 Lubuk
Pakam for many experiences and togetherness, especially for Lubuk
Pakam Terdalam Members; Ajir and Obed for all their silly yet endless supports, pray and motivation in completing this thesis.
There are many people whose names are not mentioned above, the writer thanks to Allah for their support in finishing her study and may Allah SWT bless you all. Finally, the writer excepts this thesis be useful, especially for the writer and generally for the readers..
Medan, February 2017 The Writer,
iv
CHAPTER II REVIEW OF LITERATURE ... 8
A. Theoretical Framework ... 8
1. Reading Materials ... 8
a. Definition of Reading ... 8
b. Reading Materials ... 9
c. Characteristics of Good Reading Materials ... 10
d. Reading Materials on English in Focus Textbook ... 17
2. Textbook ... 20
a. Definition of Textbook ... 20
b. The Functional of Textbook ... 20
v
5. Grammatical Intricacy ... 33
a. Complex Clause ... 36
b. Embedded VS Non-Embedded ... 38
B. Relevance of Study ... 39
C. Conceptual Framework ... 41
CHAPTER III RESEARCH METHODOLOGY ... 45
A. Research Design ... 45
B. Data and Source of Data ... 46
C. Technique Data Collection ... 46
D. Procedures Data Collection ... 47
D. Procedures of Analyzing Data... 48
CHAPTER IV FINDING AND DISCUSSION ... 50
A. Data ... 50
B. The Data Analysis ... 50
C. Finding ... 65
D. Discussion ... 66
CHAPTER V CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTIONS... 68
A. Conclusion ... 68
B. Suggestions ... 69
REFERENCES ... 70
vii
LIST OF FIGURE
vi
LIST OF TABLES
Pages
Table 4.1 Lexical Density and Grammatucal Intricacy Used...51
Table 4.2 Grammatical Intricacy Measuement of Text 1...52
Table 4.3 Grammatical Intricacy Measuement of Text 2...54
Table 4.4 Grammatical Intricacy Measuement of Text 3...56
Table 4.5 Grammatical Intricacy Measuement of Text 4...58
Table 4.6 Grammatical Intricacy Measuement of Text 5...60
Table 4.7 Grammatical Intricacy Measuement of Text 6...61
Table 4.8 Grammatical Intricacy Measuement of Text 7...63
1
CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION
A. The Background of The Study
One of the reading sources that are used in the learning process is
textbook. Textbook is an essential element in education. It consist of instructional
materials and provides much information and knowledge. It is used by the teacher
in the learning-teaching process of most subjects in classroom as a main source. It
plays a very important role in teaching-learning process because it tends to be the
basic source which the teachers use in deciding what to teach and facilitate the
teaching-learning process. Besides that it can be an additional knowledge for
teacher who has limited teaching experience. It is also avalaible in many subject
in the school such as English textbook, science textbook, social textbook, etc.
According to Tomlinson (1999:2), textbook is a main learning material which is usually used by teacher and students. In English classroom, textbook is used to serve the learners’ need about language skill. It also provides informations
and knowledge that the students need which can not given by the teacher. The
main point of the textbook is to improve the students’ English competence. In
another words, the textbook is a tool for the teacher for transferring the
knowledge. The textbook may have different amount in providing the language
skills. Graves (2000; 151) mentions that an English textbook is a basic resource to
determine the quality of language input and the language practise during teaching
2
In English subject, textbook is used to serve the students’ need about
language skills. The students must have capability related to four following skills;
listening, speaking, reading and writing. The relationship of those skill is very
closed because they cannot be essentially separated each other. Reading is one of
the four skills considered quite necessary because by reading the students can
automatically gain more and more knowledge, such as; vocabulary, the idea
forming, the use of the tense forms, pronunciation, speaking fluency and many
others to provided that it can be done seriously and frequently.
Reading skill is very important things that must be learned by the student.
The student need to be exercised and trained in order to have a good reading skill.
Budiantari et al (2013: 4) state that reading can be said as a skill that plays a very
important role on teaching learning activity. By reading, people will be able to get
many kinds of information and knowledge.
