A Thesis Proposal

The Correlation between Lexical Density and Validity of Reading

Comprehension Test

PROPOSAL SEMINAR

Submitted to the English and Literature Department, Faculty of Languages and

Arts, State University of Medan, in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for
Doing Proposal Seminar

By:

MHD ISKANDAR HASIM

Reg. Number: 2161121028

ENGLISH AND LITERATURE DEPARTMENT

FACULTY OF LANGUAGES AND ARTS

STATE UNIVERSITY OF MEDAN

2021
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

TABLE OF CONTENTS....................................................................................... i
LIST OF TABLES ............................................................................................... iii
LIST OF FIGURES ............................................................................................. iv
LIST OF APPENDICES....................................................................................... v
CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION ......................................................................... 1
A. The Background of the Study .................................................................................1
B. The Problem of the Study .......................................................................................6
C. The Objective of the study .....................................................................................6
D. The Scope of the Study ..........................................................................................6
E. The Significance of the Study ................................................................................7
CHAPTER II. LITERATURE REVIEW ........................................................... 7
A. Theoretical Framework ..........................................................................................7
1. Reading ..............................................................................................................7
a. The nature of reading .....................................................................................7
b. The nature of reading comprehension test ......................................................8
2. Lexical Density ..................................................................................................9
c. The Concept of Lexical Density .....................................................................9
d. Content Words .............................................................................................12
e. Grammatical Function Words ......................................................................14
3. Language Test ..................................................................................................18
a. The Nature of Language Test .......................................................................18
b. The Kind of Test ..........................................................................................19
c. The Principle of Language Assessment ........................................................23
4. Validity ............................................................................................................23
B. Relevant Studies ...................................................................................................25
C. Conceptual Framework ........................................................................................28
D. Hypothesis............................................................................................................30
CHAPTER III. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY ........................................... 35
A. Research Design ...................................................................................................35
B. Population and Sample .........................................................................................35
C. Research variable .................................................................................................36
D. The instrument for Collecting Data ......................................................................37
E. The procedure of Collecting for Collecting Data..................................................37
F. Techniques for Analyzing Data ............................................................................38

i
REFERENCES .................................................................................................... 40
APPENDIX .......................................................................................................... 44

ii
 LIST OF TABLES

Table 1. 1 The Average of Total Number of Words and Lexical Density in K13 English

textbooks ............................................................................................................................4

Table 1. 2 The Data of Lexical Density in Final Exam Reading Text 2019 .......................5

iii
 LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 2. 1 Conceptual Framework ..................................................................................30

Figure 3. 1 Design of Research variable...........................................................................37

iv
 LIST OF APPENDICES

APPENDIX A. Students’ Previous Final Examination Test ............................................44

APPENDIX B. Lexical Density Analysis Of Final Exam ................................................51

v
 CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

A. The Background of the Study

Listening, writing, speaking, and reading are the four major language skills

needed to be mastered by students. For English learners, comprehending a text

remains the primary activity for reading skill. According to Tankersley (2003),

comprehension is the heart of the reading process and we bring our life experiences

to the reading process. Brassel (2008:17-18) mentions three standards of

comprehension; literal Comprehension (concerning with identifying information

and ideas stated explicitly in the text), inferential comprehension (taking

information that is inferred or implied in a text), and critical

comprehension (making critical judgments about the details contained in the text).

From the standards that have been described above, it can be seen that in reading

comprehension tests, learners cannot answer reading comprehension tests without

comprehending the text itself, since most question items in reading comprehension

tests require them to do so. Therefore, they must truly comprehend the text to figure

out the answer in a reading comprehension test.

EFL learners in general have a narrow scale of vocabularies. It is supported by

Waruwu’s study (2018) who states that students have difficulty in understanding

reading texts because they have limited vocabularies. This condition is related to

the texts’ lexical density. Lexical density talks about the informativeness of a text

by examining the proportion of lexical words (noun, verb, adjective, and adverb) in

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the text. The theory of lexical density is well-known adopted by researchers to

discover the level of difficulty in written materials. Sholichatun, (2011), Vinh to

(2013), Nesia (2014), and Khamahani (2015) highlight that the sentences with high

lexical density will be more difficult or complicated than the sentences with low

lexical density.

Furthermore, the time allocation for accomplishing the reading comprehension

test itself is very limited. Phillips (2011) mentions that in the reading

comprehension section of the TOEFL test, 55 minutes is given to administer 50

question items with 5 different passages. Considering from the situation portrayed

above and judging from the claims of the studies from Sholichatun, (2011), Vinh to

(2013), Nesia (2014), and Khamahani (2015), it can be hypothetically said that

average EFL learners who lack vocabulary mastery will waste their time to

comprehend high lexical density text in reading comprehension test instead of

maximizing their time effectively to answer the questions in reading comprehension

test. Likewise, Lestari (2016: 2) in her study also argues that for foreign language

learners, the text with high lexical words will bring trouble for students to

understand the text. Consequently, the improper lexical density of text in reading

comprehension tests will potentially impractical to evaluate the learners. As Brown

(2004) supports it by arguing that a test of language proficiency that takes a student

five hours to complete is impractical-it consumes more time than necessary to

accomplish its objective. Yet, there has no study showing that the lexical density of

reading text has a link with the validity of reading comprehension tests.
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In order to see whether the lexical density of text in the reading

comprehension test is related to the test itself, conducting the concurrent validity

for reading comprehension test is needed. According to Brown (2004: 24) a test has

concurrent validity if its results are supported by other performance beyond the

assessment itself.

In concurrent validity, the researcher has to correlate the test results (the test

instrument being tested) with the results of another test that has the same

characteristic as the existing or standardized one (the test tool as a comparison).

Sudjana (2014: 16) mentions that concurrent validity is carried out through a

correlation index based on correlation calculations. If it shows a high enough

correlation index, which is close to the number one (perfect correlation), it means

that the tests compiled have similarity validity. Sudjana (2014: 15) also mentions

that the similarity of the test covers the ability it measures, the targets or objectives

it measures, and the time it takes.

The similar characteristic which the researcher emphasizes in this study is

the lexical density of text in reading comprehension test as the test instrument being

tested and reading comprehension section of the TOEFL test as standardized

comparison test tool. The urgency to see the correlation is coming from the

tendency of teachers in Indonesia who utilize textbook and worksheet as the main

sources in teaching learning activity including designing the tests. Adi (2016)

reveals that textbook and worksheet are used as the main source in the learning

process. one of the rationalizations of the teacher taking this action because the

teacher is less innovative and lazy in making questions.

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This phenomenon is getting worse since common K13 English textbooks

for Senior High School has considerably high lexical density index. Sari (2016)

reveals the data of average percentage of lexical density in K13 English textbooks

provided by Indonesian Ministry of Education for Senior High School which is

shown below.

Table 1. 1 The Average of Total Number of Words and Lexical Density in

K13 English textbooks

Class Total Number of Lexical Density

Words
X 412 51.91%
XI 794 50.57%
XII 269 51.77%

Based on the table 1.1 above, the highest average of lexical density is in

class X, 51.91%. And the lowest is in class XI, 50.57%. Taking the parameter of

lexical density level proposed by Khamahani (2015) who states that if the amount

of lexical density surpasses 50%, it indicates a high lexical density. K13 English

textbooks of all classes in Senior High School are considerable have high lexical

density and if the claims in the study from Sholichatun, (2011), Vinh to (2013),

Nesia (2014), Khamahani (2015), and Sari (2016) are right, then neglecting lexical

density for consideration in choosing the text used in the reading comprehension

test will cause a domino effect for the test administration where the text will be

impractical, it will bring trouble for the test takers who take the test, and the test

itself will fail to measure what it needs to be measured.

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In order to see the percentage of the lexical density of text in reading

comprehension test designed by teacher, Preliminary data has been taken by the

researcher from students’ previous final examination test of 10th grade of SMA

Swasta Dr. Wahidin Sudirohusodo in the year academic of 2019/2020. There are

two texts in their final reading comprehension test. The first text is entitled “Malin

Kundang” and the second one is “B.J. Habibie”. The data of lexical density

percentage for each reading text is displayed as the following table.

