Vol. 1 No.

1
May 2015

A Study on The Achievement of Short Functional Text Material

In SMP Bina Taruna Bojongsoang
Muhammad Luthfi Ismail
English Department, Faculty of Teacher Training and Educational Sciences
Universitas Islam Nusantara
Bandung
Email: luthfiismail21@gmail.com
Abstract:
This study conducted to to find out the ability of student about short functional
text material. Students were given a test of short functional text that contains 20
multiple choice questions. The population of this study was 8th grade student of
SMP Bina Taruna Bojongsoang which total are 9 students. This study used a
descriptive-qualitative method which gathered via test and the result interpreted
in qualitative. The results showed that there is still material that has not been
understood by the students, because all students get a low value.

A. INTRODUCTION

English as an international language is learned by countries in the world. It is

undoubtely that English is certainly important for all people to learn it.
Indonesian people have to learn it because we know that variety of books in
various knowledge are available in English.
Globalization makes English must be taught in school. The Indonesia
government curriculum has informed that all schools in Indonesia have to

teach English. Additionally, English has to be mastered by students and it

causes government of Indonesia makes English is not only a lesson which
must be learnt by students of Indonesia but it is also as one of the subject in
national examination in Indonesia.
In university level, English is also an important subject that must be taken by
the university students as their general course. There are four skills that must
be mastered by the students in learning English; they are listening, speaking,
reading and writing skills.
Reading is one of the basic communicative skills of English. It is the way of
gaining information from written sources. Todays globalization era demands
students to increase their knowledge and enhance their experiences.
Consciously or not, in our daily lives, we often encounter short functional
text. It may take the form in various types. There are invitations,
advertisements, announcement and so on. This text is useful for helping our
daily lives. So, as much as possible the students should be able to know and
understand short functional text.

B. THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

In scientific terms, a test is a method of measuring a persons ability,

knowledge, or performance in a given domain. (Bachman, 1990). And so,
Wilmar Tinambunan stated that: Test is an instrument or systematic
procedure for measuring a sample of behavior. And it is a set of questions,
each of which has a correct answer, that examinees usually answer orally or in
writing.
Meanwhile Cronbach (1970) defines a test as a systematic procedure for
observing a persons behavior and describing it with the aid of a numerical
scale or a category system. The phrase systematic procedure indicates that
a test is constructed, administered, scored, and described according to

prescribed rules. The term behavior implies that a test measure the
responses a person makes to the test items.
Another view comes from Anthony J. Nitko. He said that test is defined as a
systematic procedure for observing and describing one or more characteristics
of a person with the aid of either a numerical scale or a category system.
Harris and Sipay (1980:8) say that reading is the meaningful interpretation of
printed or written verbal symbols. Similarly, Grabe and Stoller (2002: 9) state
that reading is the ability to draw meaning from the printed page and to form
an interpretation of that information appropriately. Therefore, it can be
concluded that reading is a process to get the meaning of the text. In addition,
Nunan (2003: 68) says that reading is a fluent process of readers combining
information from a text and their own background knowledge to build
meaning.
Seyler (2004:3) defines reading as the process of obtaining or constructing
meaning from a word or cluster of words. The text presents letters, words,
sentences, and paragraphs that encode meaning. The reader should use
knowledge, skills, and strategies to determine what that meaning is. In order
to get the meaning or the idea of the text, the readers try to interpret the
information word by word or sentence by sentence that are written in the text.
Anderson (1999:1) states reading is an active, fluent process which involves
the reader and the reading materials in building meaning. Meaning does not
reside on the printed page, nor is it only in the reader.
Short Functional Text is a short text that has particular meaning and purpose,
and can be used in our daily life. It is called functional because it helps in your
day-to-day life.

Multiple-choice objective test is a test that has a notice about a particular

matter which is not perfect, and some alternative answers consisting of key
answers and detractors. The task is to choose the answer test participants of
the options available and best suited to a statement in the matter (Koyan,
2011).
Multiple-choice also has advantages and disadvantages. The following
advantages and disadvantages is taken from the site University of Minnesota:
Advantages of Multiple-Choice Items
1.

