What do you think about KBSM ENGLISH FORM THREE TEXTBOOK?

What do you think about KBSM ENGLISH FORM THREE TEXTBOOK?

Generally, learning materials such as textbooks, either for primary school or secondary school, need to undergo the approval of Ministry of Education to ensure the quality of the teaching and learning materials. Thus, the Ministry of Education keeps revising the content and updating new information by upgrading the quality of the textbooks with new curriculum design to enhance students’ learning depending on their competency level and their needs. The intention of the ministry in designing curriculum is not only for teaching the elements that are related to the students but also to deliver the importance of the moral values. The syllabus in the textbook is designed especially for the target group and the suitability of the syllabus based on the level of proficiency, linguistic background and prior knowledge of the students. The latest curriculum that has been designed for the students focus more on the process of developing dynamic, productive and competent youths. 

TOPICS AND ELEMENTS THAT CAN BE FOUND IN SELECTED TEXTBOOK

In the latest publication of Form 3 English Textbook, there are 15 chapters that covered five main themes which are people, health, environment, social issues and science and technology. For the first theme, People, the authors focus more on the famous people who have achieved remarkable contribution. The authors’ intention is to let the students learn from the successful people and take them as role models. Next, there are 4 topics under health and the theme of health grabs the most attention of the authors. The authors give a lot of health information such as the importance of food pyramid and safety problem that have been faced by the students. Authors’ intention through this theme is to build students’ awareness of the importance of taking care of health. For the topics under the themes of environment and current social issues, the authors emphasize on the various common problem that faced by the students by giving information and examples through the texts. For the example, through the usage of the textbook as teaching aids in the classroom, the teacher can guide the students in learning what to do if they face flood situation. The learning will be more effective because the students can assimilate their feeling while learning something they have experienced before. Last but not least, the authors also integrated the topics under science and technology theme. The world is getting more familiar with the use of technology and the authors wish to lead the students to learn the technology gadgets in the proper way and take the advantages of the strength of technology and apply them in their life. Moreover, scientific terms such as water distillation, evaporation and osmosis are used in delivering the information related to science. The topics under this theme will engage students in language learning regarding content-based learning.

All the chapters under those 5 main themes are evenly integrated with few sections which included grammar features and vocabularies, pronunciation and sound system, literature as well as the integration of 4 macro skills, reading, writing, listening and speaking. This English textbook strikes for achieving the objectives of the syllabus by focusing on three areas of language use which are interpersonal, informational and aesthetic. So the intention of the textbook authors is to encourage the students to have a variety of language use based on certain circumstances either is for self-reading or information delivery. The topics chosen are socially related to students’ daily life which brings to a meaningful teaching and learning atmosphere in the classroom. A lot of skills or educational emphases such as Thinking skill, Learning How to Learn, Information and Communication Technology (ICT) skills, Values and Multiple Intelligences, Knowledge of Acquisition skills, Preparation for Real Life situation skills and Future Studies are embedded into every topic in this textbook. 

RELATIVE EMPHASIS GIVEN TO THE COMMON TOPICS/COMPONENT

In this Form 3 English textbook, one of the main themes, health, is emphasized more among all the other themes. This theme is included in 4 chapters which are equivalent to 54 pages. This theme has the highest percentage among four other themes which are people, social issues, environment, and science and technology. The topics under this theme are Fit for Life with 13 pages, Active and Healthy with 15 pages, Safety for One and All with 13 pages, and The Inner You with 13 pages. There are few components under each topic which are language for interpersonal use, language for informational use, language for aesthetic use, grammar, sound system, vocabulary and educational emphases. These components are with consistent number of pages for each chapters. In chapter 6 which is Fit for Life, the number of each pages in the components are the same as in chapter 10, Active and Healthy, with language for interpersonal use is 4 pages, language for informational use is 5 pages, language for aesthetic use is 2 pages, grammar is 2 pages, sound system is 1 page, vocabulary is 1 page and educational emphasis is 1 page. But in chapter 11 which is Safety for One and All, the number of pages in the components are quite different because language for interpersonal use is 8 pages, language for informational use is 4 pages, language for aesthetic use is 2 pages, grammar is 2 pages, sound system is 1 page, vocabulary is 1 page and educational emphases is 1 page. For the last chapter of the most emphasized theme in this textbook is chapter 12, The Inner You. The number of each pages in the components are language for interpersonal use is 5 pages, language for interpersonal use is 4 pages, language for aesthetic use is 1 page, grammar is 2 pages, sound system is 1 page, vocabulary is 1 page and educational emphases is 1 page. Based from all of the components listed above, language for interpersonal use has the most number of pages in order for students to realise that communication and relationship between people are really important, especially in the chapter 6, it shows that the components of language for interpersonal use has the highest number of pages since the writers wanted to emphasize that it is important to express appreciation to those who have really help us.  

