Evaluating Academic Writing Textbook: Teachers’ and Students’ Perspectives

Abstract

This study attempts to evaluate the Academic Writing textbook used in English Education Study Program of Language and Art Education Faculty of IKIP PGRI Bojonegoro, East Java Indonesia. The book entitled " Writing Academic English " written by Oshima and Hogue was critically evaluated based on two major points, namely general attributes of the textbook and the learning-teaching content of the textbook. The general attributes of the textbook cover the book in relation to syllabus and curriculum, the methodology, the book's suitability to learners, physical and utilitarian attributes, and efficient outlay of supplementary materials. The learning-teaching content of the textbook covers general elements (move of the tasks, tasks' objectives, etc.), academic writing (specified on research paper writing), vocabulary, grammar, and exercises. The questionnaires developed to evaluate the textbook were adapted from textbook evaluation checklist which was developed by Mukundan, Nimehchisalem, and Hajimohammadi (2011). The results indicate that the lecturers and students were not really satisfied with the book since it does not represent the students' needs and requirements of research paper writing for Writing IV course at the university. The materials provided there are not specified to research paper writing. However, based on the result of evaluation, the textbook is very good in some points such as the methodology, physical and utilitarian attributes, outlay of the book, general elements (move of the tasks, tasks' objectives, etc.), academic writing (from paragraph writing to various essays writing), vocabulary, grammar, and exercises in the area.