Tujuan utama dari pembelajaran bahasa Inggris di SMP adalah mempersiapkan siswa untuk mahir berkomunikasi baik secara lisan ataupun tulisan.Siswa seharusnya menguasai empat kemampuan berbahasa, yaitu mendengarkan,berbicara, membaca dan menulis (Pusat Kurikulum, 2006). Proses belajar mengajar di SMPIT Ulul Albab Tarakan tergolong kurang memuaskan khususnya di kelas 8. Permasalahan utama adalah tidak ada materi ajar yang sesuai dengan kebutuhan dan karakteristik siswa. Berdasarkan permasalahan diatas, seperangkat materi ajar yang sesuai dengan kelas 8 di SMPIT Ulul Albab Tarakan perlu untuk dikembangkan. Penelitian ini menggunakan desain penelitian dan pengembangan. Total siswa yang diminta untuk menjawab pertanyaan yang terdapat dalam kuesioner
adalah 25 orang siswa. Tahap perancangan materi ajar terdiri dari; melakukan analisis kebutuhan, pengembangan materi ajar, validasi ahli materi ajar, evaluasi dan revisi materi ajar, uji coba materi ajar dan evaluasi dan revisi materi ajar. Dalam melakukan analisis kebutuhan; siswa diberikan kuesioner, melakukan wawancara untuk guru bahasa Inggris sedangkan validasi ahli dilakukan dengan memberikan lembar validasi. Lembar evaluasi juga diberikan kepada siswa setelah uji coba materi ajar dilakukan. Hasil rata-rata dari validasi ahli yaitu 75,33%, ini mengindikasikan bahwa materi ajar yang telah dikembangkan oleh peneliti sudah cukup baik dan sesuai dengan kebutuhan dan karakteristik siswa. Meskipun demikian ada beberapa materi ajar yang perlu direvisi, ini dilakukan untuk membuat materi ajar semakin baik. Hasil dari penelitian ini adalah sebuah materi ajar bahasa Inggris yang telah didesain khusus untuk kelas 8 yang dilengkapi dengan gambar-gambar sesuai dengan level siswa untuk menarik dan memotivasi mereka dalam mempelajari materi ajar bahasa Inggris ini. Materi ajar ini diharapkan dapat membantu guru bahasa Inggris di SMPIT Ulul Albab Tarakan sebagai panduan dan sumber alternatif materi. Materi ajar ini juga diharapkan bermanfaat bagi guru-guru lain sebagai contoh dalam pengembangan materi ajar yang sesuai dengan kebutuhan dan karakteristik siswa.

The main goal of teaching English at Junior High School was to provide students with the ability to communicate in language such as oral and written forms. The students should master four skills namely, listening, speaking, reading and writing (Pusat Kurikulum, 2006). The learning and teaching of English at SMPIT Ulul Albab Tarakan especially at eighth grade was considered unsatisfactory. The main problem was that there was no appropriate supporting English instructional material for eighth grade. The existing materials did not appropriate with the needs and characteristics of the students. Based on problem above, a set of appropriate supporting instructional materials for eighth grade students of SMPIT Ulul Albab Tarakan needed to be developed. The research design in this research was Research and Development (R&D ) design. The numbers of students who were asked to answer the questionnaire were 25 students. There were some procedures which employed in this research, they were doing needs analysis, developing the materials, conducting expert validation, revising the materials, trying out the materials and revising the materials. In doing needs analysis; questionnaires were distributed to the students, doing interview to an English teacher there, while expert validation was done by giving validation sheet to the expert. Evaluation sheet also was given to the students after the materials were tried out. The average result of expert validation is 75,33%, it indicated that instructional material that developed by researcher were good and appropriate with the needs and characteristics of the students. Even, some materials needed to be revised, it was done to make the materials are better. The result of this research was a set of English instructional material that had designed special for the eighth. It have more pictures were involved that related to the students level to make them interest and have motivation in learning this proposed English instructional material. The instructional material was expected to help English teacher at SMPIT Ulul Albab Tarakan as guideline or an alternative source of materials. It was beneficial also to other teachers as a model in developing the other subjects which based on the needs and characteristics of students.