A set of supplementary reading materials using fables for the first grade students of SMP N 3 Sleman.

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A SET OF SUPPLEMENTARY READING MATERIALS USING FABLES FOR THE FIRST GRADE STUDENTS OF SMP N 3 SLEMAN

A T h e s i s

Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements to Obtain the Sarjana Pendidikan Degree

in English Language Education

By

Eva Priscilia Sitompul Student Number: 001214137

ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM DEPARTMENT OF LANGUAGE AND ARTS EDUCATION FACULTY OF TEACHERS TRAINING AND EDUCATION

SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY YOGYAKARTA

2008

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THE STORY OF YOUR LIFE

( Anonymous)

D on't say you're not import ant , I t simply isn't t rue, T he f act t hat you were born, I s proof , God has a plan f or you. T he pat h may seem unclear right now,

But one day you will see, T hat all t hat came bef ore,

Was t ruly meant t o be.

God wrot e t he book t hat is your lif e, T hat 's all you need t o know. Each day t hat you are living,

Was writ t en long ago. God only writ es best sellers, So be proud of who you are, Your charact er is import ant , I n t his book you are t he "St ar".

Enjoy t he novel as it reads, I t will st and t hroughout t he ages,

Savor each chapt er as you go, T aking t ime t o t urn t he pages.

L if e is like a river. L et it carry you, not knowing where

it will t ake you, and you will journey

t o amazing places; O r, st ay on t he shore,

knowing f or sure where you will be, and you will go nowhere.

I dedicate this thesis to

my late daddy, my mommy,

my dear sister and brother,

and my loving pariban.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

There is no greater love that has been given to me except that from Jesus Christ who arts in Heaven. His love and grace, I believe, will always accompany me wherever and whenever I need them.

My sincere gratitude goes to Drs. YB. Gunawan, M.A., my Major Sponsor, for his willingness and patience to guide me in writing this thesis. I thank him for his support, suggestions, and advice so that I could finish my thesis. My sincere gratitude also goes to Made Frida Yulia, S.Pd., M.Pd., my Co-Sponsor, for her kindness and patience to hear my stories and to share her ideas into my thesis. I thank her for her careful corrections and suggestions. I am really glad to have them.

I am also indebted to the English Education lecturers , secretariat staff and librarians who have helped and served me the best they can do. The knowledge I gained until today could not be substituted with anything. They really are the best people in their fields.

I would like to thank my great parents, (V) Papa Tompul and Mama Elvira, for their endless love, prayer, patience and support. I thank them for always asking me to finish my thesis as soon as possible. Without their support I could not finish this thesis.

My sweetest thank goes to my sister, Vani, and my brother, Shandi who always accompany me. I thank them for their support, stories and laughter which set me free from boredom. It is great blessing to have them all in this life.

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My deepest appreciation goes to my beloved hasian, Soripada Hutabarat, S.E., who will always be a part of my life. He has been teaching me the meaning of honest and true love. He makes me so special and meaningful. All I want to say is

“Ai na holong do roha’ku tu ho pariban hasian”

My thankfulness goes to Dodo, who has made my dream come true. I thank him so much for illustrating the fables. Without his help, this thesis does not mean anything.

A special thank goes to my best friend, Rosalia Listyaningsih, S.H. I thank her for wonderful times we have shared so far, especially the moments that we had during our teenage time. I will not forget every single crazy thing we experienced together.

I would also like to thank ALPHA English Course big family. My special gratitude goes to Dra. Sri Joeliantini, who has been teaching me how to be not only a good English teacher but also a good person in the universe. I thank her for the chances she gave me to develop both my teaching skill and my managerial skill. My big thanks also go to my best team work, Ms Yo, Ms Eva, Ms Yen, Mbak Indah, Mbak Ajeng, Lita, Prima, Dian, and Clara. I thank all of them for the ‘red light’ as their support for me to finish the thesis as soon as possible.

Eva Priscilia Sitompul

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page

TITLE PAGE ………..………... i

APPROVAL PAGES ………...………. ii

DEDICATION PAGE ………..………..…... iv

STATEMENT OF WORK’S ORIGINALITY ……….. v

STATEMENT OF PUBLICITY ….………..……. vi

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ………... vii

TABLE OF CONTENTS …………..………. ix

LIST OF TABLES ……….. xiii

LIST OF FIGURES ………...… xiv

ABSTRACT ……….. xv

ABSTRAK ... xvi

CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION ………... 1

a. Background of the Study ……….….. 1

b. Problem Identification ………..………... 5

c. Problem Limitation ……… 5

d. Problem Formulation ……….. 6

e. Objectives of the Study ……….. 6

f. Benefits of the Study ………...………... 7

g. Definition of Terms ……… 7

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CHAPTER II LITERATURE REVIEW ………... 10

A. Theoretical Description ………. 10

1. Overviews on the Nature of Reading ……… 10

2. Teaching Reading ...……….. 13

3. Implementing the Theories of Reading to the Developed Materials 14

4. Instructional Design Models ……… 15

a. Kemp’s Model ………...………. 16

b. Janice Yalden’s Model ………. 18

c. Borich’s Model ………. 22

5. The Competence-Based Curriculum for Junior High School …. 25

a. The Rationale ………. 25

b. The Definition ……… 26

c. The Goals and Functions ………... 26

d. The Scope ………... 26

6. The Curriculum in School Level ……….. 28

B. Theoretical Framework ………. 30

CHAPTER III METHODOLOGY ……….. 35

A. Research Method ………..……. 35

1. Research and Information Collecting ……… 36

2. Planning ………. 37

3. Development of Preliminary Form of Product ……….. 38

4. Preliminary Field Testing ……….. 38

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5. Main Product Revision ………. 38

B. Research Setting and Subject ………... 39

1. Setting ………..………. 39

2. Subject ………..………. 40

C. Research Instruments ………....……….… 41

1. For the First Survey ……….. 41

2. For the Second Survey ………... 42

D. Data Collection ……… 42

E. Data Analysis Technique ………..….. 43

F. Procedures ………..….... 45

CHAPTER IV RESEARCH RESULTS AND DISCUSSION …………... 47

A. Research Results ………...………… 47

1. Conducting Needs Survey ……… 47

a. The Data of the Questionnaire ……….... 48

b. The Data of the Interview ………….………... 49

2. Formulating Goals, Topics, and General Purposes ………. 50

3. Specifying Learning Objectives ……….. 52

4. Listing Subject Content ……… 54

5. Selecting Teaching – Learning Activities and Resources ……. 55

6. Evaluating the Designed Materials ………. 55

a. Data Presentation ……… 56

b. Respondents’ Suggestions and Recommendations ………. 56

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7. Making Revision ……….. 58

B. Discussion ………. 59

C. Materials Presentation ………... 66

CHAPTER V CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS ……….… 68

A. Conclusions ……….….. 68

B. Suggestions ………... 69

REFERENCES ….………... 71

APPENDICES ………... 74

Appendix 1: A Letter of Permission ……….. 75

Appendix 2: Interview Questions ………... 77

Appendix 3: The Questionnaire ……….. 79

Appendix 4: The Results of the Interview ………. 82

Appendix 5: The Results of the Questionnaire ……… 85

Appendix 6: The General Description ……… 88

Appendix 7: The Evaluation Questionnaire ……… 91

Appendix 8: The Lesson Pla n ………. 94

Appendix 9: The Designed Materials ………. 100

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LIST OF TABLES

Table 1 The Standard Competence for Grade Seven ………. 30

Table 2 The Description of the Respondents ………. 41

Table 3 The Sample of Descriptive Statistics ……… 45

Table 4 Personal Information of the Respondents (Needs Analysis) ……… 48

Table 5 Personal Information of the Respondents (Interview)……….. 50

Table 6 The Bas ic Competence ……….……… 52

Table 7 The Descriptive Statistics of the Materials Evaluation Survey …… 59

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LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1 Kemp’s Model of Instructional System ………..…… 18

Figure 2 Yalden’s Language Program Development ……… 21

Figure 3 Borich’s Stages of the Planning Process ……… 25

Figure 4 The Writer’s Adopted Model ………. 34

xv ABSTRACT

Sitompul, Eva Priscilia. 2008. A Set of Supplementary Reading Materials Using Fables for the First Grade Students of SMP N 3 Sleman. Yogyakarta: English Language Education Study Program, Sanata Dharma University.

