The particular dialect or language that a person chooses to use on any occasion is called a code The Use Of Lesson Writer in Developing English Teaching Materials For Vocational School Students Lystiana Nurhayat Hakim1 & Setyo Wati2 tianaghea@gmail.com Universitas Perjuangan Tasikmalaya, Indonesia Received : 20 Agustus 2019; Accepted :25 November 2019 Abstract The aim of this study are to find out teachers’ perception toward Lesson Writer in developing English teaching Materials and to investigate teachers’ difficulties in using Lesson Writer to develop English teaching material. The sample of the study consisted of three English teachers. In this study the teachers focused on developing English teaching materials for the tenth grade of TKJ or Computer and Networking Program. The data collection used in this research was questionnaire and interview. The results of this study are the teachers have positive perception toward the implementation of Lesson Writer in developing English teaching materials, however in using Lesson Writer the teachers faced difficulties such as readiness of technology, limited teaching resources to be uploaded in Lesson Writer, and error server in log in Lesson Writer. Keywords: Lesson Writer, Teaching Materials, Vocational School 13 Copyright © 2019 The Author IDEAS is licensed under CC-BY-SA 4.0 License Issued by English study program of IAIN Palopo IDEAS Journal of Language Teaching and Learning, Linguistics and Literature ISSN 2338-4778 (Print) ISSN 2548-4192 (Online) Volume 7, Number 2, December 2019 pp. 13 – 20 http://u.lipi.go.id/1457703302 Lystiana Nurhayat Hakim & Setyo Wati The Use of Lesson Writer in Developing English Teaching Materials for Vocational School Students Introduction Mostly vocational school students have a great intention to have job immediately after finishing their study. Therefore, they need skills that match with the industrial needs and English skill that match with their field. For example, the competency of TKJ school students is not only on the aspect of computing and networking but also the competency to communicate all aspects related to computing and networking in English. However, in Curriculum 2013 there is no difference in teaching materials between senior high school and vocational high school. Those materials focus on general English. Nurhamsih & Syahrial (2019, p.42) concluded that the percentage result of textbook evaluation checklist on language content is categorized poor. It means the language contents in the textbook evaluated are not appropriate for Vocational High School. She also said that the topics and the materials introduced in the textbook are inappropriate for Vocational High School. In addition, Ronaldo (2016, p. 178) said that teaching material was not suitable with the principles of developing teaching material in English for specific purposes. The teaching material was too general and did not close to the students’ field study. Related to those problems, it is needed to help the teacher to develop English materials that meet the industrial needs or students’ field study. Ayu & Indrawati (2018, p. 21) said that the use of English textbook has a noteworthy eminence for both teachers and learners. It does not only become a guide to the teachers when delivering the materials, but also presents necessary input through various explanations and activities. Tomlinson (2003, p.306) concludes that English for Specific Purposes is an umbrella for teaching English to students who are learning the language for a particular work. ESP has function to help language learners cope to develop the competencies needed to functioning a discipline, profession, or workplace. It is focuses on when, where and why learners need the language either in study or workplace contexts (Basturkmen, 2010, p.8). In this study, English materials are developed based on English for Specific Purposes (ESP) focusing on computing and networking field for tenth grade students. The materials will be developed by using technology. Dudeney and Hockly (2007, pp. 7-8) point out some reasons for using technology; the use of technology is a way to bring the outside world into the classroom, the Internet has provided us with authentic tasks and materials, as well as ready-made ELT materials, the Internet provides means for collaboration and communication between learners, technology provides new ways to practice language and evaluate language performance, and technology is becoming increasingly mobile. It can be used not only in the classroom, lecture hall, and computer room, but it can also be used at home, on the way to school and in Internet cafes. 14 IDEAS, Vol. 7, No. 2, December 2019 ISSN 2338-4778 (Print) ISSN 2548-4192 (Online) In this study the researchers used Lesson Writer as new technology in developing lesson. Lesson Writer is not popular yet for teachers. It can be caused some teachers still see technology as methodologies for teaching (Hakim, 2019, p 13). Although they have facilities to access and to browse it from their laptop, they prefer to use conventional teaching media for their class. Therefore introducing them with new technology is needed to facilitate them creating better lesson. Lesson Writer is a free website which help teacher to create a lesson, a lesson plan, and group discussion. The user just visits the website, signs up, and follows the instructions. Astika (2016, p. 338) proposed that by using Lesson Writer teachers can share their lessons and monitor what other teachers are teaching and instruction can be coordinated collaboratively. Furthermore, multimedia contents such as videos from YouTube or teacher- made video clips can