JOLLT Journal of Languages and Language Teaching http://ojs.ikipmataram.ac.id/index.php/jollt/index Email: jollt@ikipmataram.ac.id DOI: https://doi.org/10.33394/jollt.v8i1.2239 January 2020. Vol.8 , No.1 p-ISSN: 2338-0810 e-ISSN: 2621-1378 pp.83-90 JOLLT Journal of Languages and Language Teaching, January 2020. Vol.8 , No.1 | 83 IDENTIFYING READING COMPREHENSION QUESTIONS OF NATIONAL EXAMINATION FOR SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS 1 Nurul Hayati Daeli, 1 Yenni Julia Ningsih Hutapea, 1 Fitri Dian Ningsih Gea, 1 Indah Lestari, 2 Erikson Saragih 1 English Language Education, Faculty of Teachers Training and Education, Prima Indonesia University, Indonesia 2 English Lecturer, Prima Indonesia University, Indonesia Corresponding email: yennijulianingsih14@gmail.com Article Info Abstract Article History Received: December 2019 Revised: December 2019 Published: January 2020 Reading is the complex cognitive process of decoding symbols to derive meaning. It is a form of language processing. Success in this process is measured as reading comprehension. The aim of the researcher is to identify the types of question reading comprehension of the national examination of the textbook. The form of this research is descriptive by analyzing the reading question in the Sonar Eksplorasi USBN/UNBK’s book 2019. Indicators data are grouped based on qualitative. To maintain the results of research carried out to collect data using descriptive qualitative. Then the data can be seen means out of reading comprehension questions into five types, namely question of literal comprehension, a question involving reorganization or reinterpretation, the question of inference, the question of evaluation and question of personal responses. The question of literal comprehension gets 5 data (5,05%). The next types are the question involving reorganization or reinterpretation it gets 6 data (6, 06%). The question of inference gets 5 data (5,05%). The question of evaluation gets 4 data (4, 04%). The last type is the question of personal responses which gets 10 (10, 10%). Data obtained through book evaluation text by looking at the form and level of questions. Based on this result, it can be concluded that the dominant type of used test is multiple-choice items in testing the reading comprehension. Keywords Reading comprehension; Reading questions types; National examination; How to cite: Daeli, N.H., Hutapea, Y.J.N., Gea, F.D.N., Lestari, I., & Saragih, E. (2020). Identifying reading comprehension questions of the national examination for senior high school students. JOLLT Journal of Languages and Language Teaching, 8(1) pp. 83-90 DOI: https://doi.org/10.33394/jollt.v8i1.2239 INTRODUCTION In Indonesia, the teaching of English either it is considered as a second or foreign language is closely tied to the teaching and learning of skills hold. They are listening, speaking, reading and writing. As one of the skills, reading is one of the aspects noted as a part of the significant ability in extending the readers’ viewpoints, giving them chance to comprehend the words (Lawrence et al., 2018; Vibulpatanavong & Evan, 2018). Reading ability can empower the readers to take control of their own information and further to elect their future. Another key thing to remember, in this research the writer only focuses on reading skills (Lawrence, et al., 2015; Haerazi & Irawan, 2020). Reading skill provides some crucial contribution to learning English. Reading is about understanding a written text (Kuperman & Van Dyke, 2013). It is a complex activity involves both perception and thought (Syafi, 2018). Reading consists of two related processes, word recognition and comprehension. Word recognition refers to the mailto:yennijulianingsih14@gmail.com Daeli, Hutapea, Gea, Lestari, & Saragih Identifying Reading Comprehension Questions… JOLLT Journal of Languages and Language Teaching, January 2020. Vol.8 , No.1 | 84 process of perceiving how a written symbol correspondent to one spoken language (Marzuki, 2019). One of the ways to comprehend the text is by answering comprehension activity. This activity is usually done by the teachers after they ask their students to read the text in the classroom. Brown (in Marzuki, 2019) stated that reading plays an important role in the everyday life of human beings. Reading is an everyday activity that inevitably needs. Sulistyo (2011, p. 20) states that one occasion, we read for information on the other hand for enjoyment. This implies that reading understanding place and importance in our daily lives. To read a teacher who care about the student’s competence to read information or knowledge through reading activities there is an urgent need for them to do it always find the right way to teaching their students and assessing them reading comprehension with greater attention because reading ability is important assets that a person must have on opportunity, moreover, in the digital age. Reading (critical) is believing; this is abundant window information accessed. The test is part of the assessment (Brown, 2004; Aprianoto & Haerazi, 2019). Brown continued (2004, p.4) states that tests are prepared at administrative procedures that occur at the time that can be identified in the current curriculum students must exert or their abilities to offering peak performance, knowing that their responses are being measured and evaluated. In this way, the learner is needed to show the optimal competencies obtained through tests at manifest language from behavior. To develop good tests, there are several criteria that need to be considered not only known but also fulfilled