A THESIS
DEVELOPING SPEAKING MATERIALS BASED ON PROBLEM-
BASED LEARNING FOR ACCOUNTING
STUDENTS OF POLMED
By:
SYAHRUDIN M
Registration Number: 809125019
ENGLISH APPLIED LINGUISTICS STUDY PROGRAM POSTGRADUATE PROGRAM
A THESIS
DEVELOPING SPEAKING MATERIALS BASED ON PROBLEM-
BASED LEARNING FOR ACCOUNTING
STUDENTS OF POLMED
By:
SYAHRUDIN M
Registration Number: 809125019
ENGLISH APPLIED LINGUISTICS STUDY PROGRAM POSTGRADUATE PROGRAM
i
ABSTRACT
Syahrudin M. Registration Number 809125019. Developing Speaking Materials Based on
Problem-based Learning for Accounting Students of Polmed. A Thesis. English Applied
Linguistics Study Program. Postgraduate School. State University of Medan. 2015.
ESP is a proper and necessary course taught for university students. ESP is supposedly
designed to meet students’ needs properly. The materials given should be relevant enough to
meets the learners’ needs. This research is aimed at finding out the objective condition of the
English learning materials for the fifth semester of accounting students of the State Polytechnic of Medan/POLMED. The method used is Research and Development methodology which is pioneered by Borg and Gall. A general questionnaire consists of 22 questions; a learning-teaching prosess evaluation consists of 35 questions; the feasibility of developing learning materials consistss of 26 questions; and a guide for interview answer sheets are various. All these questionnaires are then given to some parties, such as active students, the alumni, the company, and the lecturers in order to find the real students’ needs. After knowing the real needs of the students, ESP I book is designed based on the needs analysis. The new learning materials is reviewed and evaluated by some three experts in ESP and then the result of the review is reviewed again. The newly-developed learning materials are tried out in class in order to find out some weaknesses. Then it is revised again based on the input gained through the tryout of the new learning materials.
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ABSTRAK
Syahrudin M. Nomor Induk Mahasiswa 809125019. Developing Speaking Materials Based
on Problem-based Learning for Accounting Students of Polmed. A Thesis. English Applied
Linguistics Study Program. Postgraduate School. State University of Medan. 2015.
ESP merupakan suatu matakuliah yang diajarkan di tingkat universitas. ESP dirancang untuk memenuhi kebutuhan ril mahasiswa. Matakuliah yang diajarkan seharusnya sesuai dengan kebutuhan mahasiswa. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengetahui keadaan sebenarnya matakuliah bahasa Inggris untuk semester kelima mahasiswa Program Studi Akuntansi yang diajarkan di Politeknik Negeri Medan. Metode yang dipergunakan adalah metode Riset dan Pengembangan yang dikembangkan oleh Borg dan Gall. Angket umum terdiri dari 22 pertanyaan; angket proses evaluasi belajar mengajar terdiri dari 35 pertanyaan; angket kelayakan pengembangan materi pengajaran terdiri dari 26 pertanyaan serta pedoman lembar jawaban wawancara. Semua angket diberikan kepada beberapa pihak, yaitu mahasiswa aktif, alumni, perusahaan dan dosen untuk mengetahui apa yang sebenarnya dibutuhkan siswa. Setelah mengetahui kebutuhan mahasiswa, buku ESPpun dirancang berdasarkan analisis kebutuhan. Materi pengajaran yang baru dievaluasi dan direview oleh para pakar ESP dan kemudian hasilnya direview kembali. Bahan ajar yang baru dikembangkan dicoba di kelas untuk mencari tahu kelemahannya. Baru kemudian buku tersebut direview kembali berdasarkan perolehan yang didapat melalui tahap uji coba bahan ajar yang baru dikembangkan.
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious and the Most Compassionate. We praise Him
and invoke His Choicest Blessings upon His Noblest Prophet, Muhammad Mustafa SAW peace and
blessing of Allah be on Him.
This thesis is mainly written as a partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Post
Graduate degree of Magister Humaniora from the State University of Medan.
The author wishes to express his gratitude and appreciation to his two advisors, Prof. Dr.
Lince Sihombing, M.Pd. and Dr. Sri Minda Murni, M.S. who have guided and supported him in completing his study at English Applied Linguistics Study Program (LTBI). Without their
well-designed plan and meticulous review of the draft, this research would have been impossible.
The author is also grateful to Prof. Dr. Busmin Gurning, M.Pd., as the Head of English
Applied Linguistics Study Program as well as his examiner, and both Prof. Amrin Saragih, M.A. Ph.D., and Dr. I Wy. Dirgeyasa, M.Hum. as the examiners. And he is also indebted to Dr. T.
Thyrhaya Zein, M.A. as the author’s mentor and friend, to all his colleagues and students for
their assistance and cooperation in performing this work.
