Designing Supplementary English Reading and Writing Materials

for Seventh Grade Students

INTRODUCTION

The Ministry of Education in Indonesia designs Curriculum 2013 as the

newest curriculum in Indonesia. This curriculum, as stated in UU nomor 20 tahun
2013; PP nomor 19 tahun 2005, is a set of plans and rules about the aim, content,
and course materials and also the way that is used as the orientation of teaching
and learning implementation in order to reach the goal of national education. This
new curriculum, which is Curriculum 2013, decides Junior High School as the
first place to learn English as a compulsory subject. It means that Junior High
School is the time for the students to start developing their knowledge about the
target language as beginners by gathering and making sense of information. This
happens through reading and writing. Much knowledge about the target language
will be learned and gained from many sources that are read. Therefore, materials
become very important in the English teaching and learning process.

Moreover, the seven grade students of Junior High School, as beginners,

need to receive more inputs in order to explore their reading and writing skills
through good materials. Good materials are materials that meet the students
needs and interests. However, it is quite difficult to find appropriate materials.
The English materials that have been provided by the government have not met
the students needs yet, especially in its reading and writing part as there are still
many students who fail in their attempt to acquire the basic knowledge of reading
and writing English. It still needs many improvements in order to help the
students to improve their reading and writing skills in English.

Therefore, the English teachers need to facilitate the students by providing

appropriate materials in accordance with their students needs and interests so that
the learning purposes can be reached. For this reason, supplementary English
reading and writing materials for Grade VII students of Junior High School needs
to be developed. It is very useful to supplement the textbooks that are provided by
the government. In addition, the reading and writing materials that will be
developed are based on the students needs so that the students can be highly
motivated to learn English.

RESEARCH QUESTION

1. What is the appropriate supplementary English reading and writing

materials for seventh grade students?

RESEARCH GOAL

1. To develop appropriate supplementary English reading and writing

materials for seventh grade students.

RESEARCH BENEFIT

1. For students: The research product can help the students to improve their
reading and writing skills.
2. For teachers: The supplementary learning materials can be used by
teachers to teach their students.
3. For other researchers: The result of the research can be used as a reference
for other researchers.