Developing English Reading Learning Materials for International Mathematics Education Study Program of Yogyakarta State University

Abstract

This research was aimed: (1) to find out the target needs of International Mathematics Education Study Program; (2) to find out the learning needs of the student of International Mathematics Education Study Program; and (3) to develop appropriate reading learning materials for students of International Mathematics Education Study Program. This research was categorized as Research and Development (R&D) study. The subjects of this research were the students of International Mathematics Education study program in the academic year of 2014/ 2015 at Yogyakarta State University. The steps of this research were conducting needs analysis, analyzing the result of needs analysis, developing the course grid, writing the first draft of the materials, evaluating the first draft of the materials, and revising it based on the feedback from the expert. The data in this research were collected by employing the needs analysis questionnaire and the materials evaluation questionnaire. The data obtained from needs analysis were analyzed quantitatively using frequency and percentage and the result of materials evaluation were analyzed using descriptive statistics. The result of needs analysis shows that the target needs of the students of International Mathematics Education study program are: (1) they learn English to help them in understanding English literatures for supporting the teaching and learning process; (2) they are at intermediate level for reading skills; (3) they need to be able to conduct a quick survey of the text to identify the topic, the main idea, and the organization of the text (previewing); (4) they need to understand implicit meaning; (5) they have problems in doing skimming technique and summarizing a text. Related to the learning needs, the inputs use topics related to mathematics and pictures. In terms of activities, the students prefer to carry out the learning process by reading a text and answering questions. In terms of setting, the students choose doing the learning process inside the class and work in a group of 3. This research developed three units of the materials. Each unit has three main parts: introduction, main lesson, and reinforcement. Based on the expert judgment result, the developed English reading learning materials were appropriate in terms of the content, language, presentation, and layout. The mean score of all aspects was 3.4 which was categorized as “very good” that is in the range of 3.25 ≤ x ≤ 4.