TEXT COMPLEXITY IN READING TEXTS OF GRADE VIII JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL TEXTBOOK

This study deals with text complexity in reading texts of grade VIII junior high school textbook. Text complexity can be observed through lexical density and grammatical intricacy. This study has aims to discover the lexical density and grammatical intricacy percentage presented in reading texts of grade VIII junior high school textbook. Qualitative research was employed as the research design in
this study. The data were in the form of words, phrases, clauses taken from 7 texts in “English in Context Grade VIII” textbook for junior high school grade VIII. Lexical density was analyzed by using Ure’s theory while grammatical intricacy was analyzed by using Halliday’s theory. From the data analysis it was found that the LD score consecutively are text 1 (54.19), text 2 (53.2), text 3 (57.67), text 4
(57.81), text 5 (53.75), text 6 (44.39) and text 7 (66.15) with the average score is 55.31%. Then, the GI score index successively are text 1 (2.1), text 2 (2.43), text 3 (2.29), text 4 (2.5), text 5 (2.43), text 6 (2.5) and text 7 (2) with the average score is 2.32.