Beside using to serve the students’ need an English textbook used to serve
an appropriate materials for students’ level. According to Nesia (2014), reading
materials is one of the contents of the textbook besides listening instruction, some
exercise, writing task and some conversation scripts. Reading materials is usually
in the form of the text that is used to teach reading like pronouncing words,
comprehending the content of the text, getting vocabulary and also understanding
of grammar. Through the text, the students can get information, the knowledge
and the vocabulary and also the grammar. It is provided in some types which are
called as genre. The types of genre are arranged well based on the curriculum. As
3
Curriculum (KTSP) is that the students of junior high school hopefully can
achieve that functional level of literacy because they are preparing to continue
their study to the Senior High School.
Nowadays, every student should be able to understand every reading text
in the textbook which 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 have the freedom to choose the teaching media or strategy to
improve the students‟ communicative competence which is relevant to the
students‟ condition and needs. One of the students’ needs is to understand or
comprehend the text based on the situation given in English subject.
In the reading section, every students usually get difficulties in
comprehending a long text or a dense text such as descriptive text. When the
students got the descriptive text with long and many paragraphs, they would felt
bored with the text. It akes them get difficulties in comprehending the text. Some
students also claimed that they get difficulties in memorizing certain English
words and it makes them lack of vocabularies. When the student read the text
which contains sophisticated words, they would be lazy to read the text. Then
there are students may not be aware of the elements and characteristics of the
genre of the text. In fact the main point of difficult text are the lexical density and
grammatical intricacy of the text itself.
For the students, the text which content of high lexical item will make
students got trouble to understand the text. In addition, lexical item includes verb,
4
one meaning. In other hand, the more lexical items the text has, the more difficult
the text is. On the other hand, the students are demanded to comprehend the
reading text because by comprehending it, the students will be able to reach the
knowledge. Because of that, the teacher need to provide appropriate textbook
content which reading text based on the students ability. Reading text in form of
grammatical configuration is not too difficult to understand. Grammatical items
are those that function as closed system in the language. Different from lexical
configuration, grammatical configuration show the text is consist of determine,
pronoun, most preposition, conjuction and numerals. It means that the balance
between lexical items and grammatical items in a text is really important to
consider in order to make the students mastered the reading materials in an
English textbook.
The other thing that influences the difficulty of reading materials is
grammatical intricacy. If in a text there are more clause complexes than simple
clauses, it can be said that the text is more complex in the sense that it presents
more information in a tight way. Consequently, the students are potential to face
problems to comprehend the text. Because of that, lexical desnity and
grammatical intricacy separated each other.
Based on researcher’s observation of the English teacher of SMP.N.12
Medan, the researcher found some information by interview the English teacher.
The reasearcher asked about whether the reading materials in the textbook are
suitable for the students or not. The teacher said that most of students face the
5
usually cannot define some vocabulary or wrong to define the vocabulary in the
reading materials, it affects students’ reading assignment result become bad. In
addition, the teacher also said that they are not checked the readingmaterials in
textbook yet, whether the reading materials are suitable for the students or not,
they just teach them following the textbook.
For an example, the researcher takes one of reading text from English
textbook they learn randomly, the title is “Snowy Owls Large Prey Birds. After I
analyzed, I found the result is 58, 76% of lexical item and grammatical item. It
means that this text is difficult to understand by the first grade student of Junior
High School. Regarding this measurement based on Ure’s method, if the numbers
surprasses forty percent, it accounts for higher lexical density. While the result of
Measurement the Grammatical Inticacy of the last paragraph, the text actually
has 7 clauses. The reason why researcher chooses the paragraph above it because
the paragraph actually does not have any simple clause. All of the sentences in
that paragraph consist of 7 complex clauses. It shown that the paragraph is
grammatical intricate.
Based on the preliminary observation, the researcher can say that when the
students get difficulty to understand the content of the textbook especially in the
reading text, the students will be hard to get the knowledge of the textbook. The
proportion between the lexical items and the grammatical items in the text
certainly will determine the difficulty of the text. Through the lexical density of
the text, teacher can know whether the text is easy or difficult for the students.
The measurement of lexical density and grammatical intricacy in English
6
school to choose the avalaible book for the students in order to make the students
learn the book easily.
