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DEVELOPING READING BOOK THROUGH EXTENSIVE READING

‘UNSKILLED JOBS’

Ana Fergina

, Yuline

, Amallia Putri

1, 2, 3

Bimbingan dan Konseling, Universitas Tanjungpura

Jl. Prof. H. Hadari Nawawi, Pontianak 78124

Email: anafergina@untan.ac.id

Email: yuline@fkip.untan.ac.id

Email: amalliaputri@fkip.untan.ac.id

ABSTRACT

Extensive reading material is reading material that can help students improve their reading skills in

speed and increase vocabulary. Some reading materials discuss professional occupations such as

doctors and teachers. However, not many introduce unskilled work, even though this work is an

existing job and has even existed for generations. This research on the development of extensive

reading materials aims to produce a book product on the types of untrained/academic work. This

book introduces these types of unskilled jobs in West Kalimantan. As reading material, this book is

an alternative reading in English with vocabulary that are easy to understand in the local context.

This book is used as supplementary reading material for Tanjungpura University’s students.

Keyword: Extensive Reading, Unskilled Jobs.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 CC BY-SA International License.

INTRODUCTION

In the 4.0 era, almost all sectors are adapting to technological developments. It is also

inseparable from the education sector, especially in teaching English. Mastery of English

actively and passively affects someone's skills in the world of work. Someone with foreign

language skills, one of which is English, can determine the work to be carried out in the

future, in addition to the criteria for someone's graduation. Therefore, English language

skills are indispensable in the world of work.

The terms trained and unskilled work are based on several factors. Among them is

the educational aspect achieved. Trained jobs usually require special education to do their

jobs, such as teachers. While unskilled jobs do not require special skills in their work, it

means that everyone can do it. The result of the project carried out by Australian

manufacturing skills for three years is one of the people's perceptions of trained work or

not seen from the education one gets (Smith, Smith, Hampson, and Junor, 2015). Smith et

al. added that the 'visibility of the job to the public' is also one of the factors that the job is

included in unskilled work, such as cleaning.

From various perspectives on work, many in our society do not understand whether

the job is a trained job or not. Even at the student level, they don't know the type of work.

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In the material at school, a lot of the work displayed is a trained job. In reality, there are

still many unskilled jobs that people do not consider jobs. For this reason, developing

reading books (extensive reading) that contain untrained work can help students know the

types of work in the community. In addition, jobs that are considered low-level jobs can be

upgraded to trained jobs with technology development. The development of extensive

reading on unskilled work can also be regarded as a job that has existed traditionally or is

hereditary and can be learned from the training obtained.

Teaching English affects the level of students' interest in reading. According to

Sulistiyo (2009), there are several factors that influence the difficulty of teachers in

teaching English in Indonesia. The first is the number of classes. The average class

accommodates 40 students, but most are more than that. This large number of classes

affects students' motivation in learning which is the second factor, plus English lessons are

only available 2-3 hours per week.

Furthermore, the third factor is that the lesson focuses only on reading skills by

ignoring other skills (Sugirin, 1999). More depressing is the focus on passing the test so

that the focus is on learning the rules of English, not for communication (Sawir, 2005 in

Sulistiyo, 2009).

This factor is in line with the opinion of Bradford (2007) where teaching in Indonesia

is less effective due to class factors, student motivation, and teacher quality in preparing

education in the classroom.

With the existing conditions in the field, this study will try to solve this problem by

providing alternative teaching materials such as Extensive Reading (ER). According to

Tomlinson (2005), teaching materials in Indonesia focus on teaching grammar. One way to

improve language skills is to provide input, namely with ER.

Day and Bamford (1998) define ER as a process of reading in large numbers and

focusing on the convenience of the reader rather than the language aspect. In ER students

are directed to read alone in class, not required to discuss. One of the characteristics of ER

is reading books at the same level or below the level of students. In reading, students do

not need to open the dictionary as often as possible.

Previous research has also revealed the benefits of ER in increasing the number of

new vocabulary and reading speed (Aka, 2019; He, 2014; Liu and Zhang. 2018; Renandya

and Jacobs, 2016; Suk, 2017). In Japan, a one-year reading program can provide

significant input for students. By reading various types of books, students can increase the

vocabulary they have and indirectly improve other English skills.