Nowadays, most of the information we need is provided in English. This is because English is an international language spoken by most people in the world. However, Indonesians’ awareness of reading this information is still low; English is rarely used. They prefer to choose information written or spoken in Indonesian. Through this study, the writer attempted to design a set of supplementary English materials using fables to teach reading to the first grade students of SMP N 3 Sleman in order to motivate the students to read English.

There were two problems analysed in this study. They are: 1) How is a set of supplementary reading materials using fables for the first grade students of SMP N 3 Sleman designed? 2) What do the designed set of supplementary reading materials look like?

In order to answer the first question, the wr iter adopted and modified the three instructional design models from Borich, Kemp and Yalden. The steps involved were conducting a needs analysis, formulating goals, topics and general purposes, specifying learning objectives, listing subject content, selecting teaching – learning activities and instructional resources, evaluating the designed materials and revising them.

To answer the second question, the writer presented the final version of the designed materials after making some revisions and improvements of the designed materials from the evaluation survey. There were eight topics in the designed materials. Each topic covered three phases of reading. The three phases were pre-reading, whilst reading and post-reading. The writer used five points of agreement to assess the respondents’ opinions on the designed materials. The results of the survey were calculated using measures of central tendency. The grand mean of the evaluation of the designed materials was 4.23. This showed that the set of supplementary reading materials for the first grade students of SMP N 3 Sleman was applicable.

The writer expects that this design will be able to help English teachers of Junior High Schools in giving new reading materials and also help first grade students of Junior High Schools in developing their reading skills.

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ABSTRAK

Sitompul, Eva Priscilia. 2008. A Set of Supplementary Reading Materials Using Fables for the First Grade Students of SMP N 3 Sleman. Yogyakarta: Program Studi Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris, Universitas Sanata Dharma.

Saat ini banyak informasi yang kita butuhkan tersedia dalam bahasa Inggris. Hal ini karena bahasa Inggris merupakan bahasa internasional yang digunakan oleh sebagian besar masyarakat di dunia. Namun, kesadaran masyarakat Indonesia akan pentingnya membaca informasi berbahasa Inggris masih rendah; bahasa Inggris jarang digunakan. Masyarakat lebih memilih informasi dalam bahasa Indonesia baik lisan maupun tulisan. Melalui studi ini, penulis berusaha untuk merancang satu set materi tambahan untuk pelajaran membaca dengan menggunakan cerita binatang untuk siswa kelas satu Sekolah Menengah Pertama Negeri 3 Sleman yang digunakan untuk memotivasi mereka untuk membaca bahasa Inggris.

Ada dua masalah yang dianalisa di studi ini: 1) Bagaimanakah satu set materi tambahan untuk pelajaran membaca bahasa Inggris dengan menggunakan cerita binatang untuk siswa kelas satu Sekolah Menengah Pertama Negeri 3 Sleman dirancang? 2) Bagaimanakah bentuk dari satu set materi tambahan untuk pelajaran membaca bahasa Inggris dengan menggunakan cerita binatang?

Untuk menjawab pertanyaan pertama, penulis mengambil dan memodifikasi tiga model desain instruksional dari Borich, Kemp dan Yalden. Langkah- langkah yang digunakan adalah melaksanakan analisa kebutuhan, merancang tujuan, topik -topik dan tujuan-tujuan umum, menspesifikasikan tujuan-tujuan umum, mendaftar pokok bahasan, menyeleksi kegiatan belajar-mengajar dan sumber-sumber pengajaran, mengevaluasi materi dan memperbaiki materi.

Untuk menjawab pertanyaan kedua, penulis menampilkan hasil akhir dari desain materi setelah memperbaiki dan menambah beberapa hal dari survey evaluasi. Ada delapan topik pada desain materi ini. Setiap topik terdiri dari tiga fase membaca yaitu kegiatan sebelum membaca (pre-reading), kegiatan membaca (reading) dan kegiatan setelah membaca (post-reading). Penulis menggunakan lima poin persetujuan untuk mendapatkan pendapat-pendapat dari para responden terhadap desain materi. Hasil akhir dari survey tersebut dihitung dengan menggunakan kecenderungan nilai tengah (measures of central tendency). Rata-rata keseluruhan dari evaluasi terhadap desain materi adalah 4.23. Hal ini menunjukkan bahwa satu set materi tambahan untuk pelajaran membaca dengan menggunakan cerita binatang untuk siswa kelas satu Sekolah Menengah Pertama Negeri 3 Sleman dapat dipergunakan.

Penulis berharap agar desain materi ini dapat membantu para guru bahasa Inggris Sekolah Menengah Pertama dalam memberikan materi membaca yang baru dan juga dapat membantu para siswa kelas satu Sekolah Menengah Pertama dalam mengembangkan keterampilan membaca mereka.

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

This chapter is a general description of what the writer will discuss in the next chapters. This part consists of background of the study, problem identification, problem limitation, problem formulation, objectives of the study, benefits of the study and definition of terms.

A. Background of the Study

English language is considered important as the first foreign language in Indonesia to improve and develop science, technology, art, and culture, and to maintain a relationship with other countries (Depdikbud, 1994: 1). Therefore, English is necessary to be learnt because it becomes an important subject in the curriculum and it helps Indonesian people to follow the growth of the world. To provide Indonesian people with a good understanding of English, the government realize that they should prepare all the aspects which can help the Indonesian people in learning English. The government stipulate that English is taught from the first grade of the elementary school. In this level, English skills are taught in the simplest way, including the reading skill. The reading materials provide the students with a simple story along with some simple comprehension questions.

Based on the 1994 English syllabus for the Junior High School, reading becomes the most important skill of all to be taught and is given primary stress in English teaching. However, the result shows that Junior High School graduates are

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not capable of reading English texts, let alone using English. This means that the teaching of English in the secondary schools has not been successful.

Then, in 2001 the government tried to improve the students’ capability of using English by reviewing the 1994 English Curric ulum. The English teaching, consequently, emphasizes the students’ competencies. The basic competency of Junior High School students is mastering the four English language skills which have relevant contexts based on their maturity and interests. Those four language skills are listening, speaking, reading, and writing.

Reading skill mastery may facilitate the mastery of other language skills. Actually in language teaching process, the four language skills cannot be separated. They should be taught integratively using one of the language skills; in this case reading skill is taught to integrate the other skills. As the basis or the guidance to teach other language skills, however, reading is perhaps the most difficult language skill to teach. Most of the English teachers were accustomed to following certain teaching techniques prescribed in the textbooks. The students may have considered the teaching- learning process boring. Thus, it is hoped that the teachers would avoid this problem. They are expected to present reading materials not in the same way as teachers did in the past without thinking of making some modifications on them, but they must be creative enough to make students enjoy the learning process.

Adolescents and teenagers today are surrounded by diverse and increasingly complex media, and some will often find classroom materials dull, irrelevant, or both (Versaci, 2001). From this situation, teachers should be active in finding interesting

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materials for the students to read and should also realize what kinds of books that they like. Many people, especially teenagers, like to read fables. They like fables because they consist of animal pictures showing kinds of the characters of the animals. Also, the plot of the story can be seen clearly in order that they can follow the story easily. They can retell the content of the story to others without thinking deeply about it because they understand the story well. In addition, most fables contain other countries’ culture and good moral lessons and that is why, they may learn about others’ culture and develop their personalities after reading fables.

From this phenomenon, teachers may take some advantages by developing their reading materials using fables. Teachers can create the reading materials in such a way to make the reading activity interesting to do. When students already begin to like English passages, teachers may replace fables with other literary media such as magazines or newspapers. Teachers may also use them as supplementary reading materials depending on the students’ needs and condition. In other words, teachers may or may not use fables in the learning process if the students have been ready to read other English passages.

