Designing Culture-Based English Extensive Reading Materials for Grade VIII Students at SMPN 2 Susukan

Abstract

The objectives of this study were: (1) to find the target needs and reading needs of Grade VIII students at SMPN 2 Susukan, and (2) to design a culture-based English extensive reading material book for Grade VIII students at SMPN 2 Susukan. This study was classified as Research and Development (R&D) study. The subjects of the study were Grade VIII students at SMPN 2 Susukan Classes VIII-A and VIII-H each of which consisted of 30 students. The research procedure was adapted from the ADDIE concept proposed by Branch (2009). The steps included analysing students’ needs, designing a course grid, developing the first draft of culture-based English extensive reading materials, evaluating the first draft by an expert, and revising it based on the feedback obtained from the evaluation. The data collection instruments were a needs analysis questionnaire and an expert judgment questionnaire. The data obtained from the needs analysis were analysed quantitatively using frequencies and percentages and the data obtained from the expert judgments were analysed through descriptive analysis. Based on the results of the needs analysis, it was found out that the students needed additional reading materials based on L2 culture since they thought learning L2 culture is important. The students expected to enhance their fluency in reading and enrichment for vocabulary. The students preferred daily life in L2 culture as the topic presented in additional reading materials and they preferred texts which contained a lot of new words to learn. This study intended to design extensive reading materials based on culture for Grade VIII students at SMPN 2 Susukan in order to provide additional reading materials that meet their reading needs. The research findings showed that the developed culture-based extensive reading materials were appropriate. The mean score for the developed materials was 3.03, which was good.