CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

A. Background of the Study

In daily life, language is always used by people for
communication. We need to communication with other people to express
their idea in their mind. For expressing something in their mind, we need
communication tool. Language is communication tool used by all people
in the world. With the language, they have many ways to express their
idea by using combination of words (Chaer, 1995: 14). There are many
kinds of language in the world, so we can not learn all of it from each
country because there are many. Then English becomes first foreign
language in the world as main of communication tool beside their own
language in their country.
Reading is one of skills in English that should be mastered
by the students when they are learning English. Because of that, students
have to learn reading as well as the other skills if we want to master
English. According to Nunan (2003:68) reading is fluent process where in
building the meaning, readers should combine information from the text
with their own background knowledge. Basically, teaching reading is
conveying or guiding the students to get some important message and get
meaning from written text. Most of students are interested in reading the
English written material such as; book, novel, newspaper, article, text, etc.
English lesson of Junior High School the development of reading skills,
especially in analyses kinds of text.
Students need textbook to support their learning. English
textbooks support the teacher to provide materials, because teacher are
demanded to provided various material creatively. There are many
publisher that try to provide textbooks in various style and setting which
are compiled based on the curriculum implemented in Indonesia. English
student book in Junior High School entitled “Practise Your English
Competence” Published by Erlangga 2016. This is new book that is
published in 2016, and this book is published by Erlangga. Because of the
various textbooks publisher try to provide textbooks in order to support
teacher and students in teaching and learning process. Not all textbooks
published are suitable with learners’ need and have good qualities.
According to Cunningworth as cited in Arba’ati (2015: 4) emphasizes that
“no course designed for a general market will be absolutely ideal for
particular group of learner”. That means we need to evaluate the content of
this book in order to support the book improvement. Textbook analysis is
really needed to evaluate the textbook. To improve reading ability, English
textbooks have an important role as media to support their reading
comprehension. According to Azizifar and Baghelani as cited in Setiawati
(2015: 4) there are many various reasons for textbook evaluation. The first
important reason is the requirement to adapt new textbooks. The second
reason is to recognize specific strength and weakness in textbooks which
have been already in use. The third one is that textbook evaluation can be
very useful in teachers development and professional growth. While the
reasons of writer choosing the “Practise Your English Competence” are
eight, this book based on curriculum 2013 that gathered now days. The
textbook was newly produce as a recommendation for the textbooks
reference spreading out though the eight grade of Junior High School
students.
Since English in Indonesia is formally taught at the Junior
High School, those types of comprehension should be covered since the
first grade. In junior high school, the students are usually given a textbook
with various reading exercises to help them improve their reading ability.
They are expected to comprehend the texts. However, there are still some
junior high school students who still have difficulties in comprehending
texts. When they independently answer some question related to the text,
 the students like to copy the answer from the texts, using exactly the same
sentences. If there are questions that are implicitly stated in the text, the
students often give wrong answer. Based on these cases, it can be said that
their reading comprehension is low. During the English lesson, reading
texts that are read by students to develop their reading ability are given
with some reading comprehension question in their English textbook with
the main purpose to develop the students reading comprehension. Using
reading comprehension exercises given, the English teacher can check the
students comprehension about the text since reading comprehension
questions function as media to stimulate the students thinking about the
matters related with the text.

To support those functions, the reading comprehension

question should be suitable. To make suitable questions, the reading
comprehension questions should be organized based on taxonomy. As
Guining’s opinion who argued that taxonomy can help and clarify the
levels of questions that will be asked. It is a useful guide for constructing
questions on variety of thinking levels and judging questions that have
already been created. Ideally, question should be well designed and
planned sequences and the answer should be integrated with previously
discussed material before moving to a new sequence. It is also supported
by Dyah who notes that the sequence of question can help student develop
connected understanding. In line J,B Heaton who asserts that the designing
of the questions for reading comprehension must be based on information
provided on reading material and also the taxonomy.

Dealing with taxonomy, there are popular taxonomies used

for educational purposes, they are Bloom and Barrett’s taxonomy. For
bloom’s taxonomy, it can be applied not only to English teaching and
learning but also the other subject such as mathematics, chemistry or
others. Then Barrett’s taxonomy is intended to be as a parameter to
construct questions for reading purposes. Therefore, this research is
intended to use Barrett taxonomy because two reason. First, there is the
close relationship between thinking and reading text in which it is followed
by some question to check whether text has been comprehend or not.
Considering that reading is process of getting meaning from printed
materials and its relation to thinking process as a comprehension. Teachers
intend the learning experience to change the students’ comprehension from
a simpler type to more complex that in some ways at least will include the
first type. The students’ comprehension changes to be more critical. The
second reason is Barrette’s taxonomy has more detail taxonomy of reading
comprehension. The Barrett Taxonomy, designed originally to assist
classroom teachers in developing comprehension questions and/or test
questions for reading, is especially useful for classroom questioning in
other content areas as well. Barrette’s taxonomy (Barrett, 1976) comprises
five main ‘comprehension’ levels as opposed to the Revused Bloom’s six
cognitive level Comprehension; (4) Evaluation; and (5) Appreciation”
(Reeves, 2012: 35). Thus, the students can enhance their reading ability
because they can train themselves to comprehend the text by answering
questions that are made based on appropriate levels of thinking skill.

