Background

Reading is a brain activity to deepen knowledge by getting information through the text. It means
reading involves responding to the text to connect the message of the text. Reading is one of part
language skill since the importance of reading to build readers’ prior knowledge with the text is for
thinking ability. To make successful what the goal of teaching and learning, teachers must be
facilitator in emphasize communicative on reading skill. If their reading skill is inadequate, students
get failure which means the goal cannot be achieved successfully. On the other hand, if they have a
satisfactory result in reading, the goal is clearly stated done well. There are some problems in
reading comprehension one of them is the difficulty in understanding and answering the reading
exercise.

Exercise is one of way teaching activities as the important role in language teaching and
learning.With exercise, the students have chance to practice and develop their skill that may supply
a great influences so that they can have a practice time in the classroom or even in their home
without depending on the classroom area. It will asses the skill that need to be measured students’
skill based on text-based activities Ur ( 2009: 186) highlights that practice is the most important of all
stages in learning where language skills and knowledge are reinforced and thoroughlly mastered. In
addition, the beneficial of exercise for the teachers is to know how far students have knowledge of
teaching material and their level ability of the certain topics. Because of the function as one of tool
to measure the objective in teaching-learning process, the exercises usually exist in text book to
develop students’ competence.

Reminding that textbook is the source of learning process, it means that textbook plays the
important aspects. The teaching material in textbook is considered as a form to achieve the goal of
teaching. Textbooks consists of text and exercise that is believed to be suitable to the curriculum.
Text usually connects to the reading skill to stimulate thinking skills. In line with Olurundare (1998:3)
who states that textbook support how textbook should be applied accordance with the curiculum.

English text book must relevant to the skill that students have to achieve followed by relevant
reading text which form in exercise and questions as the criteria of an effective English textbook. To
get knowledge and information, students need to do a reading activity. It is suuported by Fullan in
Lamie (1999) who stated that a suitable textbook might easily become the curriculum in the
classroom, yet fails to incorporate significant features of the policy or goals that is supposed to
address. It means that the textbook should guide students to complete their goal based on English
syllabus and curriculum. From the reading exercise, text boookt is supposed to adress the goal for
students. It is about how students are able to understand, comprehend, and think critically from the
text of s/he has read.

However, there are some criteria of a good textbook that a teacher should consider. According to
Harmer (1983: 219) a good textbook often contain lively and interesting material; it provides a
sensible progression of language items, clearly showing what has to be learnt and in some cases,
summarizing what has been studied so that students can revise grammatical and functional points
that they have been concentrating. Those criteria are useful to produce qualified students who can
achieve the target in teaching plan. But we also find the book is not suitable for some aspects
and need to be evaluated. One of the result analysis conducted by Igabaria (2015) in EFL
text book based on Bloom’s taxonomy showed 224 questions rpresent low order thingking
skills and only 177 quesion mephasizzed high order think. The research about taxonomy is
addressed as a reference for English teachers. They must be able to choose appropriate teaching
and learning materials that contain balance order of thinking as stated detail in cognitive domain.
Based on the previous research about Bloom’s taxonomy, the cognitive domain of reading tasks
was not balance because the reading tasks only contained more low level of thinking rather than
the higher level. Noprika (2006) had conducted research, which aimed to find out the Reading
Tasks in English Textbooks for Junior High School Published by Erlangga by Using Cognitive Domain
of Bloom’s Taxonomy. The result of this research shows that the highest percentage for all series
were comprehension. The percentage of reading task for the first book was 55.1%, for the second
book was 53.8%, and for the third book was 59.1%. The highest-level evaluation was not applied in
all three books series. Hence, the reading textbook need improvement by involving the
higher order thinkingskills. It is much more complex than merely decoding specific
words. Teachingthe students to derive meaning as well as analyze and synthesize what
they have read is essential part of the reading process. Teachers should know the
textbook is compatible or not to the students’ development level in cognitive.

Cognitive domain in educational objectives make reference to Bloom Taxonomy. It s the

hierarchy structure that identifies the skill ranging from low order thining and high order
thingking. Higher order thinking skill consists of the top three domains in the cognitive
skills from Bloom’s taxonomy, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation. In the low order
thinking skills, it is knowledge, comprehension,and application. Bloom’s taxonomy itself is
one of the most famous taxonomies in educational matter which is introduced by
Benjamin S. Bloom. Musial et.al claim that, This taxonomy has been extremely
influential in education for the past 50 years Hence, Bloom’s taxonomy is still
considered as a helpful teaching tool today. Moreover, text book is available has the
different proportion of each level. For junior high school, the proportion itself is
remembering-understanding 20%, applying-analyzing 55%, evaluatin 155%, and creating
10%.

