Textbooks as an Instructional Material
aesthetic factors are part of the method. It makes English skills become main priority in teaching English for students in Curriculum 2013 as the activities in
Curriculum 2013 are expected to make the students exposed with the use of English language as often as possible with various theme, context, and topic.
The uses of English skills in communication become the main priority for Curriculum 2013 in term of communicative purposes. Materials and exercises
provided in the textbook should be in line with the curriculum and learners‟ needs.
Further, in Curriculum 2013 teachers should be able to create an enjoyable atmosphere in order to set up the student-centered learning classroom, which is
aimed at making the students feel encouraged to analyze, observe and generate what they have learned. The
essence of the curriculum and the learners‟ needs still have to be significant considerations for teachers in delivering the learning
materials from textbook or any other media because students are different one to another. It is important to view language learning as student-centered because
each student is individual who differs from each other. The objective of communication is to build social relation interpersonal
and developing discourse through information exchange among the individuals involved within the communication transactional delivered via oral or written
media. The ability to communicate feeling, knowledge and views among those involved in the communication interlocutors must be based on their
sociocultural values for the sake of making appropriate communication. The communication activities based on this view are the combination of
three purposes
of communication:
interpersonal, transactional,
and presentational
. In the systemic functionalist view, the communication activities
are organized around the integration of linguistic rules cohesive and coherent choice of words, phrases, sentences, or utterances and the socio-cultural rules of
the language use applied in various types of oral and written discourse needed by the language users in certain communicative situations and scopes such as daily
situation, working situation, education, and academic scope. The socio-cultural rules regarding to the language use covers attitudes in communication which are
influenced by cross-cultural understanding values. In Curriculum 2013, subjects are divided into two categories namely
compulsory suzbjects and elective subjects. The compulsory subjects are those which are obligated to be learned by all the students in all senior high schools.
Meanwhile, the elective subjects are those which can be chosen and joined by the students based on their own interest.
The following are the list of compulsory subjects and elective subjects based on Curriculum 2013.
Table 2.1. The List of Compulsory Subjects Based on Curriculum 2013
Referring to the 2013 curriculum, the presence of textbooks in the teaching process in the classroom is very vital. Because of the important roles,
governments need to take control of the textbook content, production, and distribution, as what happens in Indonesia. Jazadi 2003 states that textbooks in
Indonesia need to pass several political and also evaluation process to maintain security.
“The content of books should be in line with and not contradictory to Pancasila
The State Philosophy, UUD 1945 The 1945 Constitution, Government policies, national unity and security, laws, regulations,
ethics, and that the content not exploits the sensitive issue of SARA ethnics, religions, race, and intergroup relations. Judgement of this
aspect is made by evaluators coming from Mabes ABRI Armed Forces Headquarter, Kejaksaan agung Office of Attorney General, Lemhanas
National Defence Institute and Inspectorate General of MOEC Ministry of Education and Culture.
” Jazardi, 2003 Table 2.2. The List of Elective Subjects Based on Curriculum 2013