satisfactorily a test is a collection data collection instruments that must function truly if accurate information about students must be observed optimally to avoid the effect of gi-go garbage in the impact of rubbish out. Reading is an essential skill critical to most, if not all, academic learning and success at the tertiary level. Reading comprehension is the process by which a reader selects facts, information or ideas from printed materials: determines the meaning the author intended to transmit besides how they relate (Lail, 2019). To previous knowledge and judges, their appropriateness and worth to administer the learners' own needs and objectives. According to Haerazi, Prayati, and Vikasari (2019), to encourage meaningful understanding, students need to understand and remember texts by trying to infer, elaborate ideas, and discard unimportant details. It is also reinforced by Garner (1998) who states that the learning tasks engage cognitive processes that require learners to follow and respond to a message from a writer. Who is distant and space and time Davis (1995). Logically, active and thoughtful reading procedures. It should lead learners to critically analyze and think of the text, resulting in the reconstruction of knowledge (Haerazi, Vikasari, & Prayati, 2019). The National Examination is a test conducted by the government of Indonesia every year as a means of testing the ability of a student for the educational level of an Elementary School (SD), Senior High School (SMP), and Senior High School (SMA) to assess the quality of the students to continue their education a higher level. National Examination is used to measure the activity competency achievement of students in some specific subjects in the group of subjects in science and technology in order to assess the achievement of the National Education Standards. Ministry of National Education in Indonesia based on the Law of the Republic of Indonesia Number 20 of 2003 states that in order to control the quality of national education evaluation as a form of education accountability to the parties concerned. Further stated that the evaluation conducted by the independent institute periodically, thorough, transparent and systematic way to assess the achievement of national education standards and monitoring process evaluation should be done continuously. Evaluation of the monitoring is done regularly and continuously so that it will be able to fix the quality of education. Settling the Daeli, Hutapea, Gea, Lestari, & Saragih Identifying Reading Comprehension Questions… JOLLT Journal of Languages and Language Teaching, January 2020. Vol.8 , No.1 | 85 quality of education begins with the determination of the standard. The determination of educational standards is to determine the value of the limit (cut-off score). Rosenshine (1980) states that reading comprehension commonly entails seven skills namely recognizing the sequence, recognizing words in context, identify the main idea, decoding details, drawing inferences, recognizing cause and effect and comparing and contrasting. This composition of reading comprehension can be compared to products or outputs attained to reading activities which consist of reading along the lines, reading between the lines, and reading beyond the lines. Recognizing sequence and words in context, decoding details, and sometimes identify main ideas can be classified as activities of reading along the lines; drawing inferences and recognizing cause and effect are categorized as parts of reading between the lines while contrasting and comparing and giving an evaluation or personal judgment are activities of reading beyond the lines. A national examination is held every year. All teachers who teach national examination subjects will be very busy to prepare it, including English teachers they hope their students will get success and able to do the test well. One of the important things to do by the teachers is knowing the types of questions that will raise on the test, so it will be easy for them to teach the students what they should learn to pass the test. For analyzing, it will be related to the theory about the types of questions in a reading comprehension test. It takes the important factors in measuring the teaching-learning process, besides the educational curriculum. Regardless of the level of comprehension or the form of the question, teachers and materials developers need to make sure that the question is used to help students interact with the text. This can be done by making sure that students keep the text in front of them while answering questions of the text. They should always be able to refer to the reading passage, for we are interested in teaching reading comprehension, not memory skills (Day, 2005). Furthermore, (Gurus, 2013) picks out that they are 7 types of reading comprehension questions: Universal, Specific, Vocab in context, Function, Inference, Application, and tone. These types of reading comprehension questions are interesting and important to be studied because there are many uses to help students respond to a variety of types of comprehension test that are very crucial to get success in passing on their national examination test. RESEARCH METHOD Research Design The writer used the qualitative research and the design is the content analysis where the researcher would identify every test item form that appeared in the English National Examination’s book. The researcher would present the data as analysis results in the form of words. This research was conducted to describe and explain what are the types of reading comprehension questions of English