Evaluating KBSM Textbook

Jeisri a/p Vijian 4091009841Nur Shafiqah Bt. Mohd. Shukri 4091008291Nur Atikah Bt. Manan4091009311Nur Syafiqah Bt. Abdul Kadar4091008841

1.0 INTRODUCTION• Title: KBSM English Form 2

• Author: Rohini Shanta, Uma Kurup and Shalani Lorenz

• Price : RM16.40

• Comprises 200 pages

• Target users: Form 2 students and teachers teaching English for Form 2.

• This book also comes with a complimentary CD

• Is accredited by the Ministry of Education, Malaysia.

Motive of Evaluation:•to determine if the textbook is suitable for

the target users.

•to determine the criteria needed for choosing a textbook.

• Referring to two ESL textbook evaluation checklists by Joshua Miekley and Dr. Reima Al-Jarf, a new evaluation checklist was created.

• The checklist is made up of 13 questions which are divided into four sections;

Content, Vocabulary and Grammar, Exercises and Activities, and Attractiveness of the Text.

• The rating system - a scale starting from Excellent, Good, Adequate, Poor and Totally Lacking

2.0 analysis & comments Content

1. Is the content presented (topically/functionally) in an organised manner?Answer: Good

- 15 chapters : every chapter is focussing on certain grammatical items

- the texts used in every chapter exposed the students to real life situations.

- content is presented topically - integrate any grammatical items that suit the topic

- content is presented functionally - students will learn according to their needs

2. Does the content help in understanding the culture of the target language?

Answer: Totally lacking

- content of the textbook totally encompass the Malaysian culture instead of the culture of the native speakers of the English language.

- issues or the topics in the textbook is based on Malaysian culture like celebration, ethnicity and etc.

- culture of the target language is less emphasized.

- emphasize the target culture - literature

3. Are there any authentic materials used as reading selections?

Answer: Poor

- The use of authentic material is less

- students are less exposed to real life situations - making it difficult for the students to get a clear picture of what is being taught.

4. Are there any issues in the content that challenges the reader to think critically?

  Answer: Good

- It covers common issues - people, health, the environment, the social issues and the development of science and technology.

- chapter 5 focuses on the value of friendship, chapter 10 is about making wise choices.

vocabulary & grammar

1. Are the grammar rules presented in a logical manner and increasing order of difficulty?

Answer : Good

- For every chapter, there will be a different emphasis on the grammatical items.

- Chapter 1 - contractions and WH-question, in chapter 2 - positive and negative sentences as well as collective nouns while in chapter 3 - adjectives of comparison: comparatives and superlatives.

- level of difficulty is increasing and the students can easily adapt as it is organized in a logical manner.

2. Are the new vocabulary words presented in a variety of ways?

Answer: Poor

- the new vocabulary is highlighted (bold or underlined) and the meaning is given.

- some exercises require the students to guess the meaning of the highlighted words.

- Overall analysis, it was found that the new vocabulary are often introduced in quite similar ways. The author is using the same method to introduced every new vocabulary for every text.

3. Are there repetition of new vocabulary words to reinforce their meanings and use?

Answer : Poor

- introduces the new vocabulary words by highlighting or underlining them.

- It is found that every new vacabulary is provided with meaning or explanation but with no further exercises.

- students won’t be able to apply the new vocabulary learnt in their exercises - the students cannot reinforce the meaning of the word and its use.

Exercises & Activities

1. Do the activities require students to use new vocabulary to communicate?

Answer : Totally lacking

- The new vocabulary is introduced in every text. There are about 4 to 5 new vocabulary being presented and meaning is provided for each new words.

- The explanation of the meaning of the new word is clear but, there is no application in the task or exercises given.

- students are merely exposed to the new vocabulary but no further requirement to use those words in communication.

2. Are the students given sufficient examples to complete the exercise and activities?

Answer : Adequate

- not every activities are provided with examples since the level of difficulty of every exercises given are simple and not very challenging.

- However, for certain tasks, the students will have to follow the example in order to understand the instruction.

3. Do the exercises promote critical thinking of the text?

Answer : Adequate

- Every text provided consists of 6 to 7 questions only. - the answer can be found from the text.

- There is not much challenging questions that requires students to think critically but students still have to make inferences to get the answer.

- some tasks requires the students to work in groups. So, they will have to discuss among themselves which will automatically generate their thinking skills

Attractiveness of the text

1. Is the cover of the book appealing?Answer: Poor

- The cover of the book is analysed based on a few criteria’s such as the colour of the cover, the font of the text, the pictures, and use of multimodality such as graphics and texts together.

- there is minimal use of colours making it monotonous as mostly shades of the colour blue were used.

- The pictures too were not very attractive as they gave little meaning to the contents of the book making the degree to which the cover represents the content of the book low.

- The font of the text is satisfying enough though still the colour was found to be very dull.

- the cover of the book is rated to be as poor because it can be improved tremendously to attract the interest of students. 

2. Do the illustrations add to the meaning of the text rather than detracting from it?

Answer: Excellent

- In this textbook, it was found that the illustrations do add meaning to the text rather than detract from it.

- It is rated as Excellent as the illustrations were not overly fancy or elaborate but instead, the information that can be gained from the pictures were sufficient enough to add to the meaning of the text and did not detract from it at all.

- They are added to avoid the pages from being too dull and boring so as to attract interest as well as a form of tool to aid in better understanding of the text.

3. Is the text interesting enough that the students will enjoy reading it?

Answer : Good

- the text is good and interesting enough for Form 2 students because the language used is quite direct and suits their level which makes them atrracted to the text.

- the topic or subjects being stressed in the text in the textbook are quite interesting as it covers many issues.

3.0 CONCLUSION•The content is presented in an organised

manner which helps in making the teaching and learning process more systematic and easier.

• issues in content that challenges the reader to think critically which helps in preparing them to face real life situations.

• the content does lack of information about the culture of the target language and there are poor use of authentic materials in the text book.

•The vocabulary and grammar of the book are presented in a logical manner where it increases in order of difficulty.

•there is a lack in the variety of ways new vocabulary is presented and also in the way the meaning of the new vocabulary in reinforced.

•For the text book to be fully effective, there should be a variety of ways of introducing new vocabulary words and supplementary exercises should be given to strengthen their use.

•Variety of exercises and activities are plentiful but are found to be too simple as they do not promote higher thinking skills.

•However, there are certain tasks that provide the students with examples, so the students will be able to understand the pattern of the question.

•The illustrations in the book were found to add to the meaning of the text rather than detract from it. The text was also found to be attractive enough that they can help in attracting the students’ interest.

•However, the evaluation found that the cover of the book is not very attractive and very unappealing. This could hinder the interest of the students.

• In conclusion, the analysis found that the book is suitable enough to be used in the teaching and learning process of form 2 students but there are still some aspects that need some improvement to make the textbook more effective so as to enable to achieve the learning objectives.