A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF LEXICAL

DENSITY IN STUDENTS’ RESEARCH ARTICLE

PRESENTED IN
STUDENT CONFERENCE ON ENGLISH LITERATURE AND LINGUISTICS
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 21st 2018

Presented by :
Silma Ikrimah
Fatimatuzzuhroh

ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION PROGRAM

2018
 OUTLINE
I. INTRODUCTION
II. LITERATURE REVIEW
III. FINDING AND DISCUSSION
IV. CONCLUSSION
 Background
of the study

Students’ written
discourse
Abstract Thesis written by
students’ with different linguistics
background

analyze the lexical density in LEXICAL DENSITY

the Students’ research article
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Research Question

What can be inferred from those

factors?
What is the lexical density of English
majored students’ Reseacrh Article at
Semarang State University?

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 The Objectives of Study

1 2
To find out the lexical
 To describe what can
density especially the
be infered from those
lexical items which for in
factors?
the students’ research
article in term of the
abstract thesis

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Theoretical
Framework LEXICAL ITEMS

HALLIDAY (1985) : referred to the term “items” rather than

“words”
RESEARCH ARTICLE More than a word to represent a sense
TURN OUT : URE(1971) “Turn”: Lexical Word
“out” : Non-Lexical Word
THESIS ABSTRACT HALLIDAY (1985): “Turn out” : Lexical Item

LEXICAL DENSITY
the proportion of lexical words (content words) to the total number of
words in either spoken or written form of language (Ure, 1971)
• Lexical words the primary carriers of meaning
>< non-lexical do not have lexical function,
"purely in terms of grammar”

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Literature review

Vinh To, Si Fan, & D.Thomas.

M. Linnarund. 1973.
Lexical density and
lexical variation – An
analysis of the lexical
texture of Swishes
students’ written work.
Johansson, Victoria. 2013. Lexical Density and
2008. Lexical diversity Readability: A Case Study of
and Lexical density in English
speech and writing: a Textbooks. Internet Journal of
developmental Language, Culture and
perspective Society

The formula proposed by Ure

(1985)
Lexical density (%) =
(Number of lexical words/
Total number of words) x 100
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RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
 Method of research
 descriptive quanlitative  Unit of analysis
method by using document
analysis and tool of analysis
Abstract thesis as part of the research
 Procedure analysis 
article written by international and local
student from English Department”
 looking for the students’ research article at the
library, observed the content of the research article,
 Instrument of the study
looked up to any references that related to the topic,
 documentation in collecting the data
categorized and arranged in detailed information the
data ,
 Technique of Data Analysis
 Counting the number of
lexical words (Content words)
as a percentage of the total
number of words.
 marking lexical words in the
sentences. The lexical words
were marked in bold.

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 The Classification of Lexical Items in The
Students’ Abstract Thesis

NO Participants TYPE OF LEXICAL ITEMS TOTAL ITEMS

NOUN VERB ADVERB ADJECTIVE

Group International 65 (57%) 35 (31%) 5 (4.5%) 10 (8.5%) 115

1 Students
Group Local ones 51 (55%) 30 (33%) 8 (9%) 3 (3.3%) 92
2
THE PERCENTAGE OF LEXICAL DENSITY IN
THE STUDENTS’ABSTRACT THESIS

NO Total of Lexical Grammatica Total Words Lexical

Items/ Content l tems/ Density
Words Function
Words
1 115 85 200 57,5%
2 92 74 166 54,5%
 Finding and Discussion

1
 There is a  This reliable and valid measure
corresponding
relationship between the
abstarct thesis written
by international and
local students in term of
lexical density’s level
2 3
 The abstract thesis that written
of lexical density in writing will by international and local ones
be useful for determining the dominantly formed by using
factors that affect judgments of noun which followed by verb.
quality in writing and will be The intensity of using adjective
useful for examining how and adverb were in small level
vocabulary growth is related to
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vocabulary use
 CONCLUSION
The study shows that it is possible to obtain a reliable measure of lexical density which is
stable across two pieces of writing by the same learners. It also demonstrates that we can
discriminate between learners of different lingusitics backgrounds. For learners of English as a
foreign language, the lexical density is seen as a measure of how vocabulary size is reflected in
use. In this study, it seems to correlate well with an independent measure of vocabulary size

It is evident that do not cover the whole field of lexis. Counting Lexical Density is not intended
to function as a method of reserach article particularly the abstract evaluation. It is rather a
check if other method of evaluation can be backed up statistically. In this study the theoritical
statement of value coincided with the spontaneous. But a more detailed evaluation by larger
number of international students and the local ones is in progress.
CONCLUSION (CONT.)
After analyzing the lexical density especially the lexical items of the Students’
Research Article exceptionally in the abstract thesis , it can be concluded that the
abstract thesis are formed by noun which followed by verb and adjective then adverb.
The more lexical items (noun, adjective, verb, and adverb) the text has, the more
difficult the text is.
The most noun is found in the review text entitled “The Contributions of English Day
Program Towards Students’ Speaking Skills in International Standard School SMP
Semesta (A Clasroom Observation at SMP Semesta Bilingual Boarding School Grade
VII).1” (65 items).
The highest lexical density among the two texts that written was found in the
research article written by international student (57,5%) which is categorized to the
quite lexical density and the text is not too difficult.
SUGGESTION
For the other reseracher , they can use this study to present the reserach
article particularly the abstract with balance composition between lexical
items or content words and grammatical items or function words of written
texts. Because the easy text is formed with more grammatical items while
the difficult text is formed with more lexical items.
For the English teachers or lectures, they can apply the result of this
study as feedback on their teaching activities to decide the appropriate
strategy in teaching the English especially the varied of vocabulary. so their
students can be better in the writing.
THE ABSTRACT THESIS WRITTEN BY LOCAL STUDENT AT
ENGLISH DEPARTMENT .
This study was conducted to investigate the crisis experienced by adolescent represented by the
main protagonist character. In line with the subject of this study, the object of this study is the
novel entitled Harry Potter and The Deathly Hollows written by J.K. Rowling. The data from
this novel were collected by using observation
sheets. Once the data had been collected, they were analyzed in terms of identity crisis and
role confusion in the framework of psychosocial theory proposed by Erik Erikson.

“Identify Crisis As The Result Of Adolescence As Experienced By The Main Protagonist

Character As Represented In Rowling’s Harry Potter And The Deathly Hollows”.
THANK YOU
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