into a teaching and learning material. Ramayana story was chosen because it is one of famous cultural products of Indonesia in the form of folklore.
The history of puppet of the Ramayana story has long been known by Javanese people and still favored and watched until now in the form of puppet
performance, the play of Ramayana story, Ramayana dance. The performance of Ramayana in the form of fragments is often presented as classical performing arts,
especially in Yogyakarta. Nowadays, the story of Ramayana also has been shown on a TV programme, even though the story is slightly different from the
Ramayana story in Java version. The high rating of Ramayana series on TV also has proven that the series is favoured by many people in Indonesia.
The other reasons, as the story of Ramayana has been very familiar among all people in Java, it is assumed that the story can be used in junior high schools as
the learning media. This learning media inserts a cultural content. By using Ramayana story as the learning medium, it will also introduce and preserve the
ancient culture of Java through puppet story.
B. Identification of the Problem
Based on the problems that often arise in the teaching of English for junior high schools, and the results of interview with the teachers and students at SMP N
1 Lendah in June 2015, some problems were found related to English teaching and learning process. The first problem was lack of appropriate materials such as
books, supporting media such as film, interactive media, magazine and newspapers according to Standard Competence Standar Kompetensi and Basic
Competence Kompetensi Dasar in School-Based KTSP curriculum. The students did not experience any change in the teaching and learning of English;
even, all materials presented in SMP N 1 Lendah were always the same every year. The second problem was lack of materials containing local wisdom used in
English teaching and learning media for students. Local learning content in the media is necessary yet it is rare, whereas learning material using local content can
introduce junior high school students to their local culture. Commonly, the materials such as texts or stories come from foreign sources or tourism places in
foreign countries, while materials containing local tourism destinations are very rare.
As a country that has strong culture, especially the Javanese culture, there are many familiar ancient stories in Indonesia; one of them is Ramayana. The
story of Ramayana indeed comes from India, but once entering Java, the storyline and figures have been adapted to be typical of Java. Hence, this is the reason why
Ramayana in Javanese version should be taught to students in junior high schools because it is expected that students can grasp and understand the story of
Ramayana that has already been very popular even though originally the story came from India along with Hinduism.
The last problem was in terms of arousing students‟ interest in learning
English in junior high schools. Based on the observations, most students admitted that they had difficulties in learning English. The problem was also closely related
to the learning medium which was monotonous and never changed from year to
year. It is common to see that teachers only use the same text books and students worksheet for several years without the intention to innovate.
C. Limitation of the Problem
