97 competence, characters of children of between the concrete operational and formal
operational stage, post-modernism philosophy and English teaching and learning in Indonesian elementary schools. The language test objective was formulated in the
form of language aspects and indicators as they were mentioned in the blue print of the testing instrument being developed. The second phase, referring to the language
test objective had been formulated; the researcher selected and devised the test task, such as: topics of real world environment which evoked children’s imagination, fun
and pleasure. The last phase was researcher assembled and set up the scoring system. Hence, the researcher determined the character of the test tasks, time of completing
test, test instructions, and its layout, format and grading accuracy. To improve the formulation of the design, the researcher also conducted a benchmarking to some test
samples of written English competence for elementary students from other countries. The researcher got some samples from Japan and America. Among the samples, the
researcher decided to choose Cambridge Young Learners English Flyers Reading and Writing which is published by University of Cambridge, ESOL examinations of
English for Speakers of Other Languages as the main reference. Although the test content was not matched with the indicators of the concept of English competence of
Indonesian elementary school students, the reseracher considered the layout and design was quite suitable for the pupils.
4. Preliminary Field Test
Borg states 1983: 783 that the preliminary field test is conducted to obtain an initial qualitative evaluation of the new educational product. It is to determine
whether the educational product under development meets its performance objective
98 and whether it is fully ready to use in the schools without the presence of the
developer. He suggests in all phases of the R D involving product evaluation and that it is important to establish similar field site to those in which the product will be
used when it is fully developed. In this research, the preliminary product is in the form of blueprint and the
prototype of the testing model. To conduct the fourth phase of the RD cycle, the researcher distributed the blueprint and the prototype to TEYL professionals and
elementary school students for trial tested to have feedback improvement. This took place in Yogyakarta with four TEYL professionals from ELTI English Course,
Sanata Dharma University and UNY State University of Yogyakarta and sixth grade elementary school students of SDIT Baitussalam Prambanan in Yogyakarta as the
preliminary field test takers. The students were chosen as the sample of test taker candidates with the rational that the school was considered as one of the best
elementary schools in Prambanan, a small district in Yogyakarta. The school was considered as representing the average quality of elementary schools of Indonesia
which have various teaching and learning condition. Hopefully, the response of the students could be used as a reference of what was supposed to get averagely from the
elementary school students in all over Indonesia.
5. Main Product Revision.
It has been mentioned in the previous part of this chapter that the preliminary or main product of the research is the blueprint and its prototype. Those are the main
subjects to change or revise in accordance to the data attained from the respondents in the initial qualitative evaluation process. The revision is done as the ultimate effort of
99 this research in order to have a qualified main product of the appropriate testing
model to measure the communicative written English competence of Indonesian elementary school students.
B. RESEARCH SETTING AND RESPONDENTS
