https://jurnal.unigal.ac.id/index.php/jall/index JALL (Journal of Applied Linguistics and Literacy), ISSN 2598-8530, September, Vol. 6 No. 2, 2022 JALL (Journal of Applied Linguistics and Literacy), ISSN 2598-8530, September, Vol. 6 No. 2, 2022 262 Received: Accepted: Published: August 04 th 2022 August 28 th 2022 September 14 th 2022 THE EFFECTIVENESS OF LITERACY TEACHING MATERIALS BASED ON LOCAL WISDOM IN IMPROVING LITERACY SKILLS FOR ELEMENTARY SCHOOL STUDENTS Ifah Hanifah* IfahHanifah_7317167638@mhs.unj.ac.id Doctoral Program in Applied Linguistics, Jakarta State University Muchlas Suseno muchlas-suseno@unj.ac.id Doctoral Program in Applied Linguistics, Jakarta State University Miftahulkhairah Anwar miftahulkhairah@unj.ac.id Doctoral Program in Applied Linguistics, Jakarta State University ABSTRACT This study aims to examine local wisdom-based literacy teaching materials for elementary school students. This study uses a quasi-experimental method using a pre- experimental design with one control group pretest-posttest design. The object of this research is elementary school students in grade 5 at SDN 1 Ciloa Kuningan Regency using a research instrument as a test. The experiment was carried out for three days by conducting a pretest, treatment, and post-test. Based on the results of data analysis, it was found that literacy teaching materials based on local wisdom effectively improved the literacy skills of 5th graders at SDN 1 Ciloa. This is evident from the differences in students' literacy skills before and after being given literacy teaching materials based on local wisdom. In the Paired Samples Statistics table, the score of sig. (2-tailed) is 0.001 < 0.05, then H0 is rejected, and Ha is accepted. So that it can be concluded that there is an average difference between the pretest and post-test learning outcomes. Keywords: teaching materials, literacy, local wisdom, elementary school INTRODUCTION Historically in English, the word literacy is synonymous with "literature," which means "literature." Then, more generally, this word means 'highly educated or educated. It was only in the late 19th century that this word came to mean "the ability to read and write" but retained its original meaning of 'knowledgeable or educated in a particular field (Gaj & Machtinger, 2006). The definition of literacy by UNESCO in 1957 stated: "A person who is said to be literate is those who can understand through reading and writing about their daily lives. Of course, this is a straightforward expression. Then, in https://jurnal.unigal.ac.id/index.php/jall/index mailto:IfahHanifah_7317167638@mhs.unj.ac.id JALL (Journal of Applied Linguistics and Literacy), ISSN 2598-8530, September, Vol. 6 No. 2, 2022 263 1966, UNESCO made a functional definition of this literacy that is "A person is functionally literate if they engage in all activities where literacy is necessary for the effective functioning of their group and community and also to enable him to continue to use the skills of reading, writing, and writing. And counts for itself and community development" (Copeland, 2011). The definition of literacy continues to grow, but in general, literacy is interpreted as a person's ability to read and write. Every individual owns this literacy ability. That is why literacy skills must be instilled from early childhood. The low level of community literacy will undoubtedly have a massive impact on their lives. As stated by Aisyah et al. that low literacy results in shared understanding. On the other hand, high literacy skills cause a person's understanding ability to be high (Aisyah & et al., 2017). Furthermore, in the world of education, of course, this low literacy will affect the success of the level of education itself. Indonesia, as a country that is trying to improve the standard of living of its people, participates in developing this literacy program. However, the results cannot be said to be encouraging. In 2011, UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization) released the results of its survey, which showed that the reading index of the Indonesian people was only 0.001 percent, or only one person out of 1000 residents who wanted to read books seriously. The low interest in reading can also be seen in the lack of new books published in Indonesia. This country only publishes about 24 thousand book titles annually, with an average print of 3,000 copies per title (Nurchaili, 2016). The 2008/2009 Human Development Report published by UNDP (United Nations Development Program) shows that the Indonesian people's interest in reading is ranked 96th out of countries worldwide, in line with Bahrain, Malta, and Suriname. For the Southeast Asian region, Indonesia's position is also at the bottom, only better than Cambodia and Laos (Nurchaili, 2016). Meanwhile, Permatasari