ENGLISH LANGUAGE STUDIES POSTGRADUATE PROGRAM HASANUDDIN UNIVERSITY MAKASSAR 2013 LATIFAH SUYUTI P0600209006 EVALUATION OF ESP MATERIALS USED AT STATE POLYTECHNIC UJUNG PANDANG THESIS

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THESIS

EVALUATION OF ESP MATERIALS USED AT STATE POLYTECHNIC UJUNG PANDANG

LATIFAH SUYUTI P0600209006

ENGLISH LANGUAGE STUDIES POSTGRADUATE PROGRAM

HASANUDDIN UNIVERSITY MAKASSAR

2013

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Alhamdulillahi rabbil alamin are words that I would like to express to Allah SWT the Almighty with all the blessings and mercies in the long run, I can complete my study at the Postgraduate program in English Language Studies at Hasanuddin University.

In acknowledging the support received, I am heartily thankful to my supervisors Prof. Dr. M.L. Manda, M.A., M.Phil. and Dra. Hj. Etty Bazergan, M.Ed., Ph.D whose encouragement, guidance and suggestion and constructive critics from the initial to final level enabled me to complete this thesis and to develop an understanding of the subject.

I would like to express my gratitude to Prof. Dr. H. Hamzah A. Machmoed, M.A., Prof. Dr. Noerjihad Saleh, M.A, Drs. Stanislaus Sandarupa, M.A, Ph.D. who have kindly given me my examiners. All the administration staff at postgraduate program Hasanuddin University who have kindly served and helped me in finishing my administration affairs.

I would like to thanks to the students and lecturers of Electronics engineering at State Polytechnic Ujung Pandang who like to be my respondents and given me access to collect data.

It gives me immense pleasure to express my deepest gratitude to Drs. H.

Muhammad Suyuti Amra and Dra. Hj. St. Zamrah Rafie as my parents who helped, advised and encouraged me to finish my study, and my beloved (late) mother Niemah Said who had became my spirit of life.

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I also would like to offer my regards to my brothers and sisters; Rastini , Ainun Najib, Afiati Romani, Muhammad Yamin, Bayu Firdaus and Zahdan Suhaily. I would like to thank for your motivation, helped and togetherness.

I am indebted to my colleagues in postgraduate program in ELS; Edy, Rahma, Amy, Ima, Mpit and other Mairo Genk for their support and togetherness.

Last, thanks to my beloved Herman Usman and Nabilah Rajwa Suhaimah who took me to their heart and aided me without any thought of reward. I can only express my wholehearted thanks and appreciation.

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iv ABSTRAK

LATIFAH SUYUTI. Evaluasi Materi Bahasa Inggris Bertujuan tertentu yang Digunakan pada Politeknik Negeri Ujung Pandang (dibimbing oleh M. L. Manda dan Etty Bazergan)

Penelitian ini bertujuan mengevaluasi materi bahasa Inggris yang bertujuan tertentu yang digunakan oleh mahasiswa program studi teknik elektronika pada Politeknik Negeri Ujung Pandang, Makassar South Sulawesi.

Data diperoleh melalui angket, wawancara dan observasi. Angket tersebut dibagikan kepada 38 mahasiswa dan 5 pengajar. Data lalu dianalisis dan diinterpretasi melalui pendekatan kuantitatif dan kualitatif.

Indikator variabel yang dipergunakan adalah skala Likert. Indikator ini kemudian digunakan untuk mengatur instrumen data.

Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa materi pengajaran yang digunakan pada Politeknik Negeri Ujung Pandang ditentukan oleh staf pengajar tanpa melakukan evaluasi buku ajar dan analisis kebutuhan mahasiswa. Selanjutnya, sejumlah variabel dalam evaluasi materi ESP (aktivitas, kemampuan, tipe bahasa dan tata bahasa, level, subyek dan isi, dan evaluasi) menunjukkan bahwa materi yang ada tidak sepenuhnya memenuhi kebutuhan target dan pembelajaran mahasiswa.

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ABSTRACT

LATIFAH SUYUTI. Evaluation of ESP Materials Used at State polytechnic Ujung Pandang (supervised by M.L. Manda and Etty Bazergan)

This research is aimed to evaluate the ESP materials used by students of electronics engineering study program at State Polytechnic Ujung Pandang, Makassar, South Sulawesi

The data is obtained through questionnaires, interview and observation. The questionnaires were administered to 38 students and 5 lecturers. The questionnaires are used to gather information about students’ activities, skills, language type and grammar, levels, subject and content in the textbook/ material. The data then were analyzed and interpreted by using quantitative and qualitative approaches. Variables which are going to be measured become indicator variables by using Likert scale. These indicators then are used as a guidance to arrange the data instrument.

The result shows that teaching materials being used at State Polytechnic Ujung Pandang had been decided by the teaching staff without conducting textbook evaluation and students’ need analysis.

Moreover, number of the variables include in evaluation of ESP materials (activities, skills, language type and grammar, level, subject and content and evaluation) show that most of students choose ‘somewhat agree’

which are mean the existing materials are not fully relevant to students’

target need and learning needs.

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List of Tables

Tables Page

1. Meet on Target Needs 35

2. Meet on Learning Needs 38

3. Activities 41

4. Skills 43

5. Language Type and Grammar 45

6. Level 47

7. Subject and Content 49

8. Evaluation 52

9. Result of observation 55

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List of Appendices

Appendix Page

1. Students needs analysis 69

2. Students textbook evaluation 74

3. Questionnaire for lecturers 78

4. List of interview questions 83

5. Checklist for evaluation of the textbook 84 6. Students textbook evaluation result 87

7. Materials observation result 88

8. The existing materials 89

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CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION

A. Background

English has always been a vital means of knowledge and skill enhancement. This means that people who regard themselves as belonging to academic background are required to master English language skill. In addition, professionals especially engineers must know English because it is an international means of exchange of information and experience.

