Readability Assessment of Reading Texts in Pathway to English for SMA/MA Grade X
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.53682/kompetensi.v1i04.1856Keywords:
Readability, Reading Text, TextbookAbstract
The purpose of the study is to describe readability of reading texts in textbook,
‘Pathway to English’ for SMA/MA Grade X’ published by Erlangga. The study is a
quantitative content analysis. The source of the data was the textbook, and only reading
texts with minimally 150 words in length were taken as the sample. 22 reading texts
that matched the criteria were analyzed quantitatively in percentage form. Result of the
data analysis shows that reveals that 9 (or 41%) reading texts match tenth grade level,
but the rest, 4 (or 18%) reading texts are to easy, at 7th-8th grade level. and 9 (or 41%)
reading texts are are fairly difficult to difficult, at 11th-16th grade level. Put it another
way, 59% reading texts with minimally 150 words in length selected for use in EFL
textbook ‘Pathway to English’ published by Penerbit Erlangga in 2016 were not in
accordance with tenth grade SMA students’ readability level. In addition, It was also
found that the data show that readability level of a text do not depend on text length.
References
Aebersold, J. A., and M. L Field. 1997. From
Reading to Reading Teacher Issues and
Strategies for Second Language
Classroom. Cambridge: Cambridge
University.
Al-Brashdi, B. 2002. Reading in English as
a foreign language: A descriptive study
on Omani university students’ reading
comprehension problems and strategies.
Unpublished master’s thesis: University
of Reading, United Kingdom.
Al Sayabi, Fawzia & Tuzlukova, Victoria.
Investigating EFL Reading
Problems and Strategies in Post-Basic
Schools and University Foundation
Programs: A Study in the Omani
Context. Malaysian Journal of ELT
Research, Vol. 11(2).
Berelson, B. 1952. Content analysis in
communication research. New York,
NY: Free Press.
Carrel, Patricia L. 1987. Readability in ESL.
Reading in a Foreign Language, 4 (1),
-40.
Chall, J.S & Dale, E. 1995. Readability
revisited: The New Dale-Chall
readability formula. Brookline Books
Dale, E. & Chall, J. S. 1949. The concept of
readability. Elementary English, 26, 23.
Dole, J. A., Duffy, G. G., Roehler, L. R., &
Pearson, P. D. 1991. Moving from the
old to the new: Research on reading
comprehension instruction. Review of
Educational Research, 61.2, 239-264.
doi: 10.3102/00346543061002239.
Franzosi, Roberto P. 2004. Content Analysis
in Handbook of Data Analysis. SAGE
Researchmethods. DOI:
https://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781848608
n24
Fry, E. 2002. Readability Versus Leveling.
The Reading Teacher 56 (3), 286-291
Hedgcock, J. S., & Dana R. Ferris. 2009.
Teaching Readers of English, Students,
Texts, and Contexts. Madison Ave, NY:
Routledge.
Indrawan, Fani. 2018. Text Readability and
Syntactic Complexity in the Reading
Texts of Indonesian Senior High School
Textbooks. Thesis. Universitas
Airlangga.
Kasim, Usman & Raisha, Siti. 2017. EFL
Students’ Reading Comprehension Problems: Linguistic and NonLinguistic Complexities. English
Education journal, (EEJ), 8(3), 308-321.
Klare, George R. 1968. The Role of Word
Frequency in Readability. In J. R.
Bormuth (Ed), Readability (pp. 7-17).
Chicago: National Council of Teacher
of English.
Maryansyah, Yupika. 2016. An Analysis on
Readability of English Reading Texts
for Grade IX Students at MTsN 2 Kota
Bengkulu. Premise Journal, Volume 5
No 1.
McLaughlin, G.H.1969. A New readability
formula. Journal of Reading22:639-
SMOG Grading
O’Sullivan, A. 2009. Reading in the Gulf: Is
it time for a re-focus? In Cultivating
Real Readers (pp. 43-51)
Pikulski, John. 2002. Readability: A
Definition. Houghton Mifflin
Company. University of Delaware.
Qarqez, Mohammed & Ab Rashid,
Radzuwan. 2017. Reading
Comprehension Difficulties among
EFL Learners: The Case of First and
Second Year Students at Yarmouk
University in Jordan. Arab World
English Journal, Vol. 8 No. 3: pp. 421-
Rahmawati, Yuly Ika & Lestari, Lies Amin.
The Readability Level of Reading
Texts in the English Language
Textbooks Used by Tenth Grade.
http://jurnalmahasiswa.unesa.ac.id/inde
x.php/retain/article/viewFile/8481/8597
Richard, Jack C., & Schmidt, Richard. 2002.
Longman Dictionary of Language
Teaching & Applied Linguistic. (Third
Edition). London: Pearson Education
Limited.
Rohmatillah. 2015. Readibility Level of
Reading Texts in the English Textbook
Entitled English Alive for Senior High
School Grade X Published by
Yudhistira.
https://media.neliti.com/media/publicat
ions/60430-EN-readibility-level-ofreading-texts-in-th.pdf
Salehi, Mohammad., Zahra, Lari., &,
Atefeh, Rezanejad. 2014. The effects of
gender and genre on language learners’
reading comprehension ability.
Education Journal, 3(5): 266-271
Stanovich Keith E. 1980. Toward an
Interactive-Compensatory Model of
Individual Differences in the
Development of Reading Fluency.
Reading Research Quarterly, Vol. 16,
No. 1, pp. 32-71.
Stephen. 2018. What is readability and why
does it matter? Available at and
accessed September 14, 2020 from
https://medium.com/@uistephen/whatis-readability-and-why-does-it-matter7773d018e4b9
Ulusoy, M. 2006. Readability Approaches:
Implication for Turkey. International
Education Journal, 7 (3), 323-332
Aebersold, J. A., and M. L Field. 1997.
From Reading to Reading Teacher
Issues and Strategies for Second
Language Classroom. Cambridge:
Cambridge University.
Al-Brashdi, B. 2002. Reading in English as
a foreign language: A descriptive study
on Omani university students’ reading
comprehension problems and strategies.
Unpublished master’s thesis: University
of Reading, United Kingdom.
Al Sayabi, Fawzia & Tuzlukova, Victoria.
Investigating EFL Reading
Problems and Strategies in Post-Basic
Schools and University Foundation
Programs: A Study in the Omani
Context. Malaysian Journal of ELT
Research, Vol. 11(2).
Berelson, B. 1952. Content analysis in
communication research. New York,
NY: Free Press
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.