READABILITY OF TEXTBOOK FOR THE EIGHTH
GRADE STUDENTS OF JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL
A THESIS
Submitted as Partial Fullfilment of the Requirement For the Degree of Sarjana Pendidikan
By:
RIZKI MANDASARI
Reg. Number: 2122121035
ENGLISH AND LITERATURE DEPARTMENT
FACULTY OF LANGUAGES AND ARTS
ABSTRACT
Mandasari, Rizki. Registration Number: 2122121035. Readability of Textbook for the Eighth Grade Students of Junior High School. A Thesis. English Educational Program, State University of Medan, 2016.
This research deals with the readability level of reading texts and the eighth grade students of junior high school. The objective of this research is to find out the readability level of reading texts in English for junior high school textbook. The researcher used qualitative method in which the researcher describes the readability level of reading texts in the textbook by using Gunning Fog Index Formula. The text that will be analyze are 16 reading texts which are consists of three genres, 4 descriptive texts, 4 recount texts, and 8 narrative texts. They are the whole reading texts in the English for junior high school textbook, published by Mediatama. Based on the analysis by using Gunning Fog Index Formula, from total number 16 reading texts, 12 reading texts are in the very easy level, 1 text is in the standard level, and 3 texts are in the difficult level. In average, the texts are in the very easy level with score 7.3. It’s found based on the Gunning’s theory. It is concluded that reading texts in English for junior high school textbook are not in the appropriate level for the eighth grade students of junior high school in SMP Negeri 3 Stabat.
ABSTRAK
Mandasari, Rizki. Nomor Induk Mahasiswa: 2122121035. Tingkat Keterbacaan Buku Teks untuk Siswa Kelas Delapan Sekolah Menengah Pertama. Skripsi. Program Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris, Universitas Negeri Medan, 2016.
Penelitian ini berhubungan dengan tingkat keterbacaan pada teks dan siswa kelas delapan sekolah menengah pertama. Tujuan dari penelitian ini adalah untuk mengetahui tingkat keterbacaan pada teks yang ada dibuku English for junior high school. Peneliti menggunakan metode kualitatif untuk menjelaskan tingkat keterbacaan pada teks yang ada dibuku dengan menggunakan Gunning Fog Index Formula. Teks yang akan dianalisis ada sebanyak 16 teks. Teks tersebut merupakan keseluruhan teks yang ada dibuku English for junior high school yang terdiri dari 4 descriptive teks, 4 recount teks, dan 8 narrative teks yang diterbitkan oleh Mediatama. Berdasarkan analisa dengan menggunakan Gunning Fog Index Formula, dari total 16 teks, 12 teks termasuk kedalam tingkat teks yang sangat mudah, 1 teks termasuk kedalam tingkat teks yang standart, dan 3 teks termasuk kedalam tingkat teks yang sulit. Dari total 16 teks, rata-rata dari teks termasuk kedalam tingkat teks yang sangat mudah dengan nilai 7.3. Hasil itu didapat berdasarkan teori Gunning. Jadi dapat disimpulkan bahwa teks yang ada dibuku English for junior high school berada ditingkat yang tidak sesuai untuk siswa kelas delapan sekolah menengah pertama di SMP Negeri 3 Stabat.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Praise and great gratitude submitted to the Almighty Allah SWT for blessing, health, chance, strength and inspiration given to the writer during the completion of this thesis entitled Readability of Textbook for the Eighth Grade Students of Junior High School. Shalawat and salam for the Prophet Muhammad who brings us from the darkness to the brightness. So, the writer is able to accomplish her thesis as a partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Sarjana Pendidikan at the English Department, Faculty of Languages and Arts (FBS) in State University of Medan (UNIMED).
The writer realizes that she cannot complete this thesis without the help of others. Many people have helped the writer during she writing this thesis and it would be impossible to mention all of them. The writer would like to express her sincere gratitude to:
Prof. Dr. Syawal Gultom, M.Pd, the Rector of State University of Medan.
Dr. Isda Pramuniati, M.Hum., the Dean Faculty of Languages and Arts. Prof. Dr. Hj. Sumarsih, M.Pd., the Head of English Department and
Nora Ronita Dewi, S. S., M. Hum., the Head of Education Program of English Department, also as her Thesis Reviewers.
