Saturday, March 28, 2015

Developing Reading Comprehension Materials for Second Years Students of Ahwal Al-Syakhshiyah Department at Islamic University of Malang

By Saadatuddaroini

The quality of education today is often view on term of productivity of graduates, there are many factors can influence the quality of education, for example the quality of book materials and the curriculum.
The main reason for university students to learn English is to help them acquire information in their fied of study through textbooks, articles, lecture notes, technical instructions and others. Many students want to be able to read text in English either careers, for study purposes or simply for pleasures (Harmer, 2001).
In a learning process we know some of learning resources, one of them is teaching materials. It is very necessary component to get more attention. Materials can also make it easy for students to absorb a variety of materials lectures given by faculty but not all textbooks can meet the expectations of faculty and students.
English consists of four skills: listening,speaking,writing and reading. Reading is considered as one of language skills supporting the development of other skills. As stated by Brown (2001, p. 313), he believes that reading is treated as one of two or more interrelated skills. Meanwhile, Sulistyo (2011, p. 20) reading is essentially a form of communication between writers and readers which is mediated through a written text. 
However, reading is difficult subject for the students. Many students have low ability in reading comprehension. Many factors affect students’ success in reading one of the important factor that must be considered is an appropriate  instructional reading materials.
Ahwal Al-syakhshiyah is one of departments at Islamic University of Malang, where English is also taught to provide students with larger opportunities to learn English, so they can develop their English skills the total credit for English subject is 6. This is intended to give larger opportunities to students to learn English. However, the teaching of English at Ahwal Al-syakhshiyah department has number of problems that need to be taken into account. The main problem is that an appropriate English subject material is not available. The material used at the present does not match the needs and characteristics of students.
Regarding the problems mentioned, something has to be done in order to change the unfavorable situation into better one. It considered important to develop materials as a source of learning and an alternative to cope the problems of learning English at Ahwal Al-syakhshiyah deparment, by considering the needs and characteristics of the students. Material plays a very important role that they determine the success of any teaching and learning process.
The primary goal of teaching English at Ahwal Al-syakhshiyah department at Islamic University of Malang is to develop the English skills of students in order that they can communicate spoken and written English in their daily activity (Curriculum of Islamic Faculty of UNISMA, 2011). As one of general subjects, English has been treated as a compulsory subject taught to the students that will determine they may continue their study or will to quit from UNISMA.
 Considering the important of English at Ahwal Al-syakhshiyah department, the material of reading comprehension for students of Ahwal Al-syakhshiyah department are chosen as the ones to be developed in this study. Through reading the students are exposed to learn the aspects of language such as: vocabulary, grammar, punctuation, the sentences and paragraph are constructed in the text.
Method
Research Design
This study deals with the development of reading comprehension materials, the design of this study is categorized under research and development. According to Borg and Gall (1983, p. 772), also state that research and development is a study  to produce a complete product that can be  used effectively in an educational program. That includes not only the material objects, such as textbooks, instructional films, and so forth, but it is also intended to refer to establish procedures and processes, such as a method of teaching or method for organizing instruction. In relation to the aim to be reached in this study, the final product of this study is a textbook namely reading comprehension material for second year students of ahwal al-syakhshiyah department at Islamic University of Malang
The model of development in this study is based on what Borg and Gall (1983). they propose ten steps in the R&D cycles as follow : (i) research information and collecting, (2) planning, (3) developing preliminary form of product (4) preliminary field test, (5) main product revision,  (6) main field testing, (7) operational product revision (8) operational field test, (9) final product revision, (10) dissemination and implementation. This model is chosen because it provides the researcher with simpler and clear steps. Then the researchers reviews the model above and simplifies it according to needs of research purpose and to generate a specific model for designing material. This is based on some considerations such as time restriction when the research is conducted and the appropriateness of the model to the material design that is developed. As a result, these steps in this study involved are as follows: need survey, material development, expert validation, revision, try- out, revision and final product.

Subject of the study
The study includes the number of students of Ahwal al-syakhshiyah students Islamic University of Malang in second year.  The number of subject in this study is all of students in second year of Ahwal Al-syakhshiyah department, there is only one class in this program, the class consists of 23 students.

Research instrument
The instruments used in this study were questionnaire, interview, discussion, and consultation. For the purpose of collecting the data about the needs of the students, questionnaire and interview were used. The data gathered from these instruments was used as a basis to develop the materials. To collect the data about evaluation, comments, and suggestions of the experts on the developed materials, questionnaire, discussion, and consultation were used. The data collected from these instruments were used as a basis to make revision of the developed materials. Whereas, in order to collect the data about try-out, questionnaire and interview were used.
The procedure of development was adapted from Tomlinson and Masuhara’s models (2004) Suggesting that the materials development should include the following steps: determining the themes, collecting the text, selecting the text. The first was determining the themes. In this step, the researchers decided the appropriate themes based the students need in their major. The second steps is collecting, the researcher collect the text from many sources, i.e., textbook, magazine, internet, etc. The third was selection the texts. Meanwhile, Cunningsworth (1995, p. 73) stated that reading texts can be used for several different purposes, and this is reflected in course book, such as; developing reading skills and strategies, presenting/ recycling grammar items, extending vocabulary, providing models for writing, giving information of interest to students, and stimulating oral work. Based the theory above the researcher develop the materials to make good materials and appropriate with the student’s need.

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