Table 1. 2 The Data of Lexical Density in Final Exam Reading Text 2019

No Title of reading Grammatical Lexical Total Percentage of lexical

text Words words words density

1 Malin Kundang 244 283 527 53.7

2 B.J. Habibie 215 286 501 57.1

From table 1.2 above the highest lexical density percentage is the text of ‘B.J.

Habibie’, 57.1%. and the lowest is the text of ‘Malin Kundang’, 53.7%. Each of the

texts in the reading comprehension test from the previous class at 10th grade of SMA

Swasta Dr. Wahidin Sudirohusodo for year academic 2019/2020 is considerably

has high percentage of lexical density. Considering the lexical density percentages

of text in their reading comprehension test, it can be assumed that students at the

10th grade of SMA Swasta Dr. Wahidin Sudirohusodo were quite challenged to

maximize their time accomplishing that final examination since the reading texts

are considered as difficult texts.

Since Sholichatun (2011), Vinh to (2013), Nesia (2014), and Khamahani (2015)

claim that the factor which influences difficulty in the reading text is lexical density,
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The idea of ‘factor which influences the reading comprehension test performance

is not only question items but also lexical density of the reading text’ is popping

out. After all, it hasn’t been proven whether there is a significant connecting line

between lexical density and reading comprehension test validity or not. Considering

the explanation above, this research is needed to be conducted to find empirical

evidence of whether lexical density can be used for test validity or not.

B. The Problem of the Study

Based on the background of the study, the problem of the study which the writer would

like to analyze is: Does the lexical density of reading text correlate to the reading

comprehension test validity?

C. The Objective of the study

In the relation to the problem, the objective of this analysis is to find out the

relation between the lexical density of text in reading comprehension tests and test

validity.

D. The Scope of the Study

Related to the problem and the scope of the study, the researcher has to limit

the scope of the study to get through analysis and relevant data. It will focus to:

1. Correlate the lexical density only with reading texts in the reading

comprehension test. Since reading texts are considered as the majo r

part of the reading comprehension test and the difficulty of texts

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themselves is assumed has to influence the students to answer the

questions in the test.

2. Test only the students from grade XI of SMA Swasta Wahidin

Sudirohusodo Medan to increase the possibility of familiarity with

reading comprehension tests, especially with a standardized test like

the TOEFL test.

3. Utilize Ure’s formula to analyze the lexical density of the text. Since the

researcher need to analyze the text base on the original method of lexical

density proposed by Ure

E. The Significance of the Study

The significance of this study is divided into two parts, they are theoretically

and practically.

1. Theoretically

This study will enrich and strengthen the understanding of Lexical Density

theory and gives a contribution to test validity as one of the principles in

language assessment.

2. Practically

a. The Teacher

This research gives benefit for the teacher as a reference on how to use,

select, adapt, or design reading comprehension test from the perspective of

the text complexity itself.

b. The Students
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This research is hoping to give advantages for the students to get more

familiar with the TOEFL test as the standardized test, especially in the

reading comprehension section.

c. The Other Researchers

For other researchers, this research is expected to be useful as a reference

for further research especially for future researchers who have an interest in

this kind of study.

 CHAPTER II

LITERATURE REVIEW

A. Theoretical Framework
This chapter presents a review of the literature and gives some understanding

of the concept and ideas that will be used for conducting the research. To support

the ideas of the study, the theories and the information will be served as below.

1. Reading

a. The nature of reading

Reading is one of four skills that each person must learn. Reading is an activity

that increases students ' knowledge. It allows students to know how to use English

well. According to Linse (2005), reading is a fluent process of readers integrating

text-based information and context knowledge to create meaning. Reading is a very

dynamic relationship between the text and the reader. Reading is more than simply

referring to the process of pronouncing the printed material or following each line

of the written page. It includes a variety of mixed tasks. Reading is not a passive

practice, but reading is an active process in which readers connect knowledge in the

text to what they already know. In addition to that, Nunan (1988) said that reading

is a fluent process of readers integrating text-based information and their context

knowledge to create meaning. The aim of reading is understanding. According to

Nuttal (1982), reading is interpreted as understanding meaning.

Based on the above descriptions, it can be inferred that reading is an interactive

process that takes place between the reader and the text, and that the reader can use

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his experience, skills, and techniques to decide what the text is. It means that readers

try to understand the words they read in the text and find the meaning of the written

text. So, the reading may give a comprehensive understanding of the massage of

the author.

b. The nature of reading comprehension

Reading comprehension is the first point to be made regarding the reading

process. Some experts have presented several fascinating insights into the principles

of reading comprehension. They assume that reading comprehension is not only an

easy decoding process but also a very complex process.

According to Brown (2016), reading comprehension is primarily a matter of

developing appropriate, efficient comprehension strategies. Reading

comprehension is also much more than decoding. In addition, successful

comprehension requires the ability to relate the textual content to one's prior

knowledge. The understanding of words, phrases, and text as a whole require more

than just relying on one's linguistic knowledge.

According to Tankersley (2003), comprehension is the center of reading. Good

readers are supposed to learn and use their experience and prior information to make

sense of the text. Making associations is the key to incomprehension. Also, Linda

(2005) stated that comprehension is a complex process that is regulated by

cognitive, emotional, perceptual, and social experiences. Comprehension is the

product of the mind's ability to connect and ask questions about a particular reading

activity.
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In conclusion, reading comprehension is a process of contracting meaning by

organizing some complex processes, and also the complex process of reading

activity must be controlled by several aspects such as cognitive, emotional, and

social experiences. Comprehending the objectives of the reading activity is a

process to get off the whole process of identifying the author's intentions.

2. Lexical Density

a. The Concept of Lexical Density

In analyzing the content of the texts there is an aspect known as lexical density.

Lexical density is a term used in the analysis of the text. Ure (1971) initially

suggested the idea of lexical density. He says that the lexical density of lexicons

reflects the proportion of words divided by the total number. The lexical density is

the number of words in a sentence (Backman, 1978: 1).

Lexical density is a measure of the amount of information contained in the text.

The lexical density is calculated by dividing the number of content words in the

complex by the number of clauses. This means that the lexical density measures the

lexical density of information in any text passage. Depending on how tightly lexical

items (content word) have been packed into the grammatical structure. This is a

measure of how much information is provided in a specific piece of writing. Lexical

words may be more commonly referred to as content words or information words.

Lexical density is the concept most commonly used to characterize the ratio of

content words (nouns, verbs, adjectives, and sometimes even adverbs) to total word

counts. By investigating this, receive the notion of information packaging; a text

 10

with a high proportion of content words contains more information than a text with

a high proportion of functional words (Johansson, 2008).

Ure (1971) presents the idea of lexical density to differentiate between terms

with lexical properties, and non-lexical properties. According to Ure, items that

have no lexical properties can be defined purely in terms of grammar meaning that

such words (or objects) have a more grammatical-syntactic function than the lexical

items. The lexical density is then defined as the total number of words divided by

the total number of orthographic words with lexical properties.

In a later article, Ure describes lexical density as the proportion of words that

contain lexical values (members of open-ended sets) to grammatical values (items

that represent terms in closed sets). Traditionally, nouns, verbs, adjectives, and

adverbs are the four-word classes that are known to have lexical properties because

they have separate meanings (T. le, Yue & Le, 2011). Such objects are also called

content words.

Halliday (1985) introduces the idea of lexical density and further refines it. He

points out the importance of distinguishing between lexical and grammatical

components. An object may consist of more than a single word. Halliday, therefore,

counts "turn on" as one lexical feature. In contrast to Ure (1971) who distinguishes

the words, he assumes "shift" as a lexical element and "on" as a preposition. A

lexical item is defined by Halliday as an item "not grammatical systems function[s]

in lexical sets: that is, they enter into open, not closed contrasts" (Halliday, 1985).