Dr. Anni Holila Pulungan, M.Hum, the Thesis Advisor. Drs. Elia Masa Gintings, M.Hum, the Academic Advisor. Drs. Johan Sinulingga, M.Pd, the Thesis Reviewer.
Sisila Fitriany Damanik, S.S.,M.Hum., the Note taker dear during her face the seminar proposal and thesis examination.
All the Lecturers of English Department who have taught and guided the writer throughout the academic years that could not be mentioned one by one.
Alm. Jemingin and Sumiyah, her beloved parents who give her uncountable love, pray, motivation, material, lesson, and all the things that they ever gave that can make the writer understand and appreciate the meaning of struggle in life until she achieve her Degree of Sarjana Pendidikan.
Juliana her beloved sister and Suwahman, SE and Irwansyah Putra, her beloved brothers for their support, love, motivation and pray in finishing her thesis.
Rini Lestari her beloved best friend for unforgettable friendship and for the time, laugh, happiness, supports, togetherness, advise, ideas, and everything that they experienced together in achieving her Degree of Sarjana Pendidikan.
Muhammad Arif her beloved prince for support, ideas, and accompanying the writer when need help and share everything in achieving her Degree of Sarjana Pendidikan.
Eis Sri Wahyuni, M.Pd and Mr. Pantes, the administration staff of English Department, for her and his attention, assistance, and information. Headmaster, Vice Headmaster and English teachers in SMP Negeri 3
Stabat for time, chance, and cooperation.
All Students Class B of English Education 2012 who suddenly had interaction and helped the writer in accomplishing all requirements for graduation.
There are many people whose names are not mentioned above, the writer thanks to them for their support in finishing her study, and may Allah Swt bless you all. Finally, the writer expects this thesis can be useful, especially for the writer and generally for the readers.
Medan, September 2016 The Writer
Rizki Mandasari
TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER II.REVIEW OF LITERATURES ... 8
A. Theoretical Framework ... 8
1. Definition of Textbook ... 8
a. The Advantages of Textbook ... 10
b. The Disadvantages of Textbook... 11
c. Textbook Selection... 12
b. The Factors that Influence Readability ... 20
5. Readability Formulas ... 22
b. Types of Readability Formula ... 23
1. Flesch Reading Ease ... 23
2. Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level ... 24
3. Smog Test ... 24
4. Dale-Chall ... 25
5. Gunning Fog Index ... 25
c. Advantages and Disadvantages of Readability Formula ... 28
B. Relevant Studies ... 29
C. Conceptual Framework ... 32
CHAPTER III.RESEARCH METHODOLOGY ... 34
A. Research Design ... 34
B. Data and Source of Data ... 35
C. The Instrument of Collecting Data ... 35
D. The Procedure of Collecting Data ... 36
E. The Technique of Analyzing Data ... 37
CHAPTER IV.DATA AND DATA ANALYSIS ... 38
A. The Data ... 38
B. The Description of the Data ... 38
C. The Analysis of the Data ... 39
D. Research Findings ... 54
E. Discussion ... 56
CHAPTER V.CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION ... 60
A. Conclusion ... 60
B. Suggestion ... 61
REFERENCES ... 62
LIST OF TABLES
Pages
Table 2.1.Gunning Fog Index Grade-Score ... 27
Table 4.1.The Description of Word, Sentence, and Complex Word ... 39
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
A. The Background of the Study
Reading is one of the four skills in English, besides of speaking, writing,
and listening. Reading is one of the ways to get new knowledge and information.
By reading kind of text people can get new information by the text they read. So
people have to read as much as possible to broaden their horizon about knowledge
that they have not know before. Reading an English textbook can help students to
add their vocabulary when they learn English. Because when they are reading a
text they have to focus of the text and should be able to understand it.
Automatically, they get a new knowledge and information from the text. In this
case, reading is an important thing in daily life. Therefore, as student hoped can
read many English text in everywhere from any kind sources, it can help them to
learn English, because they have much vocabulary.
That is not easy to attract the students want to learn English, because they
lack of vocabulary, motivation, and background knowledge about English.
