Cohesive Device in English Texts of the State Examination
for Senior High School Students in Indonesia
A THESIS
Submitted to the English Applied Linguistics Study Program in Partial Fulfillment of Requirements for the Degree of Magister Humaniora
By:
ERWINSYAH PUTRA SEMBIRING Registration Number: 8116111007
ENGLISH APPLIED LINGUISTICS STUDY PROGRAM
POSTGRADUATE SCHOOL
STATE UNIVERSITY OF MEDAN
MEDAN
ABSTRACT
ERWINSYAH PUTRA SEMBIRING. Registration Number 8116111007. Cohesive Device in English Texts of the State Examination for Senior High School students in Indonesia. Postgraduate School of the State University of Medan, 2016.
i ABSTRACT
ERWINSYAH PUTRA SEMBIRING. Registration Number 8116111007. Cohesive Device in English Texts of the State Examination for Senior High School students in Indonesia. Postgraduate School of the State University of Medan, 2016.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
In the name of Allah, the most gracious and the most merciful whom
he would like to express his sincere gratitude, Allah the almighty who has
given his blessing health, strength and patience in the process of completing
this thesis as a partial fulfillment of the requirement for the Degree of the
Postgraduate of English Applied Linguistics Program, State University of
Medan.
This thesis would not also have been possible brought into existence
without the help of a great many people. At first, in particular, the writer
would like to express his gratitude to Prof. Amrin Saragih, M.A.,Ph.D and
Dr.Anni Holila Pulungan.M.Hum., his first and second advisers for their so
generous assistance, guidance, advice, and precious time they spent on
supervising and guiding this thesis.
Secondly, the writer would also like to express his gratitude to the head
of English Applied Linguistics Program, Dr. Rahmad Husein, M.Ed. and his
secretary, Dr.Anni Holila Pulungan.M.Hum and Farid who have assisted
him in the process of administration requirement during the process of his
study in the postgraduate program. Special thanks to the all lecturers of the
English Applied Linguistics Program, State University of Medan who have
given their valuable knowledge to his in their lectures.
The writer also would like to sincerely thank to anonymous participant
who contributed suggestions, critics and advises to this study as reviewers
and examiners, Prof. Dr. Lince Sihombing, M.Pd., Dr. Syahron Lubis.
M.A., and Dr. Zainuddin , M. Hum. For their appropriate and helpful
commentaries and constructive suggestions.
My greatest and sincere thanks and never ending gratefulness are
fully dedicated to my beloved parents, Alm. Polen Sembiring and Habsyah
Siregar, for their endless love, patient and support in providing everything
that make this possible to me. Special thanks is addressed to my beloved
brothers, Fitra wahyudi Sembiring and Mhd, Habibi Sembiring, for their
ii
Special thanks to my beloved wife and my son, Maulida Afriyani
Lubis and Idraki Rashdansyah Sembiring for love, prayer, and support who
patient spent time to finish my thesis.
Then, his gratitude goes to the students of LTBI A XX 2011, who
had given him encouragement, experience and fun time altogether for the
whole semesters. laugh and joy, the fun and pleasure together will always
go beyond the academic experiences in writing this thesis, Rizal, Hiskia,
Vidya, Pak Agus , Kak Yohana, Kak Sarifah and all of his colleagues are all
valuable and inspiring when writing the thesis.
Lastly, he offers his regards and blessings to all of those who
supported his any aspect during the completing this thesis. He confesses that
he has done his most to accomplish this thesis but he realized it is still far
from being perfect. Therefore, any constructive, criticisms, suggestions or
comments will be highly appreciated
Medan, 18 June 2016 The writer,
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Pages
ABSTRACT………. i
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT……….. ii
TABLE OF CONTENTS……… iv
LIST OF TABLE ……… ix
LIST OF FIGURES………. x
LIST OF APPENDIX……….. xi
CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION ... 1
1.1The Background of the Study ... 1
1.2The Problems of the Study ... 5
1.3The Objective of the Study ... 5
1.4The Scope of Study... 6
1.5The Significance of the Study ... 7
CHAPTER II REVIEW OF LITERATURE ... 8
2.1. The theoretical Framework ... 8
2.1.1. The Nature of Language ... 8
2.1.2. Functional Grammar ... 9
2.1.3. Textual Function ... 11
2.1.4. Text ... 11
2.1.5. Social Context ... 13
1 Situation Context ... 14
a. Field ... 15
CHAPTER III RESEARCH METHOD ... 46
3.1 The Research Design ... 46
3.2 The Data and the Source of Data ... 47
3.3 The Technique of Data Collection ... 47
3.4. Instruments of Data Collection………. 48
3.5 The Technique of Data Analysis ... 48
3.6 The Trustwortiness of the Study ... 49
3.6.1 Credibility……….. 49
3.6.2 Transferability……….50
3.6.3 Dependability………. 50
3.6.4 Conformability………... 51
CHAPTER IV: DATA ANALYSIS, FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS……….. 53
4.1 Data Analysis ………. 53
4.1.1 Reference……….…. 54
4.1.2 Substitution………...………….. 55
4.1.3 Ellipsis………...……….. 56
4.1.4 Conjunction………..……….. 58
4.1.5 Lexical Cohesion ………...……. 59
4.2 Context situation used in cohesive devices ……… 61
4.3 Findings……… 62
4.4 Discussion………. 64
CHAPTER V: CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS……… 66
vii
5.2 Suggestion……… 67
REFERENCE ……….. 68
viii
LISTS OF TABLES
Table Pages
Table 4.1.1 Table Reference………... 54
Table 4.1.2 Table Substitution………. 55
Table 4.1.3 Table Ellipsis………. 57
Table 4.1.4 Table Conjunction………. 58
ix
LISTS OF FIGURES
x LISTS OF APPENDIX
Pages
Appendix 1 Reference ………..………... 70
Appendix 2 Substitution ………..………... 85
Appendix 3 Ellipsis ……….. 100