2.

3.

4.
5.
6.

7.
8.
9.

Versatility -- MC items are adaptable to the measurement of a wide

variety of learning outcomes including reasoning, making inferences,
solving problems, exercising judgment and demonstrating knowledge of
facts through interpretation and analysis of information.
Efficiency -- Because of the large number of items that can be posed in a
given length of time, MC items permit wide sampling and broad coverage
of the content domain.
Scoring accuracy and economy -- Expert agreement on the correct answer
to MC items is easy to obtain, and machine or clerical assistants can
economically apply scoring keys.
Reliability -- Consistency in scoring and wide sampling of content
provide test results that can be generalized to the domain of interest.
Diagnosis -- Patterns of incorrect responses can provide diagnostic
information about the learning of individual students or groups.
Control of difficulty -- The level of difficulty of a test can be increased or
decreased by adjusting the degree of similarity among the options to the
items.
Reduction of guessing -- In comparison with two-choice (e.g., true-false)
tests, guessing is reduced with MC items.
Freedom from response sets -- MC items are relatively uninfluenced by
response sets, such as a tendency to answer "true."
Amenable to item analysis -- Item difficulty (the percentage of students
who select the correct response) and item discrimination (a correlation

coefficient that indicates how well the item separates students who know
the material well from those who do not) can be used to improve MC
items and inform instruction.

Disadvantages of Multiple-Choice Items

1. Multiple-choice tests can be difficult and time consuming to write. The
construction of plausible distracters can be especially difficult. The
quality of the test is therefore dependent on the item-writing skill of the
instructor.
2. There is a tendency to write items requiring only factual knowledge rather
than higher-level skills and understandings.
3. Performance on MC items can be influenced by student characteristics
unrelated to the subject matter, such as reading ability, deductive
reasoning, the use of context clues and risk-taking.
4. MC items are subject to clueing.
5. MC items do not measure ability to organize and express ideas.

C. RESEARCH METHOD

The type of study that is used by researcher is a descriptive-qualitative namely

study of existing problems and working procedures that apply. Mardalis
(1999:26) stated that qualitative-descriptive study aimed to describe anything
that is currently in effect. In it there is an attempt to describe, record, analyze
and interpret the current condition occurs or there. In other words, this
qualitative descriptive study aimed to obtain information about the existing
situation.
This research conducted in SMP Bina Taruna Bojongsoang on 22 th May 2015.
The reasons for chose this school as a place to study is because the location of
the school is close to campus researcher.

This study aims to collect the data from the test results of students which will
then be analyzed to find out which part of the material that has not been
understood by the students.
The instrument used in this study was multiple-choice questions that are 20
questions about short functional text.
D. FINDING AND DISCUSSION

The target of this study is nine students from 8A class of SMP Bina Taruna
Bojongsoang. Test that given to students was multiple-choice questions about
short functional text.

Example:

ARTICLES ARE CONSIDERED

SOLD
IF YOU BROKE THEM

1. What does the caution mean?

A. The shop sells special broken articles.
B. You don't have to buy articles that are broken.
C. In this section you will only find broken articles.
D. If you break any of the articles, you should pay for it.
2. Where do you usually find this caution?
A. Canteen
B. Bookstore
C. Greengrocer
D. Department store

After checking the results of the students' answers, researcher get results and
findings compiled in the tables below:
STUDENTS ANSWER RECAP
No
Name
Class
Correct
Wrong
1 Adhitya Firmansyah
8A
9
11
2 Arryn Ira Gustirayani
8A
8
12
3 Ayu Cahyati
8A
8
12
4 Bayu Agung Hardika
8A
8
12
5 Delia Andhani
8A
8
12
6 Emi Siti Aminah
8A
9
11
7 Lisna Trisnawati
8A
9
11
8 Rizal Irwan
8A
7
13
9 Susi Yulianti
8A
8
12
Table D1. Students Answer Recap

