A STUDY ON THE AMBIGUITY FOUND IN ENGLISH TEST FOR JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS

AL HAKIM, LUQMAN (2009)

Abstract
This study is aimed at describing the types of ambiguity found in English exercise books for junior high school students, the frequency of each types of ambiguity, and the way to disambiguate of the ambiguous sentences. In collecting data, the writer uses reading and observing the English tests on English exercise books for junior high school entitled Basis, Inovasi, Mandiri, Merpati, Sportif, Talenta, and Pidjar and presenting, and putting them into a list of data. There are 48 ambiguous sentences as the data of this study. The writer analyzes the types of ambiguity found in English exercise books for junior high school students, the frequency of each types of ambiguity, and the way to disambiguate of the ambiguous sentences. The results of this study show that lexical ambiguity attains 25 ambiguous sentences or about 52,1%, further surface structure ambiguity achieves 18 ambiguous sentence or 37,5 %, and the last, deep structure ambiguity achieves 5 ambiguous sentences or 10,4%. From the percentage of each types of ambiguity, the writer concludes that the dominant ambiguous sentences appeared in the data is lexical ambiguity with the total number of ambiguous sentences are 25 ambiguous sentences (52, 1%). The last, the writer finds the methods to disambiguate the ambiguous sentence, namely; paraphrasal selection and truth conditional selection. Both of methods expected to resolve the problem about ambiguous sentences in the English exercise books for junior high school students.

CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
A. Background of the Study
English is the international language that used almost all people in the
world. Learning and using English can also be carried out by people who not
come from English native but it is necessary some steps and times. It can be
begun from an Elementary School, such as introducing words by words, colors,
writing, speaking, etc. In Junior High School, English learning is also taught to
continue the English lesson from an elementary school. Generally , English
teachers teach class who consist of 40 until 50 students. Their times are allocated
about four hours every week. They also handle some learning media as a tool to
facilitate receiving materials and to improve the student’s mastering English, such
as text book, OHP, picture, etc.
The existence of English learning can not be separated from learning
media. The English teachers can not teach only rely on their voice. It will make
they fell tired soon. Furthermore English is still called strange and difficulty’s
material by the students so it needs learning media to be the bridge of the English
learning. Of course, the teachers will exploit the learning media available now.
They should know that the development of English learning media is very fast.
Modern technology competes to spawn some new learning media. We should
perceive positively about it because there are someone who wants to develop in
the education program. Moreover, disseminating of its media has spread into
outlying place of our nation. It is very useful to recognize English to the students
in there. Its media is organized as I ternet, OHP, Power Point Presentation,
English electronic dictionary, Microsoft Excel Worksheet, etc.
Adopt ing a modern technology as a tool of English learning media can
not make us forget the media that available before. English text book is a media
ordinarily used by the English teachers and the students now. English text book is
an English course book in a certain field area and standard books compiled by
expert in certain area to get the meanings and the purposes of instructional that
completed with instruction devices that compatible and easy to be understood by
the doer in the schools and colleges. It is usually accompanied by teacher
instruction books containing carrying out orientation. English text book can be
divided into two books, E nglish main book and English exercise book.
English main book is a book usually used by the English teachers as a
subject book to teach their students. Selection of English main book depends on
the teacher’s compatibility with the materials served in there although the
government has provided the package books to all of lesson area. Beside it, the
English teachers also need some references of book matching with lesson
managed by them.
English exercise book (LKS) is a kind of English book containing
transcription that is meant to perpetuate exercises or works that has been finished
and planned. It is written and compiled by local English teachers or the groups of
local English teachers. They are non English native. Its book planed to guide the
students with the lesson materials or instruction materials and it usually loads and
proposes some questions and exercises. Its content consists of English materials
summary, exercises, competency’s examination, and practicing of semester. The
students can practice it with the English teacher’s instruction or without their
instruction because there is available of some instructions in there.
From the definition of an English exercise book, the writer concludes
that the handle of English exercise book is surely has some functions. First, as
lesson carrying out orientation. It means that the implementation of lesson must
be grounded on the English exercise book. Second, guide the students when they
do some exercises, questions, and practices. Third, record the student’s exercises
with step by step, on time, and detail. The students can do their p
ractices in their
English exercise book so that if their parents or the teachers want to check the
student’s development of certain materials, they only open the student’s English
exercise books. Fourth, the English exercise book has a function as an instrument
to know what the students have known, understood, and mastered the materials of
lesson served in text books or not yet.