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Day and Bamford (2002) provide ten ER principles for developing teaching

materials. This principle is the basic foundation for researchers in developing these

teaching materials. The ten principles are:

1. Reading material is easy;

2. Availability of reading materials with various topics;

3. Language learners are free to choose the book they want to read;

4. Students read as much as possible

5. Purpose and reading is usually for pleasure, information, and general insight.

6. Reading serves as a reward at the same time;

7. Reading tends to be fast, not slow;

8. Read alone and quietly;

9. The teacher introduces extensive reading and guides the students;

10. The teacher acts as a role model.

From these ten basic foundations, developers of teaching materials then design

creatively so that the learning process can occur optimally. Renandya (2007) stated that

extensive reading can be used as an activity outside the classroom by asking students to

find their favorite reading. If implemented in the school, the teacher can set aside a

particular time (e.g., 15-30 minutes) so that students can read books individually. This

process is uninterrupted, including discussion and answering questions. So students just

read and are immersed in their reading imagination. Renandya also suggested that teachers

vary their activities after reading, not always asking them to write summaries. Students can

be asked to describe a character they like or tell a part they enjoy through role play. In this

study, students or readers are provided with a reflective activity at the end of the reading

where they can evaluate each chapter of what they read. They can rate each chapter and

write the part or scene they like the most.

The low habit of reading English books seems to be an issue faced by students in

Indonesia, but in many countries in Asia. One of the reasons why reading becomes difficult

for students from Asian countries is because there are few elements of local wisdom in

textbooks. As a result, students read something foreign to them. This statement was later

confirmed by Shin, Eslami, & Chen (2011) who reviewed 25 English textbooks published

globally. Their findings reinforce the claim that the cultural dominance of English-

speaking countries is still influential in every book. The writing team believes that if this

aspect of "local content" is added, it can help students understand reading more efficiently,

especially beginners.

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In the Indonesian context, aspects of local wisdom are also rarely shown in English

textbooks (Hermawan & Noerkhasanah 2012). Even if there is, a small portion of

information about local culture is presented. The topic of local culture is only used in the

use of names of people and places without any further efforts to promote the authentic

culture. Therefore, the need for books that promote local culture but are written in English

is urgent.

In addition to culture, work that describes the characteristics of a particular area can

also promote the region. Fergina &Oktavianda (2019) designed an extensive reading book

on traditional games of West Kalimantan to support the culture. West Kalimantan itself is

a province consisting of various ethnic groups, mostly from the Dayak, Malay, and

Chinese. There are still several other tribes who come from various regions in Indonesia,

such as Java, Madura, Bugis, and others. With this many tribes, there will be many

traditional done or from generation to generation without going through special education.

Some textbooks in schools more often display the types of work that are commonly done

by the community and professionals such as doctors, teachers, etc. Therefore, introducing

these types of untrained/educated jobs can inform the reader that this job has existed for a

long time and is not considered a low-level job.

METHODOLOGY

This study the topic of the types of unskilled work carried out by people in West

Kalimantan. In this study, the resulting product is a book entitled Unskilled Jobs in West

Kalimantan. This book provides an overview of the many types of unskilled work as

teaching materials for English language education. The systematics of Unskilled Jobs in

West Kalimantan are as follows;

1. Job Profile

One aspect of this book is the job profile. This section will provide an overview of the

workforce who do a job in terms of the reasons for taking this job to the expectations

that will be achieved in the job.

2. Vocabulary corner

In this section, each chapter will provide difficult vocabulary and its meaning.

This research was conducted in Pontianak. Participants are new Tanjungpura

University students taking English courses for the 2020/2021 academic year from various

faculties and majors.

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Data collection in this study was carried out in several stages.

a. Analysis Stage

The first step in developing teaching materials was the analysis stage. Aldoobie (2005)

states that several processes are passed in the development of teaching materials, namely

Need Analysis, learner analysis and task analysis.

In the Need Analysis stage, researchers investigated what needs were needed in the

university student's extensive reading program. Then this need was continued by looking at

the needs of students. What books do students often read? To find out, the researcher gave

a questionnaire. The last was task analysis, which was to match the willingness and needs

of students by determining the objectives of the teaching materials being developed.

b. Design Stage

At this stage the researcher will design reading material based on a survey conducted to

students.

c. Development Stage

At this stage, the researcher will make reading material and then review it by linguists

and experts in the field of economics to see the suitability of the content and the field.

