DEVELOPING AN ENGLISH COURSEBOOK BASED ON CONTEXTUAL TEACHING AND LEARNING APPROACH FOR THE 4TH GRADE OF PRIMARY SCHOOL STUDENTS

ABSTRACT Reading Instructions in Junior High Schools in MalangThis research is an educational Research and Development (Borg and Gall, 1983). The model of development is the adaptation of Latief’s (2013) model. The procedure of development is following these steps: (1) needs analysis, (2) developing the instructional materials, (3) expert validation, (4) try out, (5) final product. The experts in design and developing materials for EYL stated that the coursebook has fulfilled the criteria of good coursebook for teaching and learning activity. However, there are some suggestions given by the experts to improve the quality of the coursebook. The suggestions deal with the availability of teacher’s book to make sure that the elements of CTL can be implemented well by the teachers. Furthermore, the result of try out showed that the coursebook can fulfill the needs of good instructional materials for the students in 4th grade of primary school level. There are some strengths of the product. First, the product is constructed based on the implementation of CTL which are fit to learners. Second, there is a concept of characterization precedes the lesson. Third, the materials are inline to government curriculum to hold English in the lower secondary level. Fourth, the teacher’s book is so detailed and helpful. Finally, there are also features of Value and Cross curricular focus which will enrich learners’ knowledge. Keywords: research and development, coursebook, Contextual Teaching and Learning, primary school, young learnerThe implementation of English instruction in some schools based on the belief that it is beneficial to learn English in the earlier level. Cameron (2001) stated some specific advantages of learning a foreign language in the earlier age. Learners’ listening and speaking competence will acquire most benefits. Then, in the longer term, pronunciation ability also benefits in naturalistic context. The receptive (listening) and productive (pronunciation) skills of the learners will be better if the learning process is started earlier. However, she still suggested “naturalistic context” which means that the teaching methodology should be adjusted to the learners to be as natural as possible and to be fit with learners’ and teaching’s context. To be successful, there must be high quality materials to be used in the process of teaching and learning. Most of teachers in Indonesia have a great dependency to coursebook as an instructional material in teaching English. Cunningsworth (1995) stated the coursebook can play some roles in language learning. The coursebook should be an effective material to be used in the teaching and learning process. Richards (2005) stated that an effective instructional material should consider several factors which includes the context of the learners.After comparing the factors of effective materials with the existing coursebook in the market, the researcher found out that many of them do not fit to young learners’ characteristics. Most of the coursebook in the market also do not fit to learners’ contexts. A research stated that in East Java, Indonesia there is only 19,04 % English coursebooks for primary students that can be categorized as good book then, 33,3% books have fair quality and the rest is not good (Suyanto, 2002). Nonetheless, most approaches which are used as the underlying principles in the coursebook are not considering learners’ characteristics and do not fit to students’ context. There is still deductive grammar teaching by showing, for instance, tenses rules to construct a sentence and non-meaningful drilling activity as in Speed Up English 4 and Fun & Happy with English. In addition, the changing of curriculum today may lead to the inappropriateness of the existing coursebooks that have not been revised with the current curriculum. Besides, as what has been stated before, that some schools adopt certain institution’s curriculum, such as Cambridge curriculum. Consequently all materials are not based on Indonesian contexts. The level of difficulty of the coursebooks (e.g. My Pals are Here, Project by OUP, Cambridge Primary English, Our Discovery Island by Pearson, Backpack by OUP, etc.) may not fit to primary school students’ in Indonesia either.Related to the approach in developing coursebook, principles in language teaching should be adopted as underlying theories. Considering young learners’ characteristics, government regulation, and expert’ advice, teaching English for primary students should be started from grade four of elementary level in Indonesia (Rachmajanti, 2008). The appropriate approach for teaching grade four students of elementary school is an approach that considers learners’ context. Contextual Teaching and Learning (CTL) is an approach that can explore students’ potentials in learning English. Contextual Teaching and Learning can be defined as how teacher could relate the learning with the real context. CTL involves recent theories in teaching. Those are constuctivism, questioning, inquiry, leaning community, modeling, reflection, and authentic assessment (Fachrurrazy, 2014). Hudson and Whisler (2007) supported the use of CTL to promote “authentic learning and allow students’ success by allowing them to make connections as they construct the writing. Those elements should be reflected in the development