An analysis of reading text suitability through lexical density in an English textbook for VII grade students

Salsabila, Farah (2025) An analysis of reading text suitability through lexical density in an English textbook for VII grade students. Sarjana thesis, UIN Sunan Gunung Djati Bandung.

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Abstract

English is a core subject in Indonesia from elementary to higher education. With the Kurikulum Merdeka, textbooks should match students' proficiency and provide suitable challenges. This study investigates the lexical density of reading texts in a seventh-grade English textbook and examines how it reflects text suitability for junior high school learners. Halliday (1985) defines lexical density as the proportion of content words-nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs compared to the total number of words in a text. This study also applies Ure's (1971) formula to calculate lexical density, allowing for an objective measurement of text complexity. The study employed a qualitative content analysis method. Eight reading texts were selected from the Bright English textbook by Nur Zaida for seventh-grade students. Each text was analyzed to determine its lexical density and to evaluate its suitability. Only one text had a low lexical density (40-50%), making it most suitable for independent reading. Three texts had the medium difficulty range (50-60%), and four texts exceeded 60%, indicating low suitability. Nouns were the most dominant lexical item across all text, and text with higher lexical density typically contained specialized vocabulary or technical terms that students might not familiar with. This study concludes although the textbook offers diverse content, many of reading passages might be too difficult for students. These results suggest that textbook authors should be more careful when selecting texts, ensuring they gradually increase in difficulty to better support students' vocabulary growth and reading comprehension skills at the junior high school level.

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