National Examination for senior high school students in the year 2018-2019. The main data source of this study is in the book of English National Examination for senior high school published from 2018-2019. The analysis was focused on the English reading comprehension questions that were written in the multiple-choice form. In this study, the researcher applied the documentation techniques for collecting data. The documents include National Examination books published around 2018-2019. The types of reading comprehension which appears most. In this research, the type of reading questions that appears most in the English National Examination’s book is a literal question. Research Instruments The instrument of this study used a human instrument. The human instrument has the function to determine the research focus, chose the informant as the source of the data. It was adopted from Muhlisin and Widyanto (2019) who state that the instrument of choice in naturalistic inquiry is the human. The other forms of this instrument are used in later phases of the inquiry, but the human is the initial and continuing mainstay. The researchers as a human Daeli, Hutapea, Gea, Lestari, & Saragih Identifying Reading Comprehension Questions… JOLLT Journal of Languages and Language Teaching, January 2020. Vol.8 , No.1 | 86 instrument conducted some research activities based on prior knowledge and understanding of the data being collected. Besides, taking notes is the main activity in this study. Determining the targeted data was considered during the research process. The technique of Data Analysis The technique of the data analysis is to find out those parts of reading questions in the national examination book using Miles and Huberman's Model (Muhlisin & Widyanto, 2019). This model is necessary to choose the most suitable methods of data analysis to ensure that the data is treated thoroughly and the conclusions can be substantiated. Miles and Huberman (1994) developed a model of data analysis to help researchers by providing a visual reference as to how data can be tackled. The technique consists of four stages, namely collecting, reducing, displaying, and drawing a conclusion. Besides, the researchers used documentation techniques. This technique covers some activities; (1) the researcher looks for the data of English national examination for senior high school students from 2018-2019 by browsing from the internet; (2) the researcher collects the data by taking the English national examination for senior high school students in the year 2018-2019; (3) the researcher selects the items by taking only the reading comprehension question items test; (4) the researcher makes the list of data to classify the test item based on types of reading comprehension questions; (5) after analyzing the data of National Examination’ s reading comprehension text to comprehend, the researcher analyzes the data by using descriptive qualitative analysis. RESEARCH FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION Research Findings This study aims to identify the types of questions for reading comprehension on national examination on the English textbooks. There are some types of reading questions. This study found some of those reading questions. Table 1 presented the research findings of reading questions. Table 1. Types of Question for Reading Comprehension Types of Reading Questions Description Question of Literal Comprehension Question of Literal Comprehension is a question that refers to an understanding of the straight forward meaning of the text, such as facts, vocabulary, dates, times, and locations. These questions can be answered directly and explicitly from the text. Question involving Reorganization or Reinterpretation Question involving reorganization or reinterpretation is a question that requires the students’ ability to use information from various parts of the text and combine them for additional understanding. Question of Inference The question of inference is a question that can be called “ author and me question” because these questions require the reader to make inference based on material that is in the text but not explicitly stated and employ personal experience to find some reasonable answers to the question. These questions measure the students’ ability to go beyond the authors' explicit statements. The students have to carry statements made by the author one step beyond their literal meaning or recognize the opposite of a statement made by the author. Question of Evaluation The question of evaluation is a question that requires the reader to make a decision about the text. Question of Personal Response The question of personal responses requires readers to respond with their feeling. The answers are not found in the text. They come strictly and there is no personal responses are incorrect. Daeli, Hutapea, Gea, Lestari, & Saragih Identifying Reading Comprehension Questions… JOLLT Journal of Languages and Language Teaching, January 2020. Vol.8 , No.1 | 87 The types of Reading Comprehension which appear most. In this research, the type of reading questions that appears most in the English National Examination’ s book is a literal question. It can be seen in the previous data. All teachers would probably agree that the primary reason for reading text is to understand it. This statement has been proved by Smith (1967;185), who said that “reading without comprehension is not reading and it (reading) is the ability to recognize, to pronounce and to understand the printed symbols on a page.” Table 2. Types of reading comprehension No Types of reading questions Amount Percentage 1 