B. The Problems of The Study
Based on the background of the study above, the problem of the study are
formullated as the following:
1. What are the Lexical Density and Grammatical Intricacy used in
reading materials of English in Focus textbook for first grade junior
high school?
2. How are the Lexical Density and Grammatical Intricacy formed in the
reading materials of English in Focus textbook for first grade of junior
high school?
C. The Objective of The Study
Based on formulation of the research above, the objectives of this study
are:
1. To find out the Lexical Density and Grammatical Intricacy in reading
materials based on the reading text of English in Focus textbook for
first grade of junior high school..
2. To find out the Lexical Density and Grammatical Intricacy formed in
reading materials based on the reading text of English in Focus
7
D. The Scope of The Study
In this research, the researcher was focuses on the subject matter in
analyzing the lexical density and grammatical intricacy of the reading materials
in English in Focus textbook. The study is limitted to analyze the content of the
reading texts in the first semester which consist of 8 texts in English in Focus
textbook.
E. The Significance of The Study
In conducting this study, the writer hopes that this research has benefit
theoretically aand practically to the readers.
Theoretically, this research hopefully will be useful to enrich the lexical
density and grammatical intricacy theories. The finding in this research can add
new information to other researcher aboout the lexical density and grammatical
intricacy found in a textbook.
Practically, this research hopefully will be useful for the teachers as
guidance to choose suitable textbook for the students and apply the result of this
study as feedback on their teaching learning process so that the students are better
in reading skills. Last, all of the benefits of analyzing the lexical density and
grammatical intricacy hopefully will be useful for all educators because it will be
68 CHAPTER V
CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION
A. Conclusion
After analyzing the data and elaborating the findings, the researcher can conclude that as the following:
1. Lexical density is formed by unification of lexical items and grammatical items which measured to find out the difficulty level in a text. While grammatical intricacy is formed by unification of complex clauses and simple clauses which measured to find how intricate the text is. Lexical density formed of the texts as follows; Text 1 was 57.31%, Text 2 was 70.83%, Text 3 was 68.75%, Text 4 was 61.36%, Text 5 was 58.82%, Text 6 was 60.86%, Text 7 was 69.23%, Text 8 was 71.42%. Grammatical Intricacy formed of the texts as follows; Text 1 was 7, Text 2 was 4, Text 3 was 2.16, Text 4 was 2, Text 5 was 1.08, Text 6 was 1.75, Text 7 was 2, Text 8 was 2.
69
has higher proportion of complex clauses in comparison with simple clauses.
3. The length of the sentence did not influence the grammatical intricacy of the texts but the more complex clauses and content carrying lexical items could make the reader difficult to process the texts.
B. Suggestion
Based on the conclusion to the findings pointed above, the following suggestions are needed to be considered in conducting the related research.
1. For the authors, they can use this study to present the next textbook in balancing composition between content carrying lexical items and grammatical items of lexical density, complex clauses and simple clauses of rammatical intricacy, in order to the students can understand about the reading texts.
2. For English teachers, they can apply the result of this study as feedback on their teaching activities to choose the appropriate learning sources and to teach. It used to fulfill the aim, the ability level of the students and their needs because each text had different level of lexical density and grammatical intricacy so it certainly has different teaching materials so that the students fell attracted to study.
70
REFERENCES
Ary, Donald. 2002. Introduction to research in education. USA: Wadsworth Group
Budiantari, P.Y. et al. 2013. Developing Reading Authentic Reading Materials for The Tenth Year Students of State Vocational School 1 Kubutambahan. e-JournalProgram Pascasarjana Universitas Pendidikan Ganesha, (1) 1-12
Celce-Murcia, Mariane and Olshtain, Elite. 2000. Discourse and Context in Language Teaching, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press
Clark. 1998. Reading For Pleasure: A Research Overview. London: National Literacy Trust
Creswell. 2003. Qualitative Inquiry and Research Design: Educational Research. Thousand Oaks, CA
Day Richard. 1994. Selecting a Passage for the EFL Reading Class
Eggins, S. 2004. An Introduction to Systemic Functional Linguistics. New York: Continuum.
