An Analysis of Students’ Needs and Preferences to Develop English Textbook for the Seventh Graders

This paper is compiled to address the students’ needs regarding topics and material preferences in learning English also their present difficulties. The incompatibility of the current textbook is indicated by the students’ scores on multiple academic assessments. One of the main factors is that most students did not learn English in Elementary School; hence they only know a few isolated English words. As a result, they struggle to comprehend the full English content. This descriptive-quantitative research extracted the students’ bilingual status, opinions, purposes, and topic preferences from 55 students to develop a more compatible English textbook. As a result, the questionnaire and the interview show that the students want elementary-level material, accessible pronunciation examples, involvement of Bahasa Indonesia, and topics based on local content.


Background
In the era of technology, where everyone is connected and access to information is no longer limited, the role of English as an International language has become even more essential (Abdalgane, 2020). English serves in multiple sectors and opens wider opportunities for those who master it. Therefore, multiple countries found it useful and made English a compulsory subject to be taught in their formal schools (Crystal, 2013). Indonesia is not an exception. However, despite the importance of the language in the globalization era, English has been removed as the primary/compulsory subject in Indonesian elementary schools since the academic year 2013/2014 and will be taught later on at the next educational level; Junior High School (with reduced teaching and learning hours). This curriculum potentially prevents the exposure of English to students at an earlier age. This should be a concern since the "critical period" for language acquisition is below 17,4 years old. After that, the language absorption is gradually reduced (Hartshorne et al., 2018). That means the sooner, the better to learn English and any delay is a waste of golden moments. Hence according to Purnama (2013), it is not a proper decision to remove the subject in Elementary schools.
The policy is not seen as a problem in metropolitan areas such as capital cities since they are supported by abundant language learning facilities and full internet connections. The students there relatively have more learning options, but that privilege does not belong to the students in the countryside. In the Barito Selatan regency, especially in Tabak Kanilan and its surrounding villages, the elementary students here only studied in formal schools, which most did not teach English. As a result, the students are unprepared for ELT in Junior High School. In SMPN 1 Gunung Bintang Awai, in particular, repeated observations and examinations show that the students have a very low English capability and hardly improve. This problem is confirmed by the average score of the recent English standardized test (Ujian Akhir Sekolah 2022) of the IX graders that only reached 27,2, with the highest score reaching 42, which is far below the minimum expected score of 60. Some could finish the test in under 4 minutes, indicating that they answered the test carelessly without any comprehension. They had been studying English for three years with the current Indonesian government standard "When English Rings a Bell" and "Think Globally Act Locally" English textbooks 2017 revised edition published by the Ministry of Education. When the ninth graders underperformed, the seventh graders that mostly never encountered English at the previous educational level were even worse. Based on routine observation, they only know a few isolated words; most are slang/rude vocabulary and cannot construct simple-common sentences.
Certainly, multiple internal and external factors affect the students' academic achievement, such as their motivations, emotions, learning strategies, COVID-19 pandemic, and parenting style (Brown & Iyengar, 2014;Mega et al., 2014;Sass & Goldring, 2021). Aside from those aspects, learning resources, textbook quality, and compatibility are among the most influential factors (Sievert et al., 2021;van den Ham & Heinze, 2018). The current literature used in SMPN 1 Gunung Bintang Awai is presented fully in English and uses a communicative approach which is excellent for learners that acquired at least basic/elementary English proficiency equivalent to A1-A2 CEFR levels. Conversely, teaching students who do not even recognize common vocabularies is ineffective. Due to these reasons, the research focuses on the backgrounds, opinions, preferences, and needs of the seventh graders to set a foundation for a new textbook. It is essential to address the lowest level in the school, so vocabulary and the 4 English skills basics could be established to cope with the lost time in language acquisition. Thus, they will be ready for the next level lessons and the following final English test.

Material Development
The term material refers to anything utilized by teachers or students to aid in the acquisition of a language. Videos, DVDs, emails, YouTube, dictionaries, grammar books, readers, workbooks, or photocopied exercises are all examples of materials. They might also be newspapers, food packages, images, live presentations by invited native speakers, instructor instructions, assignments written on cards, or conversations among students. In other words, they might be anything that is used to intentionally expand the learners' knowledge and/or experience with the language (Tomlinson, 2011). Graves (1996) defined need analysis or so-called need assessment as discovering what the learners know and capable to do, as well as what they need to learn or do, so the material being developed could minimize or, if possible, completely fill the gap. Hence, need analysis includes gathering and analyzing information about students' needs for the course to address them successfully.