By using passages from English fable in which the stories are more interesting and enjoyable, it is easier for the students to understand the materials given because basically they like them. If they like them, they will be highly motivated to read other English passages. The 2000 Instructional Program Outline (2000: 2), known as Garis-garis Besar Program Pengajaran (GBPP), states that students’ learning motivation is the main factor of the success of learning. The

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quality of motivation corresponds with the quality of materials’ importance and students’ learning activities. In other words, materials and learning activities are the most important things for the success of learning. The 2000 Instructional Program Outline (GBPP) also states that in the teaching learning process, language elements which are considered difficult for students can be systematically presented based on the theme (2000: 3). This statement denotes that teachers are free to create their materials based on the students’ ability and needs.

As what is proposed by Davis (1997) about the area of language instruction, teachers of reading should constantly search for new and innovative materials to enhance learning in the formal classroom environment. Davis believes that other materials should be introduced into the class to expose students, both physically and mentally, to the outside world, particularly in EFL settings where authent ic models are scarce. Therefore, in this design, the writer would like to use fables as the supplementary reading materials in order to develop students’ reading ability. As a result, they would be accustomed to reading English textbooks from the simple to the complicated ones.

From the explanation above, it can be concluded that most students find problems in understanding English textbooks. One of the problems is that they sometimes feel bored reading passages using formal language because the topics are not interesting and the reading activities are not modified interestingly. Therefore, the writer would design some additional reading materials which are suitable for

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students ’ interest, that is, a set of supplementary English materials using fables to teach reading to the first year students of Junior High School.

B. Problem Identification

Since English is used as a foreign language, it is possib le that the students of Junior High School might find difficulties in learning English, especially in reading complicated texts. In addition, they might find reading English texts more complex than learning other English skills because the texts and the provided activities do not build their curiosity. Thus, the teachers of English at Junior High School should find an interesting and comprehensive way to present the reading materials to the students so that they can easily follow the course and improve their reading ability.

However, most of the students read texts in the textbooks and do the exercises only whe n the teacher asks them to. The texts and the exercises bore them. They do not enjoy it and they do not feel motivated in doing the exercises. Therefore, the writer designs these materials to make the reading materials more interesting and to offer a different technique in order to make the students read more texts and enjoy their reading class.

C. Problem Limitation

There are some limitations made for the study in order to lead the readers’ focus. First, the discussion is limited to the development of a set of supplementary English reading materials for the first grade students of Junior High School which is

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specified for SMP N 3 Sleman, Yogyakarta. Second, the writer focuses only on the reading activity which is considered an uninteresting activity, while in fact, reading should be an important activity in the learning process to acquire other English skills. Third, the reading materials which are discussed in this study are only reading materials using fables, not other reading materials. Fourth, the designed materials discussed in this study are merely supplementary reading materials. They are used to add or to complete the existing teaching materials.

D. Problem Formulation

The study aims to answer two main questions. They are stated as follows: 1 How is a set of supplementary reading materials using fables for the first grade

students of SMP N 3 Sleman designed?

2 What do the designed set of supplementary reading materials look like?

E. Objectives of the Study

The study aims to answer the problems formulated in the problem formulation. They are:

1. To find out how a set of supplementary reading materials using fables for the first grade students of SMP N 3 Sleman is designed.

2. a. To design a set of supplementary reading materials for the first grade students of SMP N 3 Sleman.

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b. To present the designed set of supplementary reading materials for the first grade students of SMP N 3 Sleman.

F. Benefits of the Study

The following explanation is about some benefits that could be obtained from this study.

1. For the teachers

The teacher s may consider these supplementary reading instructional materials as one of the alternatives to help them develo p their creativity in teaching reading. 2. For the students

The design is useful for the first grade students of Junior High School to help them improve their reading ability using the materials developed by the writer. 3. For other English material designers

It is expected that the results of the study could be useful for the Junior High School English material designers. Since this study provides information on a better teaching strategy for the first grade students of Junior High School, it is hoped that the insights they gain may lead them to produce a better result. Furthermore, the study also invites other researchers to conduct a research on verifying the effectiveness of the designed reading materials.

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G. Definition of Terms

The following are some significant terms related to the study. 1. Design

Design is the general arrangement or planning. Design is a developed plan to guide educational activity in a situation (Houle, 1978: 230). Then, designing is the same as creating a new set of materials that fits the learning objectives and specific area of particular learning (Hutchinson and Waters, 1994: 106). In this study, designing is intending or setting a set of supplementary reading materials for the first grade students of Junior High School.

2. Supplementary materials

In Webster’s New Word Dictionary, Guralnik (1976: 707) states supplement is “a section added to a book or the like to give additional information, correct errors in the body of the work, etc.” Thus, supplementary materials refer to the materials that are designed to add or complete the existing materials. In this study, the supplementary materials refer to the materials of reading using fables, which are intended to improve students’ reading skill.

3. Reading

There are many definitions of reading. Clark and Silbestain (1988: 15) define reading as “an active cognitive process of interacting with print and monitoring comprehension to establish meaning.” This process produces the ability to understand a passage. The reader is also able to comprehend the passage. In other words, when the reader reads the passage, it means that there is a process in the

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mind. According to Grellet (1981: 7), reading is a constant process of guessing, and what one brings to text is often more important than what one finds in it. The reader sometimes finds some difficult words when he reads the passage. He often guesses the meaning of those difficult words. In Webster’s New World College Dictionary (1996), it is stated that reading is a particular interpretation or performance, as of something written or composed. Besides, the reader is not only able to know the meaning of the words, but also to interpret the passage. Basically, reading is an active cognitive process of something written or composed. The reader is able to know the meaning of the words by guessing and interpreting.

4. Fables

According to Grolier’s Encyclopedia of Knowledge (1993: 194-195), fable is defined as “a brief tale in which animals or inanimate objects speak and behave like humans, usually to advance a moral point”. In this study fable is written in some paragraphs and in each story there is a moral lesson to be taught in class. 5. Junior High School

In Indonesia, Junior High School is commonly called Sekolah Menengah Pertama (SMP). It is part of the basic education in Indonesia. Actually the basic education in Indonesia lasts nine (9) years. The first six years take place in the Elementary School, which is called Sekolah Dasar (SD), and the next three years take place in the Junior High School, which is called Sekolah Menengah Pertama

(SMP).

CHAPTER II LITERATURE REVIEW

In this chapter, the writer would like to discuss some theories related to the study. In the theoretical description, the writer presents overviews on the nature of reading, teaching reading, implementing the theories of reading to the developed materials, instructional design models, the competence-based curriculum for Junior High School, and the curriculum in school level (KTSP). The second part, theoretical framework, is the guidance for the wr iter in conducting the study.

A. Theoretical Description

There are six points to be discussed in the theoretical description. They are overviews on the nature of reading, teaching reading, implementing the theories of reading to the developed materials, instructional design models, the competence-based curriculum for Junior High School, and the curriculum in school level (KTSP). 1. Overviews on the Nature of Reading

Reading is known as one of the four language skills. According to Hafni (1981: 1), language can be viewed from the points of materials, product, and process. From the viewpoint of materials, reading is seen as a material in which the author encodes the information to the reader. As a product, reading affects information getting. Reading is considered a process; that is why, there is a transfer of information in it. In this process the readers employ their experiences, linguistic competence, and conceptual framework in processing the information.

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Barnitz (1985: 3) states that reading is a complex communication process in which the mind of the readers interacts with the text in a particular setting or context. It means that during the reading process readers construct a meaningful representation of text through an interaction of their conceptual and their linguistic knowledge with cues which are in the text. Furthermore, Mitchell (1982: 1) also states that

Reading can be defined closely as the ability to make sense of written of printed symbols. The reader uses the symbols to guide the recovery of information from his or her me mory and subsequently uses their information to construct a plausible interrogation of the writer’s message.

Meanwhile, Clark and Silberstein, quoted by Asiyah (2000: 10), describe that reading is an active cognitive process of interacting with print and monitoring comprehension to establish meaning. It means that when the readers interact with the print, their prior knowledge is combined with the written information. Then, it will result in the comprehension about the message of the written information.

Reading is viewed as a two-way process in which the author presents his idea through words, while the readers are reading the printed pages that contain certain ideas and experience the background knowledge that the readers process. ”The author’s socio-cultural, value system, and attitude background are needed to help the readers get something out of the reading” (Widagdo, 1998 : 10). Therefore, moral lessons presented in the fables are learnt in order to shape the readers’ behavior in their society or community.