of a coursebook as an instructional material. Constructivism can be accommodated by creating activities which can stimulate learners’ background knowledge before the learning. Then, Questioning is reflected into activities which will help the learners to questions that lead to exploration and discovery of certain knowledge. Thus, questioning is not merely answering questions. Then, learning community enables the learners to work together with others. In addition modeling parts help the learners to acquire good models to be imitated and developed. Moreover, reflection parts are made to help learners to reflect on their learning and their attitudes toward the lesson. This part can also be used as a chance for the teacher to review the learning. Finally, authentic assessment are reflected to any activity that can be measured which reflect students’ progress. METHODThe researcher used Research and Development (R&D) design. Borg and Gall (1983) defined Research and Development (R&D) as a process used to develop and validate educational products. The research procedure was conducted by adopting the model from Latief (2013) and Borg and Gall (1983). This research adapted the models to make sure that the procedures met the need of the learners and go to an effective research. Then, these models were adapted into several steps. The steps were: (1) needs analysis, (2) developing the coursebook, (3) expert validation, (4) revising the draft, (5) trying out the revised product, (6) revising the product based on the trying out process, (7) final product. Needs Analysis in this research was conducted by using field notes and interview. The activity was done by the researcher from the beginning of August 2015 to the end of October 2015. Interviews to some English teachers were conducted to gain information about the needs of the learners of the 4th grade of elementary school level. The researcher interviewed some teachers who had handled students for years. The researcher also interviewed teachers’ view of the existing materials. Some suggestions given by the teachers were taken as the considerations in developing activities in the coursebook.Besides, field note was used by the researcher as an instrument to collect data gained from some English coursebooks for 4th grade level in the market. The analysis of the coursebooks was constructed based on the model developed by Cunningsworth (1995) which focused on some aspects in evaluating a coursebook like rationale or learner needs, independence and autonomy, self-development, creativity, cooperation, methodology and layout.The result of Needs Analysis helped the researcher to identify the gaps between the needs of the learners and teachers of an ideal coursebook and the existing materials in the market. Thus, this step was the beginning in developing the coursebook for 4th grade of elementary school students based on some elements of Contextual Teaching and Learning (CTL) approach.The second step in the research is developing the English coursebook. The process of materials development involved several stages that have to be followed. The coursebook consists of five units which is started by Welcome chapter to strengthen the concept of characters appeared in the books. However, due to the limited time, the researcher developed two chapters, Welcome and At School as the model of the product. This consideration not to develop a coursebook for the whole semester was also taken because the further chapters of the coursebook follow the same pattern and activities like in the Welcome Unit and Unit 2. Then, the researcher made sure that the arrangement of the units is fit to meetings needed to finish each chapter. The Welcome unit is used for two meetings. Furthermore, the main unit lasts for three meetings. Another consideration is that the developed material is used to help the learners to begin English lesson as they are in the starting level of learning English. Thus, the developed materials fit to practical usage in the school for about 20 percent of the meetings in the whole semester. Then, the researcher developed map of the coursebook. The map includes a unit topic, the vocabulary which appears in each unit, the structure or grammar, language skills, cross-curricular content, and values to be learnt by the students. The topics were chosen by the researcher by considering students’ level and interests. Related to the map of the materials, the government does not provide syllabus for English instruction as a local content subject. Thus, the privilege to construct the materials is given to the school which is represented by the teacher or a team of teachers. Thus, the researcher constructed the mapping of the coursebook by himself. Then, the activities in the coursebooks were constructed based on the suggestions of the teachers, the characteristics of the learners and CTL elements. As the coursebook is adopting Contextual Teaching and Learning (CTL) approach, the researcher arranged the activities based on the elements of the CTL. Each unit of the coursebook adopts Constructivism which enables the learners to activate their own background knowledge. This element helps the learners to make a connection between the learning and their own experience. Then, Questioning element is implemented in the exercises for the learners. This part stimulates the learners to question the materials which lead to an activity of exploration and discovery. The third element is Learning