Grading Tasks and Task Continuity

34 selecting the input, it is important to consider the concept of authenticity. However, the concept of authenticity must be followed with the concept of adaptation. Adaptati on means that the task should be suited with the learners‟ characteristics. After selecting the input, the activities should be designed. In designing the activity, there are some considerations that should be taken into account. The first is that the relationship between the activities in the class with the real-world which will be faced by the learners. Second, the characteristics of the learners should also be a consideration to design the activities. Finally, the condition whenever the activity is undergone should be taken into account too.

d. Grading Tasks and Task Continuity

According to Richards, et al 1986 in Nunan 2004 grading is an organization of the language course book content so that it will be in the form of scaffolding system. It influences the order of word difficulty, tenses, structures, topics, functions, and skill. Gradation might be based on item complexity, frequency in written or spoken, and its use for the learners. In gradation which based on the input complexity, the grammatical complexity could be an obvious example. Other than the grammatical complexity, there are several items which are needed to be graded. They are the level of difficulty will be affected by the text length, how much information presented in the text, the amount of vocabulary, the speed of spoken texts, the number of the involved speaker in spoken texts and the explicitness of the information. In grading or sequencing the input there are three steps which are a pre-task phase, a task- proper phase, and a follow-up phase. In pre-tasks phase learners are required to build scheme of the 35 tasks. In the next phase the learners are demanded to finish the tasks and in the last phase, the learners will obtain explanation and corrective feedback from the teacher. Moreover, the tasks in fact cannot be just graded and sequenced. It also requires having interdependency among them, or it could be said as tasks continuity. According to Nunan 2004 the term continuity refers to the interdependency of the tasks, task components, and skills. Besides, it can be in term of cognitive and performance. In this continuity there are several steps to do. They are taking tasks which increasingly demanding, moving from comprehension-based to controlled production activities and exercises, and lastly, requiring authentic communicative interaction. Those are the explanations of language description, teaching approach, and teaching and learning methods that will be adopted in this research. However, in an instruction the teaching method, language description, and teaching approach should be realized in learning materials. Therefore, it is needed the discussion of materials, materials development, and materials evaluation as presented below.

6. Learning Materials a. Definition of Learning Materials