There has been an increasing need and demand to use English language for the expression of knowledge within specific professional fields, whether English is used in the world of science and technology, or in international trade activities. The need for enhancing engineering students‘ communication skills and prepare them to the workplace has been addressed in a number of forums and questions regarding the effectiveness of the Engineering English language curriculum too have been raised. As a result, the teaching of English for Specific Purposes has become a major occupation. It is necessary to establish the needs of vocational training to serve the labour market with skilled manpower and technical studies need to be built to fulfill the requirement.

At State Polytechnic Ujung Pandang, English is offered in the second and the third grade. However, English at State Polytechnic Ujung

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Pandang still lacks in the context of engineering and in the area of ESP, so far, at least in the eyes of the researcher or based on the researcher’s preliminary research. The teaching of English is mostly in the grammar context and the design of the materials may the students’ need because need analysis has never been conducted.

English for specific purposes (ESP) has been around for about 40 years. Dudley Evans and St John (1998) maintain that ESP is part of a more general movement of teaching of language for specific purposes (LSP). ESP has attracted more attention within the teaching of English as a foreign or second language. Hutchinson and Waters (1987) argue that ESP must be seen as an approach not as a product. It does not consist of a particular type of teaching material, nor is it a particular kind of language or methodology. As the name suggests, ESP is designed for a particular group of people in a particular context.

The teaching ESP in Indonesia, especially at university level, is not only limited to the English department but also to non-English one for example economics department, health and engineering department.

Teaching English for engineering students is very much needed. It indicates that the teaching of English should be based on the students’

target needs, that is, the situation in which the learners will use the language they are learning.

The existence of education system is primarily in response of the shortage of professional vocational workers due to the development of

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technology in industry. Basically, the polytechnic system aims at establishing the foundation of system of education which parallels that of universities. The university system was regarded as primarily academic and scientific oriented whereas the polytechnic were to be skill and practice oriented (Stanford in Hardiningsih; 1998:2)

Polytechnics provide courses in a wide range of areas including civil engineering, electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, electronics, chemical engineering, energy engineering, telecommunication, secretarial and accounting. The State Polytechnic Ujung Pandang has two divisions:

1. Engineering division with three programs of study

a. Electrical with specialization of electricity, electronics and telecommunication

b. Machine with specialization of conversion of energy and maintenance

c. Civil with specialization of civil building construction d. Chemical

2. Commerce division with two programs of study a. Accounting with specialization of accounting

b. Business administration with specialization of secretarial work.

The student of State Polytechnic Ujung Pandang has English as a foreign language on the curricula as an obligatory subject for a year and the last two years come to the English spesific purposes (ESP). The

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students not only want to learn English but also have to learn it because students of any discipline must learn English as part of their syllabus. It points out the structure and content of English curricula and it is the most significant concept in teaching English in university. The problem is that engineering students in State Polytechnic Ujung Pandang have different kinds of senior high school background, they may from SMU (senior high school) or STM (technological high school), this probably makes students find English as a difficult subject and it causes their achievement in English vary. How to improve students’ English for General Purposes and English for Science and Technology competence at the same time has become an essential challenge for English instructors in technical institutions. Effective language instruction takes various factors into account, such as the teacher, the learner, the materials and the context (Richard in Liao and Chen, 2011). In the case of improving EGP and EST proficiencies of technical college students, suitable instructional materials appear to be increasingly critical. So the researcher tries to evaluate the material that is appropriate for their field of study especially in electronics engineering.

English for the workplace is hence a must in such students’ foreign language learning (Yu, 2006). Yu argues for the need to develop not only English for specific purposes (ESP) materials in general terms but also learner-centered ESP materials that suit learners of different career

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focuses. Yu lists examples such as English for car mechanics, English for nurses, and English for medical practitioners.

The materials used are related to the learners' specialized field of study. One of the important factors which is of utmost importance in language learning in general and ESP in particular is to see whether the books and materials are useful for the purpose of the teaching activities or not to meet the demands of the globalizing society and industrial sectors and to bring technological and vocational education to new heights. We need to improve technological students’ foreign language competence especially that of English, as one of the major educational aims of technological and vocational education. In addition, becoming well- equipped on the entrance of the job market is the main objective of technological institution graduates. This is done through the process of material evaluation, which is the aim of the current study.

It is important to develop relevant materials for the target learners and to evaluate the quality of materials being developed. Many language teachers are encouraged to evaluate classroom materials to determine whether the books they are using meet their students’ needs.

B. Research Questions

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Based on the background above, the researcher formulates the following research question:

1. How do the teaching staffs determine the teaching materials used at State Polytechnic Ujung Pandang?

2. To what extent have the current or existing ESP teaching materials been conformed to the need of students at State Polytechnic Ujung Pandang?

C. Objectives of the Research

Relating to the problem statements above, the objectives of this research are:

1. To find out the types of teaching materials being used at State Polytechnic Ujung Pandang

2. To evaluate the existing teaching material; to focus on what has been going well and to ask what have been the most significant contributing factors so that less successful can be modified to meet the students’ need.

D. Significance of the Research

The result of this research is expected to be useful information to;

1. To provide wider view of material evaluation for academician.

2. To give contribution to the improvement of teaching materials at State Polytechnic Ujung Pandang if there is a necessary to revise to

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propose a new by designed material. The teachers can find what aspects should be fulfilled to the students’ needs and use it as the starting point in designing materials for the next students of electronics engineering at this institution.

E. Scope of Problem

The writer has limited the scope of this research to the material of English for Specific Purposes, particularly the English language needed by students of Electronics Engineering at State Polytechnic Ujung Pandang.

It is expected to find out the relevance of English that is potentially required in the world work.