Appendix 4 Conjunction……….. 114
Appendix 5 Lexical Cohesion ……… 129
Appendix 6 Context of Situation …..……….. 144
1 CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
1.1. The Background of the Study
The state examination is a formalization process, a setback and degrades
the spirit of education. It is nothing more than a theater by the government in the
name of state building and is extremely formalistic. But rejecting national exam
merely based on the "government's failure" was not enough and not the
appropriate way to solve problems related to education,
There are several factors that affect the level of comprehension of each
text, such as the level of legibility of text, the level of the choose of topics and
levels of choose that sentence can all affect a student’s understanding of a text,
my assumption in the text UN are always that test every years have a readability
level sufficient difficult to understand the level of legibility of text. Can be seen
from the level of cohesion. Halliday and Hasan (1976:7) says “ the more cohesive
devices used in the text the better the text will be." This is one important thing to
help students understand the text, furthermore the social context is the choice of
topic for the text, because my assumption that context which is general can be
help the student in understanding the text compare topic artificial is still
unfamiliar for students. So this study was designed to look at the existing level in
about the UN and social context that is often applied in that context.
As one of the organizers of the UN in 2013, Chairman BNSP, Djemari
Mardapi, asserted no objection if an audit carried out by other state institutions
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including the UN. Related to the formulation of a script about the UN, said
Djemari depth study has been done and tested by experts and practitioners of
education. Then, the UN supervision since a matter of scanning the answer sheets
printed until the test results through computer devices. The supervision of the
universities involved. Referring to the process Djemari sure of being tested this
year had the same quality in each area although there are many variants of the
manuscript. Then, when the examination takes place, the organizers already have
a scenario that can be done when there obstacles in the implementation of the UN.
For example, if there is a shortage about the steps taken as a matter of taking a
backup, look for a similar problem at another school or copying questions. To
minimize delays in packet about the school, the junior high level UN 2013 which
starts on Monday (22/4), the distribution will be given priority to remote areas.
"Previous (distribution about the UN high school level) preferred area of the city,"
he said.
The type of questions that tested in the state examination, especially senior
high school was divided into 2 they are for IPA and IPA, for IPA are mathematic,
Indonesian, English, biology, physics and chemistry, while for IPS are
mathematic, Indonesian, English, economics, geography, sociology from 2 majors
senior high school for about English and Indonesian were no differences between
the majors IPA matter and IPS, so for question English IPA and IPS are same
This situation depict Indonesian state examination situation in general that
the difficulty level of the text in the UN is different in each region of Indonesia
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central and regional levels of education in order to do the evaluation by
government in terms of the quality of education in Indonesia.
However, the reality is contrary to the expectation. The students’ reading
ability in secondary level, even in university level is still unsatisfactory. Some
studies about reading ability were carried out in order to reveal the causative
factors of low level of students’ reading ability. There are two main factors effect
a reader’s ability, namely linguistics and non-linguistics factors. linguistics factors
constitute grammatical aspects, vocabulary, background knowledge (schema)
about the topic being read, ability to comprehend the text as a unity, awareness of
the text organization, ability to apply the interactive reading process: top-down
and button- up, etc. Non-linguistics factors, on the other hand, are effected by
psychological and environmental aspects. The focus given to linguistics a factors
in this study.
The success of teaching and learning at school is much endorsed by the
use of good teaching materials in class (Nunan, 2003:8). Textbook is one of
teaching materials that is used as the main resources of teaching and learning.
Cohesion as the binding component of word, phrase, and sentences in a
text is considered to contribute to the quality the text UN Senior High School. A
good text must be cohesively connected as to produce meaning. This statement is
well explained by Martin (2007: 47) with an argument that the coherence, a clear
meaning, is much influenced by cohesive devices and texture. Cohesion has often
been neglected in language teaching where sentences have created, manipulated
and assessed in isolation. it has been assumed that the students’ difficulties arise
4
sentences level: whereas, difficulties can easily arise from problems with
cohesion: findings the referent for a pronoun, for example, or recovering a phrase
or clause lost thought ellipsis.
According to Halliday ( 1994: 311), cohesion refers to Relation within the
text that are not subject to limitation; relations that may involved of any extent,
both smaller and large than clauses, from single word to lengthy passages of text;
and that may hold across gaps of any extent, both within the clause and beyond it,
without regard to the nature of whatever intervene.
