AN ANALYSIS OF DIFFICULTY LEVEL ON ENGLISH
STUDENT WORKSHEET USED BY FIFTH GRADE
STUDENTS AT ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
OF PAKUKERTO II PASURUAN
THESIS
By:
NURUL HIDAYATI
08360061
ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT
FACULTY OF TEACHER TRAINING AND EDUCATION
AN ANALYSIS OF DIFFICULTY LEVEL ON ENGLISH
STUDENT WORKSHEET USED BY FIFTH GRADE
STUDENTS AT ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
OF PAKUKERTO II PASURUAN
THESIS
This thesis is submitted to meet one of the requirements to achieve
Sarjana Degree in English Language Education
By:
NURUL HIDAYATI
08360061
ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT
FACULTY OF TEACHER TRAINING AND EDUCATION
MOTTO AND DEDICATION
MOTTO
“Tidak ada kata tidak mungkin bagi Allah, maka percayalah setiap
kesulitan pasti ada jalan. Selalu berfikir positif pada Allah dan
mintalah sesuatu yang terbaik agar mendapat yang terbaik”
Allah menguji bagi mereka yang benar-benar bersabar dengan
cara yang baik, dan kesabaran itu tiada batasnya
DEDICATION
This thesis dedicated to:
My beloved mother “Sipah” and father for their love, praying, kindness, and patience.
My beloved husband “M. Fadloli” for his patience, love, loyal and care. My beloved daughter Lailatuz Zahra “Rara Unyu-unyu”
My all big family for their support in Sukorejo.
My best friends Jubek ”Pikotul”, Cung-cung ”Anita”, Murni “Choyy”, Mita, Rika, Snophie, Nurul Q, and Septi.
All my beloved friends in B class and Boarding house thanks for your
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Alhamdulillah belongs to Allah SWT, all thanks for His blessing and
guidance to finish my thesis. Also, sholawat and salam for my beloved prophet
Muhammad SAW who brought us to the lightness with his miracle, Islam and Al-qur’an.
In this section, all thanks and deepest gratitude due to my first advisor
Mrs. Dra. Thathit Manon Andini, M.Hum and Mr. Bayu Hendro Wicaksono, Ph.D
as my second advisor who give their times, advices, and suggestions for
completing my thesis.
The writer would like to express her sincere gratitude and appreciation are
also extended to the teachers of SDN Pakukerto II Pasuruan who had help the
writer in giving the data for completing this thesis.
My deepest gratitude is addressed to my mother Sipah, Nawasi, H.
Syamsuddin Nur and my husband “AnEh” who always support me in spiritual and
material. For my friends who give me motivation and advice, especially Kotul,
Nita, Murni, Mita, Septi and Nurul Q., all thanks due to you and all friends in
English Department that cannot be mentioned one by one. It’s a beautiful and
unforgetable moment.
Malang, October 30, 2013
AN ANALYSIS OF LEVEL DIFFICULTY ON ENGLISH STUDENT WORKSHEET USED BY FIFTH GRADE STUDENTS AT ELEMENTARY
SCHOOL
OF PAKUKERTO II PASURUAN
ABSTRACT
In educational area, media has important role in achieving students’ understanding of the material in teaching and learning process. Besides, media is also used to measure students’ ability; one of them is a student worksheet.
Nowadays, there are so many English student worksheets published by different publishers which are distributed to every level of education, for instance Elementary School, Junior High School, Senior High School, etc. It causes English teachers have more choices in selecting what student woksheets they are going to use.
Every student worksheet has different level of difficulty and it can differenciate students who have high and less ability. This can be considered as difficult, easy, and also moderate level. Therefore, the teacher should be able to select a good student worksheet which is suitable for students. Teachers should have their own consideration based on the students’ ability. They have to know the requirements or criteria of a good student worksheet before choosing which student worksheet they are going to use.
In this thesis, the researcher tried to investigate the difficulty level of students’ result on student worksheet entitle Proaktif published by Media Pustaka that was used by fifth grade students at elementary school of Pakukerto II Pasuruan. This study used descriptive quantitative as the method. Furthermore, observation was employed in analyzing the level difficulty of students’ result on Proaktif worksheet which was published by Media Pustaka. The findings showed that the students’ result on Proaktif worksheet that was used by fifth grade students of elementary school had sufficient distribution of difficulty level, since the average difficulty level of the students’ result is in the range of 0.30-0.70.
