The Selection of Textbook

Topics may be listed or defined in a general way such as non- technical, non-specialist or in relation to a set of candidates whose background is known such as familiar to the students. Style may be specified in term of formality. Intended readership can be quite specific e.g. native speaking science undergraduate students or more general e.g. young native speakers. Length is usually expressed in number of words. The specified length will normally vary according to the level of the candidates and whether one is testing expeditious or careful reading although a single long text could be used for both. Readability is an objective, but not necessarily very valid, measure of the difficulty of a text. Where this is not used, intuition may be relied on. Range of vocabulary may be indicated by a complete list of words as for the Cambridge tests for young learners, by reference either to a word list or to indications of frequency in a learners‟ dictionary. Range may be expressed more generally e.g. non-technical, except where explained in the text. Range of grammar may be a list of structures, or a reference to those to be found in a course book or possibly part of a grammar of the language. 22 Those parameters should be considered by teachers when they expect students to be able to read a text. That is why teachers have to pay attention to many aspects of texts such as readability, length, types etc. when they select them for their students. To sum up, a text is the physical manifestation of language that is formed by words that are put together along with their non-verbal and autographic symbols elements. Teachers need to consider some parameters of texts when they are expecting students to be able to read them. Thus, students‟ ability to read texts is measured in consideration of those parameters.

2. The Types of Text

According to Anderson and Anderson, there are two main categories of text. They are literary and factual. 23 These two categories cover the 22 Arthur Hughes, Testing for Language Teachers, second edition,Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003, p. 140 other types of text in which each text has a common structure. It means that those two categories, literary and factual, are general. More specifically, there are some categories of texts that are covered by them. The literary text types include narrative texts, poems, and drama scripts. 24 Those three kinds of text have function to entertain or elicit an emotional response. Further, the factual text types include explanation, information report, discussion, exposition, recount, factual description, procedure, and procedural recount. 25 Those kinds of texts then have function to inform, instruct, or persuade the readers by giving facts and information. From the explanation above, we can state that each category of the text has different function. Literary texts, according to Anderson and Anderson, have function to entertain or elicit an emotional response by using language to create mental image while factual texts is to inform, instruct, or persuade by giving facts and information. 26 Thus, texts that entertain the readers or listeners and finally create their mental image are categorized as literary texts. Other texts that give the readers or listeners an information, instruction or facts are categorized as factual texts.

3. The Selection of Texts

Textbooks publishing are now handled by both government and public publishers. Thus, although the government provides the books for all schools that apply curriculum 2013, the government also allows schools to use commercial ones. The difference is, students do not need to pay for the textbooks published by government while they need to pay for the commercial textbooks. 23 Anderson, loc. cit. 24 Ibid. 25 Ibid. 26 NSW Department of Education and Communities, Text Types Different Types of Writing, 2014, p. 1, http:www.schoolatoz.nsw.edu.auhomework-and-studyenglishenglish-a- to-z-english_glossarybZx81062factual+text+types .