There are four cohesive devices in English, namely: by reference, ellipsis,
conjunction and lexical organization. Reference is the meaning of a presupposing
item, we have to refer to its presupposed item. For example, she is my sister. She
refer to certain person, substitution is the replacement of an element by another
element. Reference is built through semantic relation, but in substitution it is
through grammar and linguistics form. For example: “who said that?” that is the
substitution of” we are going to lose.” Ellipsis has the same function as
substitution. The difference is in Ellipsis the presupposing item is deleted. For
example “do you understand?” Andy asked “yes (I understand)” Bobby answered.
The sentences “I understand “is omitted. Conjunction differs from the other four
types of cohesion in a way that it does not refer to a certain element of
presupposed item.
The existence of good text UN for Senior High School is inseparable with
students’ achievement in their test result by their ability in reading. Reading is an
important skill for students to absorb information from a text or a discourse. these
5
with logical thinking that acquisition comes first , then production . a speaker or
writer will be stuck when producing a speech or a text without sufficient
information through reading .
Considering the fact above, the significance of the receptive skills,
especially reading skills, especially reading skill is doubtless. It is reasonable that
reading skill be made the core of learning language in English teaching. It is also
expected that the learners are able to read a variety of reading texts, to increase
mastery of vocabulary and grammatical feature of language as well. This thought
is still relevant up to the present demand of learning English in Indonesia, which
is based competence.
Thus, this study is an attempt to expose the use of Cohesive Devices which
are applied in English reading Text of State Examination (UN), especially in
reading section. Because Cohesion indicates the “non-structural text-forming relations” (Halliday and Hasan 1976: 7). It is means that the more cohesive
devices used in the text the better the text will be.
1.2. The Problems of Study
This study attempts to expose the types of cohesive relation in the English
text used by UN (State Examination) of Senior High School. The intended
cohesive relations are those occurred between sentences in the Text. The research
problem are stated as following.
1. What are the types of cohesive device found in the in the text UN English
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2. What is the dominant types of cohesive devices realized in the text UN
English (state examination) in senior high school of 2010- 2015?
3. In what context is the cohesive devices used in the English reading texts of
UN (state examination) in senior high school of 2010-2015?
1.3. The Objectives of the Study
Based on the problem of the study, the objectives of the research are
1. to identify the types of cohesive devices used in relating sentences
available in Text UN English (state examination) in senior high
school of 2010-2015
2. to find out the dominant types of cohesive devices used in the
reading texts available in the text UN English (state examination) in
senior high school of 2010- 2015 and
3. to find out the context which the cohesive device are used
1.4 The Scope of study
The study is focused on the analysis of English Subject of UN (States
Examination) examination texts that purposefully select the reading sections of
the test. The state examination test selection is senior high school from 2010-2015
sessions. The total numbers of reading test sections are 25 texts UN from years
2010-2015 and selected as the scope of the study.
English text is chooses because it has important role as a source of
knowledge for the students of Junior High School in learning a language. Since
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1.5The Significance of the Study
The significant of study is generally to give great theoretical and practical
contribution to researcher as well as teachers. Theerotically, The findings of this
study are expected to be useful theoretically and practically in some respects:
1. Theoretically, the findings are expected to add up more horizons in theories
of language evaluation, particularly that related to evaluates in large scale.
In addition the findings can be references to further studies Cohesive.
2. Practically, the finding can be beneficial potentially for the student and
teachers in Senior High School level, will have knowledge about Cohesion
especially in Text in UN and as materials for teachers English. And English
teacher are in a good position to teach cohesion to the student for help the
student understanding text in UN and help the student to pass the state
examination and increase the value of students, especially the value of State
Examination English. In additional the Government can improve the quality
of the text in the state examination for Student High School, especially the
quality of their attention on the matter of State Examination (UN) and the
CHAPTER V
CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS
5.1 Conclusion
Based on the findings and discussion, it can be concluded that:
1. It was found all cohesive devices used in whole text state examination
(UN) from years 2010 until 2015 were namely: reference, substitution,
ellipsis, conjuction and lexical cohesion
2. Based on the data the dominant types cohesive devices from text English
state examination (UN) in years 2010 until 2015 were Reference
321(44.8%)
3. After analyzing 25 texts English state examination (UN) from years 2010
until 2015 with context situation conducted. Found that the context
situation used in the texts were of three elements, namely, field, tenor and
mode and in Specifically, field used the elements of arena or social activity , participant’s characteristics and semantic domain And in tenor
found used three elements from four there were formality, status or power,
affection. And in mode found used elements Planning, Distance,
Involvement and medium or channel.
5.2 Suggestion
As what the researcher result shown that the analyzed cohesive device in
texts English state examination (UN) from 2010 until 2015. Categorized cohesive
67 a. English texts used by the student in the class to learn how to produce good
and accepted sentences
b. English teacher and the headmaster can be involved in the process of
learning English used texts as knowledge to teaching.
c. For the writer state examination is also expected to involve in controlling
the quality of English Text state examination (UN) every years used in test
UN. So the students can get knowledge from learning texts in order the
student may understand the texts better
68
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