wrote in its proceedings that, in 2015, Indonesia's literacy rate was only ranked 64 out of 65 countries surveyed, and its students' reading ratings were only ranked 57 out of 65 countries surveyed (Permatasari, 2015). Therefore, Indonesia is also promoting a literacy program known as the National Literacy Program. Moreover, for the school level, there is the School Literacy Program. However, several problems are faced in the literacy movement, especially in elementary JALL (Journal of Applied Linguistics and Literacy), ISSN 2598-8530, September, Vol. 6 No. 2, 2022 264 schools. Some of the problems faced are as follows. The first problem is the low literacy ability of elementary school students, especially language literacy. Second, the difficulties faced by elementary school students in improving their language literacy skills are the inappropriate literacy practices carried out by teachers, the lack of available literacy environments, and different levels of parental literacy, it has an impact on the lack of information literacy that students get from home (Kharizmi, 2003). 2015). In connection with the lack of available literacy environment, the thing that will be the focus of attention in this study is the lack of literacy teaching materials available in elementary schools, especially in Kuningan Regency. Therefore, the researchers conducted preliminary interviews with teachers at several elementary schools in Kuningan Regency. The results of these interviews are as follows. 1) Students' literacy ability is still low. 2) Obstacles in implementing literacy due to the lack of appropriate teaching materials, and there are still teachers who do not understand this literacy. 3) The existing teaching materials are only in the form of reading books which sometimes the context is not suitable for students and learning 4) There are still many students who use Sundanese as their mother tongue, so it hinders the process of learning to read, especially reading comprehension. From the preliminary interview results, the researcher can conclude that the problem in implementing the literacy movement, especially in elementary schools in Kuningan Regency, is the low literacy ability of students. This is caused by the lack of teaching materials that suit the needs of students who are still attached to their mother tongue. Teaching materials are everything that teachers and students can use in facilitating the learning process. It can be in the form of verbal text and audio, visual, or kinetic material. The presentation can be in print, audio, video, CD, internet, or live display (Richard, 2010). Meanwhile, Tomlinson argues that teaching materials are anything that can be used to facilitate language learning activities. Teaching materials can be visual, auditive, or kinesthetic (Tomlinson, 2011). Thus, teaching materials are all things that teachers use to facilitate learning. It is intended that the learning objectives can be adequately achieved. Furthermore, the reason for choosing the theme of local wisdom is that this theme is close to students' lives. According to Tomlinson, one of the principles of developing teaching materials is making students feel easy to learn the language. The JALL (Journal of Applied Linguistics and Literacy), ISSN 2598-8530, September, Vol. 6 No. 2, 2022 265 trick is presenting material close to them (Tomlinson, 2011). This is in line with what Gumono said: in practice, the use of reading teaching materials based on local conditions has implications for learning. The implication of learning is following the stage of the strategy. At the stage of presenting knowledge, the emphasis is on extracting schemata and predicting reading content through pictures and reading topics. That way, they will quickly understand information because the content they read is already available in their schemata (Gumono, 2013). Based on these problems, the researchers will try out a teaching material that has been prepared previously. This teaching material is literacy based on local wisdom, prepared for 5th-grade elementary school students. In addition, these teaching materials are prepared based on the needs analysis that has been done previously. It contains 5 themes originating from the scores of local wisdom in Kuningan Regency. The concept developed is balanced literacy which includes reading, writing, and learning vocabulary. To see the differences in this study, the researchers examine several relevant studies, namely as follows. First, the research entitled Literacy Material for Language Development: A Case Study (Anigbogu, 2012). Second, Gumono's research entitled Utilization of Local- Based Reading Teaching Materials to Improve Reading Skills of Grade IV Elementary School Students in Bengkulu Province (Gumono, 2013). Third, the research entitled Involving