LEXICAL DENSITY OF READING TEXTS IN ENGLISH TEXTBOOK OF JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL.

LEXICAL DENSITY OF READING TEXTS IN ENGLISH

TEXTBOOK OF JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL

A THESIS

Submitted as Partial Fulfillment of the

Requirements for the Degree of Sarjana Pendidikan

By:

DESI ARISKA

Registration Number: 2123321014

ENGLISH AND LITERATURE DEPARTMENT

FACULTY OF LANGUAGES AND ARTS

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ABSTRACT

Ariska, Desi. 2016. Registration Number: 2123321014. Lexical Density of Reading Texts in English Textbook of Junior High School. A Thesis. English Education Program, State University of Medan, 2016.

This study deals with lexical density of English reading texts in the textbook of junior high school. The objectives of the study are to find out the lexical density of reading texts of English in Focus textbook, the text which has the highest lexical density in the reading texts, and the reason of the text which has the highest lexical density in reading texts. This study was conducted by descriptive qualitative method. The data of this research were the English reading texts of

English in Focus textbook for ninth grade students of junior high school published

by National Education Department. The result of the analysis showed that: (1) The lexical density of procedure texts are 5.90, 5.08, 5.5, and 4.69, report texts are 5.92, 4.22, 4.06, and 3.64 and narration texts are 2.92 and 2.90. The score showed that the lexical density of eleven reading texts on English in Focus textbook for ninth grade of junior high school is categorized medium based on the Halliday’s theory. It means that the texts are not difficult, easy to understand and suitable for ninth grade students of junior high school. (2) The highest lexical density of the reading texts is report text entitled “The Chinese Influence in Indonesian Visual Art” (5.92) because of the higher number of lexical items, few clauses and more vocabularies of words in the text. (3) Report text has the highest lexical density because of the high proportion of lexical items in the text and it also because of the generic structure, language features and the style of writing report text.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

First and foremost, the researcher would like to express her deepest gratitude to Allah SWT, the Almighty and the Most Benefical for His Blessing, Grace, Guidance, and Mercy who have been given to the researcher until this thesis could be completed. This thesis has been written in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Sarjana Pendidikan (S.Pd) at English Department, Faculty of Languages and Arts, State University of Medan.

In the process of accomplishing this thesis, many people have shown their care and assistance, therefore, the researcher would like to express her gratitude and special thanks to:

 Prof. Dr. Syawal Gultom, M.Pd., Rector, State University of Medan.  Dr. Isda Pramuniati, M.Hum., Dean, Faculty of Languages and Arts,

and Vice Dean I, II, and III and all of administation staff.

 Prof. Dr. Hj. Sumarsih, M.Pd., the Head of English and Literature Department, and also as her First Thesis Advisor for her knowledge, valuable advice and precious time; and Nora Ronita Dewi, S.S, M.Hum., Head of English Education Study Program, and also as her Thesis Examiners for kindness and suggestion .

 Isli Iriani Indiah Pane, S.Pd., M.Hum., her Academic Supervisor and second Thesis Advisor for her knowledge and valuable advice, and Indra Hartoyo, S.Pd., M. Hum., her Thesis Examiner for his valuable advice and suggestion, the Researcher also very grateful to all of Lecturers who have taught, guided, and advised her throughout academic years.

 Eis Sriwahyuningsih, M.Pd., the administration staff of English and Literature Department for giving information in completing her thesis  Her special sincere gratitude goes to her wonderful beloved parents

(Allah SWT blesses them), her lovely father (Alm) Muliono, and her super mother Sri Wahyuni Amir, for their endles love, financial support, understanding, spirit, motivation, and the main part, prayers, during the researcher ’s whole life. The researcher’s sincere gratitude also goes to her sister, Sri Muliana, S.EI., for her care, kindness, love, and patience in supporting and motivating the researcher .

 Her thankfulness is also directed to her Seniors, Juniors and Friends in UKMI Ar-Rahman FBS, for their spirit, motivation and joy in the organization and campus daily life.

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 All of her classmate in Dik B 2012 who cannot mentioned one by one that followed lectures and shared knowledge, ideas, and bitter-sweet of campus life together.

 All of her PPL friends, for unforgettable experience while being an apprentice teacher in SMK Negeri 1 Sei Rampah during three months.  All of her Sisters and dear Sisters in her bording house, Yayuk

Sulistiawati, S.Pd, Diva, Ade, Windi, and Afni for laugh, joke, love, care, tear and help that we have shared together.

The researcher realize that the content of this thesis is still far from being perfect. But she warmly welcome any constructive suggestions that will improve the quality of this thesis. She hopes it would be useful for those who are interested in this field of study.

Medan, September 2016 The Researcher

Desi Ariska

TABLE OF CONTENTS A. The Background of the Study... 1

B. The Problems of the Study ... 5

C. The Objectives of the Study ... 6

D. The Scope of the Study ... 6

E. The Significances of the Study... 7

CHAPTER II REVIEW OF LITERATURE A. Theoretical Review ... 8

a. English Textbook for Junior High School ... 15

b. Criteria of Good Textbook... 16

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CHAPTER III RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

A. Research Design ... 35

B. Data and the Source of Data ... 35

C. Procedure of Data Collection ... 36

D. Procedure of Analyzing Data ... 36

CHAPTER IV THE DATA AND DATA ANALYSIS A. The Data ... 38

B. Data Analysis ... 39

C. Findings ... 44

D. Discussion ... 45

CHAPTER V CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS A. Conclusions ... 47

B. Suggestions ... 48

REFERENCES ... 49

LIST OF DIAGRAM

Pages

vii

LIST OF TABLES

Pages

Table 3.1 Lexical Density Category ... 37

Table 4.1 Distribution of Text in Genre ... 38

Table 4.2 Lexical Density of Reading Texts ... 40

LIST OF APPENDICES

Pages

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 consists of instructional materials and provides much information and knowledge. It is used by the teacher in the learning-teaching process as a main source. It is also available in many subject in the school such as English textbook, science textbook, social textbook, religion textbook, civic textbook, etc.