Readers and text are two necessary elements involved in reading. Readers look at and understand what is written, but it does not mean that readers have to

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understand everything in the text. Readers are not passive subjects who can only read letters, words, and sentences without unders tanding the content, but they are active subjects who are able to work on the text and able to come to the understanding without looking at every letter and word (William, 1986: 2). In other words, readers are active subjects who can select and comprehend the information in the text.

If readers, in this case students, are active subjects, teachers should know what reading materials their students want to read and what is suitable for the students’ level. As what is proposed by Davis (1997) about the area of language instruction, teachers of reading should constantly search for new and innovative materials to enhance learning in the formal classroom environment. A textbook is just a material that has been altered and simplified for the consumption of the learner. Davis believes that other materials should be introduced into the class to expose students, both physically and mentally, to the outside world, particularly in EFL settings where authentic models are scarce. Therefore, in this design, the writer would like to use fables as the supplementary reading materials in order to develop students’ reading ability. As a result, they would be accustomed to reading English textbooks from the simple to the complicated ones.

Since fables are used as the supplementary reading materials in the design, the writer would also like to illustrate the meaning of fables and all of its characteristics. To begin with, a fable means a brief story that conveys some pointed statements of truth. Everything in a fable leads directly to the moral or message which is sometimes stated at the end (Kennedy and Gioia, 1999: 4-5). Henceforth, the moral lessons taught in each fable take important part in the design because the

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writer would like the students to learn something from the messages. The lessons would be very useful for them to improve not only their reading skill but also their attitudes in their societies.

According to Kennedy and Gioia (1999: 5), the characters in a fable may be talking animals, inanimate objects, or people and supernatural beings. However, the characters are not widely developed in a fable because their actions are led to a certain message. By its very bareness and simplicity, fables seem to be designed to teach lessons about human life. It means that fables are read to let the readers understand what the message is. Therefore, the designed materials do not focus on the characters’ development of a story, but they offer some valuable moral lessons to the students.

2. Teaching Reading

Apart from the vocabulary and language matters, teachers should know that teaching reading is not an easy task. According to Urquhart and Weir (1998: 183), there are three phases, or sometimes called three strategies in teaching reading, which are called pre-reading, whilst reading and post-reading.

a. Pre-reading strategies

According to Pearson and Fielding’s generative learning as quoted by Urquhart and Weir (1998: 183), there are two pre-reading strategies, namely previewing and prediction. In Urquhart and Weir’s opinion (1998: 184), previewing can be used to make a decision whether to read a book, an article or a text. In the classroom context, previewing may be very useful. Previewing has obvious links

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with expeditious reading strategies. Prediction is often a case of supplying or activating appropriate background knowledge such as lectures, discussion, debate, real- life experiences, text previewing or introduction of vocabulary.

b. Whilst-reading strategies

Whilst-reading phase is meant to lead the students to understand the content of the reading passage. The skills involved are:

§ Scanning

It helps the students search quickly for specific information from the materials, such as finding the meaning of a word in dictionary, finding statistical information and finding answers to certain questions from a text.

§ Skimming

It means to quickly read part of the text to obtain the general impression of what the text is about and to select the sentences that are worth reading.

c. Post-reading strategies

Questions of evaluation and of personal response are also seen by teache rs and course book writers as valuable post-reading activities, relating the text to the outside world. In addition, Nuttal (1996: 167) also suggests that the reading activities in this strategy may be done either ora lly or in written.

3. Implementing the Theories of Reading to the Developed Materials

From all theories above, the writer would like to apply them as the basis of the instructional design. Since teaching reading is not as easy as teaching the other skills, the writer feels challenged to make a design of interesting reading materials. In

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designing them, the writer considers two things in order to develop students’ reading skill. They are the students’ needs and the strategies of teaching reading.

The writer agrees that students must be put as active subjects. They need to be exposed both physically and mentally to the reading passages that are suitable and interesting in order to make them understand the context or the message from the passages. The writer also wants the students to learn something valuable and meaningful for the students’ social life. Therefore, the instructional design uses fables as the passages so that the students will not only develop their reading skill but also learn something meaningful because there is a moral lesson taught in each fable.

Considering the success of teaching reading using fables as the materials, the writer applies the three strategies proposed by Urquhart and Weir (1998) and Nuttal (1996). They are pre-reading strategies, whilst-reading strategies, and post-reading strategies. In the design, however, the terms of the strategies are changed into

Warming-up, Let’s Read, and Cooling Down.

4. Instructional Design Models

The instructional design must take account of some principles of human learning, especially the conditions under which learning occurs. In other words, the instructional materials design is an integral part of an instructional program design. Therefore, developing a set of reading instructional material requires a system of instructional program design to be followed. In this study, the writer presents three instructional design models that can be used as the basis for developing the instructional design. They are:

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a. Kemp’s Model

According to Kemp (1977: 8), it is important to make an instructional design plan because it will help the designers to become familiar with the design which will be developed later on. In this instructional design plan, the designers are supposed to seek out information about the objectives of the instructional design, the activities and resources, and the evaluation of the instructional design. Later on, it is hoped that the design will suit both the students’ needs and the plan itself.

Kemp’s model of instructional design can be applied in all education levels from elementary school up to college. Another benefit of this model is that the designer can apply the method to individual topics and then to units and then to complete courses. According to Kemp (1977: 8), the plan is designed in order to supply answers to the following questions:

1) What must be learned? (Objectives)

2) What procedure and resources will work best to reach the design learning levels? (Activities and resources)

3) How will we know when required learning has taken place? (Evaluation) The following are the stages designed by Kemp (1977: 9-11):

1) Goals, Topics, and General Purposes

This stage is aimed to identify and formulate the general instructional objectives for each topic.

2) Learner Characteristics

This stage is aimed to identify the students’ characteristics as a group of individuals that would be taught.

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3) Learning Objective s

This stage is aimed to formulate the specific instructional objectives that should be achieved based on the observable and measurable students’ attitudes.

4) Subject Content

This stage is aimed to design the learning materials that support the attainment of each specific instructional objective.

5) Pre-Assessment

This stage is aimed to develop a pre-test to know the student’s background (i.e., their educational level) in an attempt to discover suitable topics.

6) Teaching /Learning Activities and Resources

This stage is aimed to select teaching learning activities and instructional resources that can be applied to achieve the specific instructional objective appropriate for accomplishing each objective.

7) Support Services

This stage is aimed to identify support services or facilities which are required to implement the design plan such as funds, facilities, equipment, and many others. 8) Evaluation

This stage is aimed to evaluate students’ learning processes based on the criterion of the achievement of specific instructional objectives. This step should be done in order to revise and re-evaluate each step that needs some improvements.

Kemp explains further that developing an instructional system is like a circle with its un-breaking continuity. Each step of development has a direct relation with an activity called revision. In Kemp’s model, therefore, the teacher can start

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developing the instructional system from every point and go anywhere. This process may happen because the instructional program development is considered a system in which its components are interdependent. However, Kemp state s that this model still takes the objectives as a starting point and the evaluation as the end.

Figure 1 Kemp’s Model of Instructional Design (Kemp, 1977: 9)

Evaluation

Support Services

Goals, Topics, and General Purposes

T/L Activities Resources

Pre- Assessments

Subject Content

Learning Objectives Learners’ Characteristics

Revise

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b. Janice Yalden’s Model

A communicative syllabus, according to Yalden (1987: 109), is a syllabus which is designed for describing a classroom. The purpose of Yalden’s model is to present a syllabus which considers the communicative needs of the learners. The model consists of seven steps (Yalden, 1987: 101-118, 138-153), namely:

1) The Needs Survey

Needs survey is conducted to study the learners’ needs and to determine the objective that is attainable for the learners.

2) The Description of Purpose

Conducting needs survey will give the syllabus designer direction for describing the purpose of a language program. She explains further that the purpose of the language program can also be investigated from the setting in which the survey is conducted.

