IMAGE BUILDING THROUGH EFL TEXTBOOK ‘MY PALS ARE HERE’ TO .
AISEEIndonesian EFL Journal, Vol. 4(2) July 2018p-ISSN 2252-7427, e-ISSN 2541-3635The Asso ci atio n of Indones ianScho lars of Engli sh Educatio nIMAGE BUILDING THROUGH EFL TEXTBOOK ‘MY PALSARE HERE’ TO STUDENTS IN KUPANG, EASTERNINDONESIAPeggy JonathansFaculty of Teacher Training and Education, Artha Wacana Christian University, Kupang, IndonesiaE-mail: jonathanspeggyofficial@gmail.comAPA Citation: Jonathans, P. (2018). Image building through EFL textbook ‘My Pals are Here’ to studentsin Kupang, Eastern Indonesia. Indonesian EFL Journal, 4(2), 63-70. doi:10.25134/ieflj.v4i2.1377.Received: 16-03-2018Accepted: 21-05-2018Published: 01-07-2018Abstract: English textbook is supposed to display society traditions and civility to encourageintellectual conversation among students. Even at earliest stage, young students can grow thoughtfulprinciples of living in diversity and respectful among multicultural and religious community. The heartof moral values in students’ English book is expected to effectively address social and moral problemsof society and to maintain the harmony of living. ‘My Pals are Here’ English textbooks for primaryschools, presents EFL/ESL Asia themes. This motivates one private primary school in Kupang, easternIndonesia to use this book believing that their students are part of international and wider communityand engaging them in more Asia perspectives with attractive and colorful world teaching them manygood values. By elaborating humanistic approach in the book content, this book achieves to deliverdaily issues encountered by Asian children living more progressively with the introduction of manydiscourses in Asia and beyond without such pigeon holed the context of the book to very narrowscope. This discussion paper therefore aims to look at and discuss the input established within thebook through the language and topic contents, as well as social and cultural values underlying thecontent, and the virtues addressed to the children. Images built within this book depicted throughillustrations, figures, negotiation of meanings and interaction which extensively encouraged andperformed from tasks given. The textbook succeeds to show self-identity of Asia throughout thecontent.Keywords: Language Content; Subject Content; Moral Values; Images.INTRODUCTIONIn designing learning materials, thebackground of targeted students and theircontextual needs should be accommodatedthrough their subject textbook as this helpslearning becomes meaningful and relevant.‘My Pals are Here’ published by MaxwellLimited (2004) is one collection of Mentaribooks, designed for grade 1 up to grade 6 forelementary school of Asia which combinesboth notional as well as situational syllabus.According to Setiyadi (2006, p. 16), the firstsyllabus type consists of a collection offunctions or notions to perform in the Englishlesson; whereas the latter type is aboutimaginary situations used for learning thelanguage. Within notional and functionalsyllabus, communicative functions are selectedand logically ordered to the students’ needsand the learning materials written referring tothis approach will elaborate experiences,intuitions and common senses. As incomplementary to functional approach,situational approach takes real world situationswith three factors come into play includingparticipants, setting and communicative goals(Cunningsworth, 1995, p. 57). This textbookwritten in English for beginner level,accompanied with exercise book called as‘workbook’ for each grade comprises ofaveragely 8 up to 12 topics, for example, selfintroduction, neighborhood, people on street,pet, animals at wild, roles of family members,dreams and ambitions. Students doing theexercises will have direct clues from thetextbook such as color association, pictureillustration, sequenced pictures, rhymed poem,63
Peggy JonathansImage building through EFL textbook ‘My Pals are Here’ to students in Kupang, Eastern Indonesiafunny sound reading and useful vocabulary.Translation is least encouraged as the booktries to bring the students’ mind into Englishthinking on their level and beyond. Broadthemes are introduced before several relatedtopics. Cultures, ethnicities, religion, traditionsof Asia are addressed within the languagecontents so students’ learning complexity ismerely coming from English language.Role of textbooks should be more thanskill exercises but further to serve lifepurposes. Risager (1990, in Cunningsworth,1995, p. 88) urges one of main responsibilityof textbook is contributing towards cognitivemapping, by providing organized perspectivesinto culture and society; otherwise the skillbased subject would have no contents. Contentanalysis covers inquiry such as analysis onnatural occurring language which aims ofcontent analysis: to ensure objectivity, to seescientific methods which provide means toachieve systematic study, fulfillment ofvarious scientific criteria including reliabilityand validity (Neuerdorf, 2002, p. 