CHAPTER II

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LITERATURE REVIEW

F. Previous study

Hardiningsih (1998) conducted research of target needs of English for Commerce Students at Polytechnic of Diponegoro University. The study aims at knowing the graduates’ perception towards the relevance of English reading materials (ETM) and English in the Jobs (ETJ), the second knowing the attitudes of the employers toward the graduates’ performance or use of English; third, register of English that are needed by commerce students of polytechnic. The result shows that the graduates perceives the ETM and ETJ are 40, 73% relevant. This happened although not all of the graduates’ jobs deal with the use of English.

Furthermore, Rayan, Albert (2008) in his research Engineering English: A Critical Evaluation identifies the situations that are encountered and the skills which are required by the engineer, as a student and in professional life, evaluating the English course critically and suggest changing to make it effective.

Razmjoo and Raissi (2010) in Evaluation of SAMT Textbook for the Students of Medical Science describe the present state of ESP textbook used in the Iranian University of Medical Science from the viewpoints of student and instructors in order to provide a clear picture of the current status of those textbooks. The results indicate that the instructors and students were not satisfied with most of the criteria which the SAMT ESP

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textbook should fulfill. Moreover, the results show no significant difference between the students’ and instructors’ opinions.

All the studies above evaluated the teaching materials on the assumption that the published textbooks do not fulfill the learner’s needs.

The researcher wants to see the relevance of materials at State Polytechnic Ujung Pandang to the students needs, or whether they are effective or not in order to prove the statements above. However, the researcher will not make a change to the materials that have been used at that institution, because my capacity is just a researcher and a part time lecturer at State Polytechnic Ujung Pandang. The researcher only submit the result of this research as an additional input so that the stakeholder can use it for making a new model of material that meet the students’

need.

G. Related concepts and theories

1. Definitions and characteristics of ESP

English for engineering is a branch of English for Science and Technology (EST) which is a branch of English for Specific Purposes (ESP) in the field of English Language Teaching (ELT). English for Specific Purposes emerged immediately after the Second World War, when there was a huge expansion of science, technology and business all over the world and these fields required an international language for

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specialists. Now, ESP has become so popular that it is an important branch of ELT.

Many experts have given a definition of English Specific Purposes and we will look at a few of the most helpful definitions that are closely related to the core of the current study.

In defining ESP, Hutchinson and Waters (1987:18) do not give definition by showing what ESP is, but they prefer by saying that 1) ESP is not a matter of teaching ‘specialized varieties’ of English. The fact that language is used for a specific purpose does not imply that it is a special form of the language, different in kind from other forms, 2) ESP is not just a matter of Science words and grammar for scientists, Hotel words and grammar for hotel staff and so on, 3) ESP is not different in kind from any other form of language teaching, in that it should be based in the first instance on principles of effective and efficient learning (Afghani, 2011).

Teaching ESP is not only a matter of teaching specific groups of students or specific area of interest, material or it is different from general English, because these are not the focus of the ESP teaching. The focus of ESP teaching is the students, the student’s need of the language. The language to be taught should be based on the students’ reason for learning. In other words, the students needs, as well as in materials or methodology should be based on the reason why they learn the language.

Therefore, ESP is an approach to language teaching in which all decisions

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related to content and method are based on the learners’ reasons for learning.

Robinson (1992) in Dudley-Evans and St.John (1998:3) gave definition of ESP based on two criteria and a number of characteristics.

The criteria is, the first, ESP is normally goal directed. This definition means that students study English not because they are interested in the English language but they need English for some specific purposes, for example for work purposes. The second, ESP course is based on a need analysis, which aims to specify closely as possible what exactly it is that students have to do through the medium of English.

While Robinson’s characteristics are, the first, in ESP course there is usually a very clearly specified time period for the course, in which their objectives have to be achieved. The second is ESP course likely to be adults rather than children. It is often assumed that ESP students will not be beginners but will have already studied in English as General Purposes for some years. However, ESP can certainly be taught to students who are beginning their study of the language. Finally, the students are taught in homogeneous classes in terms of the work of specialist studies that the students are involved in. In other words, all the students in a class are involved in the same kind of work or specialist studies, they consist of identical students.

Similar to Robinson, Strevens in Dudley-Evans and St. John (1998) defines ESP in his absolutes and variable characteristics. He said that

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ESP is contrast with general English because it is designed to meet specific needs of the students and the content related to particular disciplines, occupations, and activities, it is centered on the language appropriate to the activities, and it may be restricted to one of the language skills to be learned.

Dudley-Evans and St. John (1998:4) offered modified definition from Stevens’ to their own form by adding some characteristics of ESP.

they said that ESP is designed to meet specific needs of the learner and for specific disciplines, therefore it may use specific teaching situation that is different from general English. They further said that ESP is likely to be designed for adult learners in intermediate and advance levels.

From the statements of Robinson, Strevens and Dudley-Evans and St. John above, the researcher concludes that; first, ESP course are likely to be used with adults learners rather than children. Second, ESP course is normally related to a specific discipline. Third, the students of ESP course are mostly homogeneous. Forth, need analysis is primary to any ESP course, ESP is different from General English and it is normally goal- oriented.

The researcher assumes that State Polytechnic Ujung Pandang is the right place to conduct research on ESP based on the definitions above. In this case, the researcher wants to see the relevance of the available materials to the students’ needs at that institution because this

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English offered in this institution for specific groups of engineering students who have specific interest in studying the language.

2. Material for ESP

In every teaching context, material plays an important role learning activities. They may be linguistic, visual, auditory or kinesthetic presented in two different forms: printed like textbooks and non-print such as computer-based materials. Dudley-Evans and St. John (1998:170) present four reasons for using material which seem significant in the ESP context;

they are 1) as a source of language, 2) as a learning support 3) for motivation and stimulation 4) for reference. These reasons indicate that ESP material therefore should provide the real language as it is used because ESP focuses on specific area of English, stimulate and motivate learners learning by involving them in thinking about and using the language through cognitive and mechanical processes. In addition, the materials should give students challenging and interesting content and provide a complete resource to be used as self-study and reference material outside the classroom.

