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CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION
A. Background of the Study
The term world-class university has currently become a recognizable phrase. It is not simply because it represents excellence in teaching and
research, ut more importantly ecause it also signifies university’s capacity to compete in global education era.
To define what world-class universities have that regular universities do not possess, some experts have identified a number
of basic features, such as highly qualified faculty, excellence in research, quality teaching, high levels of government and nongovernment sources of
funding, international and highly talented students, academic freedom, well- defined autonomous governance structures, and well-equipped facilities for
teaching, research, administration, and often student life Altbach 2004; Khoon et al. 2005; Niland 2000, 2007.
The establishment of a world-class university requires, strong leadership, a old vision of the institution’s mission and goals, and a clearly articulated
strategic plan to translate the vision into concrete targets and programs. Universities that aspire to better results engage in an objective assessment of
their strengths and areas for improvement, set new stretch goals, and design and implement a renewal plan that can lead to improved performance. By
contrast, many institutions are complacent in their outlook, lack an ambitious vision of a better future, and continue to operate as they have in the past,
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ending up with a growing performance gap compared with that of their national or international competitors Salmi, 2009.
At this time, Yogyakarta State University is moving toward world-class university. The road map for the establishment of the world-class university is
clear. English comprehension of both the students and lecturers is one of the important elements to establish a strong international university. Therefore,
Yogyakarta State University already has implemented some international study programs using English language in learning activities.
Faculty of Economics and Faculty of Mathematics and Science of Yogyakarta State University offer international study programs, i.e.
International Accounting Education, International Mathematics Education, International Science Education, International Physics Education, International
Biology Education, and International Chemistry Education. The existence of these international study programs is one of the tangible ways to be a world-
class university. However, the presence of these six international study programs is not enough to achieve the position as a world-class university even
though English is used as the main language to communicate in the academic context by both lecturers and students.
As a main language instruction, speaking in English is important and essential skills that must be mastered in order to be better in sending and
receiving information between students and lecturers or students and students. By having a good speaking skill, they can carry out conversation with others,
give ideas and exchange information. To speak in English better is not
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something that can only be taught and learned, but it is used as a habit. The frequency in using English will give the students and lecturers more
opportunities to improve their speaking skill. Above all, however, the frequency of speaking in English does not make
the students have a good command of speaking English. Based on the interview held by the researcher, students of one of those international study
programs i.e. International Accounting Education lack aspects in speaking English such as limited number of vocabulary and incorrect use of grammar.
Although most of the time in their class they use English as the main language to communicate with others, they are, however, incompetent even in
communicating simple and basic sentences through English. They hesitate a lot due to the uncertainty and being afraid of making mistakes. Their level of
proficiency in speaking English can be categorized in the beginner level and in the pre-intermediate level. This fact is apprehensive owing to the fact that as
students of international study programs, they have to comprehend English properly.
To facilitate students of international study programs, starting from the academic year of 20122013, the Centre for Language Development has
designed an English program, English Tutorial Program, for the 4
th
semester students of international study program focusing on improving their speaking
skills. This program aims to give students of international study programs more opportunities to practice and improve their English speaking ability used in
their daily and academic communication
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English Tutorial Program held by the Centre for Language Development has sixteen meetings. The learning process is conducted informally in the
classroom, the students spend most of their time sitting together, discussing and doing activities in the coursebook prepared by the tutor. In each meeting
they discuss one unit of the materials. The activities are mostly done in pairs. Firstly, the students listen to dialogues in the recording and accomplish some
activities based on the recording. After that, they do some speaking activities by acting out dialogues. They sometimes play games during the remaining time
as well. The games are designed to demand the students to speak a lot. Since English Tutorial Program for students of international study
programs is the new program in Yogyakarta State University, relevant English materials are needed to conduct better speaking activities. To cope with the
lack of relevant English materials used in this program, the tutors should develop English learning materials that are suita le to the students’ fields.
However, it is not an easy thing for the tutors to develop the materials due to some reasons such as limited time and insufficient resources. Thus, this study
is designed to develop English speaking materials which can be used by the participants of English Tutorial Program at the Centre for Language
Development of Yogyakarta State University.
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B. Identification of the Problems
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