Moreover, asking them to read a long text, it will make them get bored, because
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are not interesting at all. In this case, students need more teachers’ attention to
help and guide them to learn English.
As we know that in teaching and learning process, student or teacher needs
something that really important to support teaching and learning process, it’s
called textbook. A textbook has important role in facilitating students in the
learning process and make them easier to get the material that given by the
teacher. Sometimes, students feel bored when the teacher asking them to
understand the text in textbook. So teachers have to careful in selecting English
textbook for their students.
A good English textbook is readable, understandable, and comprehensible.
The textbook which has those criteria will make the students interesting to learn
English. As we know, the content in the textbook sometime is not appropriate
with the level of the students. That thing is making them difficult in learning
English. Therefore, the teacher should be able to select a good English textbook
based on the competence and background knowledge of the students, although in
selecting appropriate textbook is hard to do by the teacher, because every students
has differences competence in read a text.
A good textbook should consist of readable reading texts. It shows that the
reading texts in that textbook have to go with the level of students. Readable
means that the reading texts are not too difficult and not too easy to understand.
Choosing readable textbook is really important to make the students learn
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Dubay (2007:3) explains readability is what makes some texts easier to
read than others. The criterion must be a measure of success that a large number
of readers would have with the text. Readability is dependent upon many
characteristics of a text and many characteristics of readers. Readability of a text
generally refers to how well a reader is able to comprehend the content of a text,
through reading. Readability is used to provide users with high quality service in
text recommendation or text visualization. The study on readability has begun in
the education field to measure the level of a text.
Similar with definition above, Handayani (2014) explains readability is a
term in the field of teaching reading that takes into account the level of difficulty
of the material that is appropriate to read. It means that in teaching and learning
process, the teacher should be give the appropriate material for the students,
especially texts that can be understood and comprehend by the students.
There are many formulas to measure the level of readability, such as fry
graph, cloze test procedure, gunning fog index, smog test, flesch reading ease,
flesch-kincaid grade level, and others. But here the researcher only focuses on one
of the formulas that is gunning fog index. Kunz and Peggy (2010) explain the
gunning fog index is a readability index designed to show how easy or difficult a
passage is to read. It gives the number of years of education an individual
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the readers. More than “8” the text is difficult to understand and less than “8” the
text is very easy to understand.
Based on preliminary observation to the English teacher and also the
students of SMP Negeri 3 Stabat on April 22th 2016, especially on eighth grade,
the researcher get some information when do the interview with the English
teacher and the students. For the first, the researcher asks the English teacher
about the reading text that include in the textbook they used that difficult or not
for the students. The English teacher said that sometime the students get
difficulties in reading the text, understanding the text, and also interpret the text, it
because the students very lack of vocabulary and also not interest to learn English.
So the teacher should give them more examples about what they do not know. For
the second, the researcher asks the same question to the students. They answered
that they not understand the meaning of the text that they read, because the text
consist of most of hard words. Even though, they always brought the dictionary,
but it still hard for them to interpret the meaning of the text without help from
their English teacher. So it make them not interest to read the English text
anymore and it’s make them missing their motivation to learn English also. For
instance, the researcher takes one of reading text from English for junior high
school textbook that they learn. The researcher chooses one text from narrative
text genre and calculates the reading text by using gunning fog index formula to
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Once upon a time, there was a boy called Piscine Molitor Patel who lived in Pondicherry, India. He decided to change his name to Pi. His father owned a zoo, and Pi loved to learn about all the animals and he spent all his free time with them. But the political situation in India became difficult, and when Pi was 16 they decided to sell the zoo and move to Canada. They took many of the animals on the boat with them to sell in Canada but somewhere in the Pacific they sank and Pi found himself to be the sole human survivor. He and a Bengal tiger, shared a life boat to reach the beach.
The texts above consist of 116 words, 6 sentences, and 7 complex words.
The writer find the result of the text above has the fog index is 10.1. Gunning
(1952) in his book explains that the ideal text has score 8. It means that the text
above difficult to understand. We need to underline that Indonesian students are
foreign learners; it shows that 10.1 is really difficult for students. Furthermore, it
can conclude that the text with score more than 8 will make the students difficult
to understand the text. While the text with score less than 8, it shows that the text
is really easy to understand.