Many English lecturers probably choose material to use in the classroom sometimes based on their impressions and expectations of what teaching material should look like or it might be that the course book are easy for the lecturer to prepare and the activities fit well into the timetable. It happened in State Polytechnic Ujung Pandang because my

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observation with the lecturers showed that the materials for their students are taken from some textbooks that become a module.

English taught in State Polytechnic Ujung Pandang is categorized as ESP because the lecturer teaches specific field that is electronics engineering, therefore, the material should be based on the electronic engineering. Hutchinson and Waters (1987:106) said that there are some items to be paid attention to producing useful and creative ESP material that is defining objectives and material design model. The designer should pay attention to defining and materials designing model, therefore they propose some technique related to the both two items.

In defining objectives, Hutchinson and Waters said that there are some principles that should be identified. First, material provides a stimulus to learning, not encourage learners to learn. Second, materials help to organize the teaching-learning process. Third, materials embody a view of the nature of language and learning. Fourth, materials reflect the nature of the learning task. While in materials design model, Hutchinson and Waters proposed model that consist of four elements, those are; first, input, may be a text, dialogue, video recording, etc. that provides a number of things such as stimulus material for activities, new language items, correct models of language use, a topic for communication, opportunities for learners to use their information procession skills. Second is content focus. The content should be meaningful communication. Third, language focus means the materials should give chance the students to

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study the language to pieces and practice it and forth, task, means the materials should have communication task for the students.

The techniques above that are proposed by Hutchinson and Waters are used in this study to see how the materials of State Polytechnic Ujung Pandang are designed. The technique also used in designing questionnaire of this study to distribute to the students of State Polytechnic Ujung Pandang in order to find out whether their material have already consisted above techniques and whether the material fulfilled students’

needs. It is important in the evaluation to consider whether or not the materials are appropriate to the preferred learning style, strategies and activities of the learners.

Teaching materials in ESP consist of English language in use and how to teach students use the language in the real world. Therefore, choosing materials for ESP students should be based on their target needs because they use language for their own purposes. In other words, it should be based on the reason why they learn the language. A lecturer or designer of ESP materials should check whether the material meet the students’ target needs and whether the language taught in relevance to the language that the students use in their target needs.

3. Material Evaluation

Evaluation, according to Tyler in Bazergan (1999:53), is the term used to mean appraisal of learning or assessment of educational

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achievement. This term has changed from time to time – examining, quizzing, testing, measuring, evaluating, appraising and currently, assessing – but the primary function of ascertaining the educational attainment of students has remained constant. Furthermore, evaluation is a whole process which begins by determining what information to gather and ends in bringing about change in current activities or influencing future ones. (Dudley-Evans and St John, 1998). Highlighting the importance of evaluation in ESP, they say that evaluation is a very constructive and powerful activity and a very stimulating one. There is the chance to focus on what have been the most significant contributing factors so that less successful aspects can be modified.

In terms of teaching and learning materials, evaluation is not a matter of deciding whether the material are good or bad, but it is a matter of judging, the fitness of something for particular purpose. In other words, as Hutchinson and Waters (1987:96) said it is only to decide the degree of fitness for the required purpose according to the result of the need analysis.

The textbook that is used in electronics engineering State Polytechnic Ujung Pandang is still using commercial textbook. It is based on my observation and interview. The lecturer said that the material for students comes from compiled textbook. This statement may indicate that the use of materials at this institution may be unsuitable with what the

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students’ needs. To say that the material is irrelevant or not, we need to conduct an evaluation to those materials.

Cunningsworth in Richard (2001:258) says that there are four criteria for evaluating textbooks, they are:

1. The materials should match to the needs of the students as well as aims and objectives of the programs.

2. The materials should facilitate the students to use the language for their own purposes

3. The materials should consider the students’ needs and facilitate their learning process.

4. The materials should have a clear role as a support for learning.

According to Robinson (1991:59), there are three types of materials evaluations, they are:

1. Preliminary evaluation normally take place before an ESP course begins and involves selecting the most appropriate from the available textbook.

2. Summative evaluation takes place at the end of the course and addresses the question whether the material have been effective.

3. Formative evaluation is conducted while the course is going on, so that the modification can be made to the materials.

This study reported an evaluation that conducted at State Polytechnic Ujung Pandang for the purposes of evaluating its materials that have been used for the electronics engineering students of State

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Polytechnic Ujung Pandang. The materials have been used for several years and still being used for the students at that institution. The type of evaluation in this study refers to summative and formative evaluation. The researcher uses both two types and do not use the preliminary evaluation because the program at State Polytechnic Ujung Pandang is already ongoing and the lecturer has already had materials. The researcher evaluated the material of State Polytechnic Ujung Pandang to see whether the materials are relevant to students’ needs.

Before conducting an evaluation. Robinson (1991:66) poses a sense of questions to guide the evaluation, they are:

1. Why carry out the evaluation?

2. What is the subject of evaluation?

3. Who carries out the evaluation?

4. How do the evaluation carry out?

5. What will happen to the result?

In relation to these questions, this study is aimed to see the relevance of the materials of State Polytechnic Ujung Pandang to the students need, or whether they are effective or not. However the researcher did not make a change to the materials that have been used at that institution, because my capacity is just a researcher. The subject of evaluation is the materials that used in State Polytechnic Ujung Pandang which will be seen their relevant to the student’ needs. The evaluator of this study is I as a researcher. The students and the graduates was

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involved in this study by giving them questionnaires, but the capacity as the object of this study. The researcher also involved five program administrators as assessor to avoid the judgment of my analysis. The evaluation is carried out by piloting questionnaire, interview and observation. The collected data or the finding of this research will be hopefully used by State Polytechnic Ujung Pandang in revising its teaching and learning materials.

