An Evaluation of the English Textbook Grow with English for Fourth-grade Elementary School Students

Authors

  • Ratini Rahmawati Universitas Singaperbangsa Karawang
  • Evi Karlina Ambarwati

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.35961/salee.v4i2.662

Keywords:

English textbook, curriculum, students' needs

Abstract

Textbooks are the major instructional resource that has a crucial role in the teaching and learning process. To obtain an appropriate textbook, a teacher must evaluate or analyze it before applying it in the classroom. A textbook is expected to cover student needs, support national education goals and implement curriculum values. However, in reality, many textbooks still need to meet the criteria of a good textbook based on previous studies, and most of the research is done on high school English textbooks. Therefore, this research examines the suitability and quality of the four-grade primary school English textbook (Grow with English for grade four). This study used descriptive qualitative research and adapted adopted the BSNP (Badan Standar Nasional Pendidikan) framework and theory of Developing Criteria for Textbook Evaluation by David Williams (1983) in analyzing the textbook. The findings show that this textbook follows the 2013 ELT (English Language Teaching) curriculum of Indonesian Education goals and Indonesia's National Education goals. Furthermore, this textbook meets William's (1983) criteria, such as being designed with meaningful drills and learning activities, connecting to the student's age, interests, culture, and environment, having guidance for teachers and students, and graphically having good quality. Then, for further research, observing and analyzing other EFL (English as a Foreign Language) textbooks is recommended to see if they meet the criteria for a good textbook.

References

Adi, H. W., & Astuti, P. (2019). Content Analysis of Student Book When English Rings A Bell (Revised Edition) for Grade VIII of Junior High School. ELT Forum: Journal of English Language Teaching, 8(1), 49–59. https://doi.org/10.15294/elt.v8i1.26138
Aspers, P., & Corte, U. (2019). What is Qualitative in Qualitative Research. Qualitative Sociology, 42(2), 139–160. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11133-019-9413-7
Bourke, J. M. (2006). Designing a topic-based syllabus for young learners. ELT Journal, 60(3), 279–286. https://doi.org/10.1093/elt/ccl008
Cunningsworth, A. (2008). Choosing Your Coursebook Alan Cunningsworth (p. 166).
Depdiknas .(2003). Republic of Indonesia Law No.20 of 2003. About National Education System.
Hidayati, D. N. (2022). How are the Sociolinguistic Competences applied in the English Textbook? SALEE: Study of Applied Linguistics and English Education, 3(1), 1–12. https://doi.org/10.35961/salee.v3i1.385
Huang, P. (2019). Textbook interaction: A study of the language and cultural contextualisation of English learning textbooks. Learning, Culture and Social Interaction, 21(December 2018), 87–99. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lcsi.2019.02.006
Hutchinson, T., & Torres, E. (1994). The textbook as agent of change. ELT Journal, 48(4), 315–328. https://doi.org/10.1093/elt/48.4.315
Lee, S. (2013). The Development of Evaluation Theories for Foreign Language Textbooks. Journal of Pan-Pacific Association of Applied Linguistics, 17(2), 69–89. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1014790.pdf
Permendikbud. (2016). Peraturan Menteri Pendidikan Dan Kebudayaan Nomor 8 Tahun 2016 Tentang Buku Yang Digunakan Oleh Satuan Pendidikan a. Resma, 3(2), 13–22.
Puspitasari, D., Widodo, H. P., Widyaningrum, L., Allamnakhrah, A., & Lestariyana, R. P. D. (2021). How do primary school English textbooks teach moral values? A critical discourse analysis. Studies in Educational Evaluation, 70(February 2020), 101044. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.stueduc.2021.101044
Rashidi, N., & Kehtarfard, R. (2014). A needs analysis approach to the evaluation of Iranian third-grade high school English textbook. SAGE Open, 4(3), 1–9. https://doi.org/10.1177/2158244014551709
Setyono, B., & Widodo, H. P. (2019). The representation of multicultural values in the Indonesian Ministry of Education and Culture-Endorsed EFL textbook: a critical discourse analysis. Intercultural Education, 30(4), 383–397. https://doi.org/10.1080/14675986.2019.1548102
Shakourzadeh, L., & Izadpanah, S. (2020). Textbook-assigned and self-selected topics of Iranian male EFL learners: topic interest, topic familiarity, topic importance, and topic difficulty. Asian-Pacific Journal of Second and Foreign Language Education, 5(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s40862-020-00099-7
Sheldon, L. E. (1988). Evaluating ELT textbooks and materials Leslie £ Sheldon. ELT Journal, 42(October), 237–246.
Sulistiyo, U., Supiani, Kailani, A., & Lestariyana, R. P. D. (2020). Infusing moral content into primary school english textbooks: A critical discourse analysis. Indonesian Journal of Applied Linguistics, 10(1), 251–260. https://doi.org/10.17509/IJAL.V10I1.25067
Two, C., Council, B., April, S. B., English, C., Cpd, H., Chowdhury, F., Chowdhury, R., Kabir, A. H., Hamid, M. O., Erling, E. J., Islam, M. M., Islam, R., & Pouezevara, S. L. (2014). Higher Education in Bangladesh?: Diversity , Quality and. 9(November), 1–16. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-22464-0
Williams, D. (1983). Developing criteria for textbook evaluation. ELT Journal, 37(3), 251–255. https://doi.org/10.1093/elt/37.3.251
Xiang, R., & Yenika-Agbaw, V. (2021). EFL textbooks, culture and power: a critical content analysis of EFL textbooks for ethnic Mongols in China. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 42(4), 327–341. https://doi.org/10.1080/01434632.2019.1692024
Yanti, M. S., & Wirza, Y. (2022). Journal of English Language Teaching Gender representation in the textbook for vocational school students in the Indonesian EFL settings. 6(1), 201–212.

Downloads

Published

2023-07-06

How to Cite

Rahmawati, R., & Ambarwati, E. K. (2023). An Evaluation of the English Textbook Grow with English for Fourth-grade Elementary School Students. SALEE: Study of Applied Linguistics and English Education, 4(2), 337–356. https://doi.org/10.35961/salee.v4i2.662

Issue

Section

Articles