THE READABILITY LEVEL OF READING TEXTS IN CHOICES TEXTBOOK USED BY THE ELEVENTH GRADE STUDENTS OF SMA GLOBAL PRIMA MEDAN

This research was quantitatively and qualitatively conducted to analyze the readability level of reading texts for the eleventh grade students of SMA Global Prima Medan. The sources of the data were 48 reading texts but, according to Flesch’s theory there were only 36 reading texts that were eligible to be analyzed. The sources of the data were taken from students’ textbook entitled Choices. The data were analyzed based on the Flesch Reading Ease Formula which is focused on the average sentence length and the average number of the syllables per words. The findings of this research showed that the reading texts were classified into seven levels, they are Very Easy, Easy, Fairly Easy, Standard, Fairly Difficult, Difficult and Very Difficult. The average readability score for the 36 reading texts is 62 which implies that the reading texts in Choices textbook are in Standard level and hence linking to the Flesch indicator the 36 reading texts are readable. However, in line with the theory of Flesch, the eleventh grade students should be given a text which category belongs to Fairly Difficult and in relation to the result of this study, it is concluded that the reading texts in Choices textbook are readable but they are inappropriate to be used for the eleventh grade students.