The Definition of Materials Adaptation Principles of Materials Adaptation Techniques for Materials Adaptation

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5. Materials Adaptation

In this section, the researcher discusses the theory of materials adaptation proposed by Tomlinson and Masuhara which consists of the definition of materials adaptation, principles of materials adaptation, and techniques of materials adaptation.

a. The Definition of Materials Adaptation

The definition of materials adaptation according to Tomlinson and Masuhara 2004 is “making change to materials in order to improve them or to make them more suitable for a particular type of learners ”. Thus, in this study, materials adaptation is developing materials by changing, adding, and or reducing the materials in order to make more appropriate to the learner needs. Tomlinson also states that materials development refers to anything which is done by the researchers, teachers, or learners to provide sources of language input and to exploit those sources in ways which maximize the likelihood of intake; in other words the supplying of information about and or experience of the language in ways designed to promote language learning. p. 2 Therefore, in this study, developing materials is needed to create various language input by the researcher to maximize the appropriateness language learning.

b. Principles of Materials Adaptation

There are two principles in material adaptation according to Tomlinson and Masuhara 2004. The first is “deep processing of language is required for effective and durable learning and second is the learners’ attention should be drawn to linguistics features of input” p. 13. The first principle means that the 26 important things in learning are on the process of learning the ability to use the meaningful language. The second principle means that the learning activities can be listen to or read a text for the sake of understanding the meaning before their attention is drawn to the linguistic features in analyzing the tasks.

c. Techniques for Materials Adaptation

The researcher applies the materials adaptation in developing the materials. There are some techniques to adapt the materials. Tomlinson and Masuhara 2004 present three main categories in terms of quantity; they are plus +, minus -, and zero 0 pp. 15-16. The three categories are described in the following points. 1 Plus + Category There two techniques for materials adaptation in plus + category; they are an addition and an expansion. The addition means that the teacher may add different texts and or activities, whereas the expansion means that the teacher may expand texts and activities by increasing length, difficulty, and or depth. 2 Minus - Category There are three techniques for materials adaptation in minus - category; they are a deletion, a subtraction, and a reduction. The deletion means that the teacher may delete some texts and or activities altogether. The subtraction means that the teacher may decrease the number of sentences in a text or a part of activity. The reduction means that the teacher may reduce texts and activities by decreasing length, depth, and or difficulty. 27 3 Zero 0 Category There are five techniques for materials adaptation in zero 0 category; they are a modification, a replacement, a reorganization, a resequencing, and a conversion. The modification means that the teacher may make changes in instruction. The replacement means that the teacher may swap one activity into another. The reorganization means that the teacher may change the position of the text and illustrations. The resequencing means that the teacher may change the sequence of activities. The conversion means that the teacher may change the genre of text such as change a text from narrative into a poem or move the context from one medium to another such as from a printable material into a web page. In this study, the researcher uses the all three categories to develop the materials because the three categories are possible to be applied to develop the materials.

B. Theoretical Framework

In this part, the researcher explains how the theories are applied to answer the two research problems, namely, how task-based English speaking materials for the tour guides of Kalisuci Gunungkidul are designed and the presentation of the design materials. The researcher uses several related theories that have been explored in the previous subchapters. The several related theories which are important to be considered in designing the speaking materials are the principles of ESP approach in English language teaching, the theory of speaking, the theory