Based on the preliminary observation the researcher says that it’s hard for
the students to get knowledge from the textbook. If the textbook they used is not
appropriate for them. Selecting a good textbook is really important. So the
students do not get difficulties in reading an English text, because every text that
include in the textbook is appropriate for their competence. Because of it, the
students will be attracted in learning English.
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Tingkat Satuan Pendidikan (KTSP)). The researcher chose the eighth grade
students of SMPN 3 Stabat.
B. The Problem of the Study
The problem of the Study is formulated in the form of a question as states
“How is the readability level of reading texts in English for junior high school
textbook for the eighth grade students of SMPN 3 Stabat?”
C. The Objective of the Study
The objective of the study is to find out the empirical evidence of
readability level of reading text in the English for junior high school textbook
whether is difficult or not for the eighth grade students of SMPN 3 Stabat.
D. The Scope of the Study
In this research, the researcher focuses the subject matter in analyzing the
readability level of the selected reading texts in the English for junior high school
textbook which is used for the eighth grade students of SMPN 3 Stabat by using
Gunning Fog Index formula. There are sixteen reading texts in the English for
junior high school textbook; the researcher will analyzes them by using Gunning
Fog Index formula to know the readability level of the reading text in that
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E. The Significances of the Study
In conducting this research, the researcher hopes that this research has
benefit theoretically and practically to the readers.
1. Theoretically
Theoretically, the result of this research is able to enrich the theory about
readability and the theory is able to use for the readers.
2. Practically
Practically, the school can be more selective in providing the textbook for
the student. Because it’s very influence for the students’ motivation in learning
English and it will be contribute also for the English teacher in selecting textbook
and knowing whether the reading text in the textbook is readable, understandable,
and comprehensible or not for the student. The students can be motivated to learn
English and improve their reading skill. This result will be expected to the
publisher to give more information in evaluating their textbook and provide
another better textbook in the future. The other writers can use this research as the
CHAPTER V
CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION
A. Conclusion
The objective of this study is to find out the readability level of the English
for junior high school textbook published by Mediatama whether it is readable or
not. The researcher analyzes the reading text by using gunning fog index formula.
After analyzing and interpreting the data, the researcher found 12 texts classified
into very easy level. Those are Season in Indonesia, The Four Seasons, Young
People Need to Know the True Meaning of Friendship, Unlucky Sunday,
Surprising Monday, The Legend of Lake Toba, Taj Mahal, Food Allergies, and
Fred is a Mechanic, Tangkuban Perahu, Ta-In and Ta-Na, and Bunaken. On the
other hand, there is only one text classified into standard level entitled Prambanan
Temple. Then, there are three texts classified into difficult level. Those texts are
Joy Tobing’s First Prize, Piscine Molitor Patel, and Birthday Tradition around the
World. So, the average score from total number of 16 reading texts is 7.3. It’s
mean the textbook that used by the eighth grade students is not readable for their
grade.
Appropriate text not only focuses on the difficulty of a text, but also to
find out the text is very easy to understand also. Such as this research, the
majority of the texts are very easy to understand. As we know that very easy text
for students will make their knowledge in English is undeveloped. Furthermore,
there is only one text that classified into standard. The title of the text is
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eighth grade students of junior school. Textbook with inappropriate reading texts
will make the students hard to understand and interpret the meaning of the text, so
their knowledge undeveloped also.
Based on the explanation above, most of texts are predicted inappropriate
for eighth grade students. Only one text that appropriate for them, so appropriate
texts based on their level are recommended and school need to provide another
appropriate textbook.
B. Suggestion
From the discussion above, the researcher would like to offer some
suggestions as follows:
1. To the English Teachers
The English teachers should be able to analyze the reading texts before
select the textbook for their students. Analyzing the readability level of reading
texts is much needed, because not all the reading texts that provide by the
publisher in the textbook are appropriate with the students’ level.
2. To the Authors
The authors should be more pay attention to the readability level of the
reading texts in the textbook that they published for the students. The reading
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