DEVELOPING DIGITAL SPEAKING MATERIAL THROUGH 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.