Based on those explanations, the researcher would like to

try to analyze the reading comprehension questions coverage of English
textbook. The textbook analyzed in this research is “Practise Your English
Competence” published by Erlangga for garde VIII Students of Junior
High School. This textbook based on 2013 curriculum. This book consist
of 12 Chapter and 127 pages, of which contains about the materials,
bibliography, list of pictures, vocabulary list. The researcher’s reason why
choose this textbook is that this publisher is one of the biggest publisher in
Indonesia. from several task provided in the textbook covering some skills,
this research will only focus on reading task. and some schools used this
book and the researcher observed in some bookstores such as in Sriwedari,
Gramedia, Togamas that this book was easy to found in there. Here, the
supports reason why the researcher analyze “Practise Your English
Competence” was based on interview with one of the teacher in MTsN 2
Karanganyar. Mrs Syarifah is a English teacher in eight grade. According
to her, in this book there are some exercises to support in teaching and
learning process. MTsN 2 Karanganyar used this book almost one year.
and this book is effective to use in the learning process . Student are
interested in learning to use this book. Besides, all of students of MTsN 2
Karanganyar use this textbook to support the success of teaching-learning
process. The textbook “Practise Your English Competence” declares in the
preface that it is designed on the basis of the current curriculum called
curriculum 2013. Based on the document, on the reading comprehension
question there is question “Which one has the correct arrangement?”. It can
be identify in inferential level of reading comprehension question that
categorized in inferring supporting details.

The previous study conducted by Elan Fitria et al (2014)

entitled “An Analysis of Reading Comprehension Questions in Textbook
“English Texts in Use and Look A Head” for Senior High School Grade X”.
This research aimed at assessing of the forms of reading comprehension
questions provided in textbooks, the level comprehension questions covered
in textbooks, and the relationship between forms and levels of question in
textbook “English Text in Use and Look Ahead” for senior high school
grade X. the data are about forms and levels of questions that analyze based
on theory Widdowson and Barrette’s Taxonomy. The data of this research
are all the questions in each sub/topic of textbooks of “English Texts in Use
and Look Ahead”. There are 389 reading questions as the data those are
consists of 244 questions in “English Text in Use” and 145 in “Look
Ahead”. In order to have the reability in the result of the analysis, three
evaluators were employed to evaluate the reading questions of textbooks.
The similarities of this research is from one of theory used by Barrette’s
 taxonomy. And the differences are form the other theory used by
Widdowson, from object of the research and data analysis of the research.

According to the explanation previously, the researcher

tries to analyze and interpret it under title “An Analysis of Reading
Comprehension Question in “Practise Your English Competence”
Textbook for Grade VIII Junior High School Published by Erlangga”.

B. Limition of the Problem

The scope and set the problem of the research are necessary
to limit. The researcher analyzed this English textbook all semester and
there are many materials in this book. The research only focused in
analyzing type of reading comprehension questions based on Barrett’s
taxonomy theory. that can be found in “Practice Your English
Competence” for Junior High School Grade VIII.

C. Problem Formulation
Based on the background of the study, the researcher states
the research problem as follows:
1. What are types of reading comprehension question based on the
Barrette’s taxonomy in “Practise Your English Competence” textbook
for Grade VIII Junior High School published by Erlangga?

D. Objectives of the Study

Based on problem statement, there are two objectives of
studies as follows:
1. To find out the types of reading comprehension question based on
Barrett’s taxonomy in “Practise Your English Competence”.

E. Benefit of the Study

 1. Theoretical benefits
Theoretically, the finding of this research will be useful not only for
readers but also for knowledge development readers are interested in
analyzing English textbook especially about reading comprehension
questions.
2. Practical benefits
a. The teacher
The teacher can the textbook which is the most suitable in
teaching learning process.
b. The students with the text to create meaning and begin to think
critically and intelligently
It help the students interact
F. Definition of Key Terms
a. Analysis
Analysis is the process of breaking a complex topic or substance into
smaller parts in order to gain a better understanding of it. On the other
hand a systematic and evaluation of data or information, by breaking it
into its component parts to uncover their interrelationships or an
examination of data and facts to uncover and understand cause-effect
relationships, thus providing basis for problem solving and decision
making.
In this research, the analysis focus on English textbook for junior high
school grade VIII “Practise Your English Competence” Textbook
published by Erlangga
Permendikbud No 8 Tahun 2016, states that textbooks are a major
source of learning for achieving the basic competencies and core
competencies and declared eligible by the Ministry of Education and
Culture to be used in the educational unit.
b. Reading Comprehension
“Reading comprehension is a process of gaining understanding from
printed material (Chandra, 2014, p. 7).
c. Reading Comprehension Question
“reading comprehension questions used to check the students“reading
comprehension” (Chandra, 2014, p. 7).
d. Barrett’s Taxonomy
Barrett’s Taxonomy is a taxonomy made by Thomas C. Barrett in 1968
special for reading (Irene, 2014: 3). Barrett taxonomy is made for
reading purpose and used to classify the level of questions. Barrette’s
Taxonomy (Barrett, 1976) comprises five main ‘comprehension’ levels
are 1) Literal Comprehension is question the deal with information
explicitly stated in the text; 2) Reorganization is question that require
analysis, synthesis or organization of information explicitly stated in
the text; 3) Inferential Comprehension is questions that require a
candidate’s engagement with information explicitly stated in the text in
terms of his/her personal experience; 4) Evaluation is these questions
deal with judgments concerning value and worth; and 5) Appreciation
is these questions are intended to assess the psychological and
aesthetic impact of the text on candidate (Reeves, 2012: 35).
e. “Practice Your English Competence”
An English textbook for junior high school grade VIII. It is arranged
by Nurzaida. It is published by Erlangga.