The higher order of thinking is very important for students to build their critical thinking. If the
task only applies much low order of thinking, the critical thinking of students will not be
developed as well as if the task applies balance higher order of thinking. The critical thinking of
students is useful for students to solve their problems easier and systematically

To sum up, the writer believes that an analysis of the higher order thinking skill in the
reading exercise of the textbook is important because it may improve the students’
critical thinking skill in the reading skill and may support the students to survive in the
English communication environment.. Moreover, Woodward and Elliot as citied by
Reed and Bergemann explain that textbook can be improved with more emphasize on
problem solving and higher order cognitive process (1998: 258). Therefore, the writer
choose to analyze the distribution of the higher order thinking skill of reading exercises
in textbook for the grade of junior high school students to make sure that the textbook
has been support the students in encouraging their competence to survive in the English
communication environment by providing the higher order thinking skill in the reading
exercises. The researcher has three reasons in choosing “Bahasa Inggris: Communicative English
in Context 2” for Junior High School textbookfocus on reading excercise as the object of the
research. The main reason is that the book was published by National Education Department and
recommended for English teacher as one of the sources of teaching and learning material as new
curriculum of ccurriculum 2013. Then, this book was used where researcher has done teaching
profession practice in one of school in Medan. The additional reason is that at this time so many
textbooks that published by private publisher are expanding to the educational institution. Many
textbooks contain low level of cognitive domain of Bloom’s Taxonomy as dominant component in
reading tasks. English teachers need a reference of which appropriate materials are
accommodating the development of student’s critical thinking based on Revised Bloom’s
Taxonomy beside the other aspects outside the context of this research. The lastby analyzing the
textbook teacher could choose which texxt book can present the students need and will be used in
classroom.
Based on the previous explanation, the researcher investigated the components of analyzing of
level in reading exercise based on Bloom’s taxonomy that were applied in the contents of reading
tasks in “Bahasa Inggris: Communicative English in Context 2” Textbooks. The research is entitled
“The Analysis of Reading Exercise in “Bahasa Inggris: Communicative English in Context 2”
Textbook Based on Cognitive Domain of Revised Bloom’s Taxonomy.

Research Question
1. Does the reading exercise appropriate with the cognitive domain of Bloom’s
Taxonomy?
2. What is the dominant component of cognitive domain employed in reading tasks of “Bahasa
Inggris: Communicative English in Context 2” Textbooks for Junior High School published by
The National Education Department?

Objectives of the study

The purpose of this reserach are:
1. To find out whether the book is appropriate with the cognitive domain of Bloom’s
taxonomy.
2. To find out the dominant component of cognitive domain used in reading exercise
of “Bahasa Inggris: Communicative English in Context 2” Textbooks for Junior High School
published by The National Education Department

Significance of the Study

It is expected that this research contribute some significant progresses in teaching

learning activity. This research has three practical contribution, they are; contributing for the
school, contributing for the teachers, and contributing for the next researcher.
1. The school
The result will enrich appropriate textboook in the school and can be as feedback to
what is needed to improve the facilation in teaching lerning environment.
2. The teachers
The result of this research is expected to help teacher to find out and encourage
the English teachers to be selective in chosing the appropriate textbook to be more
compatible with students cognitive development level.
 3. The future researcher
This research is expected to give a new knowledge of the future researcher to do
better research of the same teaching and learning cases, it can be one of references to
conduct a study about the same topic so the future researcher can make their studies more
complete. It can be used as the reference for those who want to evaluate another textbook or
other English textbooks. From the result of this study also hopefully it can be a reference to the
publisher in publishing other English textbooks.

Definition of Key Term

1. Exercise is a learner’s activity that has purposes to communicate the target language to
achieve outcome based on the goals of using task.
2. A cognitive domain is a level of cognitive process, which consists of six categories
(Remembering, understanding, applying, analyzing, evaluating, and creating).
3. Bloom’s Taxonomy is a framework for classifying statements of what we expect or intend
students to learn as the result of instructions which are proposed by Bloom and revised by
Anderson and Krathwohl.

rthea J S Reed, Verna E Bergemann, and Mary W. Olson, In the Classroom: In

Introduction to Education, (Boston: McGraw-Hill, 1998), p.258