12 In other words, Hutchison argues that in language teaching, material evaluation takes
a crucial part in helping teachers to consider a book for their students. This kind of evaluation is also able to raise teachers’ awareness toward their own teaching
learning situation. Another definition from Hutchison and Waters 1984: 64, “evaluation is a matter of judging the fitness of something for particular purpose,”
shows that evaluation of books also had a function as a kind of educational judgment. As a conclusion, materials evaluation is useful for helping teachers to make decisions
in selecting a book, including workbook, forming professional judgments, and raising awareness or reflecting teaching and learning experience.
3. Book Evaluation Criteria
Having known the idea and the significance of a workbook, the next is to know some criteria of a good and effective workbook. The criteria, including Lado’s
laws of learning 1964: 37, should be found in a workbook for Junior High School. a.
A workbook should be able to encourage students’ interest in learning. This stimulation becomes one important characteristic of a workbook. The
students get bored easily when they have plain book, moreover the materials being discussed are difficult to understand. There is a possibility for students to
ignore the exercises given. b.
A workbook is supposed to have appropriate and reasonable materials to the students’ grade because the use of workbook is helping the students to understand
the materials more easily.
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13 c.
An effective workbook should have enough tasks for the students. These tasks are used to help the students in repeating and practicing the materials from the
teachers. Indeed, repetition is one of the important elements in learning. d.
A good workbook has simplicity and clarity for instruction for each exercise. These characteristics will provide the opportunity for self-study because they
make it easy for the students’ to study and work individually. e.
The economical reason is also important for a workbook. An affordable workbook will be more easily accepted by the students, since the students have
various economic levels. Furthermore, some experts have certain criteria on evaluating a book used for
students’ learning. Cunningsworth 1984 has his own criteria in analysing a book. The criteria he suggests are as follows: language content, selection and gradation of
language items, presentation and practice of new language items, developing language skills and communicative abilities, supporting materials motivation and the
learner, conclusions and overall evaluation. In 1995, Cunningsworth 1995 states two main approaches to evaluate the coursebook. The first is the impressionistic
overview, which entails a preliminary sift through a lot of new material from which to
choose 1995:1. He suggests the use of different checklists to cover all aspects of the coursebook. The checklists cover aspects such as: 1. Aims and approaches, 2. Design
and organization, 3. Language content, 4. Skills, 5. Topic, 6. Methodology, and 7. Teacher’s guide.
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14 Ali 1983 who evaluates the English language textbook taught to the second
grade boys intermediate level in Saudi Arabia. It consists of the these categories: the introduction of the course, the courses subject matter, aids, exercises and activities,
the teachers manual, the course book’s layout and the physical make up. At the end of his study, he provided some recommendation and the modification:
1. The importance of using more colourful and attractive teaching aids. 2. The pupil’s book should present more interesting and age-appropriate topics.