H. Need analysis

Needs analysis (also known as needs assessment) has a vital role in the process of designing and carrying out any language course, whether it be English for Specific Purposes (ESP) or general English course, and its centrality has been acknowledged by several authors; Hutchinson and Waters, 1987; Brindley, 1989; Robinson, 1991; Munby, 1978; Dudley- Evans and St. John 1998;

Hutchinson and Waters (1987) make a distinction between "target needs" and "learning needs". The target need refers to what the learner needs to do in the target situation and the learning need refers to what the learner needs to do in order to learn. They further subcategorize target need into:

1. Necessities: what the learner has to know in order to function effectively in the target situation.

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2. Lacks: the discrepancy between necessity and what the learner already knows.

3. Wants: what the learner actually wants to learn or what they feel they need. The learner's "wants" may or may not conform those perceived by the teachers or course designers.

In conducting need analysis, the researcher gathered the following information from the target needs. The researcher used the following simplified framework from Hutchinson and waters ( 1987:59)’

a. Why is the language needed?

- For study - For work - For training

- For combination of these

- For some other purpose, example status, examination b. How will the language be used?

c. What will the content areas be?

d. Who will the learner use the language with?

e. Where will the language be used?

f. When will the language be used?

The learning need is equated to the route of learning. This concerns things such as how learners learn the language, why they learn it, what resources are available to help them learn. Whatever courses, especially

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ESP course, should be based on an analysis of learner needs because this is a way to come to the awareness of need.

Relating to learning needs, Hutchinson and Water (1989) offer a learning centered approach to ESP. they argue that more attention should be given to how learners learn, not only give too much attention to language needs. They suggest that a learning need approach is the best route to convey learners from the starting point to the target situation.

To analyze learning needs, Hutchinson and Waters formulate following question to get information about target population needs, as follows:

a. Why are the learners taking a course b. How do the learners learn?

c. What resources are available?

d. Who are the learners?

e. When will the ESP course take place?

The above questions are stated in questionnaires in this research are used to get information about target needs and learning needs of electronics engineering students at State Polytechnic Ujung Pandang.

Need analysis was introduced into language teaching through the ESP movement. From the 1960s, the demand for specialized language programs grew and applied linguists increasingly began to employ need analysis procedures in language teaching. By the 1980s, in many parts of world, a need based philosophy emerged in language teaching,

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particularly in relation to ESP and vocationally oriented program design (Brindley, 1989 in Richard, 2001:51).

Curriculum development in vocational and technical education should be an integrated approach involving education, training are industrial associated with an occupation, therefore it should be based on the needs of individual of community industrial.

I. Conceptual Framework

The input of this research is the target population in which the students and program administrators gathered information from them by providing questionnaire about their perception on materials of Polytechnic Ujung Pandang at electronic engineering. The result of this research is used to find out the relevance of the students’ needs to the materials used at Polytechnic Ujung Pandang.

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The material is relevant or irrelevant to students’ needs

CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK

Existing materials

Students need analysis

Learning needs Target needs - Text

- Figures

 Necessities

 Lacks

 wants

 Preliminary

 Summative

 Formative

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CHAPTER III

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

This chapter provides information about the location of the research, the type of the research, population and sample, instrument of data collection, procedure of collecting data and technique of data analysis.

J. Location of the research

This research is conducted in State polytechnic Ujung Pandang.

The researcher chooses this college as location of the research based on several reasons: 1) State polytechnic has its autonomy in designing its curriculum including its materials, which is based on the Indonesia Government Regulation No.61/1999 indicating that a university has its autonomy to design its curriculum. 2) State Polytechnic Ujung Pandang has not conducted need analysis in designing its English subject and 3) the English and the material might not have met the students’ needs. The last two reasons are based on the researcher’ opinion as one of the part- time lecturers in the State Polytechnic Ujung Pandang.

K. Type of the Research

The type of this research is descriptive research. Gay, Mills and Airasian (2006:159) said that descriptive research referred to as survey

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research, determines and describe the way things are. The researcher discusses descriptive research in some detail for two major reasons. First, a high percentage of research studies rely on survey for data and, as a result, are descriptive in nature. Second, the descriptive method is useful for investigating a variety of educational problems and issues.

Descriptive research is not conducted to check out the reliability of a hypothesis, but only describes the condition that found in the field of research. The researcher used this type of the research it tries to describe the real needs of students State Polytechnic Ujung Pandang in learning English. Having known the students’ needs, the researcher easily came into the object of this study that is whether the material is relevant or not to the students’ needs.

L. Source of Data/ Target Population.

Data was thought to be the lowest unit of information from which other measurements and analysis can be done. Data can be numbers, images, words, figures, facts or ideas. Data in itself cannot be understood and to get information from the data, we must interpret it into meaningful information.

Richard (2001:57) said that target population in need analysis refers to the people from whom information will be collected. Typically, in language programs, the target population will be learners who have potential in their academic study. However, lecturer, employers, etc can be

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26

involved in the need analysis in providing information that is useful and has relation to the purposes of the need analysis.

Based on the statement above, there are four categories of people who are involved in this study; they are the target group, the audience, and the need analyst. The target group consists of people, whom information will ultimately be gathered, in this study the target group is the students of State Polytechnic Ujung Pandang. The audience is those who are eventually required to act upon the analysis. This group consists of lecturers of State Polytechnic Ujung Pandang. The need analysts are the persons responsible for conducting the need analysis. In this study, I myself was the analyst and have responsible for identifying the other two groups.

M. Population and sample 1. population

The population of this research is all student of electronic engineering at State Polytechnic Ujung Pandang of entry year 2012/2013 which is 150 while the source of supporting data in this research is lecturers.

The population above was involved in this study because they are assumed to have some ideas about the material used in their classroom.