3) The Selection or Development of Syllabus Type

The choice of syllabus type is done when the general category of a language program has been decided. She employs a proposed range of syllabus from a structural syllabus to a completely learner-centered one. There are six types of syllabus proposed by her. They are:

Type I: Structural – Functional

This type involves a separation of forms and communicative function. It suggests that the linguistic forms process the communicative function. Type II: Structures and Functions

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This type provides a structure in a communicative function. It enables the learners to study the linguistic form and the communicative function.

Type III: Variable Focus

Variable emphasizes the language program shifts according to the level of proficiency. Thus, the emphasis is not determin ed by the given topics, but by the needs of the learners.

Type IV: Functional

The objective that is stated in this type of syllabus is in terms of communicative function. The linguistic forms, however, are not abandoned.

Type V: Fully Notional

This type of syllabus is applicable for the learner who already has adequate proficiency of English, but the syllabus still needs to be specified for a very particular purpose.

Type VI: Fully communicative

This type of syllabus is also called learner-generated syllabus. The learners become the source of input.

4) The Production of a Proto-Syllabus

At this stage the description of contents is conducted in accordance with the type of syllabus. The designer should also remember the purpose of the program of which the specification of syllabus contents will be taken accordingly.

21 5) The Production of a Pedagogical S yllabus

The specification of every single word and phrase will be conducted in this stage. Therefore, the production of a pedagogical-syllabus will be completely developed.

6) The Development and Implementation of Classroom Procedures

The communicative syllabus brings a significant change in the teacher’s role. The teacher should regard himself as a facilitator tha n a leader. The classroom procedures, therefore, are conducted based on the learner’s activities rather than the teacher’s.

7) Evaluation

Evaluation can be done at every stage, which enables the designer to revise the type and the content of the syllabus.

From the above points, Yalden’s stages start from the importance of conducting needs survey for which the program is prepared. It is done to establish realistic and acceptable objectives. Yalden’s Language Program Development is shown in Figure 2.

Needs Survey (1)

Development & Implementation of Classroom Procedures (6) Evaluation (7) Selection & Development of Syllabus Type (3)

Description of Purpose (2)

Production of a Pedagogical Syllabus (5) Production

of a Proto- Syllabus (4)

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Figure 2 Yalden’s Language Program Development (Yalden, 1987: 88)

c. Borich’s Model

The writer also found other information which is related to the instructional activity. The model, proposed by Borich (1996: 111), starts with the answers to the following questions:

1) Which aims and goals should you try to achieve?

2) To which learner needs should you direct your instruction?

3) What should you teach, and in what ways can you structure the content to produce maximum learning (for instance, by establishing consequences making transitions, by highlighting important points and interweaving themes)?

4) How can you orchestrate various teaching methods to meet the objectives (for instance, question and answer, discussion, review and practice)?

5) What instructional media and materials should you use to deliver the content and assess whether it has been learned?

6) On what basis should you revise the instruction?

For each question, there are many alternatives. Selecting an instructional goal, organizing content for maximum learning and retention, selecting instructional methods and materials, and assessing the learners, all require planning skills that must reduce the alternatives to the most practical and effective ones. Borich (1996:

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105-113) names the stages the “planning process”. He applies four stages in designing an instructional material. They are:

1) Gaining knowledge of some inputs

According to Borich, the first stage in the instructional material development is gaining knowledge of some inputs. The four primary inputs to the planning process are stated as follows:

• aims and goals, reflected by national and state policies and legislation, school district curriculum guide, and adapted textbooks and materials

• learner characteristics and individual differences, reflected by the learners’ attitude and achievement, personality traits (anxiety, learning style, and self-concept), peer influence, and home and family life

• knowledge of academic discipline and grade level curriculum, reflected by content organization (such as general-to-detailed, simple-to-complex, abstract-to-concrete), ordering of priorities (such as connections and transitions among and between parts), major and minor themes (such as most important and or least important), and content-specific facts, rules, concepts, and principles

• knowledge of teaching methods, reflected by key and helping behaviors (such as lesson clarity, instructional variety, task orientation, and learners’ engagement in the learning process at moderate-to-high rates of success), pacing, mode of presentation, class arrangement, classroom arrangement, and selection and use of the textbooks, media, and materials.

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2) Generating alternatives

It is very important to determine the appropriate content and methods to use with the learners. The first step is about choosing among different instructional goals to select the learners’ characteristics, to which the instruction will be tailored. Second, it deals with organizing the content and at last, the designer selects teaching method and instructional materials.

3) Recognizing value assumptions

The goals, learning needs, organization, and methods must be matched up. In this step, the goals must be matched with the learning needs, and then both of them must be tied to a specific organizational pattern and instructional arrangement to make the best “goal- learning need-organization- method” match. Borich also states that the objectives are organized into cognitive behaviors (development of intellectual abilities and skills), affective behaviors (development of attitudes, beliefs, and values), and psychomotor behaviors (coordination of physical movements and bodily performance). One of the most important results of prioritizing the goal- learning need-organizatio n-method matches is that the value assumptions will be recognized as the combination of the implied methods. Matching and prioritizing are planning activities that encourage learners to actively consider consequences of certain decisions.

4) Revising alternatives

In this step, the basis used to revise an instruction should be considered. Feedback from the observation and assessment is an important input to the planning process. Sensitivity of these data provides the most necessary means of

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monitoring the consequences of the instructional decisions, and the most effective means of revising them.

Add new data about Expand set of Revise match, inputs , as needed alternatives, as as needed

needed

Figure 3 Borich’s Stages of the Planning Process (Borich, 1996: 114)

5. The Competence-Based Curriculum for Junior High School

The Competence-Based Curriculum (Mulyasa, 2004: 27), henceforth called CBC, means “Suatu konsep kurikulum yang menekankan pada pengembangan kemampuan melakukan (kompetensi) tugas-tugas dengan standar performasi tertentu, sehingga hasilnya dapat dirasakan oleh peserta didik, berupa penguasaan terhadap seperangkat kompetensi tertentu (a curriculum concept which emphasizes the development of the abilities to complete the tasks (competency) by using certain standards, so that the results can contribute beneficial things to the students’ mastery of certain competency)”. Further discussion of this curriculum is stated as follows.

Gain knowledge of input to the planning

process: goals, learning needs, content organization, and methods Generate alternatives from knowledge of inputs

Sele ct & prioritize goal-learning need organization-method match and recognize value implications

Obtain feedback from the learner

as to the consequences of the match chosen

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a. The Rationale

Basically, like the 1994 syllabus, competence-based curriculum stresses that English language be a tool to convey meaning, thoughts, ideas and feelings. English is the first foreign language in Indonesia which is considered important for absorbing and developing science, technology, art and culture, and building relationship with other nations. Furthermore, this new curriculum adds that English mastery is a principal requirement for Indonesian people to overcome the globalization era. There are a lot of ways to master English but teaching English in school seems an effective way to overcome the problem.

b. The Definition

English is a communication device both orally and in written. To communicate means to understand and share information, ideas and feelings. By using the language, students can develop themselves in science, technology and culture.

c. The Goals and Functions

English subject has the following goals and functions. They are:

§ Develop communication competence in English both orally and in written. Communication competence includes listening, speaking, reading and writing.

§ Grow the awareness of the meaning of language, both English as a foreign language and Indonesian as mother language by comparing the two languages.

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§ Develop the understanding about the relationship between language and culture and widen the cultural scope.

d. The Scope

The English aspects comprise macro skills, basic language elements, culture aspects, and literature aspects. The abilities that are stated in macro skills are listening, speaking, reading, and writing in a basic level. Fur thermore, grammar, vocabulary, intonation and pronunciation are the examples of basic language elements. Equally important, cultural aspects are also included in the English expressions in texts or materials. In addition, literature aspects take important part as well, such as to understand and appreciate literature.

There are some terms, which are often used in the CBC and in consequence need to be clarified. The terms are:

a. Competence standard: Competence standard is an ability which is mastered and implemented by the students in a subject after the learning process is carried out (Nurgiyantoro, 2003: 3). Competence standard is the spelling out from the functions and objectives of the national education.

b. Basic competence: Basic competence is minimum ability mastered by the students (Nurgiyantoro, 2003:4). Basic competence is spelled out directly from the competence standard. The mastery of the competence standard is achieved through the mastery of the basic competence.

c. Achievement indicator: Achievement indicator is spelled out directly from the basic competence. Achievement indicator is characteristic, feature, performance,

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or response showed by the students in relation to the basic competence (Nurgiyantoro, 2003: 4).