Keywords: students’ result, worksheet, difficulty level
Advisor I, Researcher,
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1.4. Significance of the Study ... 5
1.5. Scope and Limitation ... 6
1.6. Definition of the Key Terms ... 6
CHAPTER II REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE 2.1. Worksheet ... 7
2.2.3 Distracter Analysis ... 13
2.3. Teaching English to Young Learners ... 13
2.4. Students of Fifth Grade at Elementary School ... 14
CHAPTER III RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 3.1 Research Design ... 16
3.3 Research Instrument ... 17
3.4 Data Collection ... 18
3.5 Data Analysis ... 19
CHAPTER IV RESEARCH FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 4.1 Research Findings ... 21
4.1.1 Difficulty Level of Students’ Result on Proaktif Worksheet ... 21
4.1.1.1. Chapter I Daily Activities ... 22
4.1.1.2. Chapter II Transportation ... 22
4.1.1.3. Chapter III Occupation ... 23
4.1.1.4. Chapter IV Recreation Places ... 23
4.2 Discussion ... 24
CHAPTER V CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTIONS 5.1 Conclusion ... 26
5.2 Suggestions ... 27
References
Arifin, Nur. 2008. An Analysis of The Quality of English Student Worksheet Used By Second Grade of Junior High School Arranged By MGMP Team in Trenggalek. Unpublished Thesis University of Muhammadiyah Malang.
Arikunto, Suharsimi. 1999. Dasar-Dasar Evaluasi Pendidikan. Jakarta: Bina Aksara.
Ary, Donald. 2002. Introduction to Research in Education. Sixth Edition. New
York
Ary, Donald, Lucy Cheser Jacobs, Chris Sorensen and Asghar Razavieh. 2010.
Introduction Research in Education. Canada: Nelson Education, Ltd.
Azwar, Saifudin.1987. Test Prestasi. Yogyakarta: Liberty
Basuki, Sulistyo. 2006. Metode Penelitian. Jakarta: Wedatama Widya Sastra bekerja sama dengan fakultas Ilmu Pengetahuan Budaya, Universitas Indonesia.
Depdiknas. 2004. Undang-Undang Republik Indonesia nomor 14 pasal 2 Tentang Guru dan Dosen. Jakarta: Biro Hukum Organisasi Depdiknas.
Djiwandono, Soenardi. M. 2008. Tes Bahasa. Jakarta: Pt. Indeks.
Mcmillan, James H. 1993. Research in Education a Conceptual Introduction. Third Edition
Ornstein, Allan. C. 1990. Strategy for Effective Teaching. New York: Harper Collins Publishers.
Ramlan. 2011. Buku Teks Pelajaran dan Peranannya. [online]. Tersedia:
http://ramlannarie.wordpress.com/2011/10/22/buku-teks-pelajaran-dan-peranannya.html. [05 October 2012]
Richards, Jack. C. 2001. Curriculum Development in Language Teaching. Cambridge University Press.
Sumadi Suryabrata. 2000. Metodologi Penelitian. Jakarta : PT Raja Grafindo Persada.
Sutrisno, Joko. 2008. Pengaruh Pemakaian LKS Jenis Tertentu Terhadap Kemampuan Membaca dan Berpikir Kritis Pada Siswa SD Tingkat Rendah. [online]. Tersedia: http://majalahkita.blogspot.com/2008/06/pro-kontra-buku-lks-lembar-kerja-siswa.html. [03 Mei 2012]
Tim Proaktif. NY. Materi Berkarakter Bahasa Inggris: Proaktif. Surabaya: Media Pustaka.
Ur, Penny. 1996. A Course in Language Teaching, Practice and Theory. United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press.
Wijayanto, Yanuar. 2009. An Analysis of Level Difficulty on Reading Exercises in English Textbook Used By The First Year Students of Senior High School. Unpublished
CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION
This chapter discusses the background of the study, the statement of
problem, purpose of the study, significance of the study, scope and limitation and
definition of key terms.
1.1Background of the Study
English as a compulsory subject is one of the important languages to be taught
in every school degree. English is included in national curriculum by the
government. It can be seen that of all educational levels include English as a
subject whether from elementary school to university. Moreover, English has to
be mastered by students in order to meet the requirement of the English as an
international language. These are reflected by a number of communication tools
and others which use English, for example, the using of technology like hand
phone, computer and also textbook in teaching learning process.
In teaching learning process, it cannot be avoided that teachers cannot be
separated from textbooks as guidance. Both of them are interrelated in favor of
teaching learning activities in the classroom. By using textbooks, students can be
assisted in doing their assignments and easy to understand the instructions.
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guidebooks used as a source of knowledge. Richards (2001) states that created
material refers to textbook and other developed instructional resources. Textbooks
are often accompanied by workbooks, CDs and cassettes, videos, CDs-ROMs, and
comprehensive teaching guides, providing a rich and varied resource for teachers
and learners. As printed material, textbook is extremely helpful to transmit the
information and instruction for students.
In achieving the goal of the teaching learning process, textbooks can be useful
as a media that ease the students in understanding the material. Textbooks are
books that students hold on to a certain level as a medium of learning
(instructional), related to the specific subject areas (Ministry of National
Education, 2004). Textbooks as an element of education has important role, as a
media, textbooks can increase the students’ comprehension of material given.
