DEVELOPING THEME-BASED ENGLISH VOCABULARY MATERIALS FOR KINDERGARTEN CHILDREN

Abstract

The objectives of this study are: (1) to describe the target needs and the learning needs of the children in learning vocabulary; and (2) to develop the appropriate theme-based English vocabulary materials for the children.This study is categorized as a Research and Development (R&D) research. The subjects of this study are group B young learners of TK Avicienna Yogyakarta. The study adapted the steps by Jolly and Bolitho (1998): conducting the needs analysis, developing the course grid, developing the first draft of the materials, conducting the materials evaluation by expert judgment, and writing the final draft of the materials. The data were collected by distributing questionnaires and conducting interviews to the English teachers. There were two types of questionnaires used to collect the data. The first one was made to get the data for the needs analysis while the second one was used to get the data for the materials evaluation through the expert judgment phase. The data for both questionnaires were analyzed quantitatively using descriptive statistics, while the data from the interviews were analyzed qualitatively by using the data analysis model as proposed by Miles and Huberman (1994).The final products of this research are a theme-based English vocabulary learning materials for group B young learners and a guide book for teachers. The target needs are that children are able to pronounce English vocabulary properly and learning the English vocabulary with colored pictures. Considering the children’s learning needs, the input provided is in the form of colored pictures, songs, and games.  Based on the analysis of the data from the expert judgment, the mean score of all aspects of the appropriateness is 3.93 which is in the range of 3.25 ≤ ≤4.00 and can be categorized as “Very Good”. Furthermore, it is concluded that the developed theme-based English vocabulary materials are appropriate for kindergarten children group B.

Keywords: English vocabulary materials, theme-based approach, kindergarten children