Textbook Evaluation Textbook 1. Notion of Textbook
Evaluating an English textbook has become a challenging task for
teachers since availability of various English textbooks in public market are high and keep increasing. Hence, Cunningsworth suggests three factors in selecting
textbook. The first one is approaches to evaluation, and these are his favourite questions to guide an evaluation of a textbook:
How does the coursebook present the present perfect with particular
reference to its meaning and use?
How does it teach the use of articles?
Does it include anything on intonation?
Does it deal with the organization of language above the level of the sentence, eg in conversation or in continuous writing?
The second factor is deciding on a checklist. Cunningsworth has selected the most general criteria for evaluation and selection purposes, they are:
Aims and approach.
Design and organization.
Language content.
Skills.
Topic.
Methodology.
Teachers’ books.
Practical consideration.
The third one is selecting the best available coursebook. There are three stages provided in process of selection of the best available coursebook:
1. Identify the aims and objectives of your teaching programme. 2. Analyze the teachinglearning situation in which the materials will be
used. 3. Draw up a list of potential coursebooks, using information from
publishers, advice from colleagues and your own previous experience.
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Els and his friends also point out that information about textbooks could be obtained from two sources: the textbook itself textbook description and the
users of textbook textbook evaluation. Textbook description is defined as
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Alan Cunningsworth, Choosing Your Coursebook, Oxford: Heinemann, 1995, pp.1-5.
collection and description of data on content and form of the textbook itself and it consists of four descriptions:
1. Authors’ and publishers’ information Information of authors and publishers is being the provision of pertinent and verifiable data of a
textbook.
2. Textbook reviews The most important merit of reviews is that they provide prompt information.
3. Checklist Theo Van Els and his friends mention main categories of checklist as
follows:
objectives and methodology;
structure of the textbook;
organization of teaching;
didactic conception;
exercises;
motivation and activation of learners;
texts;
grammar;
phonetics;
morphosyntax;
vocabulary;
communicative categories, speech acts;
contrastivity;
thematic goals;
communicative, social, and situational context;
culture and intercultural communication;
4. Textbook description and the development of new descriptive tools.
The second source is textbook evaluation. There are two aspects in textbook evaluation; Users’ judgments and Experimental research into the effects
of textbooks.
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Based on the above explanation, it could be seen that texts or passages of a textbook are included to them. Penny Ur includes reading texts in the area of
skills and syllabus as a part to be considered. Theo Van Els and his friends also
include text as one of categories of checklist and is needed to be noticed. Hence, the writer concludes that texts passages in a textbook are components of a
textbook which are crucial to be analyzed.
To be more specific explanation to cohesion analysis, the writer discloses a textbook assessment according to Pusat Kurikulum dan Perbukuan which states
that cohesion is one of items that should be evaluated. Cohesion analysis is included in language feasibility aspect in the textbook assessment. They point out
that message or materials presented in a textbook have to be cohesive.
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