c. Advantages of Developing Materials
Developing materials for a specific language or language program has some advantages compared with using general English learning materials. For
teachers of vocational high school, developing their own learning materials bring more advantages for them. In general, there are four advantages which
the teachersof vocational high school may get if they develop their own learning materials as proposed by Richards 2001:261. The first advantage is that the
learning materials will tend to be more relevant for students and institutional needs, and reflect the local content, issues, and concerns relevance. If the
materials are intended for students of welding engineering department, the content will all be about welding, including issues and problems related to
welding and also vocational high school. The second advantage is there is benefit that may be received by the teachers to improve their expertise, giving
them a greater understanding of the characteristic of effective materials to give for vocational high school students develop expertise. The next advantage is
the commitment of the teachers to the language teaching can be known because of providing relevant, specialized, and contextualized materials for the students
can only be done only if the teachers are committed to their teaching reputation. The fourth advantage is the produced materials for students of the
vocational high school can be revised or adapted as needed, giving them greater flexibility than a commercial course book flexibility.
d. Materials Evaluation
To know whether the materials design meet the student s’ needs or in
other words, are suitable for them, an evaluation is needed in the end of the designing process. The developed English learning materials in this research
will also be evaluated first before it can be considered appropriate to be used for the students of welding engineering department of SMKN 1 Sedayu.
Mcgrath 2002:31 distinguishes between general criteria i.e. the essential features of any good teaching
– learning material and specific or context related criteria and, in relation to choosing a course book, proposes a procedure
to evaluate learning materials which includes materials analysis, first glance evaluation, user feedback, evaluation using situation specific checklist and,
finally, selection. Show 2003:4 suggest that the evaluators first conduct an external evaluation that offers a brief overview from the outside and then carry
out a closer and more detailed internal evaluation. McDonough and Cunningsworth 1995 insist on the importance of
collecting data about the context of learning and proposes a procedure which includes a survey of the teachinglearning situation, a neutral analysis, a belief-
driven evaluation and a selection. Following those statements, the developed English learning materials or the first draft of the learning materials will be
evaluated by experts in the world of teaching and learning. In this research, the developed English learning materials will be evaluated by a lecturer who teach
in English education department in Yogyakarta State University. Four criteria for evaluating learning materials proposed by Cunningsworth 1995 in
Richards 2001:258 will be used as basis. The criteria emphasize more on the course books. The four criteria are as follows:
1. They should correspond to student s’ needs. They should match the aims and
objectives of the language learning program. 2. They should reflect the uses present or future that students make of the
language. Textbooks should be chosen to help equip students to use language effectively for their own purposes.
3. They should take account of students’ needs as students and should
facilitate their processes, without dogmatically imposing a rigid method. 4. They should have a clear role as a support for learning like teachers, they
mediate between the target language and the student. All the learning materials need to be evaluated to ensure its quality and
to decide whether the materials are appropriate to be used by the students or not. All the flaws of the learning materials need to be discovered and be corrected
before the materials are deemed to be usable.
5. Unit Design Development for Vocational High School
Every course book is developed by arranging all the activity into units. These units then are carefully arranged in the most suitable way for the students
to get the best experience in learning. Developers are considering about not only the content and the tasks of the book but also the arrangement of the content
and the tasks in the book. The course books intended for vocational high school included, the good arrangement of the units in a course book helps students to
achieve the goal effectively. Below are the factors that concern about the development of the unit design of a course book.
a. The model of Unit Design
Materials developed consist of several units. The content of the materials are then arranged into these units. The purpose is to make the materials easier to
learn by classifying the content of the material according to the objectives of learning. The developed English Learning materials in this research will consist
of several units. The units in the learning materials follow Nunan ’s model about
unit development 2004:31. First, the unit must consist of schema building. In this phase, the topic, key vocabulary, and expressions that are needed to
complete the tasks are introduced to the students. Second is, the unit also consists of controlled practice. This phase is where the students are provided
with controlled practice using the target language vocabulary, structures, and functions.
Third is, authentic listening practice which require students to be involved in intensive listening practice. The students would be exposed to
authentic or simulated conversation. For students of welding engineering department, being exposed to real communication that happens relevant to their
field job will greatly help students as they hear and maybe see by themselves the real-world situation where their English will be applied. Fourth is, the unit
needs to focus on linguistic elements. There are exercises which focus on one or more linguistic elements in this phase. The students then take part to do the
exercises. Linguistic elements of a text can act as a clue to give students clearer
understanding about the text. Fifth is the unit should provide freer practice. In this step, the students are less controlled in doing the exercises. The exercises
in this phase give students chance to use their own thinking to do the exercises. And the last is introduce of the pedagogical. The final step of the instruction
sequence is the introduction of the pedagogical task itself.
b. Task Grading and Sequencing
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