TREATMENT TOWARDS TOPICS’ ARRANGEMENT ACCORDING TO CHAPTERS AND THEMES

        There are no same topics being treated more than one in the textbook but there are similarities of the theme of the chapters and the language components being used in the textbook.

The topics are somehow similar but not related to each other and one of the main reasons is because the topics are actually selected based on five themes. Of course, the content of the topics are different in terms of language items being highlighted, grammar and educational emphases. Even though the topics selected are based on the five main themes, the arrangement of the topics are jumbled up and not according to the sequence of themes. For example, the beginning chapters in the textbook are all from the theme ‘People’ and ‘Social’, while the ending chapters in the textbook are all from the theme ‘Science and Technology’. However, for the middle chapters, there are mix up between chapters from the theme ‘Health’ and ‘Environment’. All other chapters are arranged according to themes in sequence – People, Social, Environment, and Science and Technology. The chapters under the ‘Health’ theme does not being arranged consequently after one another. There is one chapter under ‘Health’ theme which is Chapter 6, but Chapter 7 to 9 are topics from the ‘Environment’ topic. Then, the chapters of ‘Health’ theme reappears in Chapter 10 to 12. These might be because chapters under the theme ‘Health’ hold the largest portion in the textbook and the writers need to separate the topic to avoid making it looking too redundant for the students.

Other same components that being treated more than one in the textbook is the focus on skills and type of activities used to enhance the skills. For example, the focus of speaking skills in the section ‘Language for Interpersonal Use’. In almost every topic, there will be activities that require the students to review the lesson or take part in discussions which are suitable for students of  Level 2 and Level 3. Little focus is given to speaking activities for Level 1 probably because this is a Form 3 textbook and students are expected to already be in Level 2 and 3. There are no difference in how the components are sequenced because they all being treated as one of the activities for speaking lesson. Q4:How would you describe the differences among the priorities of the writers of each of the topics/components in the textbook? Generally, the authors focus on the integration of 4 macro skills which are reading listening writing and speaking. Through this textbook, we can see that the authors prioritize the importance of health with the topics of Fit for life, Active and healthy, Safety for all and one and The inner you.

SUGGESTIONS FOR IMPROVEMENTS AND EMPHASIS OF THE TOPICS / COMPONENTS 

To revise the contents of this textbook, there are few topics that we would like to add and eliminate to make sure that it would be able to cater the students’ need and enhance their learning experience. In the comparison of the themes in this Form 3 textbook with the Form 1 textbook, we found that the values theme is only available during Standard 1 and not in this textbook. Therefore, we would like to suggest few topics on “Values” theme to be added into the textbook. Actually, there are topics which implicitly injected values in this textbook such as “Nature’s Gifts” and “The Inner You”, but we think that it would be better if the topic itself represents the values, which means that the values are really given emphasize. As suggested by the National Education Philosophy, students should be balance from all aspects  such as physical (jasmani), emotional (emosi), spiritual (rohani) intellectual (intelek) and social (sosial) or also known as JERIS. Being intelligent without having integrity and values is meaningless. For instance, a teacher or a doctor and even a ruler who is absolutely highly educated will be a dishonourable person if he or she breach the trust. Hence, it is very important to build integrity and other moral values to produce holistic students. 

On the other hand, we would like to suggest that the topics for “People” theme in this textbook to be reduced. Three topics under this theme are “They Touch Our Lives”, “Famous Leaders”, and “Healing Hands”. From our observations, we found that these topics are more and less alike the previous topics which has been included in the Form 2 textbook. Thus, we think that the topics on this theme could actually be reduced to give more space for topics on “Values” theme to be added.

CONCLUSION

As the conclusion, the KBSM English Form Three Textbook has been systematically designed to focus on specific learning objectives. The book provides students with opportunities to participate in various interactive activities to create an enjoyable experience in learning the English Language. There are pros and cons of the textbook in terms of topics arrangement, language elements that were given emphasized and others but all of all, the contents of the whole textbook is relevant in facilitating the students to use the English language effectively not only in the classroom setting but also for the real-world situations that they will face later.