Local Wisdom as Scores to Develop English for Tourism Course Material: A Case of Baduy Tribe in Lebak Banten (Hamer et al., 2017). Fourth, research with the title Authentic ELT Materials In Language Classroom (Ahmed, 2017). Fifth, research entitled The Effect of Explicit Instruction on Strategic Reading in a Literacy Methods Course (Iwai, 2016). The six studies are entitled Think Globally, Act Locally: The Strategy of Incorporating Local Wisdom in Foreign Language Teaching in Indonesia (Muharom Albantani & Madkur, 2018). Finally, the research entitled Local Wisdom- Based Character Education Model in Elementary School in Bantul Yogyakarta, Indonesia (Sugiyo & L. Andriani Purwastuti, 2017) Those studies discuss culture-based teaching materials, literacy, and language learning. However, none of these studies have specifically examined literacy teaching materials that use local culture or wisdom as the basis. Therefore, state of the art in this study is to test teaching materials based on local wisdom to improve the literacy skills of elementary school students. JALL (Journal of Applied Linguistics and Literacy), ISSN 2598-8530, September, Vol. 6 No. 2, 2022 266 METHOD The research method used is a pre-experimental pre-test and post-test design model. Researchers saw differences in learning outcomes before and after using the teaching materials. Therefore, the research instrument used is a test. Before the effectiveness test was conducted, the researchers carried out several stages of statistical tests, namely validity tests, reliability tests, and normality tests. The population and sample of this study were grade 5 elementari students, with a total data of 15 students. FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION The teaching materials developed are student handbooks in literacy activities in elementary school for high level (grades 4-6) which in this context are devoted to grade 5. The effectiveness test is carried out to determine the difference in average scores before and after using teaching materials. In conducting the effectiveness test, there are several things to do, namely validity test, reliability test, normality test, and t test. Validity Test This test is conducted to determine whether the test instrument used is valid or not. The test was conducted using IBM SPSS Statistics 25 software with product moment validity test. The basis for decision making as a reference or guide for making The results of the data test show the following outputs: Table 1: Validity Data Test Output JALL (Journal of Applied Linguistics and Literacy), ISSN 2598-8530, September, Vol. 6 No. 2, 2022 267 The score of sig (2-tailed) can be seen in the rightmost column, namely the total column. Based on the output and the basis of decision making, the following data are obtained: Table 2: Validity of Test No Score of Sig. (2- tailed) Score of Pearson Correlation Conclusion 1 0,004 0,551 Valid 2 0,009 0,513 Valid 3 0,003 0,571 Valid 4 0,005 0,542 Valid 5 0,002 0,600 Valid 6 0,001 0,637 Valid 7 0,010 0,506 Valid 8 0,002 0,595 Valid 9 0,003 0,564 Valid 10 0,002 0,595 Valid Based on the data in the table above, after testing with the product moment validity test using IBM Statistics 25 software, it can be concluded that there are 10 items that are valid and meet the indicators studied. Reliability Test Meanwhile, the results of the reliability test of literacy questions based on local wisdom show that the instrument has a decent level of reliability. Here are the results. JALL (Journal of Applied Linguistics and Literacy), ISSN 2598-8530, September, Vol. 6 No. 2, 2022 268 Based on the table data above, it provides information about the number of samples or respondents (N) analyzed in the SPSS program, namely N as many as 25 students. The results of the case processing summary reliability test stated that the respondent's answers were all filled, meaning that the valid number was 100%. Based on the results of the data table above, there are 10 items of N of items with a Cronbach's Alpha score of 0.766 > 0.60, so as the basis for decision making in the reliability test above, it can be concluded that all question items are reliable or constant. Based on the results of the data table above, the Cronbach's Alpha score for the 10 question items is > 0.60, it can be concluded that the 10 question items are reliable. Normality Test The basis for decision making in the Normality Test: a. If the significance score (Sig.) is greater than 0.05, the research data is normally distributed. b. On the other hand, if the significance score (Sig.) is less than 0.05, the research data is not normally distributed. JALL (Journal of Applied Linguistics and Literacy), ISSN 2598-8530, September, Vol. 6 No. 2, 2022 269 Based on the results of the data table above, it is known that the significance