The lexical item is part of an open set where several items in the world can be

contrasted. In contrast, a grammatical item, according to Halliday, enters a closed

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system. The characteristic of the grammatical system is that the (word) classes that

belong to it have a fixed set of items, where new members cannot be added. So, we

know from the above explanation that the lexical density between Ure and Halliday

is quite different when it comes to separating the words. The formula Ure

discovered is:

𝑛𝑢𝑚𝑏𝑒𝑟 𝑜𝑓 𝑙𝑒𝑥𝑖𝑐𝑎𝑙 𝑖𝑡𝑒𝑚𝑠

𝐿𝑒𝑥𝑖𝑐𝑎𝑙 𝐷𝑒𝑛𝑠𝑖𝑡𝑦 = × 100
𝑡𝑜𝑡𝑎𝑙 𝑛𝑢𝑚𝑏𝑒𝑟𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝑤𝑜𝑟𝑑𝑠

Lexical density is the number of words in the text as a proportion of the overall

word count. In contrast to function words, content words are words that carry a high

load of information such as; nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs. Long and

lexically complex sentences are more difficult to understand (Johannson, 2008). It

is easier to understand texts with a lower density, but it is more difficult to

understand text with a high lexical density (Sholichatun, 2011). Moreover,

Khamahani (2015) also notes that the greater the length, the more complicated the

text is.

In order to measure lexical density, it is important to distinguish between

grammatical and lexical items as well as the differentiation between them. Lexical

items are also known as content words, which consist of all nouns, all lexical verbs,

all adjectives, and some adverb classes. In the meantime, grammatical items or

function words consist of all pronouns, all determinants, all auxiliary verbs, all

prepositions, all interjections, all conjunctions, and some adverb classes (Vinh,

2013). Khamahani (2015) says that if the amount of lexical density exceeds 50%, it
 12

indicates a high lexical density. The higher the lexical density of the passage, the

more complicated the passage is.

It is important to distinguish between grammatical items and lexical items and

also the distinction between them to calculate lexical density. Also known as

content words are lexical items that consist of all nouns, all lexical verbs, all

adjectives, and some classes of adverbs. Whereas, all pronouns, all determiners, all

auxiliary verbs, all prepositions, all interjections, all conjunctions, and certain

groups of adverbs compose the grammatical objects or role words (Vinh, 2013).

Khamahani (2015) says it implies a high lexical density if the sum of lexical density

reaches 50 percent. The higher the lexical density in the passage, the more

complicated the passage.

b. Content Words
Content words are nouns, verbs, adjectives, and certain classes in adverbs that

have an appropriate and significant lexical meaning (Vinh, 2013). Words that

contain words of the content are:

1) Nouns

The noun is a term that names things. In linguistics, a noun is a member of a

part of the speech that may be the main word in the subject matter of the clause

(Nesia & Ginting, 2014). A noun is a part of speech, and parts of speech simply

refer to a type of word. Nouns describe persons, places, objects, and ideas. For

example Persons (Yaumil, Siti, Bunga, Tiara, Student, Lecturer, Indonesian,

Korean, etc.), Places (Jakarta, bedroom, bathroom, hotel, etc.), and Things (book,

handphone, scissors, etc.). There are also several forms of nouns, such as:
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a) A proper noun, A noun that usually used a specific person, place, or object,

and is always in the capital. For examples:

• Personal name: Muhammad, Siti Khadijah, Fatimah.

• Country name or city: Makkah, Madinah, Indonesia, etc.

• Names of day and month: Sunday, Monday, July, etc.

b) Common Nouns, A noun that typically names any of the persons, places, or

objects and is not capitalized, for example, boy, actress, king, farmer, tiger.

c) A compound noun is a combination of two words or more and used as a

single noun, for example, basketball, housekeeper.

d) Possessive nouns, nouns that show ownership. For example Mom’s,

Ahmad’s, etc. (Nordquist, 2020).

2) Verbs

The verb is called a term that is an essential part of the expression that

communicates behavior, being, or state of being. Verbs can be categorized

according to shape and context. A verb is one of the central parts of an English

sentence or question (O'Brien, nd). The verbs are divided into two according to the

form, they are:

a) A regular verb forms the past indicative and past participle by adding a

suffix – ed or – d. Example: want, wanted, wanted, ask, asked, asked.

b) An irregular verb does not make up its past indicative and past participle by

adding – ed or – d. Example: become, became, become, buy, bought, bought

Based on the meaning, verbs are divided into two, they are:
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a) Transitive verbs are verbs that convey action and involve an object or more.

Example: learn, buy, sell, write, bring.

b) Intransitive verbs are Verbs that convey action and do not require an

object(s). Example: come, study, arrive, run, lie, work.

c) Be (is, am, are), have, and do are often called the main verb if a noun,

adjective, and adverb are used after it.

3) Adjectives

The adjective is a word that explains a person, a place, a thing. Adjectives are

used for nouns before and after (Harmer, 1998). Cute, poor, clever, for example.

Adjectives have various forms. Adjectives can be made into comparative such as

big-bigger-biggest. Then, compound adjectives also include in this research, for

example: good-looking.

4) Adverbs

The adverb is words used for defining verbs or adjectives. According to Vinh

(2013) The class of adverbs can be divided into two categories as follows in this

research:

a) Adverbs of manner

For Example: beautifully, well, fast, hard, quickly, etc.

b) Adverbs of sentence

For example: Honestly, fortunately, etc.

c. Grammatical Function Words

Grammatical function words build relations in one sentence between the

concepts. Though Halliday (1985) says that grammatical items are certain functions
 15

in a closed system so new words are not easily added. Grammatical feature words

may be all determiners, all pronouns, all prepositions, all conjunctures, all auxiliary

verbs, query terms, particles, all interjections, and some adverb groups.

1) Determiners

The determiner is words, phrases, or affixes that occur in conjunction with a

noun or noun phrase and serve to express the contextual reference to that noun or

noun phrase. Harmer (1998) says determiners are papers belonging to a word class.

Determiners are:

1) The definite article, for example, the

2) Indefinite article, for example, a, an

3) Possessive adjectives, for example, my, your, his, her, etc.

4) Quantifiers, for example, some, many, few, etc.

5) Difference word, for example, other, another.

6) Distributives, for example, all, both, half, either, neither, each, every.

7) Pre determiner, for example, such

8) Numeral, for example, ordinal number (first, second, etc.), and also cardinal

number (one, two, three, etc.).

2) Pronouns

According to Harmer (1998), pronouns are words used to substitute a noun or

a noun phrase. There are various kinds of pronouns,

a) Personal pronouns, for example, I, you, she, he, them.

b) Demonstrative pronouns, for example, this, that, these, those.

c) Possessive pronouns, for example, mine, yours, his, hers, its.

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d) Reflexive pronouns, for example, myself, yourself, himself, herself,

themselves.

e) Indefinite pronouns, for example, nothing, anyone, another, other.

3) Prepositions

According to Harmer (1998), prepositions are words that are used to show the

connection between other words. Prepositions also show the location (where and

when). For instance: under, since, on, in, at, in front of, next to, between.

4) Conjunctions

Conjunctions are words that link phrases, sentences, or clauses (Harmer, 1998).

There are various kinds of conjunctions:

a) Coordinating conjunctions, for example: for, and, nor, but, or, yet and so.

b) Subordinating conjunctions, for example: because, since, as, although,

though, while, and whereas.

c) Correlative conjunctions, for example: either, neither, not only/but also.

5) Auxiliary verbs

Auxiliary verbs are verbs that cannot stand alone but which help to blend with

another verb. Often known as finite verbs. There are different kinds of the auxiliary

verb:

a) Be (is, am, are, was, were, been)

b) Do (does, did)

c) Have (have, has, had)

d) Modals (can, could, may, might, must, must not, may not, ought to, shall,

should, will, would). (Vinh, 2013).

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6) Questions words

According to Nordquist (2018), the question word is indicated by the feature

word level. This word often occurs in the declaration as well as in the query. The

words that include the question words are how, what, where, why, and when.

7) Particles

A particle is a word that has a grammatical meaning but does not fit into the

main parts of speech (i.e. noun, verb, adverb). Particles are not changing. For

example, like no, as, or, to, along, away, back, down, forward, in, off, out, over,

round, under, up (Nordquist, 2017).