The students of entry year 2011/2012 have learnt English I and II

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27 2. Sample

Because of the limited time, the researcher limited the population by selecting the samples. In deciding the number of sample, the researcher used the method suggested by Arikunto. If the number of population is hundreds, more than 150 people, the researcher can choose about 25 – 30 % sample (Arikunto, 2009:95). Therefore, 38 students were chosen as sample of 25 % of student’ total population.

Having decided the number of sample, the researcher used random sampling technique in deciding the sample of the students. The students of State Polytechnic Ujung Pandang entry year 2012/2013 had some experience in learning English and know about the subject that they learn.

The technique used in choosing sample of supporting data is purposive sampling technique. This technique is used if the researcher has specific considerations in taking the samples; the researcher purposively took 5 from 18 lecturers as samples of the study in considering that they have taught ESP for electronics engineering students at State Polytechnic Ujung Pandang.

Having decided the sample, the total number of sample was involved in this research as follows;

No Category Number of sample

1 Students 38

2 Lecturers 5

total 43

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28 N. Instrument of Data Collection

In collecting the data concerning the students’ needs and material evaluation, the researcher used some instruments proposed by Richard (2001: 60-61) and Robinson (1991: 69-71) as follows:

1. Questionnaire

Questionnaire is list of questions given to the respondents to get information about the object of the research. The researcher gained information about the language they need, profiles, background, language mastery, etc. These questionnaires are designed and developed to elicit quantitative and qualitative data from the all respondent. Richard (2001:73) suggests six types of questionnaires as follows:

a. Open question b. Close question c. Checklist d. Rating scale e. Ranking f. Inventory

The questionnaires used in this research designed in Bahasa in order to make the respondents easier to understand the idea of the questions. Furthermore, the questionnaires of the research were given to all respondents and the questions of the students’ questionnaire were not the same as the questionnaires of the lecturers because there were heterogenic.

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29 2. Interview

This instrument is used to get additional information and a more in depth exploration of issues that cannot be reached from the questionnaires. The informants that might be interviewed are the students who related to object of this research.

3. Observations

Observation is another instrument for collecting data in material evaluation. Schroder in Robinson (1991) said that observation can be used to supplement questionnaire and interview. By this instrument, the researcher obtained data and assessed the real situation.

O. Procedure of Collecting Data

There are phases that have been done to obtain necessary information about the material used at State Polytechnic Ujung Pandang.

The first, questionnaires are used to gather information about students’ activities, skills, language type and grammar, levels, subject and content in the textbook/ material. Some students were interviewed to ensure the data validity and to get additional information. The entire chosen sample was involved in the survey.

The second, the researcher collected the result of the questionnaire and compare with the material to see the relevance of the material to the students’ needs. The last is the researcher processed the data in finding whether material is relevant or not to the students’ needs.

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30 P. Techniques of Data Analysis

The researcher use quantitative research in obtaining data.

Quantitative research is the collection and analysis of numerical data in order to explain, predicts, and/or control phenomena of interest. But a quantitative research approach entails more than just the use of numerical data (Gay, Mills and Airasian, 2006:9). The data was categorized in the form of charts, tables and graphs. The result is then described, interpreted from various aspects. The quantitative data the was interpreted qualitatively as Gay, Mills and Airasian (2006:9) said that qualitative research is the collection, analysis and interpretation of comprehensive narrative and visual (nonnumerical) data in order to gain insight into particular phenomenon of interest. Qualitative research methods are based on different beliefs and purposes than quantitative research method. In other words, the researcher used mixed methods research which combine quantitative and qualitative approaches by essentially mixing both quantitative and qualitative data in a single study. The purpose of mixed methods research is to build on the synergy and strength that exist between quantitative and qualitative research methods in order to understand a phenomenon more fully than is possible using either quantitative and qualitative methods alone (Gay, Mills and Airasian, 2006:490).

.The researcher used Likert scale as a technique of data analysis in this research. This rating scale that is applied to data can be divided into

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various groups and we can make a ranking among the group. This scale is used to determine a respondent’s attitudes-toward self, others, activities, institutions or situations.

Variables which were going to be measured become indicator variables by using Likert scale. These indicators then are used as a guidance to arrange the data instrument. The data was processed in the following category to see the strengthens of the respondents’ answers:

0 20% 40% 60 % 80% 100%

Not very not good somewhat good very good good good

This category has a score:

1. Very good 5

2. Good 4

3. Somewhat good 3

4. Not good 2

5. Not very good 1

Research instrument which used this scale can be made into a checklist table

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32 Here is the scale table:

No item

questionnaires

Interval answer Strongly

agree

agree Somewhat agree

disagree Strongly disagree

5 4 3 2 1

… … … …

(Sugiyono, 2009:93)

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33

CHAPTER IV

FINDING AND DISCUSSION

A. Finding

This chapter presents the results of the analyses of the respondents’ responses to the questionnaires, interview and the observation.

1. Type of materials

Many English lecturers probably choose material to use in the classroom sometimes based on their impressions and expectations of what teaching material should look like or it might be that the textbook are easy for the lecturer to prepare and the activities fit well into the timetable.

It happened in State Polytechnic Ujung Pandang because my observation with other lecturers showed that the materials for their students were taken from some textbooks that become a module.

The textbooks being used in State Polytechnic Ujung Pandang, English in Electrical Engineering and Electronics (Glendinning:1980) and Nucleus: English for Science and Technology Engineering (Dudley-Evans, Smart, Wail: 1978) had been decided by the teaching staff without conducting textbook evaluation and students’ need analysis. By conducting evaluation would be beneficial in analyzing the teaching learning situation more clearly. It was felt that representation of the classroom situation can show students’ aims, interests and expectation

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would assist in the overall textbook evaluation process by creating a clearer picture between students’ needs and goals and objectives of the English as a second language program.

