The Dominant Factors Affecting Readability Levels in an English Textbook entitled “English on Target”

Siti Muazizah, Joko Nurkamto

Abstract

This study aims to investigate the readability of reading texts and the factors affecting readability based on Flesch Reading Ease Formula (1949), Dale-Chall (1949), and Coh-Metrix (2004). This research is a qualitative study that uses descriptive content analysis. The data source in this study is an English textbook entitled “English on Target” for eleventh-grade students and the data are collected by doing document analysis. To analyze the data, the interactive model proposed by Miles, Huberman, and Saldana (2014) is used in this study. The results of this study show that only a few reading texts in the textbook have suitable readability levels for eleventh-grade students. Based on each readability formula, there are four texts (Flesch Reading Ease Formula), one text (Dale-Chall formula), and three texts (Coh-Metrix Readability formula) that are qualified to be presented to eleventh-grade students. Besides, factors affecting readability in this study show that average syllables per words, percentage of hard words, Sentence Syntax Similar Value (SYNSTRUTa), and CELEX Frequency Value (WRDFRQmc), are determined in affecting the readability score. However, ten out of thirteen texts in this study show different readability levels from each formula used in this study because the indicators used in each theory are different. Thus, the researcher suggests that those three readability formulas are not suggested to be used together to examine readability since it can cause different readability results. In addition, the researcher suggests that the teacher can use other source reading materials in teaching reading.

Keywords

Reading Texts; Readability; Flesch Reading Ease Formula; Dale-Chall; Coh-Metrix.

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.20961/ee.v11i1.63129

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