Evaluation on senior high school English textbooks

Abstract

In Indonesia, English teachers use textbooks to help students in the teaching-learning process and use it as a self-help resource to get rich input in learning. To improve the quality of English language teaching in Indonesia, this research was conducted to measure whether the three books used in Senior High School, i.e. “Bahasa Inggris”, “Pathway to English”, and “Outcomes Upper Intermediate” are right or not. This research used Alan Cunningsworth’s theory on excellent textbook and tried to find the strengths and weaknesses of the three books based on the given methods above. The study was conducted using evaluation research to evaluate the three English textbooks used by some schools in Yogyakarta. Evaluation steps included taking some samples from the books to see whether they meet the criteria of good textbooks that the researcher developed based on Cunningsworth’s framework. The research found out that Bahasa Inggris meets five standards: aims and approaches, design and organisation, topic, teachers’ book, and political consideration. Pathway to English meets four standards of excellent textbook by Cunningsworth: aims and approaches, design and organisation, teachers’ book, and political attention. Outcomes Upper Intermediate matches five principles of excellent manual by Cunningsworth: goals and methods, design and organisation, skills, topic, and teachers’ book. The researcher also found out that the strengths and weaknesses of “Bahasa Inggris”, “Pathway to English”, and “Outcomes Upper Intermediate”. From the findings above, the researcher suggests the teacher use three textbooks in the teaching-learning process because three books meet the criteria in a good book.