Analyzing the Representation of Communicative Activities in Grade 12 English Textbook at Tebela Secondary and Preparatory School

Tafese Bosha

doi:10.7176/jlll/73-02

Abstract

The purpose of this study was analyzing the representation of communicative activities in grade 12 English textbook at Tebela Secondary and Preparatory School. Descriptive research design was employed for the current study. To collect the necessary data for the study, semi-structured interview for two teachers, questionnaire for sixty-five students and document analysis were employed. To analyze the collected data, qualitative and quantitative methods of data analysis were employed. That is, data collected through questionnaire were analyzed employing statistical tools such as frequency and percentage using SPSS version 20, while responses obtained from interview were described and discussed. In addition, the data obtained from document analysis that were presented in tables and explained qualitatively to validate and triangulate the data obtained from interview and questionnaire. From the analysis of data, different findings were obtained. The study revealed that that different communicative contents and activities were found in Grade 12 English Textbook as confirmed by three different results, which are based on questionnaire data from students, semi structured interview data from two English teachers and data from document analysis. This doesn’t mean that the availability of communicative contents and activities can make English language teaching and learning effective and only the availability can’t make the Textbook appropriate to students, because the contents and activities should be organized and designed sequentially. Based on the findings, conclusions were drawn and recommendations were forwarded to improve the perceptions of teachers and students as well as to revise some contents of the textbook. Keywords: Communicative Contents, Communicative Activities and Textbook Representation DOI: 10.7176/JLLL/73-02 Publication date: November 30 th 2020

Highlights

The textbook plays pivotal role in teaching and learning
Graves (2000:175) states: Textbook provides a syllabus for the course because the authors of the syllabus have made decisions about what will be learned and in what order, it provides security for the students because they have a kind of a road map of the course: they know what to expect and they know what is expected from them, it provides a set of visuals, activities, readings, etc., and so saves the teacher time in finding or developing such materials, it provides teachers with a basis for assessing students’ learning
Cunnings worth (1995) argues that textbooks are an effective resource for self-directed learning, an effective resource for presentation material, a source of ideas and activities, and a reference source for students, a syllabus where they reflect pre-determined learning objectives, and support for less experienced teachers who have yet to gain in confidence

Summary

Introduction

The textbook plays pivotal role in teaching and learning. It has priceless contribution for teaching and learning language skills. Hutchinson and Torres (1994) have pointed out that textbooks may play a pivotal role in innovation. Richards (2001) states that textbooks act as a key component in most language programs They provide the learners with the necessary input that the learners receive and the language practice that occurs in the class. As for inexperienced teachers, Richards (2001) states that textbooks can serve as a tool to train them He concludes that textbooks are efficient in that they allow much time for the teacher to focus on teaching rather than material's production

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Conclusion