easily be embedded in the lesson and these media can be replaced and updated anytime, students can take lessons online, communicate with teachers and collaborate with peers on tasks or projects, and exercises can be assessed by teachers online automatically. There are two research questions of this study. First, what are teachers’ perceptions toward the use of Lesson Writer in developing English teaching materials? And second, what are teachers’ difficulties in developing English teaching material by using Lesson Writer. Therefore, the aims of this study are to find out teachers’ perceptions and difficulties in using Lesson Writer to develop English teaching material. Method This study used a descriptive qualitative research. This research has been conducted at one of vocational high school in Ciamis. The sample of the study consisted of three English teachers. The data collection used in this research was questionnaires and interviews. The data collected from the respondents were gathered together to be analysed using qualitative analysis of interactive models. The questionnaires were used to collect evidence from teachers their perception towards the use of Lesson Writer in developing English materials and their difficulties in using Lesson Writer. The interview was used to collect data about their experience in using Lesson Writer in developing English materials. The result of interview was support the data of questionnaire. 15 Lystiana Nurhayat Hakim & Setyo Wati The Use of Lesson Writer in Developing English Teaching Materials for Vocational School Students Table 1. Teachers’ perception toward the use of Lesson Writer in developing English Teaching materials Items Strongl y Disagree (%) Disagre e (%) Agre e (%) Strongl y agree (%) I will use Lesson Writer to develop teaching materials because I am very interested. 82 18 It is very important to me to have develop teaching materials using Lesson Writer 5 75 20 Lesson Writer is valuable tool for teachers 83 17 Lesson Writer is not effective tools to develop teaching materials 40 38 12 I will feel comfortable using Lesson Writer as a tool in developing teaching materials 45 55 The use of Lesson Writer makes me stress out. 63 37 Lesson Writer is not easy to use 78 10 12 I want to pay more to get another function of Lesson Writer 38 62 Based on the Table 1 the researchers concluded that the teachers have positive perception toward the use of Lesson Writer in developing English teaching materials. 82% of teachers agree that they are very interested and they will use Lesson Writer to develop teaching materials. 75% of them also feel the important of developing English teaching materials using Lesson Writer. Lesson Writer is new and helpful for teachers; therefore 83% of they said that Lesson Writer is valuable tool for them and 78% agree that Lesson Writer is easy to use. They also feel comfortable in using it. Although they have positive 16 IDEAS, Vol. 7, No. 2, December 2019 ISSN 2338-4778 (Print) ISSN 2548-4192 (Online) perception toward the use of Lesson Writer, they do not spent much money to pay and to get another function of Lesson Wrier, such as export and import video and pictures, have class discussion, etc. Table 2. Teachers’ difficulties in Using Lesson Writer to Develop English Teaching Materials Teachers’ obstacles in using Lesson Writer Strong ly Disagree (%) Disagr ee (%) Agr ee (%) Stron gly agree (%) I have limited time to use Lesson Writer 45 20 35 I have limited knowledge and understanding on how to use Lesson Writer 40 60 I have limited teaching resources in developing teaching material using Lesson Writer 15 35 50 The Wi-Fi access is limited 50 40 10 I can upload videos and pictures in Lesson Writer 5 95 It is difficult to me to choose the task in Lesson Writer 44 56 I can’t log in to Lesson Writer 65 35 Table 2 shows that teachers faced several obstacles in using Lesson Writer, 55% of teachers are in agreement that they do not have much time to use Lesson Writer. They also have limited knowledge and understanding on how to use Lesson Writer. Therefore, they need extra time to practice or to have workshop about Lesson Writer Implementation. The third obstacle is limited teaching resources, in developing vocational school teaching material teacher need supplementary book in the field of study. Teachers only have general English books, so in using Lesson Writer teachers must browse the material first in the internet. The forth obstacle is internet access, although there is free Wi-Fi access at school, the teachers are difficult to get connection. Sometimes the connection is low and need to disconnect first. Furthermore, the teachers could not upload pictures and videos form internet to Lesson Writer. The teachers need to upgrade to the premium account and pay the fee monthly. In creating a lesson, the teachers are confused to decide appropriate task for their students. They are also difficult to choose the task and activity provided by Lesson Writer. Besides, there is a teacher who could not log in into Lesson 17 Lystiana Nurhayat Hakim & Setyo Wati The Use of Lesson Writer in Developing English Teaching Materials for Vocational School Students Writer, and she had to create new account again. The second instrument used by the researchers in this study is interview. The purpose of interviewed was to investigate teachers experience in using Lesson Writer in developing English materials. The result of interview showed that the majority of teachers are interested in using Lesson Writer; they thought that Lesson Writer is easy to use, simple, and efficient. They also pointed out that Lesson Writer is beneficial website for them to