ARTICLE: English Syllabus

Designing English Syllabus for the Eleventh Grade Students of Agribusiness Food Crops and Horticultural Department at SMK Negeri 1 Kuripan

I Made Wartina

ABSTRACT

This study aims at (1) identifying reading materials needed by the eleventh grade students of the AFCH department at SMKN 1 Kuripan, (2) designing appropriate English syllabus for teaching reading, and (3) illustrating the appropriateness of the designed syllabus for use of teaching reading. It employed cycles of research and development adapted from Borg and Gall (1983) and Sugiono (2014). The data are gathered from questionnaires, interview guides and documents. The obtained data are analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively using descriptive statistics. The study reveals that: (1) the needed reading materials deal with topics in the agricultural fields, such as: soil preparation, crop cultivation, operating farm tractor, pests’ control, and irrigation; (2) the appropriate type of syllabus is competency-based syllabus with KTSP syllabus format; and (3) the designed syllabus and the samples of reading materials are greatly appropriate for teaching reading. Teachers’ average scores for the syllabus and the samples of the materials are respectively 3.56 and 3.42, and students’ average score for the materials is 3.37. Thus, both the designed syllabus and its materials are appropriate for teaching reading because they have accommodated the needs of the student’s reading materials. Therefore, it is suggested that English teachers implement the products of this study (syllabus and reading materials) in order to know their effectiveness.

Key words: Syllabus, ESP, needs analysis, KTSP, Research and Development, reading materials.

Introduction

English language is one of the foreign languages officially taught at schools in Indonesia. As an international language, it is learnt for improving their access “to the international communities of business, science, culture and intellectual life” (Tarone, 2005). In other words, it is used not for daily communication among families at home or to chat with neighbors, but rather for the academic and professional uses of English.

Since English is learnt for the purpose of academic and professional uses, students should master it during their study and/or after they graduate from the school in order that they can use it to support their future profession or career. Regarding this, the students of vocational secondary school (henceforth SMK) like or dislike must master it both for their academic and professional purposes. To this end, English teachers should have spelt out its school English curriculum into a specific English syllabus which is designed for use of teaching English as a foreign language to the students for the purpose of equipping them with specific English corresponding with their needs or their field of study. In fact, not all SMKs have done this. SMK Negeri 1 Kuripan (henceforth SMKN 1 Kuripan) is one example of SMK which has not yet designed a suitable English syllabus for Agribusiness Food Crops and Horticultural (hereafter AFCH) department.

Talking about syllabus, each school must have got it based on its subject matter. It is generally translated from the curriculum each school unit owns. Type of the syllabus each school unit chooses depends on the learning approach it uses. English learning approach used at SMK level in the context of School-based Curriculum is competency-based approach (Depdiknas, 2008). Richards & Rodgers (2001) explain a competency-based syllabus is similar to skill-based syllabus, which defines what a learner is able to do as a result of instruction. Competencies (or skills) here refers to observable behaviors that are necessary for the successful completion of real-world activities. 

SMKN 1 Kuripan, in which the writer teaches, opens not only agricultural department but also technology. Hitherto, it has 6 Skill Competencies or formerly better known as Departments. AFCH is one of the departments the school has up to now. Since the school operated, it has changed its curriculum three times: the 1994 Curriculum, 1999 Curriculum, and 2006 Curriculum. The 2006 Curriculum, or Kurikulum Tingkat Satuan Pendidikan (hereafter KTSP), was the latest curriculum applied for the school from the tenth to the twelfth grade students. The 2013 Curriculum has not been implemented at the school because it was not chosen as the pilot project of the curriculum implementation when this study was being carried out. Thus, it referred to the KTSP of SMKN 1 Kuripan.  

Regarding the English teaching-learning process, the school has already developed KTSP since the 2006/2007 academic year. However, it has not yet been followed by designing English syllabus for use of AFCH department. The only syllabus the department has been using is the one which was adopted from the syllabus model issued by the National Education Standard Boards (BSNP) Jakarta. This syllabus model was not designed for use of SMKN 1 Kuripan but for a model of English syllabus only.

Each SMK in Indoenesia develops KTSP based on the Government Regulation No. 19 of 2005 (PP 19/2005) of the National Education Standards. It mandates to every level of education in the country to arrange KTSP by referring to the Content Standards and Graduate Competency Standards and under technical guide issued by BSNP (BSNP, 2006). This means that the school should develop the KTSP considering the students’ potential, level of development, interests, intellectual, emotional and social, spiritual, and so on. Likewise, the syllabus should also be designed based on the KTSP and the purpose of the vocational school. Unfortunately, SMKN 1 Kuripan has not yet done this. Therefore, this becomes the main issue of this current study. 

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