The author’s deepest appreciation and love also go to his beloved wife, Siti Aisyah
Jambak, whose prayers are always accompanying him during the long traveling hours to the
university. He is also appreciative to his only daughter (Nisa Hamidah Kausar M), and his three
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support. Of course, nothing would have been possible if it had not been for the love and support
from them all. Their patience and support have kept the author going this far and their love will
keep him going further. Insha Allah.
Medan, February 12th, 2015 The Writer,
Syahrudin M
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2.4 The Principle of Learning Materials Development ... 14
2.5 Factors Influencing ESP Teaching and Learning ... 19
2.6 Speaking Skills ... 21
2.7 Problem-Based Learning ... 25
2.8 Developing Speaking Materials Through Problem-Based Learning 26 2.9 Accounting English ... 27
2.10 Needs Analysis ... 32
2.11 Relevant Previous Studies ... 34
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CHAPTER 3 : RESEARCH METHODOLOGY ... 38
3.1 The Research Design ... 38
3.2 The Research Setting ... 40
3.3 The Data Sources ... 40
3.4 The Instruments of Data Collection ... 41
3.5 The Techniques of Data Analysis ... 43
3.6 The Steps of Research & Development... 43
CHAPTER 4 : MATERIAL DEVELOPMENT ... 45
4.1. Analysis ... 45
4.2. Needs Analysis ... 46
4.3. The Indentification of ESP Needs Analysis... 46
4.4. The Existing Material of ESP I... 52
4.5. The Syllabus and Material Development ... 55
4.6. Discussion... 56
4.7. Materials Development... 68
CHAPTER 5 : CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION ... 80
5.1. Conclusion ... 80
5.2. Suggestion... 81
References ...
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CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
1.1 The Background of the Study
The education development in Indonesia is not merely the responsibility of the Ministry of Education and Culture, but it is also the responsibility of the society in building a strong nation especially in globalized era and certainly this situation creates tougher challenges in the workplace then.
The word education itself has been defined as a continuous and planned effort to establish a study environment and education process so that students may actively develop their potentials to gain the some achievements such as religious and spiritual levels, consciousness, personality, intelligence, behavior and creativity for the establishment of a mighty country.
Education itself is broadly divided into two major parts, namely formal and non formal education. Formal education comprises of first three levels, that is primary, secondary, and tertiary educational level. In the second terms of level of education, this is divided into the other levels, namely basic, middle and high levels of education. For basic and middle levels, schools in Indonesia are run either by the government or private sector.
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giving more focus on this development in relation to general education and until the year of 2010 there were 27 state polytechnics and 135 private polytechnics all over Indonesia .
Ideally, there must be a need to enlarge the capacity and improve the relevance and quality of the polytechnic system to better respond to industrial and labour market needs and business opportunities. For diploma III accounting graduates, they must possess hard skills called technical skills (e.g. being able to know how to journal or to make a financial report) and soft skills (e.g. being able to know how to talk to the manager or able to use English). This means that the development of human resources is more oriented to the workplace and it becomes the top priority.
On the other hand there are some criticisms directed nowadays to the Polytechnic graduates saying that the industrialists assume that the skills of the students are not feasible to be used and they are unable to keep pace with the technological advances.
Meanwhile, at the present moment the condition of economy of Indonesia tends to remain stagnant though some say it is still moving but very slowly and therefore there seems too much limitation of employment opportunities among the job seekers (graduates). These situations bring about the very tough competition in order to get jobs. For the some new graduates, it is relatively easy to get jobs. However, for some other graduates it is fairly difficult to get jobs since they are not ready for the job because their expertise is not in accordance with the demand of the market.
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functions in the society. In other words, the skills the students have in class will be of much use in their everyday life including job fields later in the future.
Based on Politeknik syllabus, English learning in Polmed should be basically addressed in speaking skills. It is further stated in the book that the general objectives of English teaching at Accounting Department are that the students are supposed to possess the ability to use English for everyday communication, namely they must be able to engage in meaningful discussions in the classroom (now) as well as outside the classroom (in the office when they have jobs) and therefore it is mostly needed in the interaction in the future in the field of work.
However, as a matter of fact, the aim of learning English in Polmed, especially in semester five, is emphasized mostly in writing. Therefore, many Polmed students cannot communicate well in English. This will impact to their work later on. In order to improve the quality of Polmed students dealing with English speaking skills, there must be radical changes in many English materials, in this case ESP I book, a book which is specifically intended for the students of accounting study programs (though it is not an ESP book).
After doing a preliminary survey on 20 students of accounting study program about the ESP I book used, it is found that the book needs to be revised and developed so that they could
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Moreover, having analyzed the book used at Accounting Department of Politeknik Negeri Medan for semester 5, it is found out that the English for Specific Purposes (ESP) used is not a book of ESP for Accounting, but it is a book of General English.