Community which suggests the learners to cooperate with others. Thus, there are many group and pair activities in each unit. The activities in each unit are followed with Modeling which helps the learners to acquire good examples from the teachers or the content provided in the coursebook. In addition, each unit includes reflection part which helps the learners to reflect on the learning that has been experienced. Authentic assessment has an important role in the book because it is one of the elements of Contextual Teaching and Learning approach which is the underlying theory of the construction of the book. Thus, the researcher also developed the assessment for the book at the end of the construction of the activities. The authentic assessment is also integrated in the cross-curricular content in the coursebook in each unit in the form of project based learning. Next, the researcher arranged the layout and designs the illustration. Following the needs analysis and materials development is expert validation which involved expert in design and expert in developing EYL materials and teaching EYL. The expert in design analyzed the layout and the illustration of the coursebook. Furthermore, the expert in developing EYL materials validated the language, the content, the activities and the reflection of elements of CTL in the coursebook. To analyze the result of the coursebook, the researcher used a criteria of 5-scale. If the total score of the quality of the coursebook is 84%-100%, no revision is needed. However, suggestions were taken to improve the quality of the product.This stage was conducted to obtain information about the coursebook from the field subject. This step was conducted by giving the students and the teachers the developed product to be used in a real environment. Then, the teacher evaluated the coursebook during the process of the trying-out. The teacher considered some aspects in the coursebook in term of the effectiveness, efficiency and attractiveness. The try-out process helped the researcher to find strength and weakness of the developed materials.The subjects of the try-out are grade four of elementary school students in Laboratory Primary School of State University of Malang. A bilingual class was chosen as the subjects of try out. The students used to use English for the daily classroom instruction. Thus, their level for English competence can be categorized higher compared to non-bilingual class. The process took 1 meeting which involved learning and teaching process discussing Unit 1, Welcome. Then, the teacher was given an observation form to assess the practicality of the coursebook used in the classroom. FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONFindings Based on the result of needs analysis, there are some aspects that should be accommodated in the product. First, there must be various activities which accommodate different learning styles and different language skills in the coursebook. Second, active participation through kinesthetic activities (TPR) are needed by the learners. Third, assessment part should not only merely rely on the result of answering reading comprehension questions. Authentic assessment should be integrated in the coursebook. Fourth, more cooperative learning is encouraged. Fifth, as the learners are still developing their social and emotional ability, values should be integrated to the learning. Finally, the coursebook should also accommodate lesson which is beyond the lesson itself. It means that cross-curricular section must be integrated in the coursebook.The title of the coursebook is Easy Going 4. The title is chosen to reflect the primary goal in teaching English in elementary school which will help the learners to build positive attitude towards English. The book is constructed to help the learners in 4th grade of elementary school in Indonesia to learn English at the first time. Thus, the coursebook is started by an introductory unit entitled Welcome to strengthen the concept of characterization in the coursebook. There are four characters that represent the diversity of students. The characters are Willy, Ratih, Linda, and Buyung. Moreover, the learners might have personal connection with the characters in the coursebook. It pottentially also help them activate their background knowledge and personal experience related to characters (Johnson, 2002). Next, the researcher formulated scope and materials mapping as a guideline to develop the coursebook. The scope and materials mapping is the syllabus of the coursebook that helps the teacher get the overall concept in each unit. After developing the scope of materials of the coursebook, the researcher constructed the activities for each unit. The coursebook is started with an introductory unit entitled Welcome. The first page of this unit contains the main characters (Willy, Linda, Ratih and Buyung) in the coursebook. In this part the learners are asked to listen to the characters introducing themselves. They are helped by the teachers to activate the background knowledge to gain personal connection by getting to know more about the characters. The Welcome chapter adopts elements in CTL approach. The first element is Modeling which is implemented in the Welcome part in the form of listening part which give models to the learners to introduce the characters. Then, to check students’ understanding there are some questions about the topic. After that, the learners are asked to