Discussion on the Designed Materials

While a respondent suggested that the teacher of this subject had to motivate the students in doing all the assignments.

D. Discussion on the Designed Materials

This part presents the result of the materials evaluation and the process of revising the designed materials. Based on the descriptive statistic analysis in table 6 and 7, the mean ranged from 3 to 4. In four points of agreements, the number 3 and 4 mean ‘Agree’ and ‘Strongly Agree’. The first table of the descriptive statistic analysis shows respondents’ opinion for the development of the materials. The grand mean of the first table was 3.43. This result implies that the integrated English supplementary speaking materials for Speaking IV subject in English Language Education Study Program of Sanata Dharma University were well developed. The second table of the descriptive statistic analysis shows respondents’ opinion on the impact of the designed materials towards students’ learning. The grand mean of the first table was 3.10. This result implies that the designed materials had good and significant impact toward students’ learning. In summary, based on the descriptive statistic analysis, the integrated English supplementary speaking materials for Speaking IV subject in English Language Education Study Program of Sanata Dharma University was good and acceptable. This also supported by a request from a lecturer of Speaking IV subject in English Language Education Study Program to apply the designed materials in her class. The lecturer was a respondent of the post-design survey; she admitted that the designed materials had good quality. She was interested in applying the designed materials to see to what extent this good concept can be applied. Through a further discussion between the lecturer and the writer, an agreement has been achieved which is applying the designed materials in one of the speaking IV classes for the year 20062007. However, in order to achieve the best final version of designed materials, the writer needs to make improvements based on the respondents’ suggestion. The process of revising the designed materials is as follows: 1. Language As the suggestion from the respondents, the writer checked the language including grammar and diction. The suggestion to simplify the language of the reading and listening section in the multimedia materials were unfortunately unaccepted by the writer for the reason of maintaining the authenticity of the materials. The use of authentic materials leads to authentic communication. Therefore, the use of authentic materials would benefit the students. The writer considered the difficult vocabulary should not trouble the students since they could consult the dictionary. 2. Time Allotment A respondent suggested rearranging the time allocation in each unit and eliminating some activities that were considered unnecessary. The second suggestion was unaccepted by the writer since it would distract the unity of the designed materials. Responding to the suggestions, the writer made two revisions. First, the writer rearranged the duration for several activities in some units so that all the activities could be covered in the given time frame. The second revision to be made was changing the instruction of the writing activity, ‘My Blog’, from the off line into the on line one. ‘My Blog’ was adapted from an internet feature which enables someone to publish his her thoughts by posting it in a personalized interactive cite. This activity was aimed to improve students’ writing skills by making a short writing composition that represents their personal thoughts and ideas on a certain issue. In the old version of the designed materials, the blog was made in a paper and pencil fashion at the end of a meeting. The revised version of this activity was creating a real internet blog for publishing students’ writing. Here, students may interact with their friends and instructor by giving comments to each other’s writings. Moreover, the world wide connection enables students’ writing to be appreciated not only by the instructor and their friends, but also everyone across the universe. The blog also facilitates students to share not only their writing, but also pictures, photos, music, and video. All these benefits hopefully motivate the students. 3. Pronunciation Practice The suggestion of allocating time to practice the pronunciation in the classroom was unaccepted by the writer because of the limited time allotment in conducting classroom activity. The writer agreed to rearrange the sequence of the pronunciation part in the multimedia materials. The writer changed the order of the pronunciation part into the first sequence of the listening section. 4. Multimedia Materials The writer didn’t accept the suggestion to simplify the language and exercises in the multimedia materials. The reasons to this decision has clearly described in the previous number. The writer agreed the idea of improving the format of the multimedia materials into an interactive one would increase students’ motivation. Unfortunately, this suggestion was unaccepted because of the limitation of time and human resources. The writer agreed with the opinion of one respondent that the purpose of doing the multimedia materials should be clearly explained to the students. In addition to clear explanation, motivation was also an important element that had to be noticed. Based on the results of the interview with students, most of them considered the multimedia materials or any other homework as burden. Yet, some of them realized the importance of preparation, while other students acknowledged that the materials widened their knowledge. Basically, the multimedia materials was intended to present different atmosphere of doing home assignments in a multimedia fashion that was different to the usual home assignments. Yet, it turned out that whatever the format was, whether it was paper and pencil or computer based, seemingly most students still considered homework as a burden even when they truly aware of its benefits. As youth in common, they loved to stay in their comfort zone and unwilling to face challenge. In conclusion, this problem is more focused to youth mentality with its instant subculture than problems of education instructional techniques. Such problem cannot merely be overcome by improvements in instructional techniques. However, teacher’s encouragement still played important role in changing such mentality by giving simultaneously challenges.

E. Presentation of the Designed Materials