RETROSPECTIVE EVALUATION OF ELT TEXTBOOKS: WHY AND HOW?

Abstract

Abstract
One important element determining the success of English teaching and
learning is the use of textbooks. This is to provide teaching materials for students to
reach the goal stated in curriculum. The role of textbooks become very important
since in fact there are many teachers and students who rely heavily on certain
textbooks in doing teaching-learning activity. Here, the textbooks tend to be the
center of instruction and become one of the most important thing influences on what
goes in the classroom. Theycontrol the content, method, and procedure of learning.
Considering the importance of textbooks in teaching-learning process, and
based on the fact that there is to perfect textbooks to be used, it is urgent for teachers
to select and evaluate the textbook they use to make sure that they are really effective
in helping students reaching the goals. Although all textbooks have been evaluated
by experts or officially by the government before being used, from the view of some
aspects, such as content and delivery suitability, through predictive evaluation; it
doesn’t mean that they can be used for all class with different condition. That’s why,
they still need to be evaluated by the users of the textbooks themselves, especially
teachers, through retrospective evaluation. This kind of evaluation is important to
know whether the textbooks used in teaching-learning activity are really suitable
with the class condition or need some teacher’s treatments.
This paper is intended to describe why retrospective evaluation of ELT
textbooks is important and how to do that for the textbooks they use in the classroom,
so that the use of textbooks will be effective and meaningful for students. They will
really support the teaching-learning process to lead them reaching the goals.
Key words: retrospective evaluation –ELT Textbooks – why - how