8) Interjections

An interjection, based on Merriam Webster's dictionary, is a part of speech that

demonstrates the author's emotion or feeling. These words or phrases can stand

alone or be put before or after a sentence. Most times the interjection is

accompanied by a punctuation mark, also a point of exclamation. For example, "Oh!

"Wow, man! "And so on, etc.

9) Some classes of adverb

It may be a temporal adverb (now, then, today, beforehand, always, later, then),

a locative adverb (here, there, below, above, outside, upstairs, indoors, etc.), a

degree adverb (very, too, rather, indeed, quite) and a negative and interrogative

adverb (not, never, when, where, how) (Vinh, 2013).

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3. Language Test

a. The Nature of Language Test

To know how well the teaching and learning process’s outcome is, it should be

measured by the teacher. The teacher may gather information or have a concept by

assessing whether the teaching and learning activity was effective or not.

Besides, there are several ways of assessing the learning process. Testing is one

way of doing so. The test is generally designed to motivate the learner and provide

continuity to the portions of the studied material at different times. It may be a tool

for proving learning ability.

There are some definitions for the test. Penny Ur (1996: 34) said, "Tests are

used as a means of encouraging students to learn or review specific materials." This

means that the test is one of the motivations for students to learn or review materials

at their school.

Also, Fernandes (1984: 1) argues that the test is a systematic procedure to

examine a person's behavior and to explain it with the help of a numerical scale or

a category system.

While Airisian and Russel (2001: 9) argued that the test was a formal,

systematic procedure used to gather information on student achievement or other

cognitive abilities.

Furthermore, according to Linn (2008: 5), "a test is a common form of

assessment usually consisting of a series of questions conducted for all students

over a specified time under relatively comparable conditions."

Based on the above concepts, it can be inferred that the test is the different

types of assessment to improve learning and inspire students by providing a task or

 19

a series of tasks. Through the exam, the teacher not only tests and motivates the

skill of the students but also improves the learning process of teaching. The teacher

needs accurate and reliable data to make a proper decision. Therefore, a good

assessment instrument is required.

b. The Kind of Test

There are several different types of tests used to assess the performance of

students. Five types of tests are widely used by teachers in the classroom according

to Brown (2004).

1) Language Aptitude Test

The first test form is the aptitude test of the language. The language aptitude

test is intended to assess the potential or general ability to learn a foreign language

and the overall success of the undertaking's language aptitude tests is theoretically

intended to extend to the learning of any language in the classroom. Finnachiaro

and Salo (1993: 7) refer to it as prognostic or predictive tests that are designed to

predict the possible ability of the participant to learn a language before starting a

language study. Looking at the "predict" concept, it can be recognized that these

tests provide some indication as to whether, how well, and how quickly a person is

likely to be successful in learning.

In addition to this, Valette (1997: 5) also states that the aptitude test is a

prognostic predictor which shows that a student is likely to easily learn a second

language.

2) Proficiency Test
 20

If the objective is to assess global language competence. The proficiency test

is conventionally used to know and understand the capabilities of the test-takers.

The proficiency test is not limited to a single language course, curriculum, or ability.

It checks the overall capability. Traditionally, the proficiency exam consisted of

standardized multi-choice items on grammar, vocabulary, reading comprehension,

and audio comprehension.

According to Arthur (2003: 11), Proficiency tests are designed to assess the

competence of participants in a language, no matter what learning they may have

in that language. The content of the proficiency test is based on a specification of

what participants need to be able to do in the language to be specifically trained.

Although Harrison (1983: 7-8) notes that the primary objective of the

proficiency test is to evaluate the student's ability to apply what he has practiced in

specific situations. It seeks to understand the problem: "Having studied

tremendously, what can the student do with it? “. It is hoped that the test-taker will

know their language skills, particularly in English after completing this exam.

The Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) developed by the

Education Testing Service is a typical example of a standardized proficiency test.

TOEFL is used by more than thousands of higher education institutions as a

measure of the ability of prospective students to pursue academic work in the

English-speaking world. TOEFL consists of sections on listening comprehension,

structure (or grammar accuracy), reading comprehension, and written language.

3) Placement Test
 21

Certain proficiency tests can serve as placement tests. The primary purpose of

the placement test is to provide information that will help to place students in groups

according to their language proficiency at the beginning of the program (Heaton,

1990: 15). They will start the class at the same level as the other students in the

class.

The placement test typically, but not always, involves sampling the material to

be studied in the different courses in the curriculum; the student's success on the

test should indicate the point at which the student will find the material neither too

simple, nor too difficult, but sufficiently challenging (Brown, 2004: 45). Such a test

should be as general as possible and should focus on assessing a wide and

representative spectrum of language skills (Heaton, 1990: 15). It should also avoid

concentrating on limited areas of language and particular skills. As a consequence,

questions assessing general language skills may form a significant aspect of a

placement test.

For example, how well a student can complete a test of reading stories in

English is barely important if the class focuses almost exclusively on listening and

speaking skills.

4) Diagnostic test

The diagnostic test is intended to diagnose particular aspects of a language. For

example, a pronunciation test might diagnose the phonological features of English

that are difficult for learners to learn and should become part of the curriculum. The

main goal of the diagnostic test is also to determine the causes of learning

disabilities and then to establish a plan for remedial action. The diagnostic test is
 22

therefore intended to recognize learning disabilities in the teaching and learning

process.

5) Achievement Test

The achievement test is related to classroom lessons, units, or even the overall

curriculum. An achievement test is (should be) restricted to specific material

presented within a specific timeframe and is offered after a course has concentrated

on the objectives in question. Achievement tests can also play the diagnostic

function of indicating what the student wants to continue working on in the future,

but the primary role of the achievement test is to assess if the goals of the course

have been met and the required knowledge and skills learned by the end of the entire

semester.

According to Hughes (2003: 13), the achievement test is directly linked to the

language course, the purpose of which is to assess how successful individual

students, groups of students, or courses themselves have been in achieving their

objectives.

Furthermore, another specialist, Tinambunan (1998: 9) believes a test of

achievement is constructed to indicate the degree of progress of students in certain

past learning activities. This objective of the achievement test varies from the intent

of the aptitude test, where the aptitude test is meant to predict progress for any future

learning activities, while achievement tests are intended to illustrate the degree of

success in some previous learning activities.

 23

c. The Principle of Language Assessment

When a teacher is considering making a test, she or he has to recognize the

specific test of each case relevant to the objective, time, and subject. However, the

most critical question teacher should ask is whether or not the test is effective. To

"test a test," Brown (2004: 19) suggests five criteria: practicality, reliability,

validity, authenticity, and washback. Yet, in this case, the writer would like to

emphasize more about validity.

4. Validity
By far the most complex criteria for a successful test-and perhaps the most

significant principle-is validity, "the extent to which the inferences made on the

outcome of the evaluation are relevant, meaningful, and useful in terms of the

purpose of the assessment" (Gronlund, 1998: 226). A valid reading ability test tests

reading ability – not 20/20 vision, or prior knowledge in a theme, or any other

variable of questionable relevance. To test writing skills, one might ask students to

write as many words as they can in 15 minutes, and then simply count the words to

the final score. Such a test would be feasible to organize (practical) and the score

would be very accurate (accurate). But it would not constitute a valid test of writing

ability without some consideration of comprehensibility, rhetorical discourse

elements, and the organization of ideas, among other factors.

1) Content-Relate Evidence

If the test actually samples the subject matter to which conclusion is to be

drawn, and if the test-takers are expected to conduct the activity that is being tested,

it can claim content-related evidence of validity, sometimes referred to as content

 24

validity. it will be typically observed content-related evidence if you can identify

the achievement you evaluate.

2) Criterion-Related Evidence

The second evidence of the validity of a test may be found in what is called

criterion-related evidence, also referred to as criterion-related validity or the extent

to which the “criterion” of the test has been reached. Brown (2004) clarified that it

is possible to show the criterion-related validity by contrasting the assessment

outcome with the outcome of some other test of the same criterion. Criterion-related

evidence is usually divided into two categories: concurrent and predictive validity.