Feez, Susan. 2002. Text-Based Syllabus Design. Sidney: Macquarie University. Fox. 1989. Phonemic Analysis And Synthesis As Word Attack Skills. Journal of
Educational Psychology
Gebhard Jerry. 1989. Relevancy, Authenticity, Comprehensibility and Selection of EFL Materials. PASAA. pp.87-90
Gelderen, E.V. 2002. An Introduction to the Grammar of English: Syntactic Arguments and Socio-Historical Background. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company
Gerot, L., Wignell, P. 1995. Making sense of functional grammar: an introductory workbook
Grave. Kahleen. 2000. Designing Language Courses: A Guide for Teachers. Boston: Heinle and Heinle Publisher
71
Hasan, M.A.K Halliday and R., Language. 1985. Context, and Text: Aspect of Languagein a Social-Semiotic Perspective.Oxford: Oxford University Press
Halliday, M.A.K. 1994. An Introduction to Functional Grammar. London: Edward Arnold
Halliday, M.A.K. 2004. An Introduction to Functional Grammar. London: Edward Arnold
Harmer. 1998. The Practise of English Language Teaching. New York: Longman Harmer. 2000. How To Teach Grammar. England: Longman
Heinle, Thomson. 2000. Designing Language Courses: A Guide for Teachers. Canada:Kathleen Graves
Herman Benyamin. 2007. Advanced Learning English 1. Jakarta: Facil
Jefferies. 2006. Comprehension Of Words In Semantics. Neuropsychology Press Jeong-suk Park. 2005. Developing Reading Comprehension Questions
Jeremy. 1998. How to Teach English. United State: Addison Wesley Longman Johansson, Victoria. 2008. Lexical Diversity and Lexical Density in Speech and
Writing: A Developmental Perspective. Working Press
Lesley. 2006. Discovering Language: The Structure of Modern English. New York: Palgrave Macmillan
Martin, J. R., Matthiessen, C., & Painter, C. 1997. Working with Functional Grammar. New York: St. Martin’s Press
Maxwell, J.A. 2009. “Designing a qualitative study.” In L. Bickman and D.J Rog (eds.) Applied Social Research Methods. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. 214-253
Nana Syaodih Sukmadinata. 1999. Pengembangan Kurikulum: Teori dan Praktek. Bandung: RemajaRosdakarya
Nesia Bersyebah Herljimsi. 2015. Lexical Density of English Reading Texts for Senior High School, Medan: State University of Medan
72
Papalia Anthony. 1987. Interaction of Reader and Text, Interactive Language Teaching. New York: Cambridge University Press. pp.70-83
Patton, M. 2002. Qualitative evaluation and research methods. (3rded.). Newbury Park: Sage Publications
Pratiwi, Astri Harta. 2014. Lexical Density of English Textbook of Second Year ofSenior High School. Unpublish Thesis. Semarang: English Study Program Faculty Walisono State Institute for Islamic Studies Semarang Rahmansyah, H. 2012. Grammatical Intricacy and Lexical Density of the SMA
Student’s Textbooks. Unpublished Thesis. Medan: English Applied Linguistics Post Graduate Studies State University of Medan
R.R. Purnomowulan. 2014. Content analysis of an English textbook. UniversitasPendidikan Indonesia
Sholichatun Siti. 2011. Content Analysis of Reading Materials in English on sky Textbook for Junior High School, Semarang: IAIN Walisongo
Slobin. 1979. Language Development: Syntax and Semantics. USA: Hillsdale New Jersey
Thornbury, S. & Slade, D. 2006. Conversation : From Description to Pedagogy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Tomlinson. 1999. The Differentiated Classroom: Responding to the Needs of All Learners, 2nd Edition
To, Vinh, Fan, Si.,& Thomas, Damon. 2013. Lexical Density and Readability: A Case Study of English Textbooks. Internet Journal of Language, Culture, and Society
Ure, J. 1971. Lexical density and register differentiation. In G. Perren and J.L.M. Trim (eds), Applications of Linguistics. London: Cambridge University Press. Pp 443-452
Verspoor. M & Sauter. K. 2000. English Sentence Analysis: An Introductory Course. Amsterdam: University of Groningen