Readability of reading materials used in the reading instruction II at The English Department Faculty of Teacher Training and Education of Widya Mandala Catholic University Surabaya

Dwianasari, Yenny (2006) Readability of reading materials used in the reading instruction II at The English Department Faculty of Teacher Training and Education of Widya Mandala Catholic University Surabaya. Masters thesis, Widya Mandala Catholic University Surabaya.

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Abstract

English is regarded as the vehicle of a body of scientific and technological information which the students need for their studies. The essential means of assessing this information is by reading. Therefore, the Indonesian Government emphasizes the "reading ability" as the predominant objective of the teaching of English as a foreign language in Indonesia. Unfortunately, the English teachers cannot avoid facing the students' problems in which they are still unable to comprehend the message conveyed by the reading materials presented. In trying to help students overcome their differences in comprehending the reading materials and in order to encourage them to increase their reading ability, the least one crucial problem to consider is the availability of reading materials that have a minimum of unnecessary obstacles. Besides, the suitability of the reading materials for the students' competence and schemata will also determine the students' achievement in the reading class. If the materials are within the students' range of competence and schemata, they will experience a sense of achievement in reading. Thus, their desire for reading will increase gradually and hopefully their ability to read will also develop. Accordingly, the researcher is interested to conduct an investigation to measure the readability level of reading materials. In this study, the researcher investigates the readability level of reading materials used in the reading instruction II at the English Department Faculty of Teacher Training and Education Widya Mandala Catholic University Surabaya In conducting this investigation, the researcher used four instruments that include Fry Graph Formula, Raygor Graph Formula, Reading Ease Flesch Formula, and a comprehension test in the form of cloze tests. Actually, there are many kinds of readability formulas but the researcher only dealt with these three formulas since they have been already widely used in readability researches and the researcher does not have access to the other formulas especially in finding out their scale of readability level. In reality, these formulas cannot be directly applied to the reading materials used in Indonesia, for students' English competence in Indonesia is different from students' English competence in countries where these formulas originated. In this research, readability formulas are really needed because it is not scientific just to assume certain reading materials are really easy or difficult. By using readability formulas, the fact that certain reading materials are really easy or difficult can be proved. In addition, the researcher used the same technique as Suryawati did in her research to analyze data collected from the administration of the cloze tests. First, the researcher calculated deletions in every cloze test to find out the range of correct answers. Then, these numbers were divided into four class intervals that indicate four levels of readability: high, sufficient, moderate, and low. After that, the researcher calculated the correct answers from the cloze tests and divided them with the number of participants to find out the mean of correct answers for each cloze procedure or cloze test. The position of the mean of correct answers in class intervals indicates the readability level of the text. From the result of this investigation, the researcher can conclude that the employment of different readability formulas produces different readability scores. Even though those three readability formulas produce different readability scores, it is concluded that the reading materials used in the reading instruction II at The English Department Faculty of Teacher Training and Education Widya Mandala Catholic University Surabaya are readable and appropriate for the intended readers they are college students in the third semester. This conclusion is based on the reason that the language competence of native speakers is different from that of non-native speakers. In instructional activities, non-native speakers need an easier text than native speakers do at the same school grade. The above conclusion is also supported by research findings obtained by the employment of the cloze tests. The cloze tests scores indicate that the readability level of the materials is high. It means the materials are such that the students can comprehend without any outside assistance.

Item Type: Thesis (Masters)
Department: ["eprint_fieldopt_department_Graduate School" not defined]
Uncontrolled Keywords: Reading, readability, readability formulas, cloze test, grade, reading materials, and reading instruction
Subjects: English Education
Divisions: Graduate School > Master Program in Teaching English as a Foreign Language
Depositing User: Sri Kusuma Dewi
Date Deposited: 29 Aug 2016 10:01
Last Modified: 29 Aug 2016 10:01
URI: http://repository.ukwms.ac.id/id/eprint/6574

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