19 pronouns for anaphoric reference and conjunctives” p. 46. When students have
the discourse competence, they will be able to create meaningful texts. The next criterion is style and appropriacy. According to Cunningsworth
1995: 50, “Language is very sensitive to its context of use and is stylistically variable”. Every language has different style for communication. English as an
international language also has its style. Cunningsworth 1995:50 states, “Stylistic differences in English can be signalled by aspects of grammar, choice of
vocabulary, discourse structure and aspects of phonology”. While appropriacy is important when using a language in order to adjust to the social situations.
d. Skills aspect
Skills listening, speaking, reading, and writing are the core of language learning. According to Cunningsworth 1995: 64, “textbook deals adequately
with all four skills, taking the level and overall aims into account, and suitable balance between the skills”. In order to help the students to relate each skill,
integration is needed. As stated by Jordan 1997, “the advantage of integration is that students can see the relationship between skills, which can serve as a model
for their own studies and projects” p.141. First skill to evaluate is listening. Textbook should provide authentic
listening materials for the students. The importance of authenticity of recorded listening material is stated by Cunningsworth 1995. He says that “The speed of
speaking should be appropriate to the learners’ ability and level, and where different accents are used, they should not normally deviate too drastically from
20 whichever standard variety the students have become used to from their teacher
and previous listening” p. 67. Before listening activities, the students need to know about the materials
they are going to listen. It can be done by providing background information or pre-questions. Cunningsworth 1995 notes the importance of pre-questions in
listening activities. He says that, “this gives purpose to the activity, allows an element of prediction and makes the passage more accessible by placing it in a
context” p. 67. Field 2002: 243 also states, “The aims of pre-listening activities are to provide sufficient context to match what would be available in real life and
to create motivation by asking learner to speculate on what they will hear”. After listening activities, students’ comprehension needs to be checked. To
evaluate students’ comprehension, comprehension questions should be prepared. Field 2002 states that by giving the comprehension questions, the teachers can
ensure that the students listen with a clear purpose and measure how far the students understand the material. Another way to help the students understand the
material is by giving tasks or activities. According to Field 2002: 244, “More effective than traditional comprehension is the current practice of providing a task
where learners do something with the information they have extracted from the text”. It is effective because tasks or activities demand individual responses from
the students. Speaking skill is the second skill to evaluate. According to Cunningsworth
1995: 69, “The more mechanical aspects of speaking are also covered in pronunciation practice, where this forms part of the course package, and these
21 elements combined normally ensure that students receive good spoken models
from their teachers and ample opportunity to practise themselves”. Textbooks should provide speaking activities that can help the students to be more
confidence to participate in a conversation. Next skill to evaluate is reading skill. Cunningsworth 1995 mentions
several purposes of reading text, they are “developing reading skills and strategies, presentingrecycling grammar items, extending vocabulary, providing
models for writing, and giving information of interest to students” p. 73. There are some points that should be considered in providing reading texts. According to
Cunningsworth 1995: 73, “reading passages should be interesting, as authentic as possible considering the level, and well presented and accompanied by
purposeful activities which help the reading process”. The last skill to evaluate is writing skill. According to Cunningsworth
1995: 80, “Writing activities in textbook are normally of the controlled or guided kind, where a model is given and the student’s task is to produce
something similar, usually based on additional information given”. Writing is a process that students need to follow. Textbooks should provide appropriate
writing activities for the students. The aims of writing activities as mentioned by Cunningsworth 1995 are to familiarize students with the way written text is
organized in terms of its discourse structure and to help the students to use language with an appropriate style. He also states that “writing activities should
deal with paragraphing which is the basic unit of organization for most kind of
written English” p. 80.
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e. Topic aspect
