Designing a Writing Coursebook for English Students at Institut Agama Islam Negeri Sultan Maulana Hasanuddin Banten

dr.h.gunawan suryoputro,m.hum, dr.tri wintolo apoko, m.pd.;

The research aims at producing a writing coursebook for English students
at Institut Agama Islam Negeri Sultan Maulana Hasanuddin Banten. The term
‘coursebook’ is used here to mean a textbook by which both teachers and students
can follow to study systematically as the basis for a language course. The
availibility of a writing coursebook in teaching writing or other skills in English is
so important to assist students become autonomous learners since the coursebook
allows for students to look ahead, refresh themselves with past lessons, or
improve their understanding.
In the process of the research the researcher employed the R & D design.
The purpose of R & D design is not to formulate or test theory but to develop
effective products for use in schools. To design a coursebook the researcher did
the following steps: studying research findings pertinent to the product to be
developed, developing the products based on these findings, field testing it in the
setting where it would be used eventually, and revising it to correct the
deficiencies found in the filed-testing stage.
Before designing the writing coursebook, the researcher did the need
analysis by giving the exercises to several students coming from class A to F
batch 2012/2013. This exercise helped the researcher conclude whether or not the
students need the writing coursebook. After analyzing students’ need, the
researcher designed the writing coursebook draft. The research participants of this
research took two classes A and B; each class consists of 35-40 students. Class A
acted as control class, and class B acted as the experiment class.
The instruments used in the research were interview and tests (pre and post
test). The interview was addressed to 10 English students, 3 writing teachers, the
chief of English Education Department, the Dean of Faculty of Education and
Teacher Training as well as 5 students research paper advisors. The purpose of the
interview is to know the need of the writing coursebook used in the teaching
process, whereas the test is given in both pre and post test. It is used to measure
the students’ understanding after they learn writing with and without a
coursebook.