Definition of Textbook Characteristics of a Good Textbook

Methodology What kind of teaching and learning does the look promote? Can teachers and students build appropriate ESA sequences from it? Is there a good balance between Study and Activation? Skills Does the book cover the four skills reading, writing, listening, and speaking adequately? Is there a decent balance between the skills? are there opportunities for both study and activation in the skill work? Is the language of reading and listening texts appropriate? Are the speaking and writing tasks likely to Engage the students’ interest? Syllabus Is the syllabus of the book appropriate for young students? Does it cover the language points you would expect are they in the right order? Do the reading and listening texts increase in difficulty as the book progresses? Topic Does the book contain a variety of topics? Are they likely to engage the students’ interest? Does the student respond to them well? Are they culturally appropriate for the students? Are they too adult or too childish? Stereotyping Does the book represent people and situations and a fair and equal way? Are various categories of people treated equally? Is there stereotyping of certain nationalities? Does the book display conscious r unconscious racism or sexism? Teacher’s guide Is there a good teacher’s guide? Is it easy to use? Does it have all the answer the teacher might need? Does it offer alternatives to lesson procedures? Does it content a statement of intention which the teacher and students feel happy with? Cunningsworth also designs a quick reference checklist for evaluation and selection of textbook, those areas are: a. aims and approaches, b. design and organization, c. language content, d. skills, e. topic, f. methodology, g. teacher’s book, h. and practical considerations. 33 33 Alan Cunningsworth, Choosing your Coursebook, op. cit., p. 2-3 In short, there are many considerations in selecting a good textbook to be used as media learning at school. Since the textbook is one of learning media that provide materials, it is really important to make it appropriate with such aspects that has stated above. Those aspects should be applied in selecting the textbook because it affects the result of the process in teaching and learning at school.

D. Curriculum 1. Definition of Curriculum

Curriculum is closely related to education field. In a curriculum, it consists of goals or objectives of a course and also the content or materials which will be taught in a course. In designing a curriculum, firstly curriculum designer should analyze the situation or environment in which the course will be held. In this environmental analysis, based on Tessmer in Nation Macalister’s book, it involves to find some factors which will affect on the decision about the goal of the course, the materials which will be taught, the method, and also the evaluation of this course. 34 After analyzing the environment, analyzing the learner needs is also necessary to know what the learner know and what the learner should know. The last is about the principles. These three aspects are really influenced in designing a curriculum. Nation and Macalister state that: The result of environment analysis is a ranked list of factors and a consideration of the effects of these factors on the design. The result of needs analysis is a realistic list of language, ideas or skill items, as a result of considering the present proficiency, future needs and wants of the learners. The application of principles involves first of all deciding on the most important principles to apply and monitoring their application through the whole design process. The result of applying principles is a course where learning is given the greatest support. 35 It is clear that those three aspects in designing a curriculum really affect how a course will be held. From the first one that is environment analysis, it finds some factors that can influence the decisions in designing a curriculum of the 34 I.S.P Nation John Macalister, Language Curriculum Design, New York: Routledge, 2010, p. 14 35 Ibid., p. 1