Therefore, English skills become the main concerns of the CBC. The standard competence for each skill for the seventh grade students is described in Table 1.

According to Direktorat Pendidikan Lanjutan Pertama (2004: 3), there are four phases in presenting any kinds of texts in spoken or written cycles. The phases are: (1) Building Knowledge of the Field (BKOF), (2) Modeling of Text (MOT), (3) Joint Construction of Text (JCOT), and (4) Independent Construction of Text (ICOT). The first phase is meant to bring the students’ attention to specific features of the text, such as the vocabulary, sentence structure, generic structure, and lexicon grammar. In the second phase, models of texts are given. It is advised to present authentic texts. The students are required to write a certain kind of text in pairs or groups in the third phase. Finally, the students write a piece of writing individually.

More importantly, it is noticeable that those four phases are not always implemented thoroughly. Those phase s can also start from any phases in a disorderly fashion. The considerations are the competence to achieve and the students’ ability.

6. The Curriculum in School Level

As the development of knowledge, technology, and art, government recently revised the previous curriculum into what it is called Kurikulum Tingkat Satuan Pendidikan (KTSP). The curriculum is still basically the same as Competence – Based Curriculum (CBC) since it also presents the materials integratively. However,

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there is one thing that makes it different from CBC; that is, it offers schools to provide its syllabus based on their students’ needs.

The curriculum in school level (KTSP) means “Kurikulum operasionalyang disusun dan dilaksanakan oleh masing-masing satuan pendidikan” (an operational curriculum which is made and held by each school). The curriculum consists of goals, subjects, teaching – learning schedules, and syllabus. In the syllabus, teachers describe the competence standard, the basic competence, teaching – learning sources and activities, the indicators, the students’ assessment, the time allocation, and the teaching – learning aids (Bahan Sosialisasi KTSP, 2007: 5). It means that teachers are free to make the syllabus based on their students’ needs. Therefore, it is hoped that by making its syllabus, schools will be able to maximize the teaching – learning process in order to achieve the goals.

Considering the fact that the curriculum is being socialized at schools, the writer will still apply the Competence – Based Curriculum to the designed materials. The other consideration is that KTSP is not significantly different from CBC, therefore, the designed materials are still based on CBC type. Finally, the writer would like to emphasize that SMP N 3 Sleman still uses CBC as the basis of teaching – learning process.

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Table 1 The Standard Competence for Grade Seven (Direktorat Pendidikan Lanjutan Pertama, 2004: 13-21)

English Skills Competence Standard

Listening Students are able to understand

phonological system, word meanings, the meaning of interpersonal, ideational, and textual in simple sentences, which are included in interactional and narrative texts accompanying pictures. Speaking Students are able to pronounce sounds

and words, and express the meaning of interpersonal, idea tional, and textual in interactional sentences accompanying pictures.

Reading Students are able to read words, phrases, and sentences with correct pronunciation loudly, and understand the meaning of interpersonal, ideational, and textual in simple interactional, narrative, and descriptive texts.

Writing Students are able to write words,

phrases, and sentences to express the meaning of interpersonal, ideational, and textual in the form of loose sentences, interactional, procedural, and short descriptive texts.

B. Theoretical Framework

A set of supplementary instructional reading materials using fables for the first grade stud ents of Junior High School is designed based on the theories mentioned above. The writer combined Kemp’s, Yalden’s and Borich’s models of instructional design to make the writer’s own steps. The purpose of combining those three models is that each of them has their own strengths which complete each other. Yalden’s model provides a syllabus which focuses on the communicative needs of the learners, while Kemp’s model has its flexibility in deciding the education level of

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the learners. At last, Borich’s model has an important step in designing an instructional material, namely revising alternatives, which is not found in the other two models. However, the other theories stated in this chapter are also considered in order to provide the best design for the learners. Below are the steps taken by the writer.

Step 1: Conducting Needs Survey

The writer uses Yalden’s model “Needs Survey” as the first step. In this step, the writer analyses the students’ needs by distributing a questionnaire to three out of six classes of the first grade students of SMP N 3 Sleman. Besides, the writer also interviews the English teachers of SMP N 3 Sleman. The interview consists of questions to find out the students’ needs. The writer develops the designed materials based on the results of the needs survey and the basic competencies for reading skills in the Competence-Based Curriculum.

Step 2: Determining Goals, Topics, and General Purposes

This step is adopted from the first stage of Kemp’s model “Determine Goals, Topics, and General Purposes”. Goals, topics and general purposes are determined after the writer knows the needs of the students. In determining the goals, teacher should consider some points stated in the principles of the Competence-Based Curriculum. They are: (1) developing communication competence in English both orally and in written, (2) growing the awareness of the meaning of language, (3) developing the understanding about the relationship between language and culture and widen the cultural scope. After recognizing or establishing the goals, the major topics are listed. Those topics would become the scope of the course or program and the basis of the

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instruction. After determining the topics, the writer begins to formulate the general purposes of each topic. Finally, the writer organizes target language into cognitive behaviors, affective behaviors, and psychomotor behaviors since they are included into one point stated in Borich’s model.

Step 3: Specifying Learning Objectives

This step is adopted from the third stage of Kemp’s model “Specific Learning Objectives”. The specific learning objectives are formulated after the goals, topics and the general purposes have been formulated. The specific learning objectives here are as guidance for the teachers whether the students have achieved the materials that they learnt.

Step 4: Listing the Subject Content

This step is taken from the fourth stage of Kemp’s model “Subject Content”. The subject content must closely relate to the objectives and to the students’ needs. Hence, the subject content in this study is derived from the objectives.

Step 5: Selecting Teaching/Learning Activities and Resources

The writer adopts the sixth stage of Kemp’s model “Select Teaching/Learning Activities and Resources”. This step can be done when step one until step six are already fixed. This step is conducted in order to select the appropriate teaching learning activities. The selection is based on the students’ characteristics and needs without ignoring the three strategies in teaching reading which are called pre-reading, whilst reading and post-reading (Urquhart and Weir, 1998: 183). Therefore, the selection of supporting materials should motivate the students and effectively explain and illustrate the subject content.

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Step 6: Evaluating the Designed Materials

The writer uses the term “Evaluation” to evaluate the designed materials and this step is the writer’s own step. This step is divided into two parts. The first part is to find out the evaluators’ opinions and suggestions on the designed materials by distributing evaluation questionnaire to the English teachers of SMP N 3 Sleman and the English instructors of ALPHA English Course Yogyakarta. The second part is to evaluate the feedback of the designed materials from the evaluators.

Step 7: Changing to Improve

The writer adopts the last stage of Borich’s model “Revising Alternatives” as the last step, which is named “Changing to Improve”. In this step the writer revises the designed materials based on the respondents’ suggestions or criticism on the designed materials. The main purpose of this phase is to provide the best materials for the learners.

The steps of the writer’s instructional design plan are summarized in Figure 4.

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Conducting Needs Survey

Determining Goals, Topics, and General Purposes

Specifying Learning Objectives

Listing Subject Content

Selecting Teaching/Learning Activities and Resources

Evaluating the Designed Materials

Changing to Improve

Revision Line

Figure 4 The Writer’s Adopted Model

CHAPTER III METHODOLOGY

In this chapter, the writer discusses the methodology used to answer the research questions formulated in the previous chapter. The first method is to find out how a set of supplementary reading materials using fables to the first grade students of SMP N 3 Sleman is designed. The second is to present the designed set of materials. In the following sections, the writer will discuss some important elements that support the methodology.

A. Research Method

In this study, the writer used a method which takes the research knowledge and includes it into the designed materials that can be used in the classrooms. The method is called research and development (R & D). It aims at providing a bridge that frequently exists between educational research and educational practice (Borg & Gall, 1983: 771).

