Description of Learning Needs

Table 14 : Comic Strip Utility Question Item N F Percentage What do you think of using comic strips as media in learning writing English? Very helpful 32 3 9 Helpful 32 28 88 Not helpful enough 32 Not helpful at all 32 Table 14 shows that almost all of the students stated that using comic as learning media is helpful, while the rest of the students stated that it is very helpful. From the result above, it can be concluded that using comic strips as one of the media in learning writing is helpful for learners. Table 15 : Students’ Opinion of a Good Material Question Item N F Percentage What do you think about a good learning material? Having many pictures and colorful design 32 11 34 Having a lot of explanation 32 14 44 Having many examples and texts 32 11 34 From Table 15, it shows that the result of the students’ opinion is almost even. The highest percentage went to having a lot of explanation, while a third of the students thought that a good material should have many pictures and colorful design. Then, another a third of the students thought that having many examples and texts is one of the good material characters. In conclusion, a good learning material was a material which has many pictures and colorful design and has many explanation and examples. Table 16 : Themes Question Item N F Percentage What kind of theme do you like? Schools 32 2 6 Daily life 32 11 34 Hobbies 32 14 44 Living things 32 3 9 Popular things 32 5 16 Table 16 shows that almost half of the students chose hobbies as their favorite theme. Then, a third of the students thought that daily life as their preferable theme. In conclusion, daily life and hobbies were their favorite themes. 4 Learners’ Roles Learners’ roles identify what the learners want to do when the learning process is running. The result of the needs analysis related to the le arners’ role is presented in Table 17. Table 17 : Learners’ Roles Question Item N F Percentage In a teaching and learning process, students should….. listen to the teachers’ explanation 32 8 25 note down everything explained by the teacher 32 6 19 be actively participated in the learning process 32 22 69 learn individually and do the task quietly 32 Table 17 shows that more than half of the students thought that they should actively participate in the learning process. However, none of the students chose to learn individually and do the task quietly. Table 18 : Teachers’ Roles Question Item N F Percentage In a teaching and learning process, a teacher should….. explain the formula and ask students to work on the exercises 32 11 34 read the texts and translate it directly together with the students 32 walk around the class while control students’ work and give comment on the students’ work 32 4 13 guide the students in discussing the texts 32 20 63 From Table 18, it shows that more than half of the students though that the teacher should guide the students to discuss the texts.

d. Description of the Interview Results

There were four classes in Grade VIII SMPN 3 Kalasan taught by one English teacher. As the plan, the English teacher was interviewed by the researcher on Thursday of April, 11 th 2015. Based on the interview results, Grade VIII students of SMPN 3 Kalasan had difficulties in learning speaking skills and writing skills. According to the teacher, those difficulties were the result of their limited vocabulary. The teacher added that the limited vocabulary lead to the incorrect sentences and paragraph composition. Moreover, she said that the usual writing activity held was arranging sentences into paragraph as stated in Curriculum 2013. According to the curriculum used, i.e. Curriculum 2013, students do not straightly learn the English grammar, hence the activities did not center in applying the English grammar. The teacher explained that students like to write a descriptive text related to their life. Based on the interview results, the teacher said a good material was a material which follows the syllabus and uses learning media. The media should give the students choices to do the tasks and chances to have their own thought and idea. It was better if the themes of tasks or media are still around the studen ts’ life, because the English proficiency of the students is still low.

2. The Course Grid

The course grid was made as the guideline of the developed materials. It was written in order to plan, order, and organize the materials. The course grid consisted of core competences and basic competences, unit titles, topics, an input text, definition and generic structure of the text, language features, and activities. The course grid was developed from the results of the needs analysis. By taking the highest percentage of the needs analysis, the course grid was developed for Grade VIII junior high school students.

a. Course Grid of Unit 1

The course grid of Unit 1 was developed based on core competences 1, 2, 3 and 4, and basic competences 1.1, 2.1, 3.10, and 4.12. The unit title of this unit was ‘How does she look like?’. This unit focused on learning descriptive texts in describing people. The grammar focused on simple present tense and using adjective words.

b. The Course Grid of Unit 2

The course grid of Unit 2 was developed based on core competences 1, 2, 3 and 4, and basic competences 1.1, 2.2, 3.9, and 4.10. This unit focused on degrees of comparisons. The input text used in this unit was descriptive text in the form of comic strips. The unit title was ‘It is better than yesterday’.

c. The Course Grid of Unit 3

The course grid of Unit 3 was developed based on core competences 1, 2, 3 and 4, and basic competences 1.1, 2.1, 3.12, and 4.15. This unit focused on recount texts and simple past tense. The title of this unit was ‘Do you remember ?’.

3. The Unit Design

The next step after developing the course grid was developing the comic strips for learning writing materials. The learning materials consisted of three units. Each unit of materials was developed with the same design and sequences. Each developed unit was designed into three stages: introduction, main lesson and reinforcement. The design of developed materials is shown on the diagram below.