ABSTRACT

DIYAH AYU WIBAWANI. “A Study of Language Contextualization of English Primary Book ‘Super Minds Student’s Book 4’ by Cambridge University Press: A Mix Method Content Analysis”. A Thesis. First Consultant: Dr. Ngadiso, M.Pd. Second Consultant: Hasan Zainnuri, S.Pd, M.Pd. Teacher Training and Education Faculty. Sebelas Maret University. Surakarta 2020.

            In particular, there are three primary aims of this study: (1) to investigate to what extent this textbook meets the criteria of good textbook in terms of language content suggested by Alan Cunningsworth i.e grammar items, pronunciation practice, vocabulary teaching materials, the use of language above sentence level, and style and appropriacy; (2) to examine the texts authenticity level; and (3)  to examine the tasks communication level in the textbooks. Those three aims are in the scope of language contextualization that refers to the contents of a textbook that are necessary and useful for the students, evokes students’ interest, arouses the desire to learn the language, and attracts the students to communicate with other people in society.

Both qualitative and quantitative research were used to analyze the language contextualization of this textbook for Indonesian students. The respondents were six students of grade 5 who had experiences in using the Super Minds Student’s Book 4. A qualitative approach was used to describe to what extent the textbook meets the criteria of a good textbook suggested by Cunningsworth in terms of language content. It investigated and described a phenomenon by focusing on analyzing the content of the textbook. A quantitative approach was used to examine the text authenticity level and how each level of task communication was presented in the textbook. The data were collected from the textbook contents, questionnaires, and interview findings. Those data were analyzed using descriptive analysis in which the results of the questionnaires were concluded and described with the help of interview findings.

The results of this study have shown that  (1) Super Minds Student’s Book 4 meets the criteria of language content suggested by Cunningsworth in terms of the grammar items, vocabulary teaching materials, pronunciation practices, the use of language above sentence level, and style and appropriacy; (2) in terms of the text authenticity level, genuine or authentic texts in the form of song lyrics are the most preferred by the students. Artificial texts in the textbook are not really preferred by the students because of their low exploitability. Compared with artificial texts, semi-authentic texts are preferred by the students because they are more exploitable and offer new knowledge for students; and (3) in terms of task communication level, the communicative task is the most prevalent and attainable among the students. From the analysis, it is known that giving tasks that provide more space or freedom to create whether spoken or written sentences to young learners does not mean that the students would enjoy doing the tasks. Those findings have important implications for considering the use of Super Minds Student’s Book 4 as the main textbook for English learning in Indonesia such as this textbook is suitable to be used by the schools that follow a methodology of 21st-century language teaching that requires communication, collaboration, and critical thinking.

Keywords: Language Content, Text Authenticity, Task Communication Leve