Research Design
This research uses simple random sampling in selecting the respondents despite the relatively small population size. There are in total 55 members of seventhgraders in the academic year 2021-2022, which is composed of 21 female and 34 male students. Simple random sampling is selected to avoid selection bias and thus could be used for generalization (Cohen et al., 2018). With a margin of error of 1%, 51 out of the population are selected randomly using SPSS. The questionnaire was used to extract the data. It consists of 24 questions with four major parts (Part A-B-C-D). Part A is seven questions about students' identity and linguistic status, followed by part B, another seven questions about students' experience with English. Part C contains six questions about students' opinions/perspectives, and finally, part D consists of 4 questions about students' subject/topic preferences. The data obtained from the questionnaire was analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively. Part A, B, and several subparts C are simple data classification and are assessed by percentage. On the other hand, parts C and D are 4 points Likert scale; hence the data analysis and interpretation are referred to the description adopted from Sugiyono (2022) below: Very Z Z N Not Z Score: 4 Score: 3 Score: 2 Score: 1 Z = Agree / Like / Difficult / Important N = Neutral Total maximum score possible: (51 X 4) = 204 Average percentage = total score / 204 X 100

Linguistics Background
Almost all students are identified as bilingual, and some are multilingual students with Dayak Ma'anyan as the dominant primary language, followed by Bahasa Indonesia. On the other hand, Bahasa Banjar is also spoken within the population to some extent. 66% speak the Ma'anyan language in their home, but Bahasa Indonesia comes out to be the language of choice in friend-to-friend conversation in the school.

English Exposure
It is revealed that 53% or more than a half of seventh-graders never learn English in Elementary school. Another 47% learned mostly only reading and writing English but lacked Listening moreover Speaking. It is predictable because English teachers consider speaking skills the most challenging skill to be taught, and they have become accustomed to the paper and pencil test method (Zaim et al., 2020). However, thanks to globalization and the internet's increasing access, 67% of them have been exposed to English through social media, film, online games, and television. Despite that, there are still 17 individuals that are completely new to English; they have never learned, read, watched, or listened to. It is a considerably concerning number which deserves more attention in the class.
Furthermore, 92% of the students never take courses, training, seminars, or other non-formal institutions to learn English because those facilities are entirely unavailable in the Gunung Bintang Awai district. Elementary school is the only learning facility they have got. In addition, 59% never learn English alone at home, even though more than half have access to the internet.

Students' opinion
Even though the English exposure is very low, with the score reaching 180, the students perceive the language as a very important subject. They are equally interested in all four skills and the reading skill, with the score reaching 164, becomes the most preferred skill. The traditional read-answer questions teaching style might influence this point of view.
When it comes to the difficulty level, the students consider vocabulary the most challenging to master, followed by grammar as the second most difficult. Considering that most start from zero, they encounter vocabulary enrichment more often as the foundation and the first step to mastering the language. It is confirmed by the end-of-semester test based on their vocabulary memorizing activity and two full semesters of learning, which only reached an average score of 55 after two semesters of learning English, below the standard score of 60. It means they are indeed struggling to remember vocabulary.
Underlining their driving force to learn English, being able to answer questions in school turns out as the primary purpose. It outmatched the ability to actively speak the language, becoming the second most important purpose. It indicates that practical school task-solver capacity is more popular among students. So as long as they can correctly answer and finish the given task/exam/test, it is enough for them. Based on table 2 and figure 2 above, the English textbook "When English rings a bell" 2017 revised version for class VII was considered difficult by the students. There are four dominant reasons behind the opinion. The most prominent is the absence of how to read the English words and sentences in the book. They lack knowledge of how English sounds and hence completely have no idea how to read or are heavily interfered with by their mother tongue's phonological traits. Secondly, they are neither accustomed to nor interested in the topics or the material presented in the book. Furthermore, the third reason, they are unable to learn English with the book by themselves without teacher assistance. Learners that cannot read and have very low proficiency will never be able to study independently with it.

