International Journal of English Language and Teaching https://online-journal.unja.ac.id/index.php/IJoLTE 50 Volume 1 Issue 1, September 2017 The Analysis of the Readability Levels of The Reading Texts in Textbook Entitled “Fast Tract to English” for the Third Year Students of SMA Based on Raygor Readability Estimate Yeli Nurhamsih yeli.nurhamsih@yahoo.co.id Bengkulu University ABSTRACT The objectives of this research are to know the readability levels of the reading texts in the textbook and want to know whether or not the reading texts are suitable linguistically for the third year students of SMA. The method used in writing this research was the descriptive method. There were the 38 reading texts analyzed which were taken from an English textbook entitled “Fast Tract to English”. The data were collected through the documentation technique. Those reading texts were analyzed by using Raygor Readability Estimate. There are five findings in this research. First, on the whole, the readability of the textbook is 11. It means the textbook is not suitable lingustically for the third year students of SMA because in general, the students have been studying English for nine years. Second, the writer found four reading texts that their readability levels are under Level 9. Based on Raygor Readability Estimate (RRE), those reading texts are not suitable linguistically for the third year students of SMA because they are predicted as too easy texts for them. Conversely, those reading texts can be linguistically suitable for those who have been studying English since first year of Junior High School or for less than 9 years. Third, there are seven reading texts that are considered as readable texts. The readability level of those reading texts is 9. Based on RRE, those texts are suitable linguistically for the third year students of SMA because level 9 is predicted as suitable readability level for them. However, those texts cannot be suitable linguistically for them if they have been studying English for under or over nine years. Fourth, most of the readability levels of the reading texts in the textbook are over Level 9 namely twenty-six reading texts. Based on (RRE), those reading texts are not linguistically suitable for the students who have been studying English since they were in fourth grade of Elementary school. Those reading texts can be suitable linguistically for those who have been studying English formally for over nine years. Fifth, among 38 reading texts, there is only one reading text that its readability level is in Invalid Level. This text is considered as not readable text. It means, this text cannot be read and learnt. It is predicted, the students might have difficulties in understanding this reading text. The reading text entitled “Non-Aligned Movement”. Keywords: Readability Levels, Reading Texts, Textbook. mailto:yeli.nurhamsih@yahoo.co.id International Journal of English Language and Teaching https://online-journal.unja.ac.id/index.php/IJoLTE 51 Volume 1 Issue 1, September 2017 INTRODUCTION Reading is one of the four language skills which is always taught by teachers of English to their students in the class. It is an important language skill taught because it gives the understanding of the main and supporting ideas of the written language. By reading, the students can also enrich their vocabulary. Saleh (in Rohani, 2002:12) states reading is the understanding of the main and supporting ideas of written languange. In teaching and learning process, beside teaching method, teachers also have to use the instructional media. Heinich (in Gunawan, 2003:3) says that the term media refer to anything that carries information between a source and receiver. English textbook is one of media as printed materials. It is common medium which is used by teachers to teach their students. Actually teachers of English are sometimes still confused to decide which book should be used as material sources in teaching and learning process beacuse there are so many English textbooks which are published by publishers. Because of this, most of teachers of English may choose one or two textbooks just based on their intuition. They think intuitively that the textbook used is suitable for their students without concious reasoning or study. They may sometimes choose a certain English textbook to get profit. They will get profit from the publishers by selling the textbook to their students. So, this case will occur the problem to their students . the problems may be occured when the English textbook is not suitable for them. Perhaps, they are too complicated or too easy for the students. Consequently, the textbook is not readable enough and hard to understand or boring for them. The students may not to be able to understand the reading texts so they cannot find what the main ideas are. Therefore, the teachers need to analyse