Assessment of Readability Level of Reading Materials in Indonesia EFL Textbooks

Abstract

The research aimed to assess the readability of reading material in two different English textbooks published by different publishers. Many pieces of research have been conducted to examine the reading materials in English textbooks, and it had been discovered that the reading materials were insufficiently adequate for the levels of students. The research applied a descriptive content analysis method to analyze, interpret, and describe the data. The Flesch Reading Ease formula was as an instrument. The research’s data were derived from the English textbook “Pathway to English” by Erlangga grade X and the English textbook “Bahasa Inggris” by The Ministry of Education and Culture grade X. Based on the findings of the research, five reading texts out of 15 match with students’ level (fairly difficult level) of grade X in the first textbook, while three texts out of 13 equal with students’ level (fairly difficult level) of grade X in the second textbook. Furthermore, the first textbook’s average readability score indicates that the texts are ‘standard’, whereas the second textbook indicates that the texts are ‘fairly difficult’. Based on the study findings, some recommendations for teachers are to use the readability formulas to provide appropriate reading material for students, as well as for other researchers to conduct a larger context about readability.

Attitudes and Support Strategies of Parents to Promote English-Indonesian Bilingualism in Children

“…For the resources and materials, many parents rely on materials such as books and television shows. Parents with English skills, prefer live interaction and reading books aloud to improve their children's vocabulary and conversation skills (Fata et al, 2020;Fata et al, 2022). Relating to this, King and Fogle (2006) state that many parents they interviewed also relied heavily on commercial language materials such as books, videos, television programs, and music CDs to help their children learn languages.…”

Are they finely tuned?: Mapping the CEFR level of the reading texts of the English textbook for grade 10 of Indonesian senior high school

“…not an uncommon phenomenon. Studies byFata, Komariah, and Alya (2022), Hakim, Setyaningsih, and Cahyaningrum (2021), Handayani, Furaidah, and Ivone (2021), and Hanifa, Wahyuni, and Haryati, S. (2022, for example, although focusing on the readability of the passages of Indonesian senior high school textbooks developed within the framework of the 2013 curriculum, also identified similar phenomena. Mostly, these studies found that a great number of the passages examined were below the students' English proficiency level which is in contrast to the findings of the present study.…”

Text readability: its impact on reading comprehension and reading time

“…Given the possibility that text readability has an impact on comprehension, it is difficult to accept that studies of text readability in the EFL context are extremely scarce. Several studies have been conducted focusing on matching the readability level of reading materials to the language proficiency levels of intended readers [26]- [28], text readability and readers' perceived readability [29], and the interaction between text readability and the level of task difficulty [22]. We found only one study, which was slightly related to the aim of this study, but the study was more focused on assessing the relationship between students' challenge in understanding inference text-based questions and the readability of the reading text [30].…”