DEVELOPING ENGLISH READING MATERIALS FOR STUDENTS OF SDS IKAL MEDAN

This study deals with the development of English reading materials (ERM) for elementary school students of Sekolah Dasar Swasta (SDS: Private Elementary School) IKAL Medan through Accelerated Learning Approach (ALA) principles. The objective of this study is to develop ERM relevant to the needs of SDS IKAL Medan students especially Grade IV students. This study was conducted by applying five phases of Educational Research and Development (R&D). They are assessing students needs, evaluating the existing ERM and syllabus, reviewing the theory or principle of effective ERM, that is ALA principles, developing the selected ERM by applying ALA principles, reviewing the product and validating the product to related experts and revised accordingly to get quality assurance. The data of this research are from existing documents analysis and teacher interview. The results of this study convey that the existing ERM are not relevant to the Grade IV students of SDS IKAL Medan needs. Therefore, new ERM were developed through ALA principles in order to meet the Grade IV students of SDS IKAL Medan needs. The new ERM developed from the existing English text book, Basic English: Primary 4 published by Yudhistira, 2010. The new ERM were validated by two experts. They agreed that the new ERM are relevant to the needs of Grade IV SDS IKAL Medan students. Conclusively, five new ERM developed are relevant to the needs of elementary school students especially Grade IV students of SDS IKAL Medan which were revised based on the expert suggestions. Therefore, it is suggested to the English teacher to provide ERM based on relate theory or principles of effective reading materials and relevant to the students needs.