the English textbook first, before they decide to use those as media in teaching and learning processes. The writer determines the purposes of this research are as follows: 1) To know how the readability levels of the reading texts are in textbook entitled “Fast Track to English” for the third year students of SMA published by Ganeca Exact 2) To know whether or not the reading texts are suitable linguistically for the third year students of SMA LITERATURE REVIEW Sheldon (1987:1) states that the English textbook may be closely defined as a published book, most often produced for commercial gain, whose explicit aim is to assist foreign learners of English in improving their linguitic knowledge and for communicative ability. Grant (1987:7) states whatever the textbooks are, they should be able to do five point listed below: 1) Identifying what should be taught/learnt, and the order in which it should be taught/learned; 2) Indicating what methods should be used; 3) Providing neatly, attractively, and economically, all or most of material needed 4) Saving the teacher an extraordinary amount of time; 5) Acting as a very useful learning-aid for the students According to Grant (1987:12-14), there are two kinds of textbooks; they are traditional textbooks and communicative textbooks. Traditional textbooks focus on students to learn the language as a system. While, communicative textbooks try to International Journal of English Language and Teaching https://online-journal.unja.ac.id/index.php/IJoLTE 52 Volume 1 Issue 1, September 2017 give opportunities to the students to use the language in the classroom before using it in real life. Readability is one of the most important aspects that should be considered in selecting s good passage for students (Hil Walter, 1979). Barbara Woods (1989) also defined that the readability was investigated to measure the writing complexity and to estimate the reading or education level for comprehension of the text. Richard R.Day also mentions five factors that influence readability namely lexical knowledge, background knowledge, organization, discourse phenomena, and length of passage. Procedures used for measuring readability are known as “readability formulas” readability formulas are mathematically derived indices of text difficulty based on analysis of language variables (Readence, et all 1985:41). Readability formulas are predictive technique. They are used to make judgement about instructional materials. These judgement are global, to be sure and are not intended to be precise indicators of text difficulty. Vacca and Vacca (1986:47) write that a readability formula can best be described as „a rubber ruler‟ because this score that it yield are estimates of the text difficulty not absolute level., these estimates are often determined a long a single dimension of a author‟s wrting style : sentence complecity (as measured by length) and vocabularies difficulty (also measured by length) these to variable are used to predict difficulty of reading materials. To make judgements about instructional materials, the teacher can use a readability formula. Linguistically, Magdad (1996) states that there are at least five readability formulas that can be used to measure the readability level of English textbooks. They are (a) Fry Readability Estimate, (b) SMOG Grading, (c) Lix Formula, (d) Fox Index, and (e) Raygor Readability Estimate. There are some reasons why the writer applies Raygor Readability Estimate as an instrument to analyze the English textbook entitled “Fast Tract to English” for the third year students of SMA. The writer has reasons as follows: 1) Simple to use and reliable 2) Not measured by counting syllables but counting the number of words with six or more letters. 3) Needing shorter time to count the score METHODOLOGY Method is a way of doing something (Hornby, 1995). In doing this research , the writer applied a descriptive method. Isaac and Michael (1981) describe that the objetive of a descriptive method is to describe systematically a situation or area of interest factually and accurately. The steps taken in doing the research are as follows: 1) Choosing the textbook applied in curriculum 13 published by Kementrian Pendidikan dan Kebudayaan in 2015. I choose the textbook for the twelfth class. 2) Analyzing reading texts found in the textbook that consisting of 100 words or more. 3) Applying the Raygor Readability Estimate to know the readability levels of the reading texts. 