Perception of the current English textbook
Besides, the fact that the book is 100% English with too difficult vocabulary is also a burden for them. This type of student, living in an area that does not provide additional learning facilities, should not be fed up with the book that even the instruction part is in compound and complex English sentences. Confusion becomes a frustration that leads them to boredom due to persistent failure to comprehend the material (Graesser & D'Mello, 2012  Teacher-centred method or "Sage on the Stage" is still the style of choice for students in SMPN 1 Gunung Bintang Awai. The teacher is the expert in imparting knowledge to the students via lectures or direct instruction. It has become their comfort zone because the teacher-centred learning method is still widely ongoing in Indonesia (Faridi et al., 2016). On the bright side, they like the group work slightly better. This learner-centred method has been introduced to them since the first semester and positively accepted. Both methods almost equally become the student's favourite.

Opinion on Teaching and Learning activity
The third most liked is English-Indonesia bilingual teaching technique. As expected, almost all students prefer the mixture language, and more than half avoid a full English session. Besides, the code-switching teaching strategy is beneficial for low English learners (Herawati & Fitriani, 2021). Additionally, the data also shows that Bahasa Indonesia is far more preferable to be used in teaching and learning activities than the Ma'anyan language (with the score only 117) even though most speak Ma'anyan at home.
Finally, the student also loves task-based activities such as homework and answering questions/quizzes. It might correlate to previously applied offline longdistance learning, which was dominated by answering questions activity in SMPN 1 Gunung Bintang Awai during the pandemic era. This preference suits well because the task-based learning technique receives positive perceptions from teachers and promotes better learning opportunities (Hima et al., 2021).

Topics and Materials Preference
With the score reaching 148, the students strongly prefer local topics and materials that are familiar to them. It is related to the previously revealed reason why they consider the current textbook difficult; the topic and material are unfamiliar to them. To mention the "When English Rings a Bell" textbook is already based on general Indonesian topics (Fuad, 2020), it means the student requested even more localized content encountered by the learners in everyday life and based on their very own culture in Gunung Bintang Awai regency.
As for the favourite themes, technology comes as the most desired topic, followed by adventure, sports, art/culture, environment, games, and daily activity. The students are generation z, surrounded by gadgets and advanced technology; hence it is not surprising that they love to see it in their textbooks.

Discussion
This study provides an insight into the background, English exposure, current language ability, opinions, and preferences of the seventh graders in SMPN 1 Gunung Bintang Awai, the academic year 2021-2022. It has been indicated that the majority did not learn English in Elementary school, possess a very limited proficiency, and currently struggling to learn with the current full English textbook. Moreover, almost all do not have access to alternative language learning facilities and are poorly exposed to the language.
Specific to the language usage in the textbook, the students are in line with their opinion on the teaching and learning activity; They highly prefer the mixture of English and Bahasa Indonesia in the textbook and do not want the involvement of the Ma'anyan language. The result also showed that full English content is the least preferred with the lowest average score. Considering that one of the reasons that cause the difficulty in the current textbook is their incapability to study with it independently, they want the involvement of Bahasa Indonesia so they can understand the instruction and work without teacher assistance at home.
Task, test, and evaluation in every textbook are essential to check the students' achievement and understanding after finishing a chapter. Moreover, in the task-based approach, they are the main component of the book. The data indicates that the learner favoured multiple-choice over anything else. Answering questions is the second most desired, followed by fill-in-gap and sentence completion. Writing text and translation are also popular in the fourth and fifth place. Besides those, the students like picture identification and picture-word matching too. Other tasks are not preferable, with an average percentage lower than 60%.

Conclusion
Wrapping up their preferences, the students expected a task-based textbook that provides basic English material with highly localized content. It should be presented in both Bahasa Indonesia and English. Then all four skills should be equally taught because they think all are important to be learned. Furthermore, the learners also request guidance or an example of how to read and pronounce English words/sentences correctly. Previously, it was expected that the students would welcome their local language, Ma'anyan, to be included in the textbook and learning activity, but the fact shows that they prefer Bahasa Indonesia instead. In the end, whatever the result is, it will be the foundation for developing a new textbook specialized for the seventh graders of SMPN 1 Gunung Bintang Awai, whose language capabilities are at the elementary level.