No

Name

Class

Score
45
40
40
40
40
45
45
35
40

Number
6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 1

1 Adhitya Firmansyah
8A
2 Arryn Ira Gustirayani
8A
3 Ayu Cahyati
8A
4 Bayu Agung Hardika
8A
5 Delia Andhani
8A
6 Emi Siti Aminah
8A
7 Lisna Trisnawati
8A
8 Rizal Irwan
8A
9 Susi Yulianti
8A
Students that incorrectly answered 3

8 0 0 7

Table D2. The Level of Difficulty of Questions Recap

Score Interval
76-100
51-75
26-50
0-25

Mark
A
B
C
D

Table D3. Mark of Limitation

No.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.

Name
Adhitya Firmansyah
Arryn Ira Gustirayani
Ayu Cahyati
Bayu Agung Hardika
Delia Andhani
Emi Siti Aminah
Lisna Trisnawati
Rizal Irwan

Score
45
40
40
40
40
45
45
35

Mark
C
C
C
C
C
C
C
C

9.

Susi Yulianti

40

Table D4. Converting Score into Mark

From the table D1, it can be seen that each student is only able to answer on
average 7-9 questions. From the table D2, it can be seen that the colored
column is a question that is not answered. The more questions have a colored
column, it means that the question contains difficult material/ students not
understand yet with the material. The most questions that unanswered (on
average 7-9 students didnt answer) are number 3, 5, 6, 9, 10, 11, 13, 14, 15,
17, 18. The questions is contain material about announcement, invitation,
greeting card.
The result of this study is students of SMP Bina Taruna Bojongsoang still
need more learning about announcement, invitation, and greeting card.
Because, the most unanswered questions is contain material about it. And
also, English language skills of the students still included in lower middle
category because all students get grades C.
E. CONCLUSION

Based on the results obtained, it can be concluded that the test is too difficult.
It proved by all the students score have low score (grade C). The researcher
have been trying to construct a test based on basic competencies and also in
accordance with Bloom's taxonomy theory, but in reality the test is too
difficult or students are not familiar with the words that are used in these
questions. There are several factors that cause the tests is not appropriate with
students, including: 1) Students are not familiar with the words used in the
question. So that students cant undertand the meaning od these questions; 2)
Incomprehension of students in some materials, and 3) The ability of students
are different, every individual or every school and and we should not
generalize it

This study resulted an important point namely, before performing a test we

have to observe the condition of the students. Because a good test is a test that
is able to measure the ability of their students.

F. REFERENCES

Bachman, L. (1990). Fundamental Considerations in language testing. New

York: Oxford University Press
Wilmar Tinambunan, Evaluation of Students Achievement, (Jakarta:
Depdikbud, 1988), p. 3.
H.J.X. Fernandes, Testing and Measurement, (Jakarta: National Educational
Planning, Evaluation and Curriculum Development, 1984), p. 1.
Anthony J. Nitko, Educational Tests And Measurement an Introduction, (New
York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc, 1983), p. 6.
Harris, R.A., and Sipay, E.R. 1980. How to Increase Reading Ability. New
York: David McKay.
Grabe, W., and Stoller, Fredericka L. 2002. Teaching and Researching
Reading. London: Longman.
Nunan, David. 2003. Practical English Language Teaching. New York: The
Graw-Hill Company Inc.
Seyler, Dorothy U. 2004. The Reading Context: Developing College Reading
Skill. New York: Pearson.
Koyan, I Wayan. 2011. Langkah-langkah Mengkontruksi Tes dan Non Tes.
Buku Ajar. (tidak diterbitkan) Singaraja: Undiksha
http://oms.umn.edu/fce/how_to_write/multiplechoice.php Accessed on June 8,
2015 at 1.30 a.m
Drs. Mardalis, Metode Penelitian Suatu Pendekatan Proposal, Jakarta: Bumi
Aksara,1999. 26

G. APPENDICES