1). Further,he adds methods of content analysis insystematic and quantitative way by elaboratingcertain ways of analyzing and coding.Krippendorf (2004) asserts that manifestcontent or latent of book throughclassification, tabulation and evaluation of itskey symbols and themes is to ascertain itsmeaning and probable effects. Through thispresent writing, the writer will bring up howan ESL textbook My Pals are Here be engineof social and economic transformation in Asiacontext. My Pals are Here textbook isreflecting social structure, with pictorialconstituents. Krippendorf (2004) claims thatthe ideas of messages serve specific purposes,and writing itself has predictable effects. Whatdo texts in the book mean to students-users,and what do the texts and pictures enable orprevent the students from something, and whatinformation carried by them does.Neuerdorf (2002, p. 24) then recommendsthat latent content should manifest variableswhereby the analysis can be conducted onwritten texts, transcribed speech, verbalinteraction, visual images, characterization,non-verbal behaviors, sound events, any othermessage types. Accordingly, content analysisshould be a summary analysis but an empiricalanalysis on content, e.g., making classificationby sorting out the data from intensive codingon measured data. He emphasizes that validcoding in content analysis is essential madethroughout training and substantial planning.As an academic endeavor, objectivity shouldbe met at most cases in content analysis evenno such thing really objective in social issuehowever the analysis must strive consistencyamong inquiries. The inter-subjectivitystandard used in the context is to ask otherswhether they could ‘agree on that something istrue’ rather than ‘finding out objectively ifsomething is really true’. Lasswell (1952 inNeuerdorf, 2002, p. 36) mentions that contentanalysis is technique aiming to describe withstrict objectivity, precision and generality, onparticular subject, in certain place at specifictime. In addition, he mentions that someanalyses aim to make predictive power withincertain message areas instead of trying toanswer theoretical importance.The design of EFL/ESL textbooks forprimary school students are more colorful, eyecatching, and full of clues and hints ascompared to higher level of students. Contentanalysis of this textbook will give academicimplication of this practice of how textbookplays significant role addressing social valuesand norms to the students especially the youngchildren. Sidek (2012) gives examples on theuse of expository passages starting fromelementary school in English in the firstlanguage (L1) setting will prepare students forthe next school level and it is considered asbest practice to expose them to content literacyby working with them, and this analysis willbe good recommendation to other similarlevels. In Indonesia, temporarily English is notlisted neither as a compulsory nor electivesubject for her elementary education.However, many local primary schools in thecountry due to the need of their students teachEnglish and decide certain textbooks based ontheir own discretion.In regards to classroom textbooks,Cunningsworth (1995) asserts that languagecontents operate at very complex stage andthey need to be realized into smaller unit oflessons. He strongly recommends to reduce64
AISEEIndonesian EFL Journal, Vol. 4(2) July 2018p-ISSN 2252-7427, e-ISSN 2541-3635The Asso ci atio n of Indones ianScho lars of Engli sh Educatio nlearning load for young students to be able tograsp it. Grammar aspects underlie the base oflanguage contents. It is hotly argued whetherform or use firstly introduced, althoughgrammar plays essential role in languagelearning. He emphasizes that both must belearnt and as closely together as possible. Thisaims to make meaningful outcome of thegrammar used and to contextualize thevocabulary in relevant settings. Therefore, itis stressed that exercises in textbook whichsensitized learners to the structure of Englishlexicon and the various relationships exists.Global aspect of language also includes stress,rhyme, intonation, and the students’ naturalsounding of English approciacy will depend ontheir phonology skill and this is nottransferable from their first language.Utterances will make sense which influencedby natural sound of their language.In a child-centered lesson, Paul (2003, p.28) urges that the children need to havesupport throughout the topic-based syllabusfor fitting to their learning environment,relating to familiar themes, performingabilities and addressing meanings rather thanforms. Imada (2012, p. 576) comparesbetween American textbooks and Japanese, thefirst highlights theme of individualism such asself-direction and achievement whereas thelatter highlights collectivism such asconformity and group harmony. Each of thecultural characteristics was also observed inpicture content, attribution of the outcome,narrator, and role played. The study alsoindicated cultural differences in storycharacteristics. Rodriquez (2015, p. 167) foundin an EFL textbook only static andcongratulatory topics of surface culture andomit complex and transformative forms ofculture, and this hinders students buildingmore substantive intercultural competence inthe language classroom. This thereforeaccording to him, teachers need to addressdeep-rootedaspectsofculture,socommunication serves its purposes welladdressing the targeted values and messages.Some textbooks are pursued by nationalelites to pose political agenda througheducation. Textbooks can show economic,political, and mirror social reality (Xiangmei,2016, p. 478). Some books are well noted fortheirtextualdescriptionofcertaincommunities and future expectations for bettersociety. Images and additional modes formeaning making for children in learning EFLare necessarily important due to their limitedcapacity to understand abstract concepts andthe messages sent by English textbook beyondtheir inferences. Moses (2015, p. 83) revealedthat teachers’ comprehensive knowledge aboutroles of images for bilingual learners can helptheir students by assisting them to scaffoldlanguage contents through images. She foundthat EFL young learners interacting withinformational texts equipped with images candraw from their world while at the same timedevelop their vocabulary. Visual images,however, play indispensable pedagogical rolein educating young learners (Leview et al.,1982; Carmey et al., 2002, in Xiangmei, 2016,p. 480). Social and cultural changes arereflected and roles of each member depictedfrom images presentation in each textbook.In humanistic perspectives, effectivelearning is when students are engaged inlearning process as ‘whole’ individual people,making choices, learning in meaningfulcontexts and in anxiety-free environment(Paul, 2003, p. 170), believing learning thisway facilitates students to reach their fullpotential. The classroom book contents will docontribution to this virtue established withinthe students. Virtues are defined as admirablecharacter traits and virtue ethics form of moralreflection which gives a central place to suchtraits of character. Arthur further adds that thisapproach includes a tolerance of ambiguity, anacceptance of one self and others, having peakexperience leading to personal transformationthrough new personal insights. These can beexercised by providing the students to idealdiscourse, e.g. textbooks, to make them part oftheir world by interchanging views, buildingmental model of English, encouraging thestudents to handle conflict and respecting eachother regardless the background attachments.Because intellectual virtues-which are qualitiesof mind, are not inborn, yet need to be trainedto young learners to act accordingly.Kupperman (1991, p. 16-17, in Arthur, 2003,p. 33) claims that moral education cannot65
Peggy JonathansImage building through EFL textbook ‘My Pals are Here’ to students in Kupang, Eastern Indonesiamerely be a series of rational appeals. Thisimplies that the affection aspects of thestudents should be assisted by teachers andtextbooks. Delivering textbooks to studentswith this in mind allows teacher to teach thestudents to deal with real complexity of living.Students are endowed with temperamental andbiological disposition which determine, alongwith the way of how they are brought up andexposed to social contact, this helps them tolearn making decision (Arthur, 2003, p. 29).Having this on mind, the study is interested toanalyze textbook content under a topic ‘ImageBuilding through ‘My Pals are Here’ to EFLStudents in Kupang, Eastern Indonesia’,motivated by two questions:1. What is the language content delivered inthe textbook, in terms of grammar use,vocabulary,andintegrationofpronunciation?2. How are images of Asian life realized in thetopic and subject content as well as thesocial and cultural values?RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONThe language content of the textbook:Grammar use, vocabulary, and integrationof pronunciationThe textbook My Pals are Here mostly usebasic grammar, i.e., Present Tense and simplepast for Grade 1 up to Grade 4 primary school.This simple form is at the appropriate level forthe students, delivered in short sentences andthe language is very direct with explicitmeanings. The vocabulary coverage is alsograded and has color clues e.g. object aroundthem including animals sound and plants. Thelist come from the students’ special interests,e.g. hobbies, sports, games, happy holidays.To add this book complexity, students explorenew words and the context connection insequence such as family time, fairy tales,folklores and outer space. As the difficultylevels increase, the vocabulary for pre-cautionsand rule for public have been addressed andwell organized with pictures aids tounderstanding. There is a clear associationbetween pictures and words to send meaningsto students, with some additional sounds ofanimals or objects to complete the onedimension picture in the book as ifrepresenting the whole living things in theenvironments.The