The writer chose R & D methodology since it built tested products that were ready for operational use at schools, in this context was SMP N 3 Sleman. It increased the potential impact of findings upon school practice by constructing them into applicable educational products. R & D consists of a cycle where a product will be developed, field-tested, and improved on the basis of field -test data. R & D cycle contains ten steps, namely, Research and Information Collecting, Planning, Development of Preliminary Form of Product, Preliminary Field Testing, Main

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Product Revision, Main Field Testing, Operational Product Revision, Operational

Field Testing, Final Product Revision, and Dissemination and Implementation (Borg and Gall, 1983: 775). However, because of limitation in time and capacity, the writer decided to adapt the R & D cycle. The writer would apply five steps. Those steps are: 1. Research and Information Collecting

In this study, Research and Information Collecting included the rationale of the study, literature review, and classroom observation. The importance of this step was to describe as specifically as possible the educational product that was to be developed in this study. Therefore, in this step the writer collected the data from the first grade students of SMP N 3 Sleman as well as the English teachers.

There are four ways to gain information, that is, review of literature, interview, questionnaire, and classroom observation. In this study, the data would be gathered through questionnaire. The data gathered consisted of the importance of English reading skill and students’ perceptions and experiences toward English reading class. Furthermore, information and opinion from the English teachers of SMP N 3 Sleman about the topic choices suitable with the first grade students and their teaching experiences especially in teaching reading were also needed.

Considering this cycle, the writer conducted a survey. The survey was conducted because the writer needed to find the needs of the students before she designed the materials. A survey research is one of the common forms of research engaged by educational researchers. The writer asked questions to a number of English language teachers about a particular topic or issue. This asking of questions, all related to the issue of interest, is called survey and it could be done in a number of

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ways, like face-to-face with individuals or groups, by mail or by telephone. Each

method has its advantages and disadvantages, but obtaining answers from a large number of people to a set of carefully designed and administered questions lies at the heart of survey research (Fraenkel and Wallen, 1996: 342). Moreover, according to Sprinthall (1993: 3), a survey is designed to gather information from samples (occasionally, even some populations) by using questionnaires or sometimes an interview. There were two surveys conducted in this study. The first survey was needs survey and the second survey was the evaluation of the designed materials survey.

2. Planning

In this study, Planning included defining skills, stating objectives, and determining course sequence. The writer used the data from Research and Information Collecting as the basis to determine the objectives of the design and the subject content. The Research and Information Collecting data was considered important because it assisted the writer in deciding the learners’ needs, learners’ interests, and learners’ background as well as the learning environment.

The data would be presented in the form of syllabus and lesson plans. According to Borg and Gall (1983: 779), the most important aspect in planning is stating the specific objectives to be achieved by the product. Moreover, objectives also offered the best basis for developing instructional materials, since the instructional materials could be tested and revised until they met their objectives.

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3. Development of Preliminary Form of Product

In this study, preparation of instructional materials, handbooks/ha ndouts, and evaluation devices were included in Development of Preliminary Form of Product. The writer also used the data from Research and Information Collecting as the basis to design the materials. The data was needed to design materials which were appropriate for the first grade students of SMP N 3 Sleman.

An important principle that should be observed in developing the preliminary form of instructional materials was to arrange the materials so as to permit obtaining as much feedback as possible from the field test. Subsequently, the feedback would be used as a basis on revising and improving the instructional materials so that they were completely prepared for use in the schools

4. Preliminary Field Testing

In this study, the purpose of Preliminary Field Testing was to acquire evaluation and comments as well as criticism of the designed materials. The opinions and evaluations on the designed materials would be used to revise and improve the designed materials. The designed materials would be evaluated by four English teachers of SMP N 3 Sleman and three English instructors of ALPHA English Course Jogjakarta. The feedback would be collected using questionnaire.

5. Main Product Revision

In the study, this step included revision of designed materials as suggested by the Preliminary Field Testing results. The writer would conduct revision and improvement on the basis of preliminary field testing results.

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Considering the R & D methodology, the writer conducted surveys. The

surveys were conducted because the writer needed to find the needs of the students before she designed the materials. A survey research is one of the common forms of research engaged by educational researchers. The writer asked questions to a number of English language teachers about a particular topic or issue. This asking of questions, all related to the issue of interest, is called survey and it could be done in a number of ways, like face-to-face with individuals or groups, by mail or by telephone. Each method has its advantages and disadvantages, but obtaining answers from a large number of people to a set of carefully designed and administered questions lies at the heart of survey research (Fraenkel and Wallen, 1996: 342). Moreover, according to Sprinthall (1993: 3), a survey is designed to gather information from samples (occasionally, even some populations) by using questionnaires or sometimes an interview. There were two surveys conducted in this study. The first survey was needs survey and the second survey was the evaluation of the designed materials survey.

B. Research Setting and Subject

In obtaining some data for the needs analysis, the writer conducted the survey to some participants in some places. The following would be the discussion about where the places were and who the participants were.

1. Setting

The first survey was conducted in three classes of SMP N 3 Sleman. The Junior High School was chosen as the place to conduct the research since based on

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the micro-teaching done by the writer, the students usually felt bored and

unmotivated when they had to read, and it influenced their ability to read English. Therefore, the teachers needed to create a way to increase the students’ motivation. One of the ways is through fables. As the second survey’s fulfillment, the writer conducted the survey in two places, that is, SMP N 3 Sleman and ALPHA English Course Yogyakarta. It was done in order to gain the evaluation of the designed materials from Junior High School teachers and English language instructors.

2. Subject

There were two research subjects in this study. The first subjects for the first survey were two Junior High School English teachers and 120 Junior High School students grade one. They were the respondents of the survey on needs analysis. The questionnaire was distributed to the first grade students in order to find out the students’ interest, whereas the interview was conducted to the Junior High School teachers in order to find out information about the students’ needs from the teacher’s perception. The second subjects for the second survey were four Junior High School teachers and three English Language instructors.. They were the respondents to obtain data for the designed material evaluation. All of them were female. All teachers and instructors had S1 degree. Two teachers had more than ten years teaching experiences, while two teachers and the other three instructors had 1-5 years teaching experiences. The complete description of the respondents can be seen in Table 2. The second distributed questionnaire was aimed at finding out whether the designed materials fulfilled the teachers’ and the students’ needs to facilitate them to read English passages well in the form of fables, and whether the materials were

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suitable to improve students’ reading skills. In addition, it was also aimed at finding

out the instructors’ feedback of the designed materials in order to improve the designed materials.

Table 2. The Description of the Respondents Sex Educational

Background

Teaching Experience (years) Group of

Respondents

F M D3 S1 S2 1-5 6-10 >10

Teachers 4 4 2 2

Instructors 3 3 3

C. Research Instruments

To find out whether the proposed instructional materials for the first year students of SMP N 3 Sleman were acceptable or not, the writer employed some instruments. They were as follows.

1. For the First Survey

The writer decided to use questionnaires and interviews as the instruments for collecting the data of the first survey. There are two types of questionnaires, namely structured or closed form and unstructured or open form (Ary et al., 1990: 424). The closed form contains the question and alternative answers. It means in the structured questionnaire the answers have been written down so that the respondents only choose the options. While in the unstructured questionnaire, the respondents are free to give their answers. In this study, the writer decided to distribute structured questionnaire to the first grade students of SMP N 3 Sleman since the writer would like to avoid their confusion and difficulties in finding the answers to the questions.

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While for interviews, there are two basic types of questions used in an

interview (Ary et al., 1990: 418). They are structured and unstructured interview. Unstructured interview permits a free response from the respondents to answer the question rather than restricts the response to a choice from among stated alternatives. In structured interview, the interviewer reads the questions and presents the respondents with various alternative response options. In this study, the writer used unstructured interview. Through this interview the writer obtained information about the characteristics and the needs of the first grade students of SMP N 3 Sleman. The interview was done until all information and evaluation needed were obtain ed.

2. For the Second Survey

To obtain feedback of the designed materials, the writer decided to distribute the unstructured questionnaire. It was distributed to the English teachers of SMP N 3 Sleman and to the English language instructors of ALPHA Englis h Course Yogyakarta after the writer finished designing the instructional materials. The writer used the questionnaire to obtain the respondents’ opinions about the designed materials. The respondents were required to choose one of the five points of evaluation from 1 to 5. The results would be the basis of materials evaluation.

