Definition of Textbooks Textbooks

Curriculum 2013, there has always been a government-endorsed textbook series which serves as government responsibility to facilitate the learning and teaching activity in formal schools. As for the case of English textbooks, Lie 2005 points out in more detail that the early generation of government-endorsed English textbooks was developed within the 1958-1962 namely English for SLTP, followed by English for SLTA which was developed between 1968 and 1972. Interestingly, the two coursebooks are considered to be the blueprint of English subject in 1975 Curriculum Lie, 2005. When the 1975 Curriculum’s Audio Lingual approach was replaced by the 1984 Curriculum’s Communicative approach, however, there was an inconsistency between the development of the Communicative Approach and the textbooks which were still very structural Lie, 2005; Sorohiti, 2005. In this case, though, it was the syllabus which was initially being ambiguous. Thus, in spite of showing the departure of textbooks from the curriculum, it merely showed the faithful adaptation of the textbooks to the misguided syllabus. A notable improvement in textbooks provision by the government as an attempt to better implement the curriculum may be seen in the invention of Buku Sekolah Elektronik BSEElectronic Coursebook. Since initiated in 2007 by Prof. Dr. Bambang Sudibyo in his tenure and fully implemented in 2008 onwards, the government offered the internet-based textbooks namely Buku Sekolah Elektronik BSEElectronic Coursebooks which proposed the idea of cheap and easy-to-access textbooks as the books can be read online or offline by prior downloading. As for the latest Curriculum 2013, it was mentioned in the Curriculum 2013 Development articles on the official sites of Education and Culture Ministry in the section of Factors for Successful Curriculum 2013 Implementation that textbook is regarded as one supporting factors along with the reinforcement of government role and school management and culture. When this thesis is written, the government has provided some Curriculum 2013 textbooks distributed to schools which have implemented the new curriculum and posted them on the BSE sites, while some others of mostly Senior High School textbooks are still about to be printed with the planned release date, at the latest, in February 2014. As a determined compulsory resource in classroom learning and teaching activity, the roles of textbooks are repeatedly mentioned in the Permendiknas, Permendikbud, and Peraturan Pemerintah such as Peraturan Pemerintah 32-2013 about the Amendment of Government Regulation 19-2005 about National Education Standard, Permendikbud 81a-2013 about Curriculum Implementation, Permendiknas 32-2010 about Determination of Qualified Textbooks for Learning Process Purposes, etc. From this point of view, the roles of textbooks in Indonesia and their relation to the education policies and the curriculum can be considered as compulsory resource, taking an important role in the implementation of the curriculum.

3. The Importance of Textbooks and Their Roles in ELT Classroom

The discussion of whether textbooks are necessary or unnecessary in the world of English Language Teaching has been being the subject of interest to many experts. Some who oppose the necessity of textbooks are opinions like Swales’ 1980 which states that textbooks represents problems or Thornbury’s 2000 which says that the communication between teachers and students is all that matters. Meanwhile the more popular one, Allwright’s 1981 which questions the necessity and credibility of textbooks in the ELT classroom have arisen many following rebuttals defending the importance of textbooks such as O’Neill 1982, Sheldon 1988, and Hutchinson and Torres 1994. More studies, as if remarking the fact that textbooks survive with millions of copies sold every year Hutchinson and Torres, 1994, have been moving on to the more exhaustive discussion such as textbooks in use Brown, 2008; Johnsen, 2001 and textbooks assessment or evaluation Garinger, 2002; Gilmore, 2004; Johnson et al., 2006; Littlejohn, 2011; Williams, 1983. To examine the importance of textbooks, it will only be more befitting if it is to be related to the roles of textbooks in ELT classroom. The researcher reviews some areas where textbooks play some important roles elaborated in the following sections.

a. Learners-related Roles

The first and foremost advantage of textbooks for EFL learners is, thanks to their nature of being convenient packages O’Neill, 1982; Ur, 1999, that they enable learners to learn on their own anywhere and anytime the learners want to, or in other words, the autonomy advantage. Torres’ study in Philippine showed that learners find the textbooks helpful when they are having discussions, doing activities and exercises, studying on their own, doing homework, and preparing for tests Hutchinson and Torres, 1994. Textbooks also make it possible for learners to prepare in advance for an upcoming class O’Neill, 1982;