Graves (2000:151) mentions that an English textbook is a basic resource to determine the quality of language input and the language practices during teaching learning process in an English course. Its functions are not only as a guidance of teaching and learning but also as a developing material as well as a substantial and observable component of pedagogy content.

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As Sholichatun (2011) states the aim of English teaching according to School- Based 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. Besides that, School-Based Curriculum also deals with the four language skills, such as; listening, speaking, reading, and writing. In reading, it refers to the text. It means that the students are able to understand and producing various shorts functional and monologue texts, and essay in the form of narrative, descriptive, recount, procedure, and report.

Text can be called as written language and conversation as spoken language. The difference between written and spoken language is one of the density. Density is meant with which the information is presented. Halliday (1985:61) states that written language displays a much higher ratio of lexical items than spoken language. It means that the complexity of spoken language is in grammatical configuration while the written language or text is in lexical configuration. That is why density becomes one of the reasons that make the students get difficulties in comprehending the text.

Nesia (2014) explains that 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

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is to understand or comprehend the text based on the situation given in English subject.

In reading section, most of the students have difficulties in comprehending text in book because of several reasons. As suggested by Pratiwi (2014). First, the material may be difficult to understand because the material does not served in their skill level. Second, they do not understand the content of the material because there are many unfamiliar vocabularies found in the text. Third, they may not be aware of the elements and characteristics of the genre of the text. Fourth, the meaning of the sentences and passages may become lost because the reader struggles with the mechanics of reading. Fifth, they may have difficulty determining what information is important in written passages of the reading texts.

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To, Van and Thomas (2013:62) define lexical density is a condition of the words’ proportion in the text. It shows the ratio of lexical items to

grammatical items. Lexical items consist of noun, adjective, verb, and posibilsome adverbs while grammatical items consist of determiner, pronoun, most preposition, conjunction, finite verb, and some classes of adverb. Lexical density shows the complexity of words within text. It describes the development of lexical in the written language.

Regarding the previous researcher on lexical density, various texts have been intensively examined and different outcomes have been achieved. With reference to lexical density, Johansson (2008) found that 10-year-olds have higher lexical density in the written text than spoken text, 13-year-olds have a genre effect in their result where the narrative texts have higher lexical density than expository texts, 17-year-olds have higher lexical density in the written texts than spoken texts with no genre effect, and the adults have higher lexical density in their written text and there is no genre effect.

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Concerning the issue and the explanations above, there are several reasons why the researcher chooses the textbook. First, English in Focus is one of textbook that is suitable with the School-Based Curriculum (KTSP). Second,

English in Focus used for teaching English to ninth grade level in Medan so it is

important to know whether the reading texts are appropriate with the students’

need. Third, the researcher use this textbook to know the lexical density of reading texts in the textbook.

B. The Problems of the Study

Based on the background of the study, the problems of the study are formulated as follows:

1. What is the lexical density of reading texts in English in Focus textbook for ninth grade of junior high school?

2. What text has the highest lexical density found in the reading texts of

English in Focus textbook for ninth grade of junior high school?

3. Why does the text has the highest lexical density in the reading texts of

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C. The Objectives of the Study

In line with the research questions, the objectives of the study are:

1. To find out the lexical density of the reading texts in English in Focus textbook for ninth grade of junior high school.

2. To find out text has the highest lexical density found in the reading texts of English in Focus textbook for ninth grade of junior high school. 3. To find out the reason of the text has the highest lexical density in the

reading texts of English in Focus textbook for ninth grade of junior high school.

D. The Scope of the Study

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E. The Significances 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 teachers in teaching reading to choose the appropriate reading texts based on the complexity of lexical density in the texts.

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

2. Practically

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

CHAPTER V

CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS

A. Conclusions

After analyzing the lexical density of the English reading texts in the textbook for junior high school grade ninth, conclusions are drawn as;

1. English in Focus textbook contained three genre namely procedure texts,

report texts and narration texts which have respectively different result of lexical density. The lexical density of procedure texts are 5.90, 5.08, 5.5, and 4.69, report texts are 5.92, 4.22, 4.06, and 3.64 and narration texts are 2.92 and 2.90. The score showed that the lexical density of eleven reading texts on English in Focus textbook for ninth grade of junior high school is categorized medium based on the Halliday’s theory. It means that the texts are not difficult, easy to understand and suitable for ninth grade students of junior high school.

2.

The highest lexical density among eleven reading texts that written in

three genres (procedure, report, and narration) are found in reading texts 4 of report text entitled “The Chinese Influence in Indonesian Visual Art” (5.92) because of the higher number of lexical items, few clauses and more vocabularies of words in the text and the text is categorized medium to comprehend based on Halliday’s theory.

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writing in which to write a report text needs general definition and classification of each subject that intend to write and needs more lexical items in giving an explanation about a general subject.

B. Suggestions

Based on the conclusion to the findings pointed above, the following suggestions are needed to be considered in conducting the related research.

1. For English teachers, they can apply the result of this study as feedback on their teaching activities to choose the appropriate learning sources and teaching materials to teach and explain the genre of text. It is to fulfill the aim, the ability level of the 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.

2. For the textbook authors, they can use this study to present the next texbook with balance composition between lexical items and grammatical items of lexical density in order the students can understand about the reading texts.

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