conduct blended learning in their class. Unfortunately, they think twice to get premium account of Lesson Writer, because they have no extra budget to pay monthly payment. To solve this problem, they will ask the school principal to support them in using premium account of Lesson Writer. Furthermore, they tend to use Lesson Writer to conduct online learning rather than creating a lesson. According to interview data, in creating a lesson the teachers faced difficulties to add vocabulary, to create speaking, listening, and writing task, and to modify the task provided by Lesson Writer. They also explain that Lesson Writer have a big role in creating a lesson. They just insert text and in minutes the lesson could be downloaded. Unfortunately, sometimes the purpose of teaching and the teaching materials is different. For example, the purpose of teaching is students will be able to write narrative text. But the tasks and the material of teaching do not support the students to write narrative text. Majority of the teachers also said that Lesson Writer is more suitable for reading material development rather than speaking, listening, or writing material development. The words list and phonetic transcriptions are irrelevance with the topic of learning. In addition, for the tenth grade Indonesian students the activities are too difficult, they thought that the activities are appropriate to non EFL students. Results The results of this study are the teachers have positive perception toward the use of Lesson Writer in developing English teaching materials and the teachers faced several difficulties in using Lesson Writer to develop English teaching materials. This is closely mirror with some previous study Astika (2016, p. 346) who said that the availability and accessibility of Lesson Writer have made it possible for language teachers to develop learning materials in a way that is different from more conventional teaching. Related to the obstacles faced by the teacher, this study is similar with the research finding of Sari, et. al (2017, 142) that teachers faced some problems such as: lack of technical support, lack of time in school, limited knowledge and understanding on how to use technology, and lack supplementary teaching 18 IDEAS, Vol. 7, No. 2, December 2019 ISSN 2338-4778 (Print) ISSN 2548-4192 (Online) materials for ESP teaching and learning in school. From this study the researchers also found that advantages of Lesson Writer in developing English teaching materials; 1) teachers can share, print, and download their lesson, 2) multimedia contents such as videos from YouTube or teacher-made video clips can easily be embedded in the lesson and these media can be replaced and updated anytime if the teacher upgrade into premium account, 3) students can take lessons online, communicate with teachers and collaborate with peers on tasks or projects, 4) it has the facility to create differentiated instructions appropriate to different levels of students’ language ability, and 5) it is efficient in time consuming. Besides, there are several weaknesses of Lesson Writer found by the researchers such as; 1) it could not develop speaking, listening, and writing lesson, 2) the users could not modified the task based on students’ need, 3) the tasks is not match with the principle of Indonesia 2013 Curriculum, 4) it is difficult to create the task from the easiest to difficult, and 5) the tasks produced was same with nothing to break the monotony. Conclusion According to the data of questionnaire and interview it can be concluded that the teachers have positive perception toward the use of Lesson Writer in developing English teaching materials and the difficulties face by the teachers are readiness of technology, limited teaching resources to be uploaded in Lesson Writer, and error server in log in Lesson Writer. Lesson Writer is just a technology or a tool to develop English teaching materials. The role of teacher in developing materials is very important. The teachers should analyse their students’ need and interest, design the lesson, validate the lesson, try it out, and revise the lesson. In short, teachers need to bear in mind that technology has strengthens and weaknesses, therefore, the teachers has responsibility to make it useful in teaching and learning activities. References Astika, G. (2016). Website Goes Into Classroom : Materials Development Using an Authoring Tool ‘ Lesson Writer .’ 336–347. Ayu, M., & Indrawati, R. (2018). EFL Textbook Evaluation : The Analysis of Tasks Presented in English Textbook. Teknosastik, 16(1), 21–25. Basturkemen, Helen. (2010). Developing Courses in English for Specific 19 Lystiana Nurhayat Hakim & Setyo Wati The Use of Lesson Writer in Developing English Teaching Materials for Vocational School Students Purposes. London: Palgrave Macmillan Dudeney, G., and Hockly, N. (2007). How to teach English with technology. Harlow, UK: Pearson Education. Hakim, L.N. (2019). The Implementation of YouTube In Teaching Vocabulary For Young Learners. JOURNAL OF ADVANCED ENGLISH STUDIES, Vol. 2, No.1, February 2019, Page 13-18 Ronaldo, O. (2016). Teaching Material for English Subject in Vocational School. International Seminar on English Language and Teaching (ISELT), 4, 170– 179. Tomlinson, B. (ed.) 2003. Developing Materials for Language Teaching. London: Continuum Press Sari, S. N. W., & Wardani, N. A. K. (2018). An Analysis of Indonesia’s 2013 EFL Curriculum and Turkey’s National English Language Curriculum for Secondary Schools. IJELTAL (Indonesian Journal of English Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics), 3(1), 23. https://doi.org/10.21093/ijeltal.v3i1.113 20