3. The teacher’s manual should provide teachers with alternative ways for teaching every lesson.
Doing the same thing, Al-Jaser 1988 conducts a comparative study to evaluate the English language textbook taught at the first grade boy’s secondary
schools and the textbook taught at the same grade in girl’s secondary schools in Saudi Arabia. She uses a questionnaire of 73 items as a research instrument. The
questionnaire was built around the following categories: a. The introduction of the textbook
• The target audience
• The grounded theory of the textbook
• The objectives of the course
• Teachers guidelines
b. The textbooks content •
The subject matter and concepts of the textbook
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15 •
The textbooks language and style •
Aids At the end of her evaluation, she found that the books which were evaluated did not
fulfil all the criteria of a good textbook, the degree of adherence to good textbook criteria is not as strong as it should be, and , the boys book and the girls book are
similar to a large extent. Eriksoussy 1993 conducts a qualitative research in order to evaluate the
textbook. She uses a 126-item checklist as criteria for her evaluation. The checklist consists of six main categories:
a. The objectives
b. Content selection
c. Gradation and recycling
d. Presentation frames
e. Practice activities drills and exercises
f. Assessment models model tests
Al-Hijailan 1999 has study on quality of the third-grade secondary school textbook in Saudi Arabian schools. The results of the study revealed that the book’s
appearance, accompanying materials, academic content, cultural content, and evaluation techniques were satisfied in the textbook while the fulfilment of the
national goals and the teaching methods were not. The strengths of the textbook are including colours and teaching aids, having an informative teacher’s book, a good
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16 organization, a good introduction, and employing the learners’ culture in a way that
made learning English easier, faster, and interesting. The weaknesses in several books were not known to teachers, such as the book’s cover was not attractive, sequence of
lessons was not appropriate, reading passages did not have questions and were not recorded in cassettes, some grammar items were repeated, and composition was
guided. Tomlison, Dat, Masuhara, and Rubdy 2001 use a list of 133 course
evaluation criteria to evaluate eight current adult courses published by four leading publishers in the UK. The textbooks evaluated are Language in Use and True to Life
by Cambridge University Press, Cutting Edge and Wavelength by Pearson Longman, Inside Out and Reward by Macmillan Heinemann Press. The checklist used is divided
under two main headings, overall criteria and coursebook specific criteria. The overall-course criteria consist of eight categories, namely publishers claims,
flexibility, syllabus, pedagogic approach, topic contents, voice, instructions and teachability The coursebook-specific criteria included four categories: appearance,
design, illustration and reading texts. In addition, specific criteria for cassettes and CD ROM, teachers book, workbook and video are used in this evaluative study.
Atkins 2001 McDonough and Shaws 1993 model for course book evaluation as the criteria for his study. His checklist consists of two stages. The first
stage is to look at the external characteristics of the material which includes the books introduction, table of contents, the claims made on the cover of the students
and teachers books, the publishers catalogue and the internet homepage. The second
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17 stage is the internal analysis which includes the presentation of the skills in the
material, appropriateness of discourse, authenticity of listening topics, the appropriateness of speaking materials and the effectiveness of the teachers guide.
Khafaji 2004 evaluates the materials used to teach English to the secondary level in Saudi public high schools. He uses three different checklists in order to
evaluate the textbook: Cunningsworth’s 1995 checklist to evaluate the textbook as a whole; Littlejohn’s 1998 framework to evaluate one unit of the textbook with
reference to the sections related to this particular unit in the teacher’s guide; and a checklist adopted from both to evaluate the reading skill.
Bruder 1978 suggests the use of a checklist of eight criteria: level, objectives, style, language, age, time, convictions, and competency while Williams 1983 argues
for the design and application of a more systemic evaluative approach. Williams focuses on a book which is able to assess the effectiveness of the material from
pedagogical, linguistic, general and technical perspectives, such as grammatical and syntactical rules. In addition, a book should function to guide students’ reading and
writing skills and to teach students’ vocabulary and phonology. Sheldon 1988 suggests that an evaluation sheet consists of seventeen
elements: rationale, availability, user definition, layout and graphics, accessibility, linkage, selection and grading, physical characteristics, appropriacy, authenticity,
cultural bias, educational validity, practice and revision, flexibility, guidance and overall value for money. He also provides several key questions to be asked about
each feature.
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18 In addition, for analysing a book, Tu’eimah 1985 has an analysis tool which
consists of fifteen categories. They are the book’s physical make up, the nature of the course, pre-preparation studies, the language of the book, method of teaching,
language skills, grammar, vocabulary, linguistic drills, assessment and evaluation, cultural content, aids and activities, individualized learning, the teacher’s manual and
others. For evaluation tool, Tu’eimah has eight categories: pre-preparation studies, language content, language skills, methods of teaching, drills and evaluation, aids,
physical make up, and overall impression. Then, Tu’eimah suggests tests for measuring readability of language teaching book. Concerning Tu’eimah’s criteria, Ali
1983 goes along with some of those criteria. Teachers’ manual should be made to complete the students’ workbook. Equally important, the appearance of the book
should attract students’ impression and a book should provide an introduction so that the students have the idea about what they will learn. Another expert who agrees with
Tu’eimah’s criteria is Eriksoussy 1993. Eriksoussy claims that drill is needed as exercise as well as it could help students to repeat the material given. Other criteria
are concerning the objects of the materials, the content, and the use of book as students’ assessment.