A test has concurrent validity when another concurrent performance beyond the test

itself supports its outcome. In the case of placement tests, admission assessment

batteries, language aptitude tests, and the like, the predictive validity for these tests

becomes substantial. In such cases, the assessment criterion is not to measure

concurrent ability but to evaluate (and predict) the future success of a test taker.

3) Construct-Related Evidence

The third form of evidence that can support validity, but which does not play

such a large role as a classroom teacher, is construct-related validity, usually

referred to as construct validity. A construct is any theory, hypothesis, or model that

attempts to explain the phenomena found in our universe of perceptions. Constructs

may or may not be evaluated explicitly or empirically-their verification also

involves inferential data.

4) Consequential Validity
 25

As well as the three generally recognized types of evidence that can be

introduced to support the validity of the assessment, two other categories may be of

some interest and use in a personal quest to validate the classroom exam.

Consequential validity includes all the implications of the test, including factors

such as its accuracy in the calculation of the intended parameters, its effect on the

training of the test-takers, its effect on the learner, and the (intended and

unintended) social consequences of the perception and use of the test.

5) Face Validity

A significant aspect of consistency is the extent to which "students consider the

evaluation to be realistic, meaningful and useful for enhancing learning" (Gronlund,

1998: 210) or what is generally known as face validity. "Face validity refers to the

degree to which the test is accurate and tends to measure the information or abilities

which it seeks to measure based on the subjective opinion of the examiners who

take it, the administrative staff who decode its use, and other psychometrically

unsophisticated observers" (Mousavi, 2002: 244).

B. Relevant Studies
Relevant studies are previous studies that have been conducted by other

researchers used as the references for a researcher to conduct new research related

to that field. Numerous researchers conducted lexical density analysis in different

materials. A previous study conducted by Sari (2016), Measuring Quality of

Reading Materials in English Textbook: The Use of Lexical Density Method in

Assessing Complexity of Reading Materials of Indonesia’s Curriculum – 13 (K13)

English Textbook. due to its selected reading text by measuring its lexical density
 26

using Ure’s formula. This study also compared the reading text between different

class levels (class X, class, XI, and class XII) to figure out whether or not the lexical

density index would increase according to the level of text complexities within

those classes. The results showed that higher text levels did not automatically

guarantee higher indexes of lexical density. In other words, the levels of text

analyzed in this study did not match the expected lexical density index.

Ramadhan (2017) attempted to investigate whether or not the reading text in

the "English On Sky" textbook for the 8th Grade of Junior High School was

appropriate and met the content of the curriculum. How this data collection study

is the same as the first study above which collected the document (reading texts)

found in the textbook and measured its lexical density using Ure's formula.

Contrasting with the study of Sari, the study of Ramadhan did not compare this

book to the other book from different class levels. In an Erlangga English Textbook,

it showed that there was no reading text in the textbook that was categorized as high

lexical density. The reading texts were categorized as low and moderate lexical

density as 12 reading texts were categorized as low lexical density (40%-50%

lexical density percentage) and 12 reading texts were categorized as moderate

lexical density (50%-60% lexical density percentage). The highest percentage of

lexical density reading text found in the textbook was 57.72% entitled "Camping."

Meanwhile, the lowest percentage of lexical density reading text was 41.61 percent,

entitled “None of your business!”.

Manurung (2019) investigated ten (10) reading texts from the "Bahasa Inggris"

textbook to find out the lexical items and the dominant kind of lexical items in the
 27

second grade of Sma Imelda Swasta Medan reading text. The results of the analysis

showed that 7 texts in the textbook were categorized as a medium with

approximately 50% and 3 texts were categorized as low lexical density with a

percentage less than 50%. It meant that students might be able to comprehend the

text easily. Students were not given high lexical density or difficult text in Sma

Imelda Medan which meant the textbooks were also ideal for the teaching and

learning process.

Cadime et.al (2013) collected construct and criterion-related evidence of

validity for a reading comprehension test (TCL - Teste de Compreensão da Leitura)

with three vertically scaled forms, designed to assess students from second, third,

and fourth grade. There were two studies conducted here. In the first (n = 1,229),

confirmatory factor analysis was performed to analyze the test dimensionality. In

the second (n= 402), concurrent and predictive evidence of validity was analyzed

using correlations between TCL, other reading tests, and academic achievement.

The results indicated that TCL was a valid instrument for measuring the reading

comprehension abilities of Portuguese students. The TCL was constructed as a

response to the necessity of formal reading comprehension tests for Portuguese

students in elementary school. The lack of formal tests with strong and well-studied

psychometric properties limited the possibilities of identifying students performing

below their reference-grade group and examining performance changes. As a valid

and reliable instrument, the TCL allowed not only the detection of students who

were performing poorly but also the evaluation of changes in reading

comprehension across grades because total raw scores could be converted to

 28

percentiles and/or to standardized scores, which were placed on the same metric

across test forms.

Another study was conducted by Alavi (2012) in investigating the probable

relationship between English scores of high school and pre-university with the

English scores of the learners in the (INUEEE) Iranian National University

Entrance English Exam. To find out the relationships, a sample of 42 students

randomly was selected out of the whole population of Pre-university students in

Naghadeh, West Azerbaijan. The students' final English scores in grades three and

pre-university 1 and 2 were collected from the school archives and all sets of scores

were correlated with the student's scores on INUEEE. The results of the study

showed that there was a positive relationship between each of the exams and

INUEEE, separately and in combination. All the hypotheses that he had raised were

confirmed at different levels of significance. However, as mentioned above, the

lack of a high correlation between the variables did not allow the researchers to use

the exams in question for predictive purposes. the tests which they constructed for

final exams (high school and pre-university) did not have a very high relationship

with INUEEE, though the contents were the same. This study was not intended to

dwell on the possible reasons for these low relationships.

From the articles reviewed, it can be seen that the previous researchers had not

utilized lexical density for evidence of validity for a reading comprehension test.

To fill this gap, this study was conducted to prove if the lexical density is related to

the evidence of validity for a reading comprehension test.

 29

C. Conceptual Framework

In the realm of text analysis, lexical density is used to measure the ratio of

content words to the running words in any passage or written text. Lexical items or

content words are those which contain the main information in the text. It means

that lexical density measures the lexical density of information in any passage of

text. It is the measurement of how much information is provided in the text. Hence,

lexical density is employed by many researchers to discover the level of difficulty

of material in textbooks or other publications.

One of the most important aspects of the teaching-learning process is

evaluation. The test is one of the forms to evaluate students’ ability which is usually

used by the teachers to know how far the students master the lesson. A proper test

will help the teacher to measure students’ abilities precisely. As a test maker, it is

really necessary to make a test to be well constructed so that the material is not

going to be too difficult or too easy for the students in general.

In this study, the researcher is interested to find out the connecting line between

the lexical density’s reading comprehension test and test validity. While textbooks,

worksheets, or students’ writing products are commonly used as the object of

lexical density analysis. None of the researchers have ever tried to apply lexical

density as the evidence of test validity of the reading comprehension test.

In doing this research, the researcher will use a descriptive quantitative design.

To answer the research problem in this study, the researcher will conduct two

different reading comprehension tests (the first is designed by the researcher with

low and high lexical density and the second is based on the TOEFL test as a
 30

standardized test). The scores for both tests (samples) will be evaluated the degree

of the coefficient of the correlation and compared its coefficient of reading

comprehension test with low and high lexical density.

Reading Lexical Density Sholichatun, (2011), Vinh to et al (2013),

comprehension (aspect in Nesia (2014), and Khamahani (2015)
test analysing the highlighted that the sentences with high
content of the lexical density will be more difficult or
texts) complicated than the sentences with low
lexical density.

Content words Grammatical function words

Nouns, verbs, Determiners, pronouns,

adjectives, and adverbs prepositions, conjunctions, to be,
interjections, question words, etc.

Content related evidence

Concurrent validity
The principle Criterion related evidence
of language Predictive validity
Construct related evidence
assessment
Consequential validity

Face validity

Brown (2004: 22) argued that

there is no final, absolute
measure of validity, but several
different kinds of evidence may
be invoked in support.

Figure 2. 1 Conceptual Framework

D. Hypothesis

The statistic hypothesis states:

Ho: there is no significant correlation between lexical density’s reading

comprehension test and test validity

 31

Ha: there is a significant correlation between lexical density’s reading

comprehension test and test validity.

