Students’ and Teachers’ Perspectives on an EFL Textbook for Indonesian Senior High School Students

Authors

  • Lina Herlina Nusa Putra University, Indonesia

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.52005/literate.v1i1.2

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of an English textbook entitled “Bahasa Inggris SMA/MA/SMK/MAK Kelas X” from the perspectives of students and teachers. The evaluation of the textbook concern was conducted at macro level on the basis of eleven criteria. Both quantitative and qualitative data were obtained through student questionnaires administered to 94 students and interviews with 4 teachers. The results revealed that both teachers and students felt negative about some of the characteristics of the textbook. It was found that the reading passages needed to be simplified in terms of vocabulary load and the grammar needed to be presented in the details. It also indicated that the listening activities were not supported by audio recordings that should have been included in the textbook. Moreover, the students expected the book to include multiple choice exercises. It implies that some aspects of the textbook need to be revised and the audio recordings must be included to support the listening activities. On the other hand, one of the strengths of the textbook was that the activities in the textbook involved opportunities that encourage students’ creativity, interest, and curiousity.

References

Armbruster, B. B. and Anderson, T. H. (1990). Textbooks and curriculum International Encylopedia of Educational Evaluation, (pp. 206-209). New York: Pergamon Press.

Benevento, J. (1984). Choosing and using textbooks Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American council on the teaching of foreign languages. Chicago: IL.

Breen, M.P and Candlin. C.N. (1987). Which materials? A consumer’s and designer’s guide. In L. E. Sheldon (ed), ELT Textbooks and Materials. Problems in Evaluation and Development, (pp. 13-28). Oxford: Modern English Publications.

Bryd, P. (2001). Textbooks: Evaluation for selection and analysis for implementation. In M. Celce-Murcia (Ed.) Teaching English as a second or a foreign language (3rd ed.), pp. 415-427. Boston: Hienle & Hienle Publishers.

Cunningsworth, A. (1995). Choosing your coursebook. Oxford: Heinemann Publishers Ltd.

Dougill, J. (1987). Not so obvious. In L. E. Sheldon (ed.) ELT Textbooks and Materials: Problems in Evaluation and development, (pp. 29-35). Oxford: Modern English Publications.

Dubin. F. Olshtain, E. (1986). Course Design. Developing Programs and Materials for Language Learning. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Ellis, P. and Ellis, M. (1987). Learning by Design Criteria for ELF Coursebooks. In L. E. Sheldon (ed.) ELT Textbooks and Materials: Problems in Evaluation and Development, (pp. 90-98). Oxford: Modern English Publications.

Grant, M. (1987). Making the most of your textbook. London: Longman

Huthchinson, T. (1987). What is underneath? An interactive view of the materials evaluation. In L. E. Sheldon (ed.), ELT textbooks and materials: Problems in evaluation and development, (pp. 37-44), Oxford: Modern English Publications.

Mc Donough, J. and Shaw, C. (1993). Materials and method in ELT, Oxford: Blackwell Publishers Ltd.

Nunan, D. (1997). Autonomy and independence in language learning. In P. Benson and P. Voller (ed.), Designing and adapting materials to encourage learner autonomy. UK: Addison Wesley Longman Ltd.

Ornstein, A. C. and Hunkins, F. P. (1998). Curriculum: Foundations, principles and issues. USA: Allyn and Bacon.

Oxford, L. R. (2001). Language learning styles and strategies. In M. Celce-Murcia (Ed.) Teaching English as a second or a foreign language (3rd ed.), (pp. 359-366). Boston: Hienle & Hienle Publishers.

Rea-Dickens, P. and Germaine, K. (1994). Evaluation. In Candlin and Widdowson (ed.), Oxford University Press.

Richards, J. C. (2001). The role of textbooks in a language program. Cambridge University Press.

Skierso, A. (1991). Textbook selection and evaluation. In M. C. Murcia (ed.), Teaching English as a second or foreign language (pp. 432-453), Boston: Heinle and Heinle Publishers.

Tomlinson, B (1998). Glossary of basic terms for materials development in language teaching and introduction. In B. Tomlinson ( ed.), Materials development in language teaching. (pp. 1-24). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Ur, Penny (1996). A course in language teaching – practice and theory. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Willis, J. (1982). Teaching through English. England: Longman Group Ltd.

Zenger, W. F. (1982). Textbook evaluation: A guide and checklist. Sonataga, California: Rae Publishers.

Ayman , B. (1997). Evaluation of an English for academic purpose textbook: A Case Study. Thesis, METU, Ankara, Turkey.

Conkuner, P. D. (2002). Evaluation of effectiveness of an ESP textbook. A Case Study. Thesis, METU. Ankara, Turkey.

nözü, J. (1999). Criteria in selecting English language teaching coursebook: teachers’ and students’ point of view. Unpublished master’s thesis, Çukurova University, Adana, Turkey.

Kanik, F. (2002). Evaluating the effectiveness of the ESP reading materials for 215 English for law course. Unpublished master’s thesis, METU, Ankara, Turkey.

Hong Xu, I. (2004). Investigating criteria for assessing ESL textbooks. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada.

Yumuk, A. (1998). A case study on evaluating the effectiveness of English language Support 201 course materials for Bureau Management and Secretarial Studies at Bilkent University. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, METU, Ankara, Turkey.

Allright, R. L. (1981). What do we want teaching materials for? ELT Journal, 36(1), 5-13.

Bugmaster, R. (2005). Reading and reading skills. Modern English teacher 14 (2), 38-41.

Cotteral, S. (2000). Promoting learner autonomy through the curriculum: principles for designing language courses. ELT Journal. 54(2) 109-115.

Ellis, R. (1997). The empirical evaluation of language teaching materials. ELT Journal, 51(1), (36-42).

Hinkel, E. (2006). Current perspectives on teaching four skills. TESOL Quarterly 40(1), 109-125.

Mc Grath, I. (2006). Teachers’ and learners’ images for coursebooks. ELT Journal 60(2), 171-179.

Sheldon, L. E. (1998). Evaluating ELT textbooks and materials. ELT Journal, 42(4), 237-246.

Sinclair, B. and Ellis, G. (1992). Survey: learner training in EFL coursebooks. ELT Journal, 42(2), 209-225.

Sugiyanta, & Said, Mashadi. (2018). Assessing EFL textbooks for Indonesian high school students. Advances in social sciences research journal, 5(7), 1-16. DoI:10.14738/assrj.57.4940.

Williams, D. (1983). Developing criteria for textbook evaluation. ELT Journal, 37(3), 251-254.

Yakhontova, T (2001). Textbooks, contexts and learners. English for specific purposes, 20 (3), 397-415.

Common European Framework of Reference for Languages: learning, teaching and assessment. (2001). Council of Europe. Retrieved February 10, 2019 from http://www.coe.int/t/dg4/liguistic/source/framework_EN.pdf.

Garinger, D. (2005). Textbook evaluation. Retrieved February 10, 2019, from http://www.teflweb-j.org/v1n1/garinger.html.

Little, D and Leni, D (1998). Learner autonomy: what and why? Retrieved March 1, 2019, from http://jalt-publications.org/tlt/filed/98/oct

Downloads

Published

2022-06-03