Lexical Density and Readability of the Facil’s ‘Advanced Learning Textbook’ for Indonesian High School Students

Dita Rizkiani; Sutiono Mahdi; Eva Tuckyta Sari Sujatna

doi:10.35445/alishlah.v14i1.1157

Lexical Density and Readability of the Facil’s ‘Advanced Learning Textbook’ for Indonesian High School Students

Dita Rizkiani, Sutiono Mahdi, Eva Tuckyta Sari Sujatna

Abstract

This article discusses the lexical density and readability levels in Facil's 'Advanced Learning English textbook for high school students in grade XI. The documents of this study were 11 reading texts selected from each chapter in the 'Advanced Learning English 2' textbook. This study's objectives are to (1) determine the average lexical density of selected reading passages from English textbooks and (2) determine the next level of this book and whether it is appropriate for high school students class XI. Grounded on Ure’s (1971) text analysis, the researchers analyzed the lexical density of the reading text. Meanwhile, to determine readability level, Flesch’s (1994) reading ease scale formula was utilized. After carefully analyzing the data, it was discovered that almost all texts had a high lexical density. The average reading text in this book has a higher lexical density level than 40%. Additionally, eleven reading texts are classified into five levels based on the Flesch reading ease formula's results: easy for one text, fairly easy for three texts, and difficult for four texts. For two texts, the difficulty level is standard; for three texts, the difficulty level is fairly difficult; and for two, the difficulty level is difficult. Therefore, reading texts in this book is considered appropriate for high school students’ learning process because each text has a different and gradual difficulty level.

Keywords

Lexical Density, Readability, Textbook

Full Text:

PDF

References

Abbasian, G. R., & Afrazi, S. (2018). Lexical density and readability of the prospect series: An across-textbooks investigation. Applied Linguistics.

Andersson L.G., Form and Function of Subordinate Clauses, 1975, Oxford, England:Blackwell.

Arias, I. J. (2007). Selecting reading materials wisely. Letras, (41), 131-151.

Ayu, M., & Indrawati, R. (2019). EFL textbook evaluation: The analysis of tasks presented in English textbook. Teknosastik, 16(1), 21-25.

Bahrami, N. (2015). Evaluating the Representation of Cultural Elements in an In-Use EFL Textbook. Advances in Language and Literary Studies, 6(3), 128-137.

Brown, H. M., Oram-Cardy, J., & Johnson, A. (2013). A meta-analysis of the reading comprehension skills of individuals on the autism spectrum. Journal of autism and developmental disorders, 43(4), 932-955.

Chambliss, M., & Calfee, R. (1998). Textbooks for learning: Nurturing children's minds. Blackwell Publishing.

Chaudron, C (2003) Data Collection in SLAResearch.InC.Doughty&M.long(Eds.),The handbook of second language acquisition(pp.762-858).Oxford,England;Blackwell.

Dubay, W. H. (2006). The Classic Readability Studies. The Classic Readability Studies.

Elliott, D., & Woodward, A. (1990). Textbooks, curriculum, and school improvement. Teachers College Record, 91(5), 222-232.

Flesch, R. (1948). A new readability yardstick. Journal of applied psychology, 32(3), 221.

Flesch, R. (1950). The Art of Readable Writing. Stanford Law Review, 2(3). https://doi.org/10.2307/1225957

Gak, D. M. (2011). Textbook-An important element in the teaching process. Hatchaba Journal, 19(2), 78-82.

Halliday, M.A.K. 1985: Spoken and written language . Melbourne: Deakin University Press.

Halliday, M. A. K. (2002). Halliday’s Introduction to Functional Grammar. In Materials Science (Vol. 38, Issue 3).

Halliday, M. A. K., & Matthiessen, C. M. I. M. (2013). Halliday’s introduction to functional grammar: Fourth edition. In Halliday’s Introduction to Functional Grammar: Fourth Edition. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203431269

Johansson, V. (2008). Lexical diversity and lexical density in speech and writing: A developmental perspective. Working papers/Lund University, Department of Linguistics and Phonetics, 53, 61-79.

Lare, D. (1993). Selecting Appropriate Reading Materials. Schools in the Middle, 3(2), 33-38.

Moffet, J. B. (1982). Student interest and pertinence of content in selecting reading materials. Reading Improvement, 19(4), 310.

O’loughlin, K. (1995). Lexical density in candidate output on direct and semi-direct versions of an oral proficiency test. Language Testing, 12(2). https://doi.org/10.1177/026553229501200205

Peraturan Menteri Pendidikan dan Kebudayaan Republik Indonesia. (n.d.). PERMENDIKBUD Republik Indonesia Nomor 59 Tahun 2014 tentang Kurikulum 2013 Sekolah Menengah Atas/ Madrasah Aliyah. Retrieved May 20, 2021, from https://simpuh.kemenag.go.id/regulasi/permendikbud_59_14.pdf

Pikulski, John J. (2002). Readability. University of Delaware: Mifflin Company.

Rapley, T., & Rees, G. (2018). Collecting documents as data. The SAGE handbook of qualitative data collection, 378-391.

Rezaei Ghahroudi, M., & Sheikhzadeh, E. (2017). Selecting reading texts for university Iranian EFL students. Journal of Advances in English Language Teaching, 5(3), pp-25.

Richards, J. C. (2001). Curriculum Development in Language Teaching. In Curriculum Development in Language Teaching. https://doi.org/10.1017/cbo9780511667220

Römer, U. (2004). Comparing real and ideal language learner input: The use of an EFL textbook corpus in corpus linguistics and language teaching. Corpora and language learners, 151-168.

Setyono, B., & Widodo, H. P. (2019). The representation of multicultural values in the Indonesian Ministry of Education and Culture-Endorsed EFL textbook: a critical discourse analysis. Intercultural Education, 30(4), 383-397.

Sujatna, E. T. S., Risargarniwa, Y., & Sopian, R. (2017). The Readability Test of the English Children Short Stories. The Fifth International Conference on Language, Education, Humanities and Innovation (ICLEHI) 2017.

Syunina, A. S., Yarmakeev, I. E., Shechter, D. A., Pimenova, T. S., & Abdrafikova, A. R. (2017). Text relevance as a valid criterion for selecting reading materials for forming reading skills in efl class. Modern Journal of Language Teaching Methods, 166.

To, V., Fan, S., & Thomas, D. (2013). Lexical density and readability: A case study of English textbooks. Internet Journal of Language, Culture and Society, 37.

Ure, J. (1971). Lexical and register differentiation. In Applications of Linguistics: Selected Papers of the Second International Congress of Applied Linguistics.

Wakefield, J. F. (2006). Textbook Usage in the United States: The Case of US History. Online Submission.

Wheeler, L. R., & Wheeler, V. D. (1948). Selecting appropriate reading materials. Elementary English, 25(8), 478-489.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.35445/alishlah.v14i1.1157