Assessing lexical density and its relevance to the CEFR level of reading materials for non-English-major students

Abstract

This study assesses the quality of reading materials for non-English-major students by analysing their lexical density (LD). This is significance in order to boost the successfulness of teaching-learning process by analysing the difficulty of the reading materials. This study employs a qualitative approach and content analysis method. A total of fifteen (15) reading texts from the English for Islamic Studies book were analysed. The data were analysed using Readable.com. The findings reveal that fourteen out of fifteen texts have high lexical density, meaning they contain a greater number of lexical items than grammatical ones. This suggests that texts with higher number of lexical density items provides more information but may also be more challenging for learners in comparing texts with higher number of grammatical items. In terms of readability and CEFR classification, seven (7) texts are categorized to be in the level of C1, and the other 8 texts are categorized as in C2 level.