 CHAPTER III

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

One of the main factors in the research process is methodology. By using the

appropriate method, the research process will achieve a clear result. This chapter

will present the method used in this research. It will cover discussion about research

design, data, and source of the data, procedures of collecting for collecting data,

and techniques for analyzing data.

A. Research Design
This research will be conducted by applying a descriptive quantitative design.

Sudijono (1987) claimed that the descriptive quantitative method is a method that

describes the state of a phenomenon that has been done by the measuring instrument

then, processed following the function. In other words, descriptive quantitative data

must be structured and interpreted the numeric data to provide a regular, concise,

and clear view of a phenomenon or event.

In this research, the writer will find out and describe the correlation between

lexical density and validity of reading comprehension tests to describe evidence that

lexical density can be used to validate texts in reading comprehension tests.

B. Population and Sample

In this research, the population will be all students who come from the eleventh

grade of the science program and social science program of SMA Swasta Dr.

Wahidin Sudirohusodo in the year academic 2020/2021. The total number of

students in the second year is about 263 students in 8 different classes.

35
 36

Because the population is too large or too wide to be reached so it is not

possible to collect the data on the entire population. The researcher must gather the

data take from part of the population involving in this research. The data will be

taken from students among the population, which will be considered as a sample.

The sample is a subset of a population, a collection of several population

members that represent the population (Suparno, 2011: 6). Sharpe (2007: 66) also

argued that the Sample for a correlation study is selected using an acceptable

sampling method, and 30 subjects are generally considered to be a minimally

acceptable sample size. In order to maximize the time and simplify the process of

the research, the researcher will use “Cluster Random Sampling” by choosing one

class. This research will use one class sample, which will be XI-IPA 1 which is

containing 32 students.

C. Research variable
The research involved two variables, namely the predictor variable, which is

lexical density, and the criterion variable which is reading comprehension test

validity. The validity of the reading comprehension test is considered as concurrent

related validity. Brown (2004) states that a test has concurrent validity if its results

are supported by other concurrent performance beyond the assessment itself. To

determine this type of validity of the reading comprehension test validity will be

conducted by correlating the results of the reading comprehension test with the

results of the reading comprehension of the TOEFL test as the standard, while the

lexical density will be taken as a predictor of the reading comprehension test made

by the researcher. Visually, this design is presented as follows:

 37

X1 Y
Reading Comprehension Reading Comprehension
With Low Lexical Density rx1y TOEFL Test

X2

Reading Comprehension rx2y

With High Lexical Density

Figure 3. 1 Design of Research variable

D. The instrument for Collecting Data

The data which will be collected is the score of three reading comprehension

tests (test with low-density text, high-density text, and reading comprehension

TOEFL test). Therefore, this research will use a written test as an instrument for

collecting the data. Three of the reading comprehension tests will consist of 10

questions of multiple choices. By using these tests, the researcher will obtain a value

of the data or the results of students’ achievement, that these data will be processed

to determine the relationship of lexical density and validity of reading

comprehension test.

E. The procedure of Collecting for Collecting Data

In conducting this written test, itself, the researcher will go through several

steps as follows:

1. The reading comprehension tests will be constructed by the researcher

considering the lexical density of lexical; low lexical density (X1) and high
 38

lexical density (X2). The texts and the questions will be adapted from the

student’s book of English Elevator International by Michael Downie and

David Gray with the various genre as well.

2. Reading comprehension of the TOEFL test (Y) will be conducted on the

same day by adopted the questions from the TOEFL book by Longman

3. Each of the reading comprehension tests will consist of 10 question items

and will be administered in one classroom with the allocation of time about

20 minutes for each test.

4. Checking the score for the answers. every number will have the same score

i.e. 10 points for each correct answer and gets zero for each incorrect

answer.

F. Techniques for Analyzing Data

To analyze the data, the researcher will use the analysis as follows:

1. Gathering the scores from the samples (students) achieved from each of the

reading comprehension tests, then correlating it to the scores achieved by

the samples from the reading comprehension of the TOEFL test, as shown

in the research design.

2. Correlating the three groups of the data by using a simple correlation of

Pearson Product moment.

 39

In which:

r: correlation coefficient between X and Y

ΣXY: the result of multiplying scores between X and Y for each respondent
ΣX2: the score of squared in X (X is the score for each test item)
ΣY2: the score of squared in Y (Y is the total correct answer score)
n: the number of students taking the test

3. Evaluating the degree of the coefficient of correlation between the reading

comprehension made by the researcher of both with low and high lexical

density and the reading comprehension of the TOEFL test by using a

minimal standard of the acceptable coefficient of correlation, that is r= 0.85

as the indicator of concurrent validity.

4. Comparing the coefficient correlation of reading comprehension test with

low lexical density and with high lexical density.

5. Checking the hypothesis testing, whether or not there is a positive

correlation between lexical density and validity of reading comprehension

test. This hypothesis has one dependent variable and also one independent

variable.
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Waruwu, N. R. (2018). LEXICAL DENSITY AND READABILITY IN

ENGLISH FOR JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL VIII TEXTBOOK (Doctoral

dissertation, UNIMED).
 APPENDIX A

STUDENTS’ PREVIOUS FINAL EXAMINATION TEST

Kelas : X MIPA 1
Institusi Sekolah : SMA Swasta Dr. Wahidin Sudirohusodo

Malin Kundang
Once upon a time, a poor family as consisting of a mother and her son named
Malin Kundang. Because his father had left him, the mother must work hard to be
able to raise a family.
Malin was a wise son but a little bit naughty. When he was about to grow up,
Malin felt sorry for his mother who always used to work hard. Then, Malin asked
permission looking for a job in the big city.
“Mom, I want to go to town. I want to work to be able to help mom here “.
asked Malin.
“Don’t leave mother alone, son. Mom only has you here. “said the mother
refused.
“Let me go, mom. I feel pity seeing mom keep working until now,” said Malin.
“Well son, but remember don’t forget mom and this village when you have
succeeded there,” Said the sad mother.
The next day, Malin went to the big city by using a ship. After several years
of hard work, he has succeeded in the big city. Malin is a wealthy man who even
had some merchant ships now. And Malin had married a beautiful woman there.
The news of Malin who became a wealthy man was heard by his mother. The
mother was very happy to hear it. She is always waiting at the beach every day,
hoping her only son will be back and took his mother with him. But, Malin never
came back.
One day Malin’s wife asked about Malin’s mother and wanted to meet with
him. Malin was not able to resist the desires of the lovely wife. Then, Malin
prepared the journey to his village using a pretty great ship. Eventually, the Malin
came to his village along with his wife and his crewmen.
Hearing the arrival of Malin, his mother felt very excited. she even ran to the
beach immediately to see her son.
“is it my son, Malin, isn’t it? This your mother, do you remember me? “. asked
her mother.
“Malin Kundang, my son, why were you going so long without sending me any
news?” He said while hugging Malin Kundang.
His wife, who was surprised at the fact that the filthy old lady who embraced
her husband, said: “So, the filthy old lady, is your mother, Malin “. Because of
feeling ashamed, Malin Kundang soon let go of his mother’s arms and pushed him
to fall.
“I don’t know who are you, poor old woman,” said Malin. “I have no idea who
is this old lady. She just claimed herself as my mother “. Bellowed Malin in a high
voice.

44
 45

Hearing the words of his son like that, the mother feels sad and angry. She did
not expect her beloved son has turned into a rebellious son.
“Oh my God, if it is true that he is a son of mine, I beg you, give a doom on him.”
Her mom is wrath and prayed to god.
Shortly, the wind and the thunder rumbled hitting Malin’s ships and destroy
them. After that, the body of Malin Kundang is stiffed and then turned into the rock
with coral.