The researcher selected one of the chapters from the textbooks as the teaching material. The content in the material is well organized as seen in Table 29; roughly information, the unit consists of five sections:

I. reading and comprehension II. use of language

III. information transfer IV. guided writing

V. reading and summarizing

For the complete materials see appendix 8

In reading and comprehension conclude a passage which related to components used in electronics engineering such as conductor and insulator. The reading come up to the exercises consists of some instruction like rephrasing, contextual reference and checking facts and idea, all the exercise refers to encouraging students’ vocabulary especially electronics items. Use of language shows several pictures and tables. The material on this part is describing the pictures and tables, writing instruction, reporting and learning grammar. Information transfer show numbers and symbols relate to electronics engineering’s expressions.

Guided writing shows how to building sentences, paragraphs, labeling diagrams, etc. reading and summarizing has a passage which consists of

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several questions have to be answered, it is aimed to increase students’

knowledge of electronics engineering.

2. Students needs analysis 2.1. Meet on Target Needs

Table. 1 Why are students studying English?

Response Frequency percentage

For career 9 23.6

For higher education 12 31.5

expand knowledge in engineering 21 55.2

To communicate 21 55.2

As a subject 14 36.8

Other reason 8 21.05

Source: primary data

Based on Table 1, most of respondent are studying English to communicate and expand their knowledge in engineering, it is 55.2%.

23.6% respondents claimed it is for their career, 31.5% respondents choose to continue into higher education, and 36.8 % respondents choose as a requisite subject which conducted by institution.

Table 2. Where do students expect to use English in the future?

Response Frequency Percentage

Workshop 3 7.8

Company 24 63.1

Abroad 8 21.05

Other reason 11 28.9

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From the Table 2 above, the respondents expect to use English in a company is 63.1%. 21.05% respondents choose to use English to go abroad. Other reasons 28.9% respondents use it in their classroom and neighborhood.

Table 3. Is technical English materials have fulfilled students need?

Yes 20 52.6

No 18 47.3

In fulfilling respondents’ satisfaction of technical English materials, 20 respondents or 52.6 % choose yes and 47.5% respondents choose no.

The students think that the materials are too difficult to be followed. Some of students think that they only learn the materials theoretically and less of practice, especially when it related to their study program.

Table 4. What kind of English materials which are good for you as electronics engineering students?

English for electronics 26 68.4

Grammar 11 28.9

Translating 12 31.5

General English 12 31.5

Other reason 9 23.6

From the Table 4 above, 26 respondents or 68.4% choose English for electronics as a kind of material which is good for them. 31.5%

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respondents choose translating and general English as good materials to learn. Other reasons are that the materials relate to electronics engineering and the instructions should be in general English.

Table 5. How far are the materials that students used helping them in these:

Response Strongly

help Help somewhat help

Not help Speaking using electronics

engineering topic 11 22 5 0

Writing using electronics

engineering topic 9 26 3 0

Reading engineering textbook 11 17 10 0

Comprehending exercises of

electronics engineering materials 11 22 5 0

Translating engineering materials 9 23 6 0

As shown in Table 5, 22 respondents think that material they used help them in speaking using electronics engineering topic and 11 respondents choose help. In writing using electronics engineering topic, 26 respondents choose that materials help them and 9 respondents choose strongly help. In reading engineering textbook, 17 respondents think that materials help them and 11 respondents thinks that materials strongly help. 22 respondents choose help and 11 respondents choose strongly help that materials they used helping them in comprehending exercises of electronics engineering materials. 23 respondents choose help and 9 respondents choose strongly help that materials they used helping them in translating engineering materials.

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38 2.2. Meet on Learning Needs

Table 6. How important these activities below in learning technical English?

Response Very

important Important Somewhat important

Not important

Roleplay 9 16 11 2

Language game 21 10 5 2

Discussion with friends 26 8 4 0

Memorize 5 22 10 1

Translating reading material 24 11 3 0

According to Table 6, the 16 respondents think that role play is important activity in learning technical English, 11 respondents choose somewhat important. Only 2 of them think that it is not important. 21 respondents choose language game as a very important activity, 10 respondents choose important. 26 respondents choose discussion with friend as a very important activity, 8 choose as important. In memorizing activity, 22 respondents choose important, 5 respondents choose very important. 24 respondents choose translating reading material as very important activity, 11 respondents choose important. From all the activities above, most of respondents choose discussion with friends and translating reading material as very important activities.

Table 7. Do students prefer to learn individually, in pairs or in group?

Response Yes No

Individual 18 20

Pairs 24 14

Group 27 11

Other reason 0 0

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Based on the Table 7, 18 respondents choose individual, 24 choose pairs and 27 respondents choose group as a way in learning English. It because in pairs and group work, students can share knowledge each other than spends time alone to search something that needs other students to solve it.

Table 8. How often the four language skills (reading, writing, speaking, listening) you need in learning technical English?

Response always often sometimes seldom Never

Reading 7 22 7 2 0

Writing 12 15 10 1 0

Speaking 10 15 11 2 0

Listening 7 17 12 2 0

According to the Table 8, 22 respondents often learn reading technical English. 15 respondents choose often in writing and 12 respondents choose always. In speaking technical English, 15 respondents choose often and 11 respondents choose sometimes. 17 respondents choose often and 12 choose sometimes in listening technical English. It concludes that the four language skills are the necessary things in order to learn and increase their English.

Table 9 . Which language skill students seem hard to learn?

Response always often sometimes seldom Never

Reading 0 14 10 13 1

Writing 1 10 17 10 0

Speaking 9 7 14 8 0

Listening 12 13 9 3 1

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40 Source: primary data

Based on Table 9 above, 14 respondents choose often and 13 respondents choose reading as learning skill that hard to learn. 17 respondents choose sometimes, 10 respondents choose often and seldom in writing. 14 respondents choose sometimes, 9 respondents choose always, and 8 respondents choose seldom in speaking. 13 respondents choose often, 12 respondents choose always and 9 respondents choose sometimes

in listening as hard learning skill to learn.