Krisanjaya (1997) states that the function of a textbook for teachers are as a guide
to identify what should be taught or learned by the students, knowing the order of
presentation materials, knowing the teaching techniques and methods, teaching
materials are easy to be obtained, and use it as a learning tool of students inside or
outside of school.
Regarding the role of textbooks in teaching and learning activity, teachers as a
dominant person in the class, can be selective in choosing the textbook used.
Although textbooks have interesting material or good content, but teachers have to
know which textbooks really needed for students and appropriate with the
curriculum. Moreover, teachers have to know the criteria of good textbooks.
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are well organized, coherent, unified, relatively up to date, accurate, and relatively
unbiased. Therefore, some researchers conducted the studies about the relevancy
of the textbook with curriculum, the quality of the textbook and worksheet, etc.
To know well about the quality of the textbook and worksheet, it is very
important to conduct item analysis. According to Arikunto (1999), item analysis
can be used to identify the quality of test items. The goal of item analysis is to
identify the good item, poor item, and bad item. By analyzing the item, it can be
found the information of the poor item and immediately conduct the
improvement. It can be seen how far the difficulty level of each item.
Furthermore, Djiwandono (2008) states that the item difficulty level means to
investigate how easy or difficult the test is either as a whole or each items of the
test. The item difficulty level can be counted by means comparing between
students who did well and those who did poorly on the test. The item can be
categorized easy if the more items can be answered correctly and vice versa. Thus
the students know their ability and improve their learning activities.
Empirically, the study of textbook is explained by other researchers,
Wijayanto (2010) conducted the difficulty level on reading exercise in English
textbook published by Ganeca in 2007. The result showed that the reading
exercise had moderate difficulty level, since the average difficulty level of that
book was in the range of 0.30-0.70. Another study is done by Arifin (2008), who
investigated the quality of English student worksheet used by second year of
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English student worksheet arranged appropriate for students and dealt with the
curriculum.
In fact, textbooks are not the main sources in educational material. If the
teachers use textbooks as the primary sources of their teaching, it can be a
monotonous material and cannot expand. Besides, according to Richards (2001),
textbook sometimes present in authentic language because texts, dialogues, and
other aspects of content tend to be specially written to incorporate teaching points
and are often not representative of real language use. It means that the existing of
language in textbook sometimes not same as language use in daily life. The
students would have difficulty in understanding the language in textbook.
Therefore, some of schools use other sources as a guidebook in their teaching
learning process, for instance worksheet.
Nowadays, worksheet is used in every school from elementary to senior high
school. Most of teachers assess students’ ability in learning process by using it.
Some schools prefer to choose worksheet as their main media in teaching learning
process to textbook. Printed material such as worksheet is considered as simple
and appropriate materials. Worksheet can be easy or difficult material for
students. If the worksheet is too easy, students will get good score and have no
challenge to do the exercise and vice versa. Based on English teachers in
elementary school, worksheet has the main role in getting the students score in
order to know students’ understanding the material. Because of worksheet as the
important media, teachers have to consider the content of the worksheet includes
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There are many English student worksheets published by different publishers
and one of those publishers is Media Pustaka. This worksheet is used by some
elementary schools in Pasuruan. Besides, in SDN Pakukerto II, this worksheet
used by three classes and the average scores is high, especially fifth grade. In fact,
almost all students get high scores in doing this worksheet while they get low
scores in middle test. It is the reason why the researcher intends to find out the
difficulty level of students’ result on Proaktif worksheet used by fifth grade
students of elementary school.
1.2Statement of the Problem
Based on the background of the study above, the writer formulates the
problem as follows:
“How is the difficulty level of the students’ result on Proaktif worksheet
published by Media Pustaka?”
1.3Purpose of the Study
Based on the problem above, the purpose of the study is to find out the
difficulty level of the students’ result on Proaktif worksheet published by
Media Pustaka.
1.4Significance of the Study
The result of the study is expected to:
1. Give information for the English teachers who are responsible for
evaluating and selecting the appropriate worksheet for each level, so that
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2. Give the information to English textbook writers especially for the
elementary school to give more attention and evaluate the relevance of the
textbook that published.
1.5Scope and Limitation
This study is focused on the difficulty level of the students’ result on
Proaktif worksheet published by Media Pustaka used by fifth grade students
at elementary school of Pakukerto II Pasuruan.
Worksheet for fifth grade students of elementary school is divided into
two semesters for one period of learning, that are semester one and semester
two. In this study, the writer gives limitation only for semester one.
1.6Definition of Key Terms
To get the definite definitions of the key terms used in the study, the following
definition is given.
Difficulty level : The proportion of students responding correctly to it and
the number of testees (Azwar, 1987)
Worksheet : is a page (two) of task, distributed to each student to do
either in class or at home, intended to be written on, and
usually taken in by the teacher to be checked.
Teacher-made task can be seen as a specific kind of worksheet