Thinking skills in the English textbook for grade X

In learning English there are four basic skills that need to be mastered. They are speaking, listening, writing, and reading. Each skill has its role in the use of English. One way to learn English is through reading a lot. Longan (2001) says that reading is like any other skills; in which the more the students practice, the better they get. When the students want to improve their English, they need to read a lot. In addition, a frequent reading improves vocabulary, spelling, reading speed, reading comprehension, as well as grammar and writing. In reading process students are expected to practice a high level of thinking skills. To master thinking skills, the students will need a suitable reading materials which organized by a comprehension taxonomy. In the reading materials there will be reading text with various themes and some comprehension questions that can be used to foster deeper thinking skills. According to Dupuis and Askov, students should be given all level of Barrett’s level of questions. In this study, it is found out that there are 47 questions (55%) measuring the literal level, 31 (31%) questions measuring the inference level which are the low levels of thinking skills, 8 (9%) questions measuring the appreciation level and there is no questions measuring the evaluation level which are the high levels of thinking skills. In conclusion the reading comprehension question in “Bahasa Inggris” do not cover all the four questions’ level in Barrett’s Taxonomy. The biggest proportion of the thinking skills levels measured in this textbook are mainly on the lower order thinking skills with the total 91% which are found in 78 questions. In the other words, the reading comprehension questions found in this textbook are relatively easy, because mostly the questions only facilitate the student to practice their convergent thinking or their lower thinking skill where the students are recalling information and finding facts. In conclusion, the reading comprehension found in this textbook are not in accordance with the demand of the Curriculum 2013 and the reading comprehension questions are not suitable for X grade students. There should be addition in questions which measured the high thinking skills levels in this textbook so that the students can experience and practice both the divergent and convergent thinking skills