DESIGNING COMIC STRIPS FOR REMEDIAL READING LEARNING MATERIALS FOR GRADE EIGHT STUDENTS OF JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL

Abstract

The aim of this research was to develop appropriate comic strips for remedial reading learning materials for grade eight students of junior high school.

This was a Research and Development (R&D) study. The subjects of the research were the remedial students of VIII A and VIII C of SMP N 7 Yogyakarta. This research procedure was the one adapted from Jolly and Bolitho in Tomlinson (1998). The steps of the research were (1) conducting needs analysis, (2) developing course grid, (3) designing materials (first draft of the materials), (4) getting expert judgments (materials evaluation), and (5) writing the final draft of the materials. In the needs analysis, a questionnaire was distributed to the students and an interview with the English teacher was conducted. The data from the needs analysis questionnaire were analyzed by looking up the percentage of each statement. Meanwhile, the data from the interview were transcribed and interpreted. Then, the results were used as the basis to develop the course grid. The course grid was used as the guidelines to write the first draft of the materials. The first draft was evaluated by material evaluators. The result of the evaluation was analyzed through descriptive statistics and used to revise the first draft of the materials.

The products of the study were three units of remedial reading learning materials. Each unit contains two stories based on the competences of Curriculum 2013 and consists of six tasks which focus on reading comprehension, grammar, and vocabulary. Based on the results of expert judgment, the designed materials were considered appropriate. The mean score of all aspects of designed materials related to the language and content is 3.50 which is categorized as “Very Good” and the mean score of all aspects of designed materials related to the comic illustration is 3.23 which is categorized as “Good”.