construct their own students’ ID then, introduce themselves like what has been presented earlier. Next, for speaking exercises, the students are asked to use the first model to ask about others’ identity. Besides, the learners learn some materials in Welcome chapter about numbers, greetings, and several instructions in the class which are begun by models given by teachers. The second element is Questioning which is implemented in the form of exercises and questions given to the students. The questions stimulate the learners to discover the concept and relate the lesson with their own experience. The third element is Learning Community which is implemented in the group and pair work exercises, for example, numbers game, ask friends’ identity, greet others, and act the dialogue out. Then, the fourth element is Constructivism which is adopted in the activities of Let’s Discuss and Let’s Think. In this section the students are asked to think critically about what should be done by a good student. They are asked to differentiate between students’ good and bad behavior. This activity encourages the learners to relate the task with their own background knowledge and perceptions about what a good student is. The fifth element is Authentic Assessment which reflects learners learning, motivation, and performance during the lesson (O’Malley & Pierce, 1996). The researcher designs all activities in this unit to be measured. Thus, the teacher finds them easy to see students’ progress in learning through various activities (listening to the introduction part and class instructions, writing a students’ ID card, acting a dialogue out, acting the instruction out, discussing a value, etc.). The last element is Reflection which is the closing part of the unit. This part is aimed at reviewing and reinforcing what has been learned in the whole unit. There are some questions which lead to students’ answer about particular exercises in the unit. There are also questions which ask students’ feeling and perceptions about the most interesting and boring activities in the unit. The part helps both teachers and students to reflect on the learning. Furthermore, unit 2 adopts elements of CTL as this is the main materials. In the beginning of each unit, there is a comic strip which helps the learners to activate their background knowledge to learn. The comic presents series of scenes which involve the main characters, vocabulary, and structures to be learned in the unit. This part entitled Look and Guess. The students are asked to scan the comic then guess the answer of question given in the instruction. This section adopts Constructivism which involves predicting before reading the comic strip. Then, the learners are asked to imitate the dialogue out in the group after being given model by the teacher (Modeling). In this part of the unit, the learners have comprehended the story through experiencing the dialogue done in groups (Learning Community). In order to check students’ understanding, there are questions which encourage the learners to find explicit and implicit information in the comic (Questioning). The questions lead to the discovery of concept and more analysis. Then, the unit presents the linguistic features beginning with vocabulary. There are pictures of vocabulary followed by listening parts to help the learners in pronouncing the words correctly. The words which are presented are exercised in various activities involving students’ observation with their classroom, school and daily life environment. Moreover, there is another lesson to present the structure in speaking or writing. This part is begun by presenting dialogue using the target structure/ grammar (Modeling). Then, to check students’ understanding about the dialogue, there are comprehension questions which are answered by choosing yes or no (Questioning). In addition, grammar section untitled ‘Look and Learn’ is presented to help the learners to construct the same structure/ composition in speaking and writing. There is also additional vocabulary to be used in composing sentences activities. Then, the learners can practice the structures and vocabs learn by practicing them in speaking or writing. This part can be used as assessment part (Authentic Assessment). Other features in the main units are Cross-curricular content, ‘A Letter from a Friend’, Value and ‘Reflect on your learning’. The cross-curricular content is provided by the researcher to connect the learning with the idea of interdisciplinary learning (Learning Community and Constructivism) and learning with various contexts. In this part the researcher provides different non-language subject to be integrated in each unit e.g. art, physical exercise, social science and science of nature. Moreover, ‘letter from friend’ potentially enriches learners’ knowledge about the wider world. Indeed, they learn about the lesson from others who tell something which is related to the theme learned (Learning Community). Furthermore, value section helps the learners in spiritual development with fun and various activities like making craft, cutting, sticking, etc. At last, every unit is closed with ‘reflect on your learning’. In this section, the teacher can support the learners to evaluate their own progress during learning each unit. It can be used as a self- assessment for the learners (Authentic Assessment). Besides, the teacher can use this part to review and reinforce what has been learned (Reflection) (Fachru