CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION This Chapter Presents About The
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CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION This chapter presents about the background of the research problem, identification of problem, the main problem, limitation of the problem, question of the research, aim of the research, significance of the research, previous researches, framework of thinking, theoritical foundation, and the methodology of research. 1.1 Background of The Research Problem English is universal language. It is used by most people around the world. People use English to help themselves in collecting informations such as science, technology and art. As an international language, English gives benefits to people who learn it. We can communicate with other people in other countries. English represents most languages used by most people. English is the first foreign language taught in schools in Indonesia. It is one of principal subjects taught in Elementary, Junior and Senior High Schools up to University level. There are four skills in English: Speaking, Listening, Writing and Reading. These are important, but in implementation, Reading seems more needed by students. It is because most of informations can be collected through Reading. In learning process, many reading sources that can be used, such as magazine, newspaper, novel etc. But in classroom textbook is a priority. Textbook consists of informations and knowledges. It provides structural materials. These are the main source that teacher need to deliver to students. It is something like guide in teaching-learning process in classroom. According to Dana Ferris and John S. Hedgcock (2005), “A textbook provides teachers and learners with reading material, activities, exercises, and sometimes visual aids.” It means these can save the teacher valuable time in locating and adapting authentic materials. Teachers should select the textbook with appropriate reading materials for their learners’ level. The readable material in English textbook is important to be considered by the 1 2 teachers since it is expected to enhance students’ ability in understanding the materials. If the students face some difficulties to read the material, the comprehension will be obstructed (Furcler, 1997). As a result, the learning process in English language classroom will not run properly. 1.2 Identification of Problem There are many kinds of English textbooks which are offered by publishers to various levels of students in the schools. A good English textbook is readable, understandable and comprehensible for students. The text is easy to be read and understood by the students so that it will encourage them to learn English. If they have difficulty to understand the textbook, they usually get bored and it made them frustrated in learning English. Unfortunately, not all content of textbook is appropriate with the level of the students’ ability. Consequently, a teacher has to select a textbook which is appropriate to the whole students in the class according to their competence level and the different background of knowledge. Besides, the teacher has to consider whether or not the materials in the textbook are appropriate with the syllabus and curriculum. A good English textbook is readable, understandable, and comprehensible for students. Good textbooks often contain lively and interesting material; they provide a sensible progression of language items, clearly showing what has to be learnt and in some cases summarizing what has been studied so that student can revise grammatical and functional points that they have been concentrating on. Textbooks can be systematic about the amount of vocabulary presented to the student and allow the student to study on his own outside the class. It motivates them to learn English. If they have difficulty to understand the textbook, they usually get bored and it makes them frustrated in learning English. English textbook selection aims to choose the appropriate textbook to be used in the classroom based on their educational level. One way to know 3 whether an English textbook is appropriate for the students is readability analysis. It is used to analyze the readability of text in a textbook. Readability test, is the tool for analyzing, is needed to know whether English text provided in English textbook is difficult, plain or easy for students. One technique to evaluate the appropriateness of the textbook is by analyzing the readability level of the reading texts in that book. The readability itself refers to the difficulty level of the reading texts according to the level of the students’ educational background. The analyzing of the readability level of the reading texts can help the teacher to predict whether the text is difficult, plain, or easy for the students. 1.3 The Main Problem The factors that affect readability have been established by previous research. Many different factors influence readability for example, content of the texts, vocabulary and style of writing. The concept of readable or not, is not as important as the concept of who can read this? Since texts often are produced for a specific target group. The term readability level is often used to describe the educational level a reader needs to understand a text. Related to this case, there is a textbook by title Bahasa Inggris that published by Indonesia Education and Cultur Ministry in 2014. The contents of the book is interesting. This book concists of five units, each unit consists of one reading material. There are many uniques words are contained in every reading text. This book under the guidance of National Curriculum Standards in Indonesia. The researcher is interested to analyze this book. In this research, the researcher analyzed only the readibility level of reading material in Bahasa Inggris textbook by Mahrukh Bashir for the grade XI students of senior high school in the first semester by using some readibility test applications. Base on those explanations above, the researcher conducted this research by title The Readibility of “Bahasa Inggris” Textbook for The Grade XI Students. 4 1.4 Limitation of The problem This research only focus on analyzing the content of reading materials Bahasa Inggris textbook for the grade XI students of Senior High School in first semester by using 5 readibility test applications: Flesch Kincaid, Gunning Fog Score, Coleman Liau Index, SMOG Index, and Fry Graph. There are 5 reading texts in Bahasa Inggris textbook that are analyzed by researcher. The researcher identified the implication of the result of comparison of those 5 readibility test applications ( Flesch Kincaid, Gunning Fog Score, Coleman Liau Index, SMOG Index, and Fry Graph). The researcher limitated this research because of the limited time in doing this research. 1.5 Question of The Research Based on the problem in background above, the researcher made the formulation from the problem, that are: 1) How is the level of readability in the reading material of Bahasa Inggris textbook for the grade XI students of Senior High School in first semester using five readibility test applications? 2) What is the implication of the comparison results of the five readibility test applications? 1.6 Aim of The Research Based on the research questions above, the researcher made the aims of the research: 1) To find out the level of readibility in the reading material of Bahasa Inggris textbook for the grade XI students of Senior High School in first semester by using five readibility test applications. 2) To find out the implication of the comparison results of the five readibility test applications. 1.7 Significance of The Research 5 The researcher hopes this research will be useful for: 1.7.1 Students The students can improve their motivation to read, because the teachers have already known about how to choose interesting textbook for teaching-learning process. 1.7.2 Teachers The teachers can improve they knowledge in selecting appropriate reading materials for students in order the students can gain their motivation to read. 1.7.3 Other Researchers This research also hopefully will be useful as a reference for other researchers who are interested in developing similar research. 1.8 Previous Researches The similar researches were conducted previously. As was written by Siti Solichatun (2014), Rusda Ayu (2014), Anis Muslikhati (2016), Indah Nuraini (2014), Deni Ernawati (2013), and Rahmawati (2012). Those researches as follow: Firstly, Solichatun (201 4) was conducted a research by title “An Analysis of Reading Materials in English on Sky Texbook for Junior High School.” The objective of her research was to find out the genre of the reading materials found in English on Sky, and then the researcher analyze the lexical density in each text. She used qualitative research. The results of this research indicated that the genre of text showed in the book is three types. It consists of narrative, procedure, report text and these genres fulfilled the KTSP english syllabus requirement. Secondly, Rusda Ayu (2014) was conducted a research about analysis of reading materials in English Alive textbook in the second grade of Senior High School. The objective of this research was to find out the corelation between reading materials in the book with the school based curriculum. The results of this research indicated that the reading materials in the book is 6 appropriate with the reading indicators and have already developed in accordance with the requirements specified in School-Based Curriculum (KTSP). Anis Muslikhati (2016) conducted a research by title “Analysis of Reading Materials Bahasa Inggris By Utami Widiati Textbook for The First Grade of Senior High School in The First Semester.” The objective of this research was to find out the level of readibility in reading materials, the level of comprehension in each question in reading material and the level of lexical density of reading materials in Bahasa Inggris textbook for the first grade students of senior high school in the first semester. The results of this research indicated that there were five readibility categories of reading ease.