D. Data Collection

There were two kinds of questionnaire used by the writer. The first questionnaire for the needs survey was distributed to three classes chosen randomly from the first grade students of SMP N 3 Sleman. For this purpose, the writer conducted it in June 2006. In fact, the writer needed to guide the students in filling in

Read the fable carefully!

One day long ago, some sailors set out to sea in their sailing ship. One of them brought his pet monkey along for the long journey.

When they were far out at sea, a terrible storm overturned their ship. Everyone fell into the sea, and the monkey was sure that he would drown. Suddenly a dolphin appeared and picked him up.

They soon reached an island and the monkey came down from the dolphin’s back. The dolphin asked the monkey, “Do you know this place?”

The monkey replied, “Yes, I do. In fact, the king of the island is my best friend. Do you know that I am actually a prince?”

Knowing that no one lived on the island, the dolphin said, “Well, well, so you are a prince! Now you can be a king!”

The monkey asked, “How can I be a king?”

As the dolphin started swimming away, he answered, “That is easy. As you are the only creature on this island, you will naturally be the king!”

Moral: those who lie and boast may end up in trouble.

(taken from: Kohwai&Young, Malaysia)

I. Find the synonym of each of the

following words in the fable!

e.g. begin – start

1. trip = 2. start out = 3. knock dow n = 4. dangerous =

5. take up =

II. Fill in the blanks with appropriate

words given!

e.g. I like … at the beach

I like swimming at the beach

1. The … is climbing the tree.

2. M y father is a … . He sails over the sea. 3. The biggest … in Indonesia is Kalimantan. 4. … is a helpful fish.

5. She is my … friend. 6. … makes us in trouble.

7. The fishermen didn’t go to the sea last night because of bad … . 8. The husband of a queen is called a … .

9. The test w asn’t difficult. It w as … .

10. He … that he w as the best player in the team.

² _island ² _{a dolphin}

² _best ² _easy

² _sailor ² _monkey

² _lying ² _boasted

µ

True or False. Write T if the statement

true and F if the statement is false!

1. ( ) The sailors w ent to the sea yesterday.

2. ( ) A sailor brought a monkey to accompany him sailing. 3. ( ) Everyone fell into the sea because of the storm. 4. ( ) A dolphin saved the monkey by picking him up. 5. ( ) The monkey w asn’t the only creature in the island.

µ

Answer the questions below by crossing the

right answer: a, b, c, or d!

1. What did the sailors do long time ago? a. They w ere boasting

b. They w ere on a boat

c. They w ere to sea in their sailing ship d. They w ere w ith their monkeys 2. What overturned the ship?

a. a storm b. a flood c. an earthquake d. a drought 3. Where did the dolphin take the monkey?

a. They arrived on an island b. They arrived on a ship c. They arrived on a boat d. They arrived on a cruise

4. Was the monkey alone or w ith other creatures on the island? a. He w as w ith other creatures on the island

b. He w as both alone and w ith other creatures on the island c. He w as alone on the island

5. What do w e learn from the story?

a. Lying is good

b. We’ll be in trouble if w e lie and boast to other people c. Boasting is dangerous

d. We’ll have a lot of friends if w e lie and boast to them

You are expected to re-tell the fable “The Monkey and

the Dolphin” orally with your own words!

xv

ABSTRACT

Sitompul, Eva Priscilia. 2008. A Set of Supplementary Reading Materials Using

Fables for the First Grade Students of SMP N 3 Sleman. Yogyakarta: English

Language Education Study Program, Sanata Dharma University.

Nowadays, most of the information we need is provided in English. This is because English is an international language spoken by most people in the world. However, Indonesians’ awareness of reading this information is still low; English is rarely used. They prefer to choose information written or spoken in Indonesian. Through this study, the writer attempted to design a set of supplementary English materials using fables to teach reading to the first grade students of SMP N 3 Sleman in order to motivate the students to read English.

There were two problems analysed in this study. They are: 1) How is a set of supplementary reading materials using fables for the first grade students of SMP N 3 Sleman designed? 2) What do the designed set of supplementary reading materials look like?

In order to answer the first question, the wr iter adopted and modified the three instructional design models from Borich, Kemp and Yalden. The steps involved were conducting a needs analysis, formulating goals, topics and general purposes, specifying learning objectives, listing subject content, selecting teaching – learning activities and instructional resources, evaluating the designed materials and revising them.

To answer the second question, the writer presented the final version of the designed materials after making some revisions and improvements of the designed materials from the evaluation survey. There were eight topics in the designed materials. Each topic covered three phases of reading. The three phases were pre-reading, whilst reading and post-reading. The writer used five points of agreement to assess the respondents’ opinions on the designed materials. The results of the survey were calculated using measures of central tendency. The grand mean of the evaluation of the designed materials was 4.23. This showed that the set of supplementary reading materials for the first grade students of SMP N 3 Sleman was applicable.

The writer expects that this design will be able to help English teachers of Junior High Schools in giving new reading materials and also help first grade students of Junior High Schools in developing their reading skills.

xvi ABSTRAK

Sitompul, Eva Priscilia. 2008. A Set of Supplementary Reading Materials Using

Fables for the First Grade Students of SMP N 3 Sleman. Yogyakarta: Program

Studi Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris, Universitas Sanata Dharma.

Saat ini banyak informasi yang kita butuhkan tersedia dalam bahasa Inggris. Hal ini karena bahasa Inggris merupakan bahasa internasional yang digunakan oleh sebagian besar masyarakat di dunia. Namun, kesadaran masyarakat Indonesia akan pentingnya membaca informasi berbahasa Inggris masih rendah; bahasa Inggris jarang digunakan. Masyarakat lebih memilih informasi dalam bahasa Indonesia baik lisan maupun tulisan. Melalui studi ini, penulis berusaha untuk merancang satu set materi tambahan untuk pelajaran membaca dengan menggunakan cerita binatang untuk siswa kelas satu Sekolah Menengah Pertama Negeri 3 Sleman yang digunakan untuk memotivasi mereka untuk membaca bahasa Inggris.

Ada dua masalah yang dianalisa di studi ini: 1) Bagaimanakah satu set materi tambahan untuk pelajaran membaca bahasa Inggris dengan menggunakan cerita binatang untuk siswa kelas satu Sekolah Menengah Pertama Negeri 3 Sleman dirancang? 2) Bagaimanakah bentuk dari satu set materi tambahan untuk pelajaran membaca bahasa Inggris dengan menggunakan cerita binatang?

Untuk menjawab pertanyaan pertama, penulis mengambil dan memodifikasi tiga model desain instruksional dari Borich, Kemp dan Yalden. Langkah- langkah yang digunakan adalah melaksanakan analisa kebutuhan, merancang tujuan, topik -topik dan tujuan-tujuan umum, menspesifikasikan tujuan-tujuan umum, mendaftar pokok bahasan, menyeleksi kegiatan belajar-mengajar dan sumber-sumber pengajaran, mengevaluasi materi dan memperbaiki materi.

Untuk menjawab pertanyaan kedua, penulis menampilkan hasil akhir dari desain materi setelah memperbaiki dan menambah beberapa hal dari survey evaluasi. Ada delapan topik pada desain materi ini. Setiap topik terdiri dari tiga fase membaca yaitu kegiatan sebelum membaca (pre-reading), kegiatan membaca (reading) dan kegiatan setelah membaca (post-reading). Penulis menggunakan lima poin persetujuan untuk mendapatkan pendapat-pendapat dari para responden terhadap desain materi. Hasil akhir dari survey tersebut dihitung dengan menggunakan kecenderungan nilai tengah (measures of central tendency). Rata-rata keseluruhan dari evaluasi terhadap desain materi adalah 4.23. Hal ini menunjukkan bahwa satu set materi tambahan untuk pelajaran membaca dengan menggunakan cerita binatang untuk siswa kelas satu Sekolah Menengah Pertama Negeri 3 Sleman dapat dipergunakan.

Penulis berharap agar desain materi ini dapat membantu para guru bahasa Inggris Sekolah Menengah Pertama dalam memberikan materi membaca yang baru dan juga dapat membantu para siswa kelas satu Sekolah Menengah Pertama dalam mengembangkan keterampilan membaca mereka.