Evaluation
The textbook are adequately address the course goals. Every competence in the curriculum can be achieved with this book, of course with some modification from the teacher. The chapters are arranged appropriately matching the syllabus from the Curriculum 2013.
Most of the activity in the book are the same. The students are asked to relate what they have known or their own experience with the material by presenting pictures. The students have to describe the picture or what they think about the picture.
Moreover, at the end of every chapter the students will do mini projects in which they have to work in group. This kind of activity encourage the students’ ability to work with others. While this kind of activity strongly encourage students’ involvement in the learning process, it might be not very good for a low motivated students. The book need more controlled activity to accommodate the slow students.
The sequencing of vocabulary, grammar and genre of this book has match what the curriculum suggests. There are a lot of vocabulary repetition throughout the book which is good because it will help students remember them much longer. The grammar sequence is not explicitly presented in the book. However, the content showed that it is appropriately sequenced, starting from the very simple (this is, that is) until the more complex grammar like in instruction. Its genre sequenced from what are the closest to students’ life (family and their jobs) into the farthest but still within the student’s life.
The book is designed for Indonesian students. It contains what Indonesian students would normally find in their life. There are no ‘out of context’ material in the book. Everything is very Indonesian. The pictures and contents strongly represent the culture of Indonesia. Having said this, it would be much better if the students are given a chance to know how students in other countries are living, so they will understand about the culture of other country.
The main strength of the book is the content presentation and the weakness is the lack of audio. The content is presented through pictures. The bubble speeches make the book as if it was communicating / interacting with the students.
The book mostly use pictures to present the materials. Besides boosting the students’ motivation in learning, this can be far more engaging to the student. The weakness is that it doesn’t have any audio or video material. This book will be much better if there was audio and video materials. Beside saving the teacher’s time in creating such materials, the students will learn in a more interesting way and they can hear what the correct pronunciation of certain words are.
After analyzing the textbook, it is indeed suitable for the 7th grader students in Indonesia. The vocabularies are not too difficult and they are all relevant to the 7th grader students. The instructions within the book are easy to follow. The content are appropriate for students.