English test materials is the most important aspect compiler of an
English exercise book. It is served as a practice test for students. There are two
types of English test materials on exercise book. First, objective test , objective test
is a test containing questions that has only one answer as result of understanding.
Some objective tests contain matching, multiple -choice, or true-false questions
which require the student to select the correct answer from a number alternative.
Others contain completion or short answer questions which require the student to
supply a word or phrase (Samalonis, 1970:132). Second, essay test, the essay test
is a valuable means of evaluating the student’s ability to select and organize his
information, his spelling and grammar, and, in some types of essay questions, his
creativity (Samalonis, 1970:133).
When the students are doing and understanding some English test
materials in there, they sometimes fell confuse and doubt because its words or
sentences have two interpretations. It is called ambiguous test. They often must
select the first or the second interpretations of its construction. It is not easy to
analyze its model. Even, the English teachers must analyze it deeply. In here the
writer will show the examples of ambiguous constructions models of tests matter
on English exercise book, such as:
(1) What would she do if she had the tickets?
(Pidjar, page 6)
(2) ...Mrs. Yusri prepared her tenth daughter’s birthday party...
(Talentha, page 28)
(3) It is exciting to ride on the back of the horse.
(Basis, page 28)
(4) ... My sister helps mother to cook something for breakfast in the
kitchen...
(Sportif , page 48)
(5) ...Javanese people in the villages go shopping for their daily needs on
certain days....
(Sportif , page 58)

The first example is ambiguous on the word tickets. The word tickets
means tickets to ride bus/train or traffic tickets from the police. The second
example is ambiguous on the sentence “Mrs. Yusri prepared her tenth daughter’s
birthday party”. It means Mr Yusri prepared her daughter’s birthday party who
has tenth years old or Mr Yusri prepared birthday party for her tenth daughter.
The third example is ambiguous on the word back . This word means on the
back/behind of horse or on the carriage. The fourth example, its sentence is
ambiguous. It means my sister helps mother to cook something in the kitchen and
have breakfast also in the kitchen or my sister helps mother to cook something in
the kitchen but ha ve no breakfast in the kitchen. The last example is ambiguous
on the deep structure of its sentence. it has two different meanings, namely;
Javanese people in villages go shopping on certain day for their daily needs and
Javanese people go shopping to complete their daily needs on certain days.
From all of the explanations above, the writer wants to analyze the
ambiguous sentences of English test on English exercise books entitle Basis,
Inovasi, Mandiri, Merpati, Sportif, Talenta, and Pidjar based on types of
ambiguity on the English exercise books (including lexical ambiguity, surface
structure ambiguity, or deep structure ambiguity), the frequency of each types of
ambiguity, and the ways to disambiguate of the ambiguous sentences. From all of
the explanations, the writer’s title on his study is A STUDY ON THE
AMBIGUITY FOUND IN ENGLISH TEST FOR JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL
STUDENTS.
B. Previous Studies
The first research about the study of ambiguity has been carried out by
Susan Kristianty (2006). She was a student of Kristen Petra’s University Jakarta.
She conducted her research entitled “The Structural and lexical ambiguity found
in Cleo Magazine Advertisements”. She focused on the kinds of sentences or
phrases which are structurally ambiguous and kinds of words are lexically
ambiguous in Cleo Magazine’s advertisement issued in April and March 2006. In
analyzing the data, she identified the structurally ambiguous sentences by using
Tree Diagrams or IC Analysis. She also clarified the lexically ambiguous
sentences by looking at the meaning from the lexical ambiguous words. Her
conclusion is that the kinds of ambiguous sentences and the kinds of ambiguous
words occur in advertisement and lexical ambiguity occurs more frequently than
structural ambiguity of advertisements in Cleo Magazine.
The second research about the study of ambiguity has been conducted by
Silvia Hartono (1999). She was a student of Kristen Petra’s University Jakarta.