tenses used by the textbook writersare highlighted by different colors to indicatedifferent point to the students withoutcomplicated explanation to the students, verybrief and quite eye catching. The simple pasttense is used in the units of the book 1A and1B with some examples provided allow theteachers as well as the students themselves toextend to other sentences production. Anothergrammar point, imperative, come into play.The students have been familiar with ordersand instructions in real life and this formstimulates their schemata knowledge to utilizethe pre-notions into learning English in formalsituations. This linking knowledge has beenpracticed by the book and very ideal for anyother English lessons.Pronunciation in ‘My Pals are Here’ beginswith rhyming words in short poems, songswith repeated chorus and short passages. TheMETHODThis study is designed as descriptive method.The subject as the heart of the study is EFLtextbook, My Pals are Here, published byMaxwell Limited (2004), in cooperation withMentari book collections. Taking 4 packagesof books, each consists of a student book and aworkbook, the book number 1A, 1B, 2A, 2Btaken as the purposive sampling, out of 6 intotal. Purposive sampling technique has beenvital, although this cannot be generalized, butthe concern lies on the goal to acquire in-depthinformation from the source (Cohen et al.,2007, p. 114-115). In addition, they view thatthis sampling technique on the basis of theirjudgment of their typicality or possessions ofthe particular characteristics being sought.This selection is based on the gradualtransition of the books’ topics and level ofEnglish, since the first four books (1A-2A) areessentially important to progressively developthe pupils’ basic English as second or foreignlanguage. The instrument then is calleddocumentary, because the primary data wastaken from the printed sources. Interpretationsand discussion are orientating to positiveimages established within the contents.66
AISEEIndonesian EFL Journal, Vol. 4(2) July 2018p-ISSN 2252-7427, e-ISSN 2541-3635The Asso ci atio n of Indones ianScho lars of Engli sh Educatio nsize of the materials for pronunciation is quitesmall but the consequencing materials onpronunciation keep closely related in topics.Negotiation of meanings in these contextstakes place. The students will then be excitedto pronounce the words with purpose and inmeaningful ways.compete in fair play or sports and games. Norestriction at all and pigeon holes on certaingames based on the sex of players.Deep down to the whole aspects related tocommunity, English textbook writers shouldthoughtfully consider multi-faith and multiethnicity contexts where the students existwithin. Being insensitive to this discourse canmislead the children at their golden ages whichconsidered as the crucial foundation for theirlater life. Thus a book review is essentialbefore releasing any EFL textbooks to public.With such open-minded attitudes, ‘My Pals areHere’ gives credits to all residents by simplymentioning their names, e.g., Indian heritagename (Raju), Chinese ethnicity (Mr. Li), andother tribe (Mr. Ahmad), Malay, or Moslemname. Pictures of these men in garden oragricultural sector vividly are shown withoutranking each ethnicity to different level of jobs(higher versus lower). Indonesia EFLtextbooks, on the contrary, tend to ignore thatIndonesia consists of many tribes and peoplewith various backgrounds, and to worsen thesituation, they are not represented well bythose publishers. This book, however, bringspositive message that everyone can be great inany sectors of economic despite theirbackground, e.g., farming. Mr. Li and Mr.Ahmad as previously mentioned, in this regardare of two different ethnicities in Singaporebut share of the same passion. This indicatesmembers of community are not discriminatedfor their jobs. Beside ethnicity names,foreigners’ names also draw this researchinterest, i.e., de Cruz family, which have beenpermanent residents in the country (Singaporeper se) and are being acknowledged. Thistextbook internalizes modern perspective thatbeing Asian means being global citizenshipand acting accordingly. Raju, an Indianheritage-sound name mentioned in Book 1B,lives with four family members of the sameethnicities in a modern Asian household wherethe house is fully equipped with modernappliances. This condition erases suchhegemony of Asian being in line of povertybut nowadays they progress more in their wayof life comparing to the past. This does notmean ignoring the poverty happens around, yetThe topic and subject content and socialand cultural valuesThe discourse of My Pals are Here depictsAsian modern life with many good values andpositive attitudes, including environment andanimals caring, enjoying life through sportsand games, fostering imaginative skills,encouraging dreams for future, genderawareness, safe zone for young children, fairplay and healthy competitions.One of trending issues in g
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