Dictionary use involves numerous sub skills such as reading a phonemic transcription, interpreting grammatical information,
generalizing from example sentences and guessing from context to help choose from alternative meanings
p.46. c. Academic Words
Academic words are words that are used in academic from most of all disciples. In this academic word, the words are not in the most frequent 2000
words of English. The academic word covers around 8.5 to 10 running words in academic text. Commonly, people who are in this stage already know the most
frequent 2000 words. d. Technical Words
Each discipline has its own term or technical words. Some of technical words consist of high frequency and academic words. Although they are common,
they are narrowed in special area. Such as the word cost and price, they have different usage in economics field. The technical word covers less than 1000
words.
4. Course books
Matsuoka and Hirsh 2010 defined a course book or course book as a book which is designed specifically to be used in a classroom language learning
environment with language teacher support including pre-teaching of target vocabulary items p. 57. Therefore, course book then refers to any kind of book
which is used by teachers to support English language learning in a classroom. According to Brewster et al.; 2001, Brown, 2001; Byrd, 2001; and Graves,
2000, course books still contribute a lot to the educational system. Course books PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
are ubiquitous of every educational system. Brewster et al 2001 state that course books are kind of learning aids. Graves 2000: 174 is in line with Brewster et al.
Graves mentions that course books are teaching tools. As aids or tools, course books help teachers and learners do the process of study. Richards 1976 says
that course books serve as the basis for much of the language input learners receive and the language practice that occurs in the classroom. They provide
goals, process and the most obvious and common material of an instruction and educational planning.
Course book is like a racing car. A racing car cannot operate by itself without a driver. As well as a course book, a course book needs a teacher who can
use it maximally to give maximum benefits. A teacher, as a high quality driver, needs to know what kinds of conditions he has to go. Thus, he needs to know the
administrators‟ needs especially on curriculum which leads to the process to a certain goal. Masuhara 1998: 247-249 explains that good course books meet
teachers, learners and administrators‟ needs and wants. a.
The Role of Course books Nowadays, language learning activities seem incomplete without the use of
course book. From an instructional design perspective, a course book is the primary instructional resource as a material provider. The objectives, content, and
teaching sequence are determined by the course book Kemp, 1977. Hutchinson and Torres 1994: 324 propose a broad perspective on the role of a course book,
which makes a course book “continues to be the mainstay of ELT provision”
1 Course books as a Basis for Negotiation PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
The idea that a course book only serves as a classroom material provider is totally wrong. Classroom material provider is just one of the functions that a
course book has. Instead, a course book serves a lot of needs within classroom and beyond it. It is not only a packaged material in a certain format. More than that, it
“provides a structure for the management of the lesson as a social interaction and a basis for negotiation between all the relevant parties” Hutchinson and Torres,
1994: 324. 2 Course books as a Flexible Framework
A course book is not a dictatorial instructor. Instead, it provides learners flexibility, responsibility, and freedom of choice within a structured learning
environment presented by teacher through the use of a course book Owen, Froman, and Moscow, 1978. It enables learners to achieve their best development
by providing a secure framework. The argument is proposed by Allen 2008 who argues that teachers have rights how and when to use course books. In other
words, teachers have control over the course book in classroom and thus, it is not a dictatorial instructor. Although the FL course book may be viewed as a tool to
‘standardize’ instruction and student learning, individual teachers exercise agency in how and when the tool is used. p. 23
3 Course books and Teacher Development Course books provide clear things to negotiate about, thus, teachers and
learners can negotiate them freely. The assumption that a highly structured course book causes the de-skilling of teachers is not true. Hutchinson and Torres 1994
suggest that the more teachers feel comfortable with what they are doing, the more inclined they make changes and variations from the course book. Course
books enable variations to happen in classroom. Without structured guidance provided by course books, teachers tend to do the same way in teaching.