She carried out her research entitled “The Structural Ambiguity in News
Headlines in the Jakarta Post Newspaper”. She focused on the structural
ambiguity. She analyzed structural ambiguities in news headlines in the Jakarta
Post newspapers by using Andrew Radford’s theories, which classify the
ambiguities into phrases and sentences. The conclusion of her study was the
ambiguities are mostly caused by the arrangement of the prepositional phrases in
sentences, which are used as an adverb of place in the sentence, besides, the
ambiguities could also be caused by the arrangement of the noun phrases in
sentences.
The third research about the study of ambiguity has been done by D iana
Kusumawati (2001). She came from Kristen Petra’s University. She conducted
her research entitled “The Study of Ambiguity in the Articles of Hello Magazine”.
She analyzed the structural ambiguities in Hello magazines by using Andrew
Radford and Diane D. Bornstein’s theories, and the lexical ambiguities in Hello
magazines by using Jacob and Rosenbaums’ theories. She concluded that the
structural ambiguities appear more frequently than the lexical ambiguities.
This research uses the English test containing ambiguity on English
exercise books for Junior High students as the data. The data of this research is
different from previous studies and the data of this research is to extent the three
previous studies in advance because the first research focuses on the kinds of
sentences or phrases which are structurally ambiguous and kinds of words are
lexically ambiguous in Cleo Magazine’s advertisement issued in April and March
2006. Second research focuses on the structural ambiguities in news headlines in
the Jakarta Post newspapers by using Andrew Radford’s theories, which classify
the ambiguities into phrases and sentences.
The third research focuses on the
structural ambiguities in Hello magazines by using Andrew Radford and Diane D.
Bornstein’s theories, and the lexical ambiguities in Hello magazines by using
Jacob and Rosenbaums ’ theories.
Looking all of previous studies, the writer will extend the previous
studies especially on the ways to disambiguate of the ambiguous sentences. The
writer concludes that no other researcher who study on the ambiguity of English
test on English exercise books for Junior High School because the writer uses it as
the data due to expand the three previous studies. It means that this study had not
even studied by the other researcher.
C. Problems Statement
The writer investigate s the ambiguous sentences found in English
exercise books for Junior High School students in so doing this study with the
problems are:
a. What types of ambiguity found in the English exercise books?
b. What is the frequency of each types of ambiguity?
c. How do the ways to disambiguate the ambiguous sentences?
D. Limitation of the Study
The object in this research is limited only on the English test containing
ambiguous sentences available on the English exercise books for Junior high
school students because it contains a lot of ambiguous sentences. The ambiguous
sentences on this study achieve 48 ambiguous sentences. It consists of seven
English exercise books, like Basis, Inovasi, Mandiri, Merpati, Sportif, Talenta,
and Pidjar
E. Objectives of the Study
The objectives of this research are:
a) To describe the type s of ambiguity found in the English exercise books.
b) To describe the frequency of each types of ambiguity.
c) To describe the ways to disambiguate the ambiguous sentences.
F. Benefits of the Study
The writer expects that this study gives some contributions for
theoretical field and practical field, such as,
1. Theoretical benefits
a. This study can give description on the types of ambiguity, the
frequency of each types of ambiguity, and the ways to disambiguate of
ambiguous sentences.
b. To enable the students to understand the types of ambiguity, the
frequency of each types of ambiguity, and the ways to disambiguate of
ambiguous sentences.
c. The results of this study can be used as the development of theory that
available before.
2. Practical benefit s
a. The researcher can get more knowledge in understanding the
ambiguous construction.
b. This research can help the students and the teachers of Junior High
School to understand deeper and analyze the ambiguous constructions
of English test on English exercise books.
c. This study will give more information to the other writers who want to
discuss similar or related study.
G. Research Paper Organization
Chapter I is introduction that covers background of the study,
previous studies, problem statement, limitation of the study, objectives of the
study, benefits of the study and the research paper organization. Chapter II is
underlying theory encompasses of notion of ambiguity, types of ambiguity,
and the ways to disambiguate the ambiguous sentences. Chapter III is research
method pervades type of research, object of research, the source of the data,
method of collecting data, and technique of analyzing data. Chapter IV is data
analysis includes research findings and discussion. Chapter V comprises
conclusion and suggestion.