Table 10. Which level are the students?

Level Total Percentage

Basic (lower) 10 26.3

Basic (upper) 15 39.4

Intermediate (lower) 7 18.4

Intermediate (upper) 5 13.1

Advance 1 2.6

As shown in Table 10, 15 respondents or 39.4% is in basic (upper) level, 10 respondents in basic (lower) level, 7 respondents in intermediate (lower) level, 5 respondents in intermediate (upper) level and only one in advance level. That is the reason why students need to learn electronics engineering in simple way by using general English.

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41 3. Students textbook evaluation 3.1. Activities

Table 11. The textbook provides a balance of theoretical and practice

Response Frequency percentage

Strongly agree 0 0

Agree 8 21.1

Somewhat agree 19 50

Disagree 11 28.9

Strongly disagree 0 0

As shown in this Table 11, 21,1% of the respondents rated the balance of theoretical and practice of ESP textbook as ‘agree’, 50%’

respondents somewhat agree’ and 28.9% respondents ‘disagree’.

Table 12. The activities encourage sufficient communicative

Strongly agree 2 5.2

Agree 24 63,1

Somewhat agree 11 28.9

Disagree 1 2.6

According to Table 12, most of respondents 63.1 % ‘agree’ that the activities on the textbook encourage sufficient communicative. Only 2.6%

respondent ‘disagrees’.

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Table 13. The activities can be performed individual, in pair and group work in learning material.

Agree 22 57.8

Disagree 2 5.2

Strongly disagree 1 2.6

Based on Table 13, most of respondents 57.8% are ‘agree’ that activities incorporate individual, pair and group work. Only 2.6%

respondents ‘disagree’.

Table 14. The activities promote the students to be creative, original and independent responses

Agree 14 36.8

Disagree 2 5.2

According to Table 14, 14 respondents or 36.8% ‘agree’ that the activities promote creative, original and independent responses, 31.5%

respondents ‘somewhat agree’ and 5,2% respondents ‘disagree’ and

‘strongly disagree’.

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43 3.2. Skills

Table 15. The materials include and focus on the skills that students need to practice

Strongly agree 0 0

Agree 12 31.5

Disagree 3 7.8

As shown in Table 15, 60.5% respondents ‘somewhat agree;, 31.5% respondents ;agree; and 7.8 respondents ;disagree; that materials include and focus on the skills that students need to practice.

Table 16. The materials provide an appropriate balance of the four language skills (reading, speaking, listening, and writing)

Agree 3 7.8

Disagree 12 31.5

According to Table 16, most of respondents 55.2% ‘somewhat agree’ and 31.5% respondents ‘disagree’ that the materials provide an appropriate balance of the four language skills.

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Table 17. The textbook pays attention to sub-skills – i.e. dialogue in workshop, note-taking, skimming for information

Response Frequency Percentage

Strongly agree 0 0

Agree 6 15.7

Disagree 15 39.4

Table 17 shows 44.7% respondents ‘somewhat agree’ and 39.4%

‘disagree’ that the textbook pays attention to sub skills, i.e. dialogue in workshop, note-taking, skimming for information.

Table 18. The listening, speaking, reading and writing materials in the textbook which are provided appropriate to students needs as engineer

Agree 5 13.1

Disagree 13 34.2

Table 18 shows that 44.7% respondents ‘somewhat agree’, 13.1%

respondents ‘agree’, 34.2% respondents ‘disagree’ that the listening, speaking, reading and writing materials in the textbook which are provided appropriate to students’ need as engineers.

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45 3.3. Language type and grammar

Table 19. The language used in the textbook is authentic – i.e. like real-life English

Agree 10 26.3

Disagree 6 15.7

Table 19 shows most of respondents 52.6% ‘somewhat agree’, 26.3% respondents ‘agree’ and 15.7% respondents ‘disagree’ that the language used in the textbook is authentic

Table 20. The language used is at the right level for students’ current English ability

Agree 13 34.2

Disagree 7 18.4

As shown in Table 20, 42.1% respondents ‘somewhat agree’ that the language used is at the right level for students’ current English ability.

34.2% respondents ‘agree’ and 18.4% respondents ‘disagree’.

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Table 21. The grammar points and vocabulary items are introduced in motivating and realistic

Agree 12 31.5

Disagree 7 18.4

Based on Table 21, 47.3% respondents ‘somewhat agree’ that the grammar points and vocabulary items are introduced in motivating and realistic. 31.5% respondents ‘agree’ and 18.4% respondents ‘disagree’.

Table 22. The grammar points and vocabulary items are at the right level for students’ current English ability

Strongly agree 0 0

Agree 9 23.6

Disagree 7 18.4

Table 22 shows that most of respondents 57.8% respondents

‘somewhat agree' that grammar points and vocabulary items are at the right level for students’ current English ability. 23.6% respondents ‘agree’

and 18.4% respondents ‘disagree’.

ENGLISH LANGUAGE STUDIES POSTGRADUATE PROGRAM HASANUDDIN UNIVERSITY MAKASSAR 2013 LATIFAH SUYUTI P0600209006 EVALUATION OF ESP MATERIALS USED AT STATE POLYTECHNIC UJUNG PANDANG THESIS

THESIS

EVALUATION OF ESP MATERIALS USED AT STATE POLYTECHNIC UJUNG PANDANG

LATIFAH SUYUTI P0600209006

ENGLISH LANGUAGE STUDIES POSTGRADUATE PROGRAM

HASANUDDIN UNIVERSITY MAKASSAR

2013

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Table of Contents

List of Tables

List of Appendices

CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER II

LITERATURE REVIEW

CHAPTER III

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

CHAPTER IV

FINDING AND DISCUSSION