Choose the True one between these choices

1. Who is Malin?
a. A son who loves his mother
b. A son who cares for his mother
c. A son who betrays his mother
d. A son who was always with his mother
e. A daughter who loves her father

2. What does Malin’s mother do to Malin?

a. Leave malin alone
b. accompany malin until the end of the time
c. Curse malin into a rock
d. apologize malin
e. feed him some food

3. Where does Malin meet his mother?

a. In his home
b. on a beach
c. In the cafe
d. in a station
e. at the lake

4. What does Malin's wife do?

a. Care with Malin's mom
b. Love Malin's mom
c. Did not care about Malin's mom
d. Talk to Malin's mom
e. Cook some food

5. What do you learn from the story of Malin Kundang?

a. Never be a cruel son/daughter
b. Leave our old mom
c. give our mom money
d. Meet our mom
e. It’s good to hate your mom

6. What did malin say to his mom before he went to the sea?
 46

a. Malin never be back

b. He promises to be back
c. He will forget his mom
d. He will give his mom much money
e. He said “goodbye”

7. How many actors are in the story of Malin Kundang?

a. Three actors
b. Two actors
c. One actor
d. Nothing
e. Four actors

8. Where does the story come from?

a. Jakarta
b. West sumatera
c. South sumatera
d. North Smatera
e. North Sulawesi

9. Who is the main actor in that story?

a. Malin kundang
b. Malin’s mom
c. Malin’s wife
d. Malin’s society
e. The writer

10. Why does Malin meet his mom?

a. He misses his mom
b. He will give much money to his mom
c. He accepts a request from his wife
d. He wants to hug his mom
e. There is something important to say

B.J. HABIBIE.
Habibie was born in Parepare, South Sulawesi, a son of Alwi Abdul Jalil
Habibie and R. A. Tuti Marini Puspowardojo. His father was an agriculturist from
Gorontalo and his mother was a Javanese noblewoman from Yogyakarta. His
parents met while studying in Bogor. Habibie's father died when he was 14 years
old.
Habibie started to study aviation and aerospace at the University of Delft
(Netherlands) but for political reasons (West New Guinea dispute, which involved
 47

Netherlands and Indonesia), he had to continue his study in Aachen, Germany. He

was appointed as a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering in 1990.
In 1960, Habibie received a degree in engineering in Germany, giving him
the title Diploma-Engineer. He remained in Germany as a research assistant under
Hans Ebner at the Lehrstuhl und Institut für Leichtbau, RWTH Aachen to research
his doctoral degree.
In 1962, Habibie returned to Indonesia for three months on sick leave.
During this time, he was re-acquainted with Hasri Ainun, the daughter of R.
Mohamad Besari. Habibie had known Hasri Ainun since their childhood, junior
high school, and senior high school at SMA Kristen Dago (Dago Christian Senior
High School), Bandung. When Habibie's minimum wage salary forced him to did
part-time work, he found his job with the Automotive Marque Talbot, where he
became an advisor. Habibie worked on two projects which received funding from
Deutsche Bundes Bahn due to his work with Makosh, the head of train constructions
offered his position to Habibie upon retirement three years later, but Habibie
refused. Habibie accepted a position with Messerschmitt-Bölkow-Blohm in
Hamburg. There, he developed theories on thermodynamics, construction, and
aerodynamics known as the Habibie Factor, Habibie Theorem, and Habibie
Method, respectively. He worked for Messerschmitt on the development of the
Airbus A-300B Aircraft. In 1974, he was promoted to be a vice president of the
company.
In 1974, Suharto recruited Habibie to return to Indonesia as part of Suharto's
drive to industrialize and develop the country. Habibie initially served as a special
assistant to Ibnu Sutowo, the CEO of a state oil company, Pertamina. Two years
later, in 1976, Habibie was made Chief Executive Officer of the new state-owned
enterprise Industri Pesawat Terbang Nusantara (IPTN). (In 1985, PT. Nurtanio
changed its name to the Indonesian Aviation Industry and is now known as
Indonesian Aerospace (Dirgantara). In 1978, he was appointed as Minister of
Research and Technology. Habibie was elected as Vice President in March 1998;
Suharto publicly announced his resignation and Habibie was immediately sworn in
as president. Habibie’s government stabilized the economy in the face of the Asian
financial crisis and the chaos of the last few months of Suharto’s presidency.
Since relinquishing the presidency, he has spent more time in Germany than in
Indonesia, though he was active during Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's presidency
In September 2006, he released a book called Detik-Detik Yang Menentukan: Jalan
Panjang Indonesia Menuju Demokrasi (Decisive Moments: Indonesia's Long Road
Towards Democracy). The book recalled the events of May 1998.
11. What kind of genre does the text above belong to?
a. Personal recount.
b. Historical recount.
 48

c. Biographical recount.
d. Imaginative.
e. Narrative.

12. The generic structure of the text above is……….

a. Orientation – complication – resolution.
b. Orientation – series of events - reorientation.
c. Orientation - events - twist.
d. Identification - description.
e. Reorientaation – events – orientation.

13. What is the purpose of the text above?

a. To entertain the readers with histories.
b. To amuse the reader with a scary story.
c. To tell the writer experience.
d. To describe the biography.
e. To inform the readers.

14. "Trying hard to win the beauty contest", Ita neglected all her school
assignments.
a. if she tried
b. although she tried
c. before she tried
d. since she tried
e. after she tried

15. I……this scissors to cut the grass yesterday

a. Cuted b. cuting c.cut d.be cutted e. cutted
16. ………he read novel last night?
a. Do b. did c. done d. are e. doing
17. We …. to aceh two weeks ago
a. Gone b. come c. went d. go e.
going
18. They……. this music two hours ago
a. Listened b. listen c.listening d.be listen e. listen

19. James asked me, “Did you and Andi go to a market yesterday?”
a. James asked me if you and Andi go to a market yesterday.
b. James asked me if I and Andi had gone to a market the day before
c. James asked me if I and Andi has gone to a market the day before
 49

d. James asked me if I and Andi went to a market the day before

e. James asked me that you and Andi go to a market yesterday.

20. Indah asked, “What is your dream in the future?”

a. Indah wanted to know what is your dream in the future
b. Indah wanted to know what is my dream in the future
c. Indah wanted to know what my dream in the future is
d. Indah wanted to know what my dream in the future was
e. Indah wanted to know if my dream in the future was

21. My mother told me, “Don’t open the window now!”

a. My mother told me not to open the window at that time
b. My mother told me don’t open the window at that time
c. My mother told me didn’t open the window at that time
d. My mother told me not to open the window now
e. My mother told me that not to open the window now

22. The student said, “I begin to understand how the sewing machine works”
a. The student wanted to know if he began to understand how the sewing
machine works
b. The student asked me if he began to understand how the sewing machine
worked
c. The student said that he began to understand how the sewing machine
worked
d. The student said that he begins to understand how the sewing machine
works
e. The student wanted to know what he began to understand how the
sewing machine works

23. When we came home last night we saw a man ____ to get on our roof.
a. Try b. tried c. he tries d. to try e.
trying
24. The first school day is a frightening experience for many children. The
underlined phrase means ;an experience ____ many children.
a. that frightens
b. it frightens
c. who frightens
d. which will frightens
e. it is frightening
 50

25. Talking excitedly to each other, they forgot to finish the exercises. The
underlined word means ____, they forgot to finish the exercises.
a. Although they talked excitedly
b. In order that they could talk excitedly
c. Because they were talking excitedly
d. When they had talked excitedly
e. If they talked excitedly

26. Being an outstanding student in our school, he has been offered a

scholarship to study in Australia. The underlined words means ____ of our
school.
a. If he is an outstanding student
b. Although he is an outstanding student
c. When he is an outstanding student
d. As he is an outstanding student
e. Before he is an outstanding student

27. "Have you been informed about the exact number of victims of the airplane
crash?" "Yes, ....... to the headquarters of Garuda."
a. they are faxed
b. has faxed
c. the victims fax
d. it has been faxed
e. was fax it

28. "The hotel is suffering a great loss." "Yes, only ten perfect of their rooms
......
a. being occupied
b. occupied
c. is occupied
d. are occupied
e. they are occupied

29. “Why aren't you driving your own car?" “It ..... “
a. has sold
b. has to sell
c. has been selling
d. has been sold
e. has to be sold
 51

30. "Why can't I find the file on the annual report in the computer?" "Because
it .... in the hard disk."
a. was not saving
b. not saved
c. did not saved
d. not being saved
e. was not saved
 APPENDIX B

LEXICAL DENSITY ANALYSIS OF FINAL EXAM

Text 1

1. The content words are marked in bold and grammatical function words are marked in

italics.

