Developing Task-Based Supplementary Reading Materials for the Eighth Grade Students of Junior High Schools

Abstract

The objectives of this research were to find out the target and learning needs of the eighth grade students of Junior High Schools and to develop task-based supplementary reading materials for the eighth grade students of junior high schools. This research was concerned on providing a task-based supplementary reading material book and the teacher guidelines for the eighth grade students of junior high schools. The research was Research and Development (R & D). The subjects of the research were 31 students of the eighth grade of SMPN 1 Sleman. This research adapted the R & D model proposed by Masuhara (in Tomlinson, 1998). The steps of the research procedure were conducting needs analysis, writing the course grid, writing the first draft of the materials, conducting materials evaluation, and writing the final draft of the materials. The data collection instruments of the research were three questionnaires and an interview questions. The first questionnaire was used to obtain the data for the needs analysis. The second questionnaire was used to obtain the data from the material evaluation through expert judgment. The third questionnaire was used to obtain the data from the teacher guidelines evaluation by English teachers. Furthermore, the interview was addressed to the English teacher. The data from the questionnaires were analyzed quantitatively through descriptive statistics and the data from the interview were analyzed qualitatively. The result of the needs analysis showed that the students needed supplementary reading materials which contained various tasks and texts, grammar practice, clear pictures and coloured layout. The product of the research was entitled “Reading Zone” which was completed with teacher guidelines and answer keys. This research developed three unit materials based on task-based language teaching. Each unit had three main parts: pre-task activity, task cycle and language focus. Based on the analysis of the data from the expert judgment, the mean score of all aspect of the units was 3.09 which falls into the category of “Good”. As a result, the task-based supplementary reading materials are appropriate for the eighth grade students of junior high schools.