DEVELOPING DIGITAL SPEAKING MATERIALTHROUGH FLIP PDF PROFESSIONAL SOFTWARE FOR TOURISM DEPARTMENT STUDENTS OF A VOCATIONAL HIGH SCHOOL IN MEDAN

This research aims to address three core questions: (1) to describe the existing speaking materials used currently by tourism department students of a vocational high school in Medan. (2) to investigate speaking materials which meet to tourism department students of a vocational high school in Medan. (3) to develop digital speaking materials through Flip PDF Professional Software for tourism department students of a vocational high school in Medan. The study employed a Research and Development (R&D) model as proposed by Borg and Gall (2003). Data were collected from 31 respondents, including 28 eleventh-grade students from SMKN 1 Medan as participant, 1 English teacher, and 2 lecturers as validators. Data collection methods included document evaluation and questionnaires, with qualitative analysis used for data analysis. The research followed a series of steps: evaluation, material development, material validation, material revision and final product. Findings revealed that the existing speaking materials are not tailored to the specific needs of tourism students, focusing instead on general English, which lacks relevance in terms of content, topics, and linguistic features. This misalignment results in low student motivation and difficulties in mastering the material. The research identified the need for speaking materials relevant to real world tourism scenarios, such as guiding tours, greeting tourists, providing information, and making hotel reservations. Additionally, integrating technology in the learning materials was found to enhance engagement and speaking skills. The developed digital speaking materials using Flip PDF Professional Software, incorporating communicative activities structured around a task framework: pre task, task cycle, and language focus. Expert validation scored the developed materials at 97.5%, categorizing them as excellent and suitable for used by eleventh-grade tourism students at SMKN 1 Medan.