Some other experts add different criteria for evaluating a book. Ali-Hijailan 1999 states that a book should cover culture aspect. This criterion can avoid culture-
shock and ease the students to apply the material in daily life. Then, others are Atkins 2001, Mc Donough and Shaw 1993, and Thein 2006 who have apprehension of
English skills. Those experts concern with listening and speaking skills as
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19 communicative skills which are important to enhance. Thein 2006 also participates
in conducting a study to evaluate the suitability and effectiveness of the textbooks used for teaching English to religious studies students at Myanmar Institute of
Technology. The findings reveal that the textbooks used in the programme were not suitable for the following reasons:
a. The textbooks did not contribute to achieve the needs and wants of both teachers
and learners. b.
They were not effective to promote students critical thinking. c.
They were not effective in improving the students communicative skills for everyday life situations
Thein 2006 suggests that the textbooks must be localized to meet the teachers and learners needs. He also emphasises the importance of adapting activities that
encourage collaborative learning, natural and experiential interactions to help young people think critically. For addition, Skierso 1991 describes an evaluation of the
material can be done under the following criteria: bibliographical data, aims and goals, subject matter, vocabulary and structures, exercises and activities, layout and
physical make up. Littlejohn 1998: 192 who has different opinion with Cunningsworth’s
1995 checklists claims that evaluation should “involve making general, impressionistic judgments on the materials”. Instead, he suggests a general
framework which consists of three main concerns for analysing materials. First, the aspects of materials that should be examined from a pedagogical perspective can be
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20 grouped under two main points: publication and design. Publication refers to the
physical aspect of materials and how they appear as a complete set or book Littlejohn, 1998: 193.
The second concern deals with the key aspects of tasks and poses three questions. The first question is related to three things: process, focus and operation.
Process refers to the actual role of learners in the classroom activities; focus refers to whether language form or meaning is focused. The second question deals with the
participation in classroom activities highlighting the forms of activities and the different forms of classroom participation. The last question deals with the content
of the task Littlejohn, 1998: 199. This last concern is aimed to evaluate the overall aims of the materials, content and tasks, learners’ knowledge, effects, skills, and
abilities. Tomlinson 2003: 16 explains that materials evaluation is a procedure that
involves measuring some or all of the following: 1. the appeal of the materials
2. the credibility of the materials to learners, teachers, and administrators; 3. the validity of the materials;
4. the reliability of the materials; 5. the ability of the materials to interest the learners and the teachers;
6. the ability of the materials to motivate the learners; 7. the value of the materials in terms of short-term learning;
8. the value of the materials in terms of long-term learning; 9. the learners perceptions of the value of the materials;
10. the teachers perceptions of the value of the materials; 11. the assistance given to the teacher in terms of preparation, delivery and
assessment; 12. the flexibility of the materials;
13. the contribution made by the materials to teacher development; and 14. the match with administrative requirements.
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21 Those fourteen criteria are the elaboration of language assessment theory and Brown
2004: 21 – 28 describes principles of language assessment which can be applied to evaluate workbook; practicality, reliability, validity, authenticity, and washback
which are related to the content of a workbook. Supriadi 2001: 177 – 179 mentions four aspects in evaluating a book in
Indonesia. First is the content of a book, for workbook, the criteria include the appropriateness with curriculum, completeness of the materials, systematization,
attraction, understandable materials, and the function of a book as students’ motivation. Second is related to language choice. A book should consider grammar;
paragraph, diction, terminology, and spelling. The third is about physical appearance or graphics; typography, layout, printing, bookbindery, illustration, cover, size-book,
and type of paper. The last is the safety of a book which is related to social and cultural context, state principles, law, and ethics.
B. Theoretical Framework
