An evaluation of the KBSM English for Form 2Textbook

1. Evaluating KBSM Textbook
Jeisri a/p Vijian 4091009841
Nur Shafiqah Bt. Mohd. Shukri 4091008291
Nur Atikah Bt. Manan 4091009311
Nur Syafiqah Bt. Abdul Kadar 4091008841

2. 1.0 INTRODUCTION
• Title: KBSM English Form 2
• Author: Rohini Shanta, Uma Kurup and Shalani Lorenz
• Price : RM16.40
• Comprises 200 pages
• Target users: Form 2 students and teachers teaching
English for Form 2.
• This book also comes with a complimentary CD
• Is accredited by the Ministry of Education, Malaysia.

3. Motive of Evaluation:
• to determine if the textbook is suitable for the
target users.
• to determine the criteria needed for choosing a
textbook.

4. • Referring to two ESL textbook evaluation checklists
by Joshua Miekley and Dr. Reima Al-Jarf, a new
evaluation checklist was created.
• The checklist is made up of 13 questions which are
divided into four sections;
Content,
Vocabulary and Grammar,
Exercises and Activities, and
Attractiveness of the Text.
• The rating system - a scale starting from Excellent,
Good, Adequate, Poor and Totally Lacking

5. 2.0 analysis & comments
 Content
1. Is the content presented (topically/functionally) in an
organised manner?
Answer: Good
- 15 chapters : every chapter is focussing on certain grammatical
items
- the texts used in every chapter exposed the students to real life
situations.
- content is presented topically - integrate any grammatical items
that suit the topic
- content is presented functionally - students will learn according
to their needs

7. 2. Does the content help in understanding the culture of the
target language?
Answer: Totally lacking
- content of the textbook totally encompass the Malaysian
culture instead of the culture of the native speakers of the
English language.
- issues or the topics in the textbook is based on Malaysian
culture like celebration, ethnicity and etc.
- culture of the target language is less emphasized.
- emphasize the target culture - literature

9. 3. Are there any authentic materials used as reading selections?
Answer: Poor
- The use of authentic material is less
- students are less exposed to real life situations - making it difficult for
the students to get a clear picture of what is being taught.

10. 4. Are there any issues in the content that
challenges the reader to think critically?
Answer: Good
- It covers common issues - people, health, the
environment, the social issues and the
development of science and technology.
- chapter 5 focuses on the value of friendship,
chapter 10 is about making wise choices.

12.  vocabulary & grammar
1. Are the grammar rules presented in a logical manner and
increasing order of difficulty?
Answer : Good
- For every chapter, there will be a different emphasis on the
grammatical items.
- Chapter 1 - contractions and WH-question, in chapter 2 -
positive and negative sentences as well as collective nouns
while in chapter 3 - adjectives of comparison: comparatives
and superlatives.
- level of difficulty is increasing and the students can easily
adapt as it is organized in a logical manner.

13. 2. Are the new vocabulary words presented in a variety of
ways?
Answer: Poor
- the new vocabulary is highlighted (bold or underlined) and
the meaning is given.
- some exercises require the students to guess the meaning
of the highlighted words.
- Overall analysis, it was found that the new vocabulary are
often introduced in quite similar ways. The author is using
the same method to introduced every new vocabulary for
every text.

15. 3. Are there repetition of new vocabulary words to
reinforce their meanings and use?
Answer : Poor
- introduces the new vocabulary words by highlighting or
underlining them.
- It is found that every new vacabulary is provided with
meaning or explanation but with no further exercises.
- students won’t be able to apply the new vocabulary learnt
in their exercises - the students cannot reinforce the
meaning of the word and its use.

16.  Exercises & Activities
1. Do the activities require students to use new vocabulary to
communicate?
Answer : Totally lacking
- The new vocabulary is introduced in every text. There are
about 4 to 5 new vocabulary being presented and meaning is
provided for each new words.
- The explanation of the meaning of the new word is clear but,
there is no application in the task or exercises given.
- students are merely exposed to the new vocabulary but no
further requirement to use those words in communication.

17. 2. Are the students given sufficient examples to complete
the exercise and activities?
Answer : Adequate
- not every activities are provided with examples since the
level of difficulty of every exercises given are simple and
not very challenging.
- However, for certain tasks, the students will have to
follow the example in order to understand the
instruction.

19. 3. Dothe exercises promote critical thinking of the
text?
Answer : Adequate
- Every text provided consists of 6 to 7 questions only. -
the answer can be found from the text.
- There is not much challenging questions that requires
students to think critically but students still have to
make inferences to get the answer.
- some tasks requires the students to work in groups.
So, they will have to discuss among themselves which
will automatically generate their thinking skills

21.  Attractiveness of the text
1. Is the cover of the book appealing?
Answer: Poor
- The cover of the book is analysed based on a few criteria’s such as the
colour of the cover, the font of the text, the pictures, and use of
multimodality such as graphics and texts together.
- there is minimal use of colours making it monotonous as mostly shades of
the colour blue were used.
- The pictures too were not very attractive as they gave little meaning to the
contents of the book making the degree to which the cover represents the
content of the book low.
- The font of the text is satisfying enough though still the colour was found
to be very dull.
- the cover of the book is rated to be as poor because it can be improved
tremendously to attract the interest of students.

23. 2. Do the illustrations add to the meaning of the text rather than
detracting from it?
Answer: Excellent
- In this textbook, it was found that the illustrations do add
meaning to the text rather than detract from it.
- It is rated as Excellent as the illustrations were not overly
fancy or elaborate but instead, the information that can be
gained from the pictures were sufficient enough to add to the
meaning of the text and did not detract from it at all.
- They are added to avoid the pages from being too dull and
boring so as to attract interest as well as a form of tool to aid in
better understanding of the text.

25. 3. Is the text interesting enough that the students will enjoy
reading it?
Answer : Good
- the text is good and interesting enough for Form 2 students
because the language used is quite direct and suits their level
which makes them atrracted to the text.
- the topic or subjects being stressed in the text in the textbook
are quite interesting as it covers many issues.

26. 3.0 CONCLUSION
• The content is presented in an organised manner
which helps in making the teaching and learning
process more systematic and easier.
• issues in content that challenges the reader to
think critically which helps in preparing them to
face real life situations.
• the content does lack of information about the
culture of the target language and there are poor
use of authentic materials in the text book.

27. • The vocabulary and grammar of the book are
presented in a logical manner where it increases
in order of difficulty.
• there is a lack in the variety of ways new
vocabulary is presented and also in the way the
meaning of the new vocabulary in reinforced.
• For the text book to be fully effective, there
should be a variety of ways of introducing new
vocabulary words and supplementary exercises
should be given to strengthen their use.

28. • Variety of exercises and activities are plentiful
but are found to be too simple as they do not
promote higher thinking skills.
• However, there are certain tasks that provide the
students with examples, so the students will be
able to understand the pattern of the question.
• The illustrations in the book were found to add
to the meaning of the text rather than detract
from it. The text was also found to be attractive
enough that they can help in attracting the
students’ interest.

29. • However, the evaluation found that the cover of
the book is not very attractive and very
unappealing. This could hinder the interest of
the students.
• In conclusion, the analysis found that the book is
suitable enough to be used in the teaching and
learning process of form 2 students but there are
still some aspects that need some improvement
to make the textbook more effective so as to
enable to achieve the learning objectives.