Texbook Review Analysis Created by Ermi Nur Ardillah/1701020031329

TEXTBOOK REVIEW/EVALUATION

This is an evaluation report on a textbook entitled: Developing English Compotencies

written by Achmad Doddy. Ahmad Sugeng and Effendi. This book is published in 2008 by Pusat
Perbukuan Depertemen Pendidikan Nasional. In this evaluation, I will focus on some important
criteria which have been adapted from Robinett, 1978, p. 249-51, as they are cited by Brown,
2007, on table 11.2 on p. 192, such as goal of the course, language skills, general content,
sequencing, format, quality of practical material, and etc.

This book was written to meet the needs of EFL class students for textbooks that
incorporate English language skills, especially the four basic skills in each activity. This is very
good because it supports the needs of students to develop basic English skills and matching with
many English courses goals and objectives which are mostly focused on developing students'
communicative competence. For that purpose, this book provides a material balance between life
skills / functions and grammar / structure. In addition, this book will be suitable for students at
elementary to innate levels, because this book is designed for high school students who are
students with high-beginner and mid-intermediate skills.

The book Developing English Compotencies consists of 6 chapters with each unit having
4 learning based on skills, namely, listening, speaking, reading and writing. Each discussion in
each chapter is based on the thematic fields as follows: It's nice to see you; I'm sorry to hear that;
would you like to come ?; Congratulation, You did it very well; I'm very grateful to you; and
headline news. Furthermore, each text provides a genre based on the theme. Overall, the contents
of this book are very good because they are systematic, based on real life, validity, age and level
suitability. This book is authentic, though not always necessary, but it can be a textbook for EFL
classes that lack teaching material. Furthermore, as an integrative book, the Developing English
Compotencies book balances content by providing equal listening, speaking, reading and writing
activities. These skills are taught with a variety of meaningful activities such as answering
questions based on images, expressing words, greating-response greating, reading to understand,
conversation-making conversation, word classification, discussion, writing based on pictures and
others.

The quality of the practice material in this book is very good because it adapts to the
needs of students in everyday life so as to provide opportunities for students to always have long-
term relationships with the forms and functions of the English they have learned. Each chapter
provides more than enough training, active participation of students to involve in the class
Texbook Review Analysis Created by Ermi Nur Ardillah/1701020031329

activities, this book also shows generic structure related to the theme of the chapter, focuses on a
grammar structure in texts of a certain genre (grammar review) , presents natural language set in
authentic situation students can relate to (dialogue), provide a number of expressions that students
can use in certain situations, provide list of words to pronounced and practiced several times until
students can pronounce them correctly, give some information from the internet and encouraging
students to know more, providing extra information related features to the theme (new horizon),
encouraging students to perform a project to enhance their life skills through your project
features, providing some exercise from the National Examination materials, summarieses the
material learned in each chapter, presents what students have learned and what students are
expected to be able to (le arning reflection), also provides a number of exercises from the
previous chapter (review). The direction for each activity on the book is clear and easy to
understand. However, this book has some weaknesses such as this example does not pay enough
attention to words and words study. It seems that vocabulary is taught implicitly through each
language skill. More than that, in each chapter in this book is divided into 4 skills, each skill has
10 separate activities, these activities are too many so it is not possible to integrate several skills
in a single learning / meeting. Furthermore, it seems that there is no audiocassette or audio-CD
accompanying this book, and therefore the teacher who will use this book should be a native
speaker or a native like for teaching listening or pronunciation for example. In terms of
flexibility, this is book is not flexible since it is hard to modified the class into local circumstance
and it is time consuming to explain grammar / structure in every lesson. In terms of linkage, each
lesson and unit does have a different topic and different focus since the lesson is "new" at each
class meeting.

This book is quite interesting because it was published in Indonesia and intended for
students in Indonesia so that the discussion provided is in line with Indonesian culture. This book
is quite complete with the beginning of the learning objectives so that students understand the
learning objectives and target these objectives for each learning. A consistent pattern where each
chapter begins and ends with the conclusion of the chapter as well as leaning reflection. This
book also provides 2 reviews once in every 3 chapters making it easier for students to face
semester exams. The use of language in this book is very adaptable to the level of students so that
as a student handbook, this is very helpful for understanding students. The learning context is
provided by including discussions in real life but unfortunately, the pictures provided are not
entirely in the form of real life images so it is not appropriate to the level of students. The color
Texbook Review Analysis Created by Ermi Nur Ardillah/1701020031329

domination in this book is green and white, so that it gives the reader a sense of saturation in this
case students.

Finaly, this developing English compotencies book based on context is a decent book and
is very suitable for learning for EFL students but if it is applied to ESL students, this book is
inadequate because basically this book is adapted for EFL students so that the language provided
is too low-level for students ESL. Teachers and students are challenged to do something fun and
enjoyable throughout the learning process. This book really prioritizes student activeness seen
with a variety of activities provided specifically for students. However, for the patterns provided
in this book for me suitable for college students, it is seen by how each activity of listening,
speaking, reading and writing are separated in each meeting, so this does not allow the teacher to
apply integrative learning in class. I think this book has really provided students with balance
activities between lifeskills / functions and grammar / structure. It has also provided students with
so many activities that encourage students' listening, speaking, reading and writing skills.
 Texbook Review Analysis Created by Ermi Nur Ardillah/1701020031329

CHECKLIST FOR TEXTBOOK EVALUATION*

Title : Developing English Compotencies

Author : Achmad Doddy, Ahmad Sugeng and Effendi
Publisher : Bookeeping Center of the National Department
ISBN : 979-462-973-1
Publication Year : 2008
N Evaluation Criteria Evaluation
o 1 2 3 4 5 6
1. Goals and Rational (Will the textbook help to accomplish your course √
goals?)
2. General Content (Does the book reflect what is now known about
language and language learning)
a. Validity √
b. Appropriateness √
c. Proficiency level √
d. Authenticity √
e. Flexibility √
f. Linkage √

3. Language Skills (does the book integrates the four basic skills or does √
it emphasize into one or more skills?)
a. Listening c. Reading
b. Speaking d. Writing
4. User Definition/Background of the students (Does the book fit the √
students’ background such as: age, educational background, level of
competency)
5. Quality of Practice Material
a. Exercises √
b. Clarity of directions √
c. Active participation of students √
d. Grammatical and other linguistic explanation √
e. Review material √
6. Sequencing (How is the book sequenced)
7. Vocabulary (Does the book pay sufficient attention to words and √
words study?)
8. Format (Is the book attractive, usable and durable) √
9. Accompanying Materials (Are there useful supplementary material √
such as workbooks, audio cassette/CD/DVD, etc.)
1 General sociolinguistic factors (Variety of English and Cultural √
0. content)
1 Teacher’s Guide
1. a. Methodological guidance
b. Alternative and supplementary exercises
c. Suitability for NNS teacher
 Texbook Review Analysis Created by Ermi Nur Ardillah/1701020031329

d. Answer keys

Notes:

*adapted from Robinett, 1978, p. 249-51, as cited by Brown, 2007, p. 192

1 = Very poor 4 = Good

2 = Poor 5 = Very good
3 = Fair 6 = Excellent

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