DESIGNING ESP LEARNING MATERIALS FOR ELEVENTH GRADE STUDENTS OF ACCOUNTING PROGRAM AT VOCATIONAL HIGH SCHOOLS BASED ON HUTCHINSON AND WATERS’ (1987) LEARNING-CENTERED APPROACH

Abstract

Based on the results of the needs analysis, it was known that in addition to the irrelevant learning materials, the monotonous learning activities also contributed to the students’ low level of proficiency. The students wanted to learn English to help them learn their content subjects from textbooks written in English. The teacher had positive attitude towards the teaching of ESP at the school. However, he revealed that one of the constraints for him to do so was that English teachers could not push away the official syllabus and the textbook. These data of students’ target needs and learning needs were gained through needs analysis questionnaire distributed to the students and through an interview done with the English teacher to get thorough information from both the students’ and the English teacher’s perspectives. The results of the needs analyses were used as the basis to design specific English learning materials for the students by also considering the official syllabus and the textbook. In this research, the ESP syllabus followed the official English syllabus used at the school. However, some new items based on the target needs and learning needs of the students were included in the ESP syllabus to allow the learning of specific English for the students. The learning was designed to be processed through various learning activities that were enjoyable and at the students’ capacity regarding their English proficiency level. The English teacher and an ESP lecturer were participated to evaluate and validate the designed materials through validation checklists. The results showed that the materials met the students’ needs and the official syllabus. With mean 4.78 of the total score gotten from the two validators, the designed materials were categorized as Excellent (>4.2) based on the conversion of mean from the score for validation by Widoyoko (2009). Since there was no suggestion to revise the materials, those materials were then presented as the final model of appropriate English learning materials designed for students of accounting program at the school.