4) Testing the reading texts randomly analyzed by using cloze procedure text to the students of twelfth class of SMKN 1 Ujan Mas 5) Reporting the result. Technique for Collecting the Data International Journal of English Language and Teaching https://online-journal.unja.ac.id/index.php/IJoLTE 53 Volume 1 Issue 1, September 2017 The technique used in collecting the data was documentation one. The data were collected by choosing a reading text which containing more than 100 words in every chapter of the textbook investigated. Technique for Analyzing the data Technique used in analyzing the data obtained was Raygor Readability Estimate. Raygor Readability Estimate is a readability formula specifically for middle/secondary level text material which simple to use and reliable and measured by counting long words (six letters or more): There are some directions for the Raygor Readability Estimate as follows: 1) Counting out a 100-word passage at every chapter of a textbook; counting proper nouns but not numbers 2) Counting the number of sentences in each 100-word passage, estimating to the nearest tenth to partial sentences. 3) Counting the number of words with six or more letters 4) Averaging the sentence lenth and word length measures over all samples and plot the avarage on the graph. The grade level nearest the spot marked is the best estimate of the difficulty of the selection. (Readence, Bean, and Baldwin, 1985:42) Figure 1. Raygor Readability Estimate FINDINGS According to the data analyzed, the writer found some results from the reading texts in textbook entitled , “Fast Tract to English” for the third year students of SMA. They are (1) the number of long words with five letters or more for each reading text and its average number, (2) the number of sentences in each 100-word passage and its average number, and (3) the readability level of each reading text and its average readability level. First, dealing with the number of long words, the reading text entitled “Conglomerate” and “Students Exchange” get the highest number of long words with 44 long words. In contrast, the lowest one is the reading text entitled “Money and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Raygor.png International Journal of English Language and Teaching https://online-journal.unja.ac.id/index.php/IJoLTE 54 Volume 1 Issue 1, September 2017 Bank” with only 18 long words in 100-word passage. But, the average number of long words is 36. Second, dealing with the number of sentences, there are two reading texts, that have the most sentences, which are entitled “Money and Bank” and “Natural Conservation”. The number of sentences of them is 9.6. Conversely, the text with the lowest number of sentences is the one entitled “Non-aligned Movement” with only 2.5 sentences. Yet the average number of sentences is 6.9. Third, there are five reading texts which get the highest readability levels. Their readability levels are in professional (Prof) level. The lowest one is in Level 3. The title of the reading text that has the level is “Money and Bank”. While the average readability level is 11. However, there is one reading text that its readability level is in Invalid Level. After plotting their number of long words and sentence length on the Raygor Readability graph, the writer found the distribution of their readability levels as follows: 1) Level three : 1 reading text 2) Level six : 1 reading text 3) Level seven : 1 reading text 4) Level eight : 1 reading text 5) Level nine : 7 reading texts 6) Level ten : 2 reading texts 7) Level eleven : 7 reading texts 8) Level twelve : 9 reading texts 9) Level college : 3 reading texts 10) Level professional : 5 reading texts 11) Level Invalid : 1 reading text The writer presented the table below to show clearly the results of this research. Table. 1. The Readability Levels of The Reading Texts NO Text Titles of the Reading Texts Number of Long Words Number of Sentences Readability Levels 1 Stock Exchange 36 7.3 11 2 Trade and Commerce 37 6.6 12 3 Money and Bank 18 9.6 3 4 Small-scale Industries 39 7.6 12 5 Electronics 40 8.1 12 6 The Influence of science and Technology 34 8.3 9 7 Research 29 6.6 8 8 Air Transportation 38 7.8 11 9 Medical Technology 41 5.2 Prof 10 Investors and Discoverers in Science and Technology 36 8.6 10 11 Countries 36 5.6 12 International Journal of English Language and Teaching https://online-journal.unja.ac.id/index.php/IJoLTE 55 Volume 1 Issue 1, September 2017 12 Political Parties 34 5.6 11 13 Right and Responsibilities 33 8.3 9 14 Custom and Way of Life 29 5.1 9 15 Ethnic groups and Religions in Indonesia 34 8.3 9 16 Local Art 28 7 7 17 Handicrafts 36 7.5 11 18 Decorative Art 38 6.5 12 19 Dramatic Writing 42 6.3 Prof 20 Wood Carving 39 6.8 12 21 Cooperation 40 8.9 12 22 Urbanization 31 5.9 9 23 Natural Conservation 43 9.6 College 24 Wildlife Sanctuary 38 8 11 25 Department Store 31 6.1 9 26 Chemical Industry 41 6.1 College 27 Adoption System in Industries 35 6.3 11 28 Conglomerate 44 8 Prof 29 Students Exchange 44 6.3 Prof 30 The UNESCO 42 6.5 Prof 31 NON-Aligned Movement 39 2.5 Invalid 32 Geothermal Energy 41 5.8 College 33 Coal 36 5.6 12 34 Wind and Solar Energy 34 8.2 9 35 Money 34 6.4 10 36 Savings 19 6.1 6 37 Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo 37 7.3 11 38 Women Entrepreneurs 38 6.9 12 Total Number 1365 263.2 The Average Number 36 6.9 11 DISCUSSION Based on the results above, the writer would like to interpret the readability levels of the reading texts that are divided into four parts. They are (1) the reading texts with under level 9, (2) the reading texts with level 9, (3) the reading texts with over level 9, and (4) the reading texts with invalid level (1) The Reading Texts with Under Level Nine (9) Based on the writer‟s findings, there are only four reading texts that are in the readability levels under level 9. In connection with Raygor Readability Estimate (RRE) those reading texts are not suitable linguistically for the third year students of SMA. Those texts are predicted too easy linguistically for them because based on RRE, the readability level which is considered as suitable one for the third year students of SMA is Level 9. It could be stated since in general, the students have been studying English formally since the fourth grade of elementary school. It means they have been studying English at least for nine years. However, if the students have been studying English formally since first year of junior high school, those texts might be considered as readable texts or suitable linguistically for them. International Journal of English Language and Teaching https://online-journal.unja.ac.id/index.php/IJoLTE 56 Volume 1 Issue 1, September 2017 (2) The Reading Texts with Level Nine (9) Based on the writer‟s findings, there are only seven reading texts whose readability levels is 9, as explained above that suitable readability level for the third year students of SMA is 9 because actually most of students have been studying English since the fourth grade of elementary school. It can be concluded that those seven reading texts are suitable linguitically for the third year students of SMA. They are considered as readable texts linguistically. On the other hand, those text could not suitable linguitically for the third year students of SMA if the students have been studying English since first year of junior high school, those texts would be rather difficult for them. (3) The reading texts with Level Nine (9) Based on the writer‟s findings, most of reading texts in textbook entitled “Fast Tract to English” for the third year students of SMA have readability levels higher than level 9. The writer found twenty-six reading texts which are higher than level 9. Based on Raygor Readability Estimate, those texts are predicted as difficult texts. They are not suitable linguistically for the third year students of SMA. The students might get difficulties in understanding those texts because they have been studying English for nine years. Conversely, those texts would be suitable linguistically for the third year students of SMA if they have been studying English formally since first grade of elementary school or over nine years. (4) The reading text with invalid level. Based on the writer‟s findings, among 38 reading texts analysed, the writer found only one reading text which is in Invalid Level. Based on Raygor Readability Estimate, this reading text is considered as not readable text. The students might get difficulties in understanding this text. The level 9 means the students have been studying English for nine years. In this case, the level 9 refers to the third year students of SMA because in general, they have been studying English since the fourth year of Elementary School and it is regarded as suitable readability level for them. However the level 9 in America is quite different from level 9 in Indonesian students because certainly the time of American students learns English more than the time of Indonesian students. While the term linguistically tends to syntax especially in sentence length and long words. This formula assumes the long sentence and long words more difficult than short one to understand. CONCLUSIONS This research found five findings. First, on the whole, the readability of the textbook is 11. It means the textbook is not suitable lingustically for the third year students of SMA because in general, the students have been studying English for nine years. Second, the writer found four reading texts that their readability levels are under Level 9.. Third, there are seven reading texts that are considered as readable texts. The readability level of those reading texts is 9. Fourth, most of the readability levels of the reading texts in the textbook are over Level 9 namely twenty-six reading texts. Based on (RRE), those reading texts are not linguistically suitable for the students who have been studying English since they were in fourth grade of Elementary school. Fifth, among 38 reading texts, there is only one reading text that its readability level is in Invalid Level. 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