Malin Kundang
Once upon a time, there was a poor family consisting of a mother and her son
named Malin Kundang. Because his father had left him, the mother must work
hard to be able to raise a family.
Malin was a wise son but a little bit naughty. When he was about to grow up,
Malin felt sorry for his mother who always used to work hard. Then, Malin
asked permission looking for a job in the big city.
“Mom, I want to go to town. I want to work to be able to help mom here “.
asked Malin.
“Don’t leave mother alone, son. Mom only have you here. “said the mother
refused.
“Let me go, mom. I feel pity seeing mom keep working until now.” said
Malin.
“Well son, but remember don’t forget mom and this village when you have
succeeded there,” Said the sad mother.
The next day, Malin went to the big city by using a ship. After several years
of hard work, he has succeeded in the big city. Malin is a wealthy man who even
had a number of merchant ships now. And Malin had married with a beautiful
woman there. The news of Malin who became a wealthy man was heard by his
mother. The mother was very happy to hear it. She is always waiting at the beach
every day, hoping her only son will be back and took his mother with him. But,
Malin never came back.
One day Malin’s wife asked about Malin’s mother and wanted to meet with
him. Malin was not able to resist the desires of the lovely wife. Then, Malin
prepared the journey to his village using a pretty great ship. Eventually, the
Malin came to his village along with his wife and his crewmen.
Hearing the arrival of Malin, his mother felt very excited. she even ran to
the beach immediately to see her son.
“is it my son, Malin, isn’t it? This your mother, do you remember me? “.
asked her mother.
“Malin Kundang, my son, why were you going so long without sending me
any news?” He said while hugging Malin Kundang.
His wife, who was surprised at the fact that the filthy old lady who embraced
her husband, said: “So, the filthy old lady, is your mother, Malin “. Because of

52
 53

feeling ashamed, Malin Kundang soon let go off his mother’s arms and pushed
him to fall.
“I don’t know who are you, poor old woman,” said Malin. “I have no idea
who is this old lady. She just claimed herself as my mother “. Bellowed Malin in
a high voice.
Hearing the words of his son like that, the mother feels sad and angry. She
did not expect her beloved son has turned into a rebellious son.
“Oh my God, if it is true that he is a son of mine, I beg you, give a doom on him.”
Her mom is wrath and prayed to god.
Shortly, the wind and the thunder rumbled hitting Malin’s ships and
destroy them. After that, the body of Malin Kundang is stiffed and then turned
into the rock with coral.

2. Out of 527 words, this text has 244 content words and 283 grammatical function

words.

3. Counting the portion of lexical density by using this formula.

𝑛𝑢𝑚𝑏𝑒𝑟 𝑜𝑓 𝑙𝑒𝑥𝑖𝑐𝑎𝑙 𝑤𝑜𝑟𝑑𝑠

𝐿𝑒𝑥𝑖𝑐𝑎𝑙 𝑑𝑒𝑛𝑠𝑖𝑡𝑦 = × 100
𝑡𝑜𝑡𝑎𝑙 𝑛𝑢𝑚𝑏𝑒𝑟 𝑜𝑓 𝑤𝑜𝑟𝑑𝑠
244
𝐿𝑒𝑥𝑖𝑐𝑎𝑙 𝑑𝑒𝑛𝑠𝑖𝑡𝑦 = × 100
527
𝐿𝑒𝑥𝑖𝑐𝑎𝑙 𝑑𝑒𝑛𝑠𝑖𝑡𝑦 = 46.29 %

4. This text had 46.29 % lexical density. Based on Khamahani (2015) this text is

categorized as a low lexical density, because the amount of lexical density less than

50%.

Text 2

1. The content words are marked in bold and grammatical function words are marked

in italics.

B.J. HABIBIE.
Habibie was born in Parepare, South Sulawesi, a son of Alwi Abdul Jalil
Habibie and R. A. Tuti Marini Puspowardojo. His father was an agriculturist
from Gorontalo and his mother was a Javanese noblewoman from Yogyakarta.
 54

His parents met while studying in Bogor. Habibie's father died when he was 14
years old.
Habibie started to study aviation and aerospace at the University of Delft
(Netherlands) but for political reasons (West New Guinea dispute, which
involved Netherlands and Indonesia), he had to continue his study in Aachen,
Germany. He was appointed as a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering
in 1990.
In 1960, Habibie received a degree in engineering in Germany, giving
him the title Diploma-Engineer. He remained in Germany as a research
assistant under Hans Ebner at the Lehrstuhl und Institut für Leichtbau,
RWTH Aachen to conduct research for his doctoral degree.
In 1962, Habibie returned to Indonesia for three months on sick leave.
During this time, he was re-acquainted with Hasri Ainun, the daughter of R.
Mohamad Besari. Habibie had known Hasri Ainun since their childhood,
junior high school and in senior high school at SMA Kristen Dago (Dago
Christian Senior High School), Bandung. When Habibie's minimum wage
salary forced him to did a part-time work, he found his job with the Automotive
Marque Talbot, where he became an advisor. Habibie worked on two projects
which received funding from Deutsche Bundes Bahn due to his work iMakosh,
the head of train constructions offered his position to Habibie upon retirement
three years later, but Habibie refused. Habibie accepted a position with
Messerschmitt-Bölkow-Blohm in Hamburg. There, he developed theories on
thermodynamics, construction, and aerodynamics known as the Habibie
Factor, Habibie Theorem, and Habibie Method, respectively. He worked for
Messerschmit on the development of the Airbus A-300B Aircraft. In 1974, he
was promoted to be a vice president of the company.
In 1974, Suharto recruited Habibie to return to Indonesia as part of
Suharto's drive to industrialize and develop the country. Habibie initially
served as a special assistant to Ibnu Sutowo, the CEO of state oil company,
Pertamina. Two years later, in 1976, Habibie was made Chief Executive Officer
of the new state-owned enterprise Industri Pesawat Terbang Nusantara
(IPTN). (In 1985, PT. Nurtanio changed its name to Indonesian Aviation
Industry and is now known as Indonesian Aerospace (Dirgantara). In 1978, he
was appointed as Minister of Research and Technology. Habibie was elected as
Vice President in March 1998; Suharto publicly announced his resignation and
Habibie was immediately sworn in as president. Habibie’s government
stabilized the economy in the face of the Asian financial crisis and the chaos of
the last few months of Suharto’s presidency.
Since relinquishing the presidency, he has spent more time in Germany than
in Indonesia, though he was active during Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's
 55

presidency In September 2006, he released a book called Detik-Detik Yang

Menentukan: Jalan Panjang Indonesia Menuju Demokrasi (Decisive
Moments: Indonesia's Long Road Towards Democracy). The book recalled the
events of May 1998.

2. Out of 501 words, this text has 286 content words and 215 grammatical function

words.

3. Counting the portion of lexical density by using this formula.

𝑛𝑢𝑚𝑏𝑒𝑟 𝑜𝑓 𝑙𝑒𝑥𝑖𝑐𝑎𝑙 𝑤𝑜𝑟𝑑𝑠

𝐿𝑒𝑥𝑖𝑐𝑎𝑙 𝑑𝑒𝑛𝑠𝑖𝑡𝑦 = × 100
𝑡𝑜𝑡𝑎𝑙 𝑛𝑢𝑚𝑏𝑒𝑟 𝑜𝑓 𝑤𝑜𝑟𝑑𝑠
286
𝐿𝑒𝑥𝑖𝑐𝑎𝑙 𝑑𝑒𝑛𝑠𝑖𝑡𝑦 = × 100
501

𝐿𝑒𝑥𝑖𝑐𝑎𝑙 𝑑𝑒𝑛𝑠𝑖𝑡𝑦 = 57.1 %

4. This text had 57.1% lexical density. Based on Khamahani (2015) this text is

categorized as a high lexical density, because the amount of lexical density surpasses

50%.