Students’ perceptions of Textbook K

Five students were interviewed to offer more detailed information of evaluation on Textbook K. Four of them were studying in urban schools in Changhua County (i.e.,, USK1, USK2, USK3 and USK4). The other one was in a rural school in

Changhua County (i.e.,, RSK). The data are presented in five issues: 1) the evaluation of sufficiency in the quantity and difficulty levels; 2) satisfaction with the textbook; 3) comments on textbook writers’ philosophy and the use of the textbook; 4) needs, preferences and difficulties; 5) suggestions for future textbook compilation.

Sufficiency in quantity and difficulty levels

First of all, it was found that all of the students perceived the insufficiency of speaking practice. They all hoped to have guided speaking activities to practice having a conversation. USK1 further suggested practice of having a speech. As for writing, USK1, USK2, and USK3 thought writing practice was insufficient and should increase practice like writing a letter, a summary, and a short story. Concerning listening, USK1 and RSK indicated its insufficiency, and RSK suggested CDs be offered to students so that they could listen to CDs at home.

Regarding difficulty levels, two of the students thought that each part was suitable and the others thought that the overall content was easy. USK4 hoped to make listening practice more challenging by offering more difficult question types, such as short-answer questions, instead of the same types in every lesson. RSK indicated the practice of grammar was presented with only a sentence instead of a passage. This made her poor at answering questions in cloze tests. She had problems with using tenses in an article, and such a cloze test always appeared in the BCT every year.

Satisfaction with the textbook

Concerning overall features, four of the students were troubled by the insufficient space for note-taking. USK1 and RSK further suggested that the cover should be appealing by putting pictures of idols or characters of animations on it. In

addition, the whole story through Volumes One to Six was written based on the two leading characters’ life (i.e.,, Peter’s and Sam’s). “This made the story easy to be recalled but lack of freshness” (USK4).

With respect to words, phrases, and pronunciation, some features on the questionnaire were viewed important but were not offered in textbooks, for example, strategies to memorize new words and spelling, including suffixes and prefixes;

pronunciation practice with not only a single sound or word but also sentences and passages; explanation of new words and phrases. USK1 reported that some of her classmates had not learned K.K. phonetic alphabets in elementary school and this blocked their English learning in junior high school. Additionally, she indicated that it was good to present theme words in each lesson, but these words were needed to be put into a passage or a dialogue to show their usage.

With regard to grammar, comparison of confusing and similar grammar in Volume Six was perceived by all of the students. However, they thought this feature should be included in every volume. USK2, USK3 and USK4 perceived that practice was insufficient, so they had another workbook or other worksheets to compensate for this weakness. In contrast, RSK thought that practice was sufficient for her but explanation was not. She said that it always took her teacher a lot of time to explain grammar and then listening and speaking practice were omitted.

Concerning the dimension of texts, USK1 appreciated pictures because they were helpful for reading comprehension. USK2 also liked them because they were appealing. However, USK3 suggested that more attention should be paid on the text and pictures should be reduced. Regarding the layout, USK1, USK2 and USK3 perceived that different layout was used to highlight new words in Volumes One and Two. They valued the design because it attracted their attention to new words. For annotation of words, USK2 and USK3 hoped different meanings of a word could be

listed for students to review. With regard to the content, USK4 and RSK proposed that the readings should be longer to advance their reading comprehension. USK4 further suggested that topics should correspond with teenagers’ mental age, for example, friendship, communication, including discussing and arguing. He also revealed that most of the cultures in texts were common senses which students had already known.

Therefore, new information should be presented to arouse students’ curiosity.

With respect to four skills, speaking practice was much less than the practice of the other three skills. To improve the weakness, USK1 thought that Warm-up in each lesson was a good resource for students to discuss the topic of a lesson. USK2 said that telling a story based on pictures, which was tested in the speaking test of GEPT, could be a speaking activity conducted in class. USK3 suggested that post-reading questions be offered for the class to discuss, like the design of JHS Chinese textbooks.

On the other hand, USK4 and RSK showed their discontent with listening practice because of the limited practice types as well as inappropriate speed and answering time. Concerning reading and writing skills, USK1 said that although reading practice was much more than the practice of the other three skills, yet the question types were limited. More reading comprehension and cloze tests should be given. Guided writing was hoped to be offered in workbooks, like that in JHS Chinese workbooks.

With regard to learning methods and resources, skills of answering questions on a test gained much attention from the interviewees. However, neither textbooks nor workbooks presented this feature. In addition, all of the students hoped to obtain learning skills and resources which suited their proficiency level and learning style from the textbook. USK1 suggested websites because they were accessible resources.

