An Analysis Lexical Density of English Reading Text in SMA SWASTA IMELDA MEDAN

Abstract

The objectives of the study was to find out the lexical density for lexical items and the dominant kind of lexical items in reading text of the second grade of SMA IMELDA SWASTA MEDAN. This study was conducted by mixed method. Quantitative research was conducted by result of Lexical Density from the textbook. Qualitative research was conducted by English teacher’s interview. The data of this study was the “Bahasa Inggris” textbook published by kemendikbud. This study was done by analysing ten ( 10 ) reading text from the “Bahasa Inggris “ textbook. The writer uses Ure’s theory ( 1971 : 445) to calculate lexical density is the porportion of the number of content word per total word. The result of analysis showed that : (1) seven text are categories medium lexical density the text are : text 1 was 54%, text 3 was 58 %, text 5 was 52%, text 5 was 52 %, text 6 was 50%, text 7 was 52 % text 9 was 54 % and text 10 was 56 %. It meant that the text was easy to understand by students and three text were low lexical density, the text was text 2 is 48 %, text 4 is 46 %, text 8 is 48%. It meant that the text was easiest to understand in teaching reading. And there was no high lexical density that found in text, it refers there is no text that include the difficult text for students (2) the dominant kinds of lexical items that found in every text was noun. It meant noun was more use in every text because noun is easy to include new word. Based on interview which has been done between the teacher and the writer, it was found that the textbook is suitable for school, Although most of the students still lack vocabulary to comprehend the reading text. the writer concludes that the textbook are suitable for the second grade of SMA IMELDA MEDAN. The writer was suggested that the teacher can choose the appropriate teaching reading strategy to improve students’ reading comprehension