complexity of the items, its frequency in the written or spoken language, or its necessities for the learners. Nunan 2004 claims that sequencing a task refers to
deciding what the first aspect should be taught, what the second, and what the last in materials or a program.
Tasks have to be sequenced from the easy one to the difficult one. In reading skills, input becomes an important aspect that have to be sequenced.
Grammatical factors influence the complexity of the input. Further, Nunan 2004 says that the length of a text, propositional density, the amount of low-frequency
vocabulary, the speed of spoken text and the number of speakers involved, the explicitness of the information, the discourse structure and the clarity with which
it signaled determine the difficulty of input.
B. Review of Related Studies
This research is dealing with developing supplementary English reading materials for Grade VII students of Junior High School focusing on descriptive
texts . Based on the researcher‟s knowledge there are some previous studies related
to the development of reading materials and development of materials for Junior High School students. Even though the research studies are not completely the
same as this study, those research studies contribute to this research very much. In terms of reading material development, Gustaf 2015 had developed A
Comic Book for Extensive Reading Material for 8th Grade Students of SMPN 2 Sanden. The materials consisted of tasks with comic strips. It met
the learners‟ interests. The second study was conducted by Warahita 2015. She had
developed a set of culture-based supplementary reading materials for grade eight students of Junior High School. Even though she developed a set of
supplementary reading materials, it contains culture-based texts as the input and was developed for grade eight students. While, in this study, the theme was
related to the teenage learners‟ real life and the product was developed for Grade
VII students.
C. Conceptual Framework
Reading is an important activity in English classes. It is not only as a way to collect information and pleasurable activity, but also as a means of extending
learners‟ knowledge of the target language. Therefore, materials become the next important aspect in English teaching and learning. However, it is difficult to find
appropriate English materials for Grade VII students of Junior High School. By developing supplementary English reading materials for Grade VII students of
Junior High School based on their needs, it is expected that the materials will support the teaching and learning process and provide more opportunities to
improve their reading skills focusing on descriptive texts materials. Based on the observation, there were some problems related to the
materials. The first was that there were no English materials for Grade VII students of Junior High School that meet the students
‟ needs. The second was that the English materials that are provided by the government show how little the
exposure that the students receive dealing with their reading skills especialy for descriptive texts.