Aldoobie (2015) asserts that book makers can ask their supervisors, superiors or

colleagues for advice and opinions

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

In the first phase of needs analysis, participants were given a questionnaire

containing three main topics that they had to fill out. The first section includes information

on the faculty, their age, and their years of studying English. All participants are first-

semester students. Most of them have studied English for more than six years in formal

school, but they still find it very difficult to understand English. Few of the remaining

participants turned out to have studied English for only about 1-3 years, which means that

they had just learned English since attending high school.

In the second part of the needs analysis, the researcher asked questions about their

reading habits in English. Understanding reading in this context is not only limited to

physical books, but also readings in English which they access through social media (such

as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram) as well as several reading applications such as padlet,

readworks, and others. The questionnaire results show that 38% of students admit spending

more time to reading on social media. Very few of them read lecture textbooks as can be

seen from the results of the questionnaire that these students only spent about 30 minutes

to 2 hours reading something in English. Very few of them read in 6 hours a day in

English, which is 6%.

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Figure 1. Source of books being read

Furthermore, figure 2 shows the number of books students read in a month. Based on

these results, it is known that as much as 22% of the participants admitted that they never

read a book in a month. As many as 23% can only read one book for a month. Very few

students, 4%, read more than ten books a month.

Figure 2. Number of books being read

The data in the second part also provides information about the difficulties they often

face when they have to read English texts. As many as 35%% of students think they have

difficulty understanding the meaning of the vocabulary in the reading material. On the

other hand, as many as 7 students out of 74 total respondents complained that the reading

they read was not fun. A total of 7 people also said that the reading material presented was

too long, so they took a long time to finish one reading material. This results in their loss of

interest in reading longer.

In the third part of this needs analysis survey, the researcher asked questions about

the book to be developed. Several questions were asked to see to what extent students were

aware of the types of jobs in West Kalimantan that were still occupied by the local

community. Most of them know the types of trained jobs (61%) and unskilled (10%). A

total of 18 students answered that they knew of trained and untrained work from their

income, followed by 16% of their work volume and 6% of their physical appearance. Very

few of them, 1% on average, see trained and unskilled jobs in terms of the worker's skills

to his job performance. This shows that wages and one's physical appearance at work

determine one's job. Here is a diagram of how people are judged in terms of their work.

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Figure 3. Judgment on jobs

Furthermore, in this section, the respondents chose several unskilled jobs that many people

are still involved in. As many as 20% of the respondents chose parking attendants (20%)

and laundry workers as unskilled jobs in the community. The third rank is gravedigger

(16%) and coconut climber (9%). These last two jobs are considered unique because not

many in our society want to work in this field.

Figure 4. Kinds of unskilled jobs

According to respondents, these unskilled works can be improved and studied.

Special training needs to be carried out to not rule out the possibility that this work can be

used as a profession for the local community where this work can be used as a

characteristic of specific areas, such as climbing. However, there is no need for a particular

school to do this unskilled job. As many as 43% of respondents agree that this job requires

special skills.

The last part of this needs analysis focuses on what students want when they read a

book about unskilled work. As many as 31% of the 74 respondents said they wanted to

know workers' unique skills. Sharing experiences from people doing so ranks second, 27%.

A small part of the respondents wanted to know about the types of work and their

education level, namely 9% and 4%. Below are aspects students want to know when

reading an English book about a job.

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Figure 5. Aspects of English book

Based on the needs analysis results, the researcher then proceeded to the

Development stage where the resulting product describes many subjects as English

education teaching materials. The systematics of this book are as follows:

1. Job description

Unskilled workers were interviewed about the work they are doing, then it was written

in a character story format.

2. Word Corner

In this section, some words and phrases were given their meaning to make it easier for

readers to understand the reading.

CONCLUSION

Some evidence that refers to language policy in Indonesia reflects that English is the

first foreign language learned by all Indonesian students. In a tertiary education

environment, Indonesian students have not been able to use English in daily

communication, both in formal and formal contact. Therefore, they are expected to expose

to foreign languages in learning English, not only in class. They are expected to be

involved in the context in which English is used. One of the activities that students might

do is to choose extensive reading material. The ‘Unskilled Jobs’ book may help students

use the language through reading and inform students about jobs around them. Their

involvement in language exposure through interest-based reading can help them develop

language competence.

RECOMENDATION

For future researchers, they can design books based on their cultural background and

provide questions to measure the readers’ understanding in reading.

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