All of the interviewees also hoped to learn how to look up words in a dictionary, and USK3 further said that she wanted to understand some common abbreviations in a dictionary (e.g., [P] refers to plural). On the other hand, some features that the current

textbooks had were perceived by the interviewees, for example, tables of contents as well as appendixes of words. Nevertheless, they did not how to utilize them and teachers’ guidance was needed.

Comments on textbook writers’ philosophy and the use of the textbook

All of the interviewees appreciated the importance of “developing four skills,”

“learning about local and foreign cultures,” “cultivating interests in English learning and a positive learning attitude toward it,” as well as “learning methods.” However, as mentioned above, only reading skills were practiced most of the time. Although the other ideals were also put into practice through teachers’ instruction and textbooks’

presentation, each of them needed improvement.

Concerning whether teachers followed the sequence of the parts in a lesson, all of the interviewees’ teachers began a lesson with words and grammar, and then followed the original sequence. USK1, USK4 and RSK appreciated teachers’

sequence because it was fluent and helped them review words and grammar when texts were instructed.

As for functions that textbooks had, a variety of functions were perceived. USK1 reported that all of the “four skills” were presented, but except for reading, the presentation of the other three was insufficient. USK2 said that diverse topics were introduced, such as holidays and technology which corresponded with current events.

USK3 perceived that the tables of contents presented “the goals of every lesson” and this drew students’ attention to key grammar. USK4 learned “everyday words and sentences.” She further reported that “cultures” were also introduced, but most of them were common sense. RSK perceived the function of “using grammar correctly”

because this was the core of her English learning. She also learned to “respect different languages, cultures, and peoples.” “The differences between English and

Chinese” were also taught, for example, the position of prepositional phrases in a sentence. However, concerning words and sentences in daily life, she could perceive this but did not know how to use them in real life.

Needs, preferences and difficulties

In terms of students’ preferences, interviewees’ responses varied. USK1 appreciated readings due to its abundance. USK2 valued dialogues because her teacher designed post-reading questions for them to discuss and share experiences.

USK3 liked the presentation of grammar because of its clear tables, examples and practice. USK4 prized listening practice because it developed his listening comprehension. RSK liked the workbooks because they were interesting and helped her gain key points of tests, such as fill-in and sentence patterns.

With regard to whether the textbook considered students’ needs and preferences, USK1, USK2 and RSK responded positively for different reasons. USK1 said that the dialogues were like a maxiseries to arouse classmates’ discussion; particularly, Amanda and Ted got married in the end of the last volume. USK2 appreciated abundant topics, but she suggested the following should gain more attention:

“communication,” “learning English effectively,” and “enhancing learning interests,”

so students would be able to learn autonomously and passionately. She also hoped to increase the diversity of genres, such as jokes and stories which were popular with teenagers. RSK liked the abundant topics and genres. On the other hand, USK3 and USK4 negatively replied to this question. USK3 thought that “communication” was not realized. In USK4’s opinion, “learning English effectively” was important, but the textbook failed to present this because of incomplete review of words and grammar.

“Thinking independently” was also important to her, but the textbook did not put it into practice.

Concerning difficulties, RSK had problems with reading comprehension. USK4 was discontent with the lack of appendixes of grammar. He also disliked the listening CD because of its inappropriate speed and unclearness.

Suggestions for future textbook compilation

USK1 indicated the gap between junior high school and senior high school English. Thus, she suggested that textbook writers refer to JHS Chinese textbooks which listed related outside readings for students to read. USK2 hoped that textbooks would be loved by students and students would become interested in English. USK3 said that post-reading questions should be offered to motivate students’ learning through discussion. USK4 suggested that tongue twister be reduced and warm-up be increased because the latter was more related to the topic of a lesson. RSK thought that the core of English learning should be communication and effective English learning. Furthermore, magazines (e.g., A⁺

English, Studio Classroom, Let’s Talk in English) were recommended by USK1, USK2 and USK3 because of their diverse

To sum up, student interviewees of Textbook K were satisfied with the clear presentation of grammar, diverse topics which were related to their daily life, and appropriate difficulty levels of each part. However, they showed their discontent with insufficiency of speaking, listening, and writing practice. They also perceived that time was insufficient for teachers to instruct so many skills. Therefore, explanation of new words and key grammar were suggested to be offered in order to save more time for developing basic communication. It was also hoped that extra learning resources and strategies would be presented for students to learn English autonomously, diversely and effectively.