Of all the 12 chapters found in the book, most chapters deal with writing (7 chapters, namely
Writing Paragraphs, Writing CV/Resume, Writing Letter of Reference, Letters of Application,
Responding to Feedback, Contracts, and Report Writing), 4 chapters deal with writing and
speaking (Understanding Instructions, Job Opening (Job Advertisements), Working Rules, and
Meetings), and only 1 chapter deals with speaking that is Job Interviews.
The problems raised here are the materials themselves; therefore whatever methods are used, the ability of accounting students in speaking plays a very important role in developing the book so that the more appropriate materials are used.
Since the job market needs speaking more than writing, therefore ESP book for Accounting at Polmed needs to be developed so that the book revised later can accommodate the language skills needed by Polmed Accounting Study Program graduates.
Up to the present moment, there are some books dealing with specific English for accounting, such as The language of accounting in English by Sandra Costinett, Special
English – Accounting by Roger Scott and Tony Adams, or Accounting for non-accounting
students by John R. Dyson. The first two books have been published for such a long time (both
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2010. However, the book must be adapted so that the topics may be very suitable with what the
Polmed graduates’ needs in the future job.
In an ESP language classroom, Problem-Based Learning is an active learning in which students who work in a small group must identify what they already know and learn how to solve a problem. The primary role of the instructor (teacher) is to facilitate group process and learning, not to provide answers. Problem-Based Learning will encourage the students to work cooperatively with others.
1.2The Problems of the Study
Problems of the research here are related with the study of teaching and learning a language -in this case, English for Specific Purposes for Accounting Study Program students. The focus or relatedness of this is important since they are supposed to contribute to enrich the views of teaching and learning a
language. Some of the problems of this research are as follows:
1. How are the existing speaking materials of accounting English used for Polmed students right now?
2. What speaking materials of accounting English should be needed to meet the needs of accounting students of Polmed?
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1.3The Objectives of the Study
As afore-mentioned in the Problems of the Study above, the objectives of this study are: 1. To find out the existing speaking materials of accounting English used for Polmed
students right now.
2. To find out the needs of accounting students of Polmed pertinent to speaking materials of accounting English.
3. To develop speaking materials of accounting English so that they can meet the needs of accounting students of Polmed.
1.4 The Scope of the Study
This research will be limited in developing accounting English teaching materials for Accounting Study Program at the State Polytechnics of Medan. The development covers specific needs analysis of Polmed accounting students because it will be the basis of answering the
“what” and “how” ESP I speaking materials in connection with the teaching materials. ESP I
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1.5The Significance of the Study
The findings of this research are expected to elaborate and provide much information about developing speaking materials either theoretically as well as practically for all those who get involved in teaching and learning English, especially the teaching of ESP for Accounting.
Theoretically, the findings of this research may give the real situation of speaking materials used for accounting students of Polmed and they will broaden and add what has been found in the area of developing speaking materials of ESP and this may enrich body of knowledge about problem-based learning.
Practically, first, these findings will be of immense sources of reference and information for the students in order to enlarge and enrich their horizon about accounting English and second, they are likely to give a very meaningful input to improve and develop ESP teaching materials for the teachers, and last but not least, the findings of this research can benefit and be the sources of information for the future researchers.
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CHAPTER 5
CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION
5.1. Conclusion
The following are some conclusions of the research entitled: “Developing Speaking Materials Based on Problem-Based Learning for Accounting Students of POLMED”.
1. ESP is one of English courses taught at the State Polytechnic of Medan (Polmed) at Accounting Study Program for semester five and six. The existing learning materials (ESP I) are mostly of General English (GE) because there are no specific terms relating to accounting study program found. The topics covered are Writing Paragraphs, Writing CV/Resume, Writing Letter of Reference, Letters of Application, Responding to Feedback,
Contracts (mostly deal with writing) and Understanding Instructions, Job Opening (Job
Advertisements), Working Rules, Meetings and Interviews (deal with writing and speaking).
2. Most students who study ESP are aged between 19 up to 22 years. The education system applied at Polmed is a package system, not credit system. Since the learning materials are not pure ESP, the learning materials need to be developed. In order to develop the learning materials, needs analysis is done. The information is gained from some questionnaires given to some parties, such as active students, the alumni, lecturers, and the company (the stakeholders as the users of Polmed graduates).
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5.2. Suggestion
In relation with the conclusion mentioned above, it is suggested that:
1. the existing materials be related to what the students needs, namely specific English (ESP) for accounting students, not General English as it is now
2. the existing materials be developed based on the needs analysis found especially those which are related to speaking materials
3. the speaking materials developed should be based on the problem-based learning in
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