Question of literal Comprehension 5 5,05% 2 Question Involving Reorganization Reinterpretation 6 6,06% 3 Question of Inference 5 5,05% 4 Question of Evaluation 4 4,04% 5 Question of personal responses 10 10,10% Total 30 30 Discussion Based on the research finding, the writer finds 30 data on the reading questions in the textbook. The identification of reading comprehension question of English National Examination for senior high school students of the year 2018-2019 reveals that there are 5 types of reading comprehension questions used in English National Examination, they are question of literal comprehension, question involving reorganization or reinterpretation, question of inference, question of evaluation, and question of personal response. This finding supports the theory by Nuttall (1982) who classifies reading comprehension questions into five types, namely question of literal comprehension, a question involving reorganization or reinterpretation, the question of inference, the question of evaluation and question of personal responses. The questions of literal comprehension are seen in the English textbook for English national examination. This type of reading question is considered as the basic reading comprehension for English learners. This question type was not only used for national examination but also applied in reading comprehension at high school level. It was in line with Rahman et al. (2018) who develop English materials for teaching high school students and provide some reading questions with literal comprehension. In addition, in the development of students’ vocabulary mastery, this type of question also is presented. Novita (2018) establishes her vocabulary test using literal comprehension equipping with reading texts. The second type of reading questions seen in the national examination is the reorganization or reinterpretation form. It refers to a literal understanding of the text. Students are asked to find information from various parts of the text and combine those for additional comprehension. This type of reading comprehension is familiar in any reading examination. It was reinforced by Haerazi and Irawan (2020) who develop the ECOLA technique for teaching reading skills. Reinterpretation activities in reading classrooms require students to think Daeli, Hutapea, Gea, Lestari, & Saragih Identifying Reading Comprehension Questions… JOLLT Journal of Languages and Language Teaching, January 2020. Vol.8 , No.1 | 88 critically and have good motivation to learn and read. This question type is required students to move from a sentence-by-sentence comprehension of the text to a more general view. Hairunisah (2017) states students can understand and reorganize an English text since they have good critical thinking skills. The next type of reading question that emerged in the National examination is the type of inference questions. This type is a common question in reading tests. Making inferences involves more than literal comprehension and understanding. Mostly, students are predicted that they have a difficult time answering inference questions because the answers refer to reading materials from the text but not explicitly stated. It was in keeping with Rohmah (2018) who assess her students in higher education by providing them with reading test using inference questions. In addition, the type of evaluation question in the reading test is also seen in the national examination for high school students. Evaluation type requires students to give general comprehensive judgment about some aspects of the text being read. Students are asked to give an evaluation of the text. This type is placed at the end of the reading questions. The last type of reading questions seen in the national examination course-books is a personal response. This requires students to respond with their feeling for a certain text and the subject. The answers are not met in the text. Students must relate to the text content and reflect a literal understanding of the reading materials. The personal response is seen in teaching reading skills since the students are demanded to perform their communicative skills. it was in accordance with Imran, Firman, and Raudhatunnisa (2019) who state students need to perform their reading skills through communicative skills. In this process, students are asked to perform orally their reading comprehension using personal responses. The question of literal comprehension gets 5 data (5, 05 %). The next type is the question involving reorganization or reinterpretation it gets 6 data (6, 06%). The question of inference gets 5 data (5, 05%). The question of evaluation gets 4 data (4, 04%). The last type is the question of personal responses which gets 10 (10, 10%). Based on the research above, the writer concludes that the identifications of reading comprehension question which appear the most are the question of personal responses, which answer can be found directly from the text. So, the question of personal responses is appropriate with the students’ level. CONCLUSION Reading is about understanding written text. It is a complex activity involves both perception and thought. Reading consists of two related processes, word recognition and comprehension. Word recognition refers to the process of perceiving how a written symbol correspondent to one spoken language. One of the ways to comprehend the text is by answering comprehension activity. This activity is usually done by the teachers after they ask their students to read the text in the classroom. A national examination is held every year. 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