Chapter 18:
Words as They Appear in Malaysian
Secondary School English Language
Textbooks: Some Implications for
Pedagogy
Jayakaran Mukundan
Presented by :
Mehran Daghestani and Masoud Karimi
Introduction
Textbook writers have eccentricities and while
this may be an attribute linked to creativity it
nevertheless may lead to their books falling
short of the standards set, thus making them
pedagogically unsound. In short, intuition and
enthusiasm can lead the textbook writer to
write pages of tasks and exercises but all this
can only come to naught if, especially for the
lower levels, some important principles
regarding vocabulary acquisition are
disregarded.
Research on textbooks is important, especially
in L2 (or Second Language) situations as in
Malaysia because:
1. Textbook is usually the only resource used
in the teaching and learning of English and as
such weaknesses in textbooks will have farreaching implications on learning-teaching.
2.Learning styles and preferences research
shows many learners in Asia to be dependent
learners(Reid, 1993) and this implies that
these learners depend very much on the teacher
and the book.
Text book research on load and
disribution patterns of words: the
beginnings of corpus-based research
on the language of textbooks
This research on textbooks via corpora and the
use of concordance software (WordSmith
Version 4.0; Scott, 2004) revealed vital
information about school textbooks that was
not possible in the past (Tomlinson, 1998).
Some of the more important findings were:
1. The textbooks attempt to achieve too much
(and in this case, the learning of too many
words).
The study of books in the 1989- 2003 Cycle
(Table 18.1) shows the loading of words to be
arbitrary. The Form 1 books which were
written for a lower level seemed to have more
words (52,262 tokens) than the Form 2 book
(40.685 tokens) which was used for a higher
level .Tokens in this research refer to running
words(Continuous words), while types refer to
different words. The Form 2 book however
seemed to have far more different words
(types) than the Form 1 book (4853 Form 2 as
opposed to 3719 for Form 1).
The books currently used (2004-present) are
not very different from those in earlier cycle.
There is still arbitrary use of words and
generally there is an increase in the number of
types introduced. The Form 1 book in the old
cycle had 3,719 types. The new book has 4,730
types, a marked increase, although no
significant changes were noted in the syllabus
(Table 18.2).
2.Work by Nation (1990) shows that only about
2000 of the high frequency words in the English
Language are necessary for a learner to
comprehend 87 percent of any given text.
Although many people may believe that exposure
to more words would be good it is the contention
of the writer that curricula are best developed for
lower levels with the 2000 high-frequency words
as a guideline. If the goal of the secondary school
curriculum is to produce learners capable of
intermediate level of proficiency, then one may
wonder why the secondary school textbook
should start in Form 1 with 3,719 types (different
words).
These findings also reveal that the Form 5 book
has more than 7,904 types. This excess in loading
of words (types) may be the reason as to why
proficiency levels of students in secondary
schools remain low. The textbook may be viewed
as attempting to put unnecessary pressure on
beginner learners if it exposes students to too
many words too soon. Learners may not be able
to remember these words.
Repetition and recycling 1989-2003
cycle: a view into two lower
secondary school form two textbook
Repetition will be defined as the re-emergence
of the same word within the book while
recycling will be considered the use of
variations of the word across the book. The
Malaysian Secondary School textbooks were
analyzed to evaluate repetition and recycling
patterns.
Investigations revealed that:
3. Initial evaluations of the distribution of
words in textbooks revealed that items
(words/phrases) which were listed in the
syllabus did not even appear in the text-books
(Table 18.3). Also, there were differences
between two books, both published for the
same level but by two different publishers.
In the case of the two books written for Form 2
which were compared, Textbook 2 seemed to
have 20 items from the syllabus list missing
within the book, while Textbook 1 had 5
missing items. These words may also not be
exposed to learners in other ways such as in
supplementary learning material.
Words which are in the syllabus word list and
that do not appear in textbooks may be tested
in the public examinations.
4. Another interesting finding was that
important phrases like ‘to the left' and 'to the
right', both of which were considered essential
language taught in the unit on 'Directions of
places in the town or village' were never used
in both the books.
5.The two books were again analyzed to
evaluate the extent to which words are
repeated (see Table 18.4).
Again Textbook 2 showed itself to be inferior
to Textbook 1. Textbook 2 had 2,075 of the
total of 3,678 words (types) appearing only
once throughout the book.
Although Textbook 1 was superior in terms of
repetition, it also had many words which only
appeared once (1,960 out of 3,856 words).
A closer scrutiny of words and their
repetition/recycling patterns showed more
insights into problems with regards to
coverage of essential words.
The Form 1 book in the 1989-2003 Cycle for
instance reveals that the word 'cook' only
appears as the noun form but never as a verb.
Only a teacher will realize this and make an
effort to seek some other ways to introduce the
verb form of the word.
Other aims of this study
To find out if the presented grammar in
textbooks is efficient.
Repetition of the 2000 high frequency words in
Malaysian secondary school English language
textbooks.
THE STUDY ON GRAMMAR
POINTS OF MALASIYAN
TEXTBOOKS
The item selected was sequence connectors
(First, Next…).
It was chosen because it is an important
grammatical structure in speech and writing.
Table 18.5 shows that both textbooks have
extremely different distribution loads and
patterns of use.
Table 18.6 shows, for example, that the word
‘First’ can be found in 64.7 per cent of the
units in Textbook 1 and 31.8 per cent in
Textbook 2. The use of ‘Finally’ in both
textbooks is not sufficient as the percentage of
recurrence is low, 23.5 per cent of units in
Textbook 1 and 36.4 per cent in Textbook 2.
REPETITION OF 2000 HIGH
FREQUENCY WORDS IN
MALAYSIAN SECONDARY
SCHOOL ENGLISH LANGUAGE
TEXTBOOKS
Thornbury (2002) states that students
remember words which are repeated at least
seven times over spaced intervals.
Table 18.7 .The number of words repeated less
than seven times in the entire set of Malaysian
secondary school English language textbooks.
Based on table 18.7
In the 2000 high frequency list :
A) 604 words (30.2 per cent) are recycled less
than seven times.
B) 1267 of the words in the list (63.3 per cent)
are repeated at least seven times in the entire
textbooks.
C) 129 words (6.5 per cent) are not found in
any of the textbooks.
D) Even common verbs, like hang, pump,
push, sew, tie, spin, polish, jump and examine,
are repeated less than seven times through the
entire set of new books.
E) Furthermore, there were words in the 2.000
word list that were totally missing in the entire
set of textbooks
Conclusion
1.The number of words introduced should be
restricted to the most essential ones, especially
at lower levels. This is on the assumption that
the retention rate of words encountered would
be low if too many words are introduced to
beginner learners.
2.Words that help with communicative ability
at lower levels should revolve around the 2,000
most common words used in the English
language. This is based on the assumption that
learners can comprehend 87 per cent of
general text if they know these 2,000 words
(Nation, 1990).
3.The introduction of new words should be
gradual. This is based on the common
assumption that learning should be about one
level higher than what the learners already
know (The i + 1 principle).
4.Words that need to be learnt should at least
be repeated/recycled seven times at spaced
intervals.