Hutchinson and Torres’ argument is supported by a study by Stodolsky 1988 which reveals that teachers are not constrained by course books. Instead, they
make variations in their teaching resulted from their convictions and preferences, the nature of materials that they use, the school context, the learners, the subject
matter, and the classroom grade level. 4 Course books as a Workable Compromise
Due to the various needs of learners in a learning context, course books are regarded as a workable compromise, as Hutchinson and Torres 1994: 325-326
says that “nothing that happens in education is anything more than a workable compromise, and we cannot uniquely condemn course books because they are not
a perfect fit”. It is teachers’ duty to decide their own way of using and adapting the course book
based on learners’ needs, as Cunningsworth 1984 proposes. No course book will be totally suited to a particular teaching
situation. The teacher will have to find his own way of using it and adapting it if necessary. So we should not be looking for the perfect
course book which meets our entire requirement, but rather for the best possible fit between what the course book offers and what we
as teachers and students need. p. 89
Cunningsworth’s argument is supported by Allen’s 2008 argument that the main point of using a course book is not on what is included or not included in a course
book, but on how teachers use particular materials in their classrooms. So the most pertinent question may not be what is included or not
in a particular course book package but how instructors are using it or not in their teaching practices and why. p. 7
a. Course books related to Curriculum
Altbach and Kelly 1988 write that course books constitute the base of school knowledge in the third world countries where there is a chronic shortage of
qualified teachers. They say that in many instances in the third world countries, teachers adhere closely to texts, using them as the sole source of school
knowledge, assigning students lessons contained in the course book and testing students lessons contained in the course book and testing the students only on the
knowledge contained in the book. Therefore, course books do not only play important roles in the level of instructional system. They also play important roles
in the higher system, or supra system or in the educational level system Richards, 1976.
Furthermore, Farrell and Heyneman 1988: 19 say that course books are needed as national inspirations for political, social, and economic developments.
Because of these important roles, a lot of governments especially from the developing countries try to take control of the course book content, production
and distribution. Throughout The Ministry of National Education Decree No. 26 year 2005, Indonesia declared course books which are appropriate and can be used
in the process of teaching leaning in Indonesia. Farrell and Heyneman 1988 say that economic influences pedagogical
choice, including course book choice. They made a study on the correlations between annual cost student in classroom material and school qualities. They
found out those who spend less money get lower quality of education. Due to this reason, every country spends a lot of money on it to improve the quality of
education PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
Indonesia has various financial sources for course books such as BOS School Operational Grant, State Budget APBN and Local Government Budget
APBD budgets. With these different kinds of budgets for course books purchasing, the government of Indonesia tries to give enough course books for
each student. Besides letting many well-known publishers and authors to provide good English course books and ready to be sold in the market, the National
Department of Education also provides electronic books, called BSE Buku Sekolah Elektronik. Teachers can access for free through internet. They can
download the ready printed material and make copies for the students. The government hopes that they can provide cheaper course books for Indonesian
students. Kusumaningrum, 2014 a.
Advantages and Disadvantages of Course books Course book are important and contribute a lot in the process of operating
educational system. On the other hand, Crawford 2002, Richards 2001, and Halliwell 2006 point out some disadvantages of course books. The following are
the advantages and disadvantages of course books. 1 Advantages
Riddell 2003 stated that Course books provide material, review and visual record of progress for students Course books can also give secure feelings because
learners can predict what they are going to study and they have a certain pattern which will guide them what to do next Halliwell, 2006. Ellis 1994 explains
that books with good design and layout motivate learners to study. English course books provide various activities which will support individual different learning.
Besides, learners can always reread the materials that have been discussed before. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
Course books provide a clearly thought program which is appropriately sequenced and structured to include progressive revisions for teachers. They also
provide wide range of materials and activities that teachers can select based on t
heir learners‟ need Halliwell, 2006. Crawford 2002: 81 states that course books make teaching learning process becomes more accountable. Everybody can
see whether the activities and exercises help the learners to achieve the goal. For teachers who are very busy teaching, books provide source of practical teaching
ideas. Teachers can grasp the book and find activities without need to think further that it will harm their students.
Course books mean providing cheap materials for stakeholders. They do not need to spend money on designing material program, publishing or copying them.
Some schools even get some extra financial support by having cooperation with a publisher.
2 Disadvantages Crawford 2002 and Richards 2001 point out some weaknesses of using
course books. Firstly, course books deskill teachers and rob them of their capacity to think professionally and respond to their students. Secondly, it is possible that
course books provide different cultures from the users. This situation might give backwash to the students. Crawford and Richards also remark that some books
fail to present appropriate and realistic language model. The result, learners will miss to achieve the local goal. Richards mentions some more weaknesses and he
says that course books may contain inauthentic language, they may not reflect students‟ needs and they are usually expensive.
d. The Importance of Evaluating Course books PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
According to Hutchinson and Waters 1987: 96, “evaluation is a matter of judging the fitness of something for a particular purpose”. In this case, it judges
the fitness of a course book for particular learners, with their learning purpose, background knowledge, needs, and so on. It is not a matter of good or bad, but
how a course book helps learners achieve the required purpose. “Evaluation is basically a matching process: matching needs to available
solutions” p. 97. This matching needs to be done as objectively as possible. To do so, the needs and solutions should be looked separately. Although in the final
analysis the choice made will be subjective, the subjectivity should not influence teachers’ judgment too soon without looking at possibly useful alternatives. A
course book has to match with teachers and learners’ needs. Thus, subjective
factors should not obscure objectivity.
5. Corpus Analysis