score of Asiymp.Sig (2-tailed) is 0.9772 > 0.05. So it can be concluded that the data is normally distributed. Thus, the assumptions or requirements for normality in the regression model have been met. Effectiveness Test (t-test) To find out whether there is a difference between student test results before and after the implementation of literacy teaching materials, a paired sample t-test was conducted on the data found. This test is carried out by formulating hypotheses: H0 = The average score of student learning outcomes after using teaching materials is the same with the average score of student learning outcomes before using teaching materials H1 = The average score of student learning outcomes after using teaching materials is different from the average score of student learning outcomes before using teaching materials The basis for making decisions on the paired sample t-test with SPSS can be viewed from: a. If the score of sig. (2-tailed) < 0.05, then H0 is rejected b. If the score of sig. (2-tailed) > 0.05, then H0 is accepted The following is the data of the students' pretest and posttest results before and after using literacy teaching materials: Table 3: Pretest and posttest results Sample Pretest Postest Sample 1 3 10 JALL (Journal of Applied Linguistics and Literacy), ISSN 2598-8530, September, Vol. 6 No. 2, 2022 270 Sample 2 5 9 Sample 3 9 10 Sample 4 7 8 Sample 5 6 7 Sample 6 7 7 Sample 7 7 9 Sample 8 5 8 Sample 9 6 7 Sample 10 5 4 Sample 12 7 10 Sample 13 2 9 Sample 14 7 10 Sample 15 9 10 Sample 16 3 6 By using IBM SPSS Statistics 25, and analyzed by using paired sample t- test, the following output is obtained: Based on the results of the data above, it is known that the score of sig. (2- tailed) is 0.001 < 0.05, then H0 is rejected and Ha is accepted. So that it can be concluded that there is an average difference between the results of the pretest and the results of the posttest. Discussion Literacy is an ability that is identical to reading and writing. These two abilities are related to each other. That is, a person's writing ability will be influenced by his reading ability. This is in line with what Najmi said: a significant relationship exists between students' reading and writing ability (Najmi et al., 2018). This is very logical because the ability to read will enrich the knowledge stored in the student's brain. That way, it will be easier for him to express ideas in written form. JALL (Journal of Applied Linguistics and Literacy), ISSN 2598-8530, September, Vol. 6 No. 2, 2022 271 For this reason, achieving reading and writing skills that are adequate in understanding vocabulary is very necessary. This is because both when reading and writing, students must understand every vocabulary that is absorbed or produced. Zhang stated that mastery of students' second language vocabulary greatly influences students' reading comprehension ability (Zhang & Zhang, 2022). Teaching materials, as one of the supporting factors, have a critical role. This is in line with what was conveyed by Magdalena that teaching materials are essential in the learning process in elementary schools (Magdalena et al., 2021). Hamid also conveyed that the role of teaching materials is significant in the learning process, both for lecturers/teachers and students/students (Hamid et al., 2019). This is because, with these teaching materials, teachers and students will be guided in carrying out the learning process so that the implementation will be more focused on achieving the desired goals. Therefore, teaching materials should be arranged to make it easier for students. Ease of students in understanding the material presented in teaching materials, one of which can be reached by presenting materials and reading sources that are close to students' lives. This is in line with what Tomlinson equated with that one of the principles in the development of teaching materials is how to make students feel more accessible, and one way is to present things that are in students' lives (Tomlinson, 2011). Therefore, the theme of local wisdom is very suitable and appropriate to use. Moreover, if the language used by students uses more mother tongue, they will be able to absorb the material better when given something he knows. CONCLUSIONS The results of the trial state that literacy teaching materials based on local wisdom effectively improve students' literacy skills. This is because literacy teaching materials based on local wisdom contain material close to students' worlds. This makes it easier for students to understand the given text. The literacy ability of students is an important thing that must be improved. Therefore, literacy learning must pay attention to the material or materials taught to make it easier for students. 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