GOMBAK CAMPUS

MASTER OF EDUCATION

(SCHOOL HOLIDAY

PROGRAMME)

ASSESSMENT 4

EDE 6243

SYLLABUS DESIGN

PREPARED BY:

AIMAN BIN MOHAMED

G1812349

PREPARED FOR:
DR. ZAINURIN BIN ABD RAHMAN
 CONTENT

PART I
INTRODUCTION 1
APPROACHES TO CURRICULUM DESIGN 1-3
GOALS, CONTENT AND SEQUENCING 3-6
TEACHING MATERIALS AND TEXTS USED 6
PROPOSED ASSESSMENT METHODS AND PROCEDURES 7-8
ROLES OF TEACHERS AS IMPLEMENTERS OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE SYLLABUS 8-9
POTENTIAL CHALLENGES FACED BY THE SYLLABUS DESIGNERS IN MALAYSIA 9-10
PART II
COMMENT ON THE MAJOR FINDINGS OF NEED ANALYSIS 11
READINESS OF LEARNING ENGLISH LANGUAGE 11-12
MOTIVATION FOR LEARNING ENGLISH LANGUAGE 13-14
PROBLEMS IN LEARNING ENGLISH LANGUAGE 15-16
PART III
10-CRITERIA CHECKLIST OF EVALUATION TEACHING MATERIALS 17-20
 PART I

1.0 INTRODUCTION

This writing is to fulfil the fourth assignment for subject Syllabus Design (EDE 6243)
that carries 40% of the whole mark.

English has long been a compulsory subject that being taught in schools in most part
of the whole wide world. Furthermore, the language is being taught throughout all education
levels start from the kindergarten until the tertiary level. It is no difference for this country,
Malaysia, most people formally learn their English since their kindergarten time. Thus,
English is not really an alien language to Malaysian, but still a foreign language.

Teachers are the people who implement the language within the lesson in the
classroom, thus, it would be appropriate for teachers themselves to have some knowledge on
how the syllabus is designed. Moreover, it is more decent if the teachers have the right to
voice out on how the syllabus should be designed. Nonetheless, the teachers and the syllabus
designers have to negotiate with the stakeholders in designing the syllabus is one of the
required steps as the stakeholders have the vision in realizing some goals for the needs of the
society as well as for the country.

2.0 APPROACHES TO CURRICULUM DESIGN

In designing the curriculum, there are three approaches that can be used which are
addressed in the textbook, Language Curriculum Design by I.S.P Nation & John Macalister;
a) Grave’s model of curriculum design, b) Language Curriculum Design model, and c)
Murdoch’s Model. All these three different models used different terms and connotations,
however, eventually returned to the same core things in education.

The approach that syllabus designers of English subject for primary school in
Malaysia might take is the Language Curriculum Design Model. This has been displayed
through the learning and teaching materials selection in the previous 5 years back. The
syllabus designers might have done the environment analysis which taking into account that
the world is now becoming a global village (Durib, M. J., (2013). The analysis is reflected by
the manoeuvre made by the syllabus designers moving from multiracial base content to
international content; Get Smart textbooks which are using CEFR content.

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 According to Language Curriculum Design Model, after the environment analysis has
been done, the syllabus designers must carry out needs analysis (Nation & Macalister, J.,
2010).

In Malaysia, the syllabus designers saw the needs for the pupils to increase their
English level to follow suit the global era which is gauged according to three proficiency
levels (English Language Education Reform in Malaysia: The Roadmap, 2015-2025).
Therefore, the syllabus designers decided to change the textbook to Get Smart as pupils need
to acquire the standard set of vocabulary to get A2 level at least when in Year 6 (KSSR Year
3 Scheme of Work). Thus, this is the need that all primary pupils have to achieve if they want
to compete in this globalization era.

First of all, let us look at the necessities of the primary school students on writing
skill. By year 6, students are expected to write a good essay which length between 80 to 100
words in paper 014 (writing) during UPSR examination (Patrish & Azlina, 2020). Thus, the
necessity to know the correct sentence structure, adequate vocabulary, and correct grammar
usage is a must in order to write a good essay which entitled for an A. Even though not all
student can write an A essay, at least, they can use simple and compound sentence structure
by their year 6 with correct grammar and intermediate level of vocabulary.

Subsequently, in designing and developing a curriculum, it is vital to look at their

possible lacks that impede their ability to write a good essay. Since Malaysian are not native
speakers of English Language, they must learn all the necessities like the above. However,
due to inconsistent exposure to interesting materials about the language, they are not
interested in further learning the language throughout the schooling years. Therefore, at
secondary level, most students have little vocabulary on English language where they find it
hard to understand the language through reading, what more to write an essay which is a
production skill. Furthermore, in the absence of adequate vocabulary, people are unable to
communicate and express their thoughts and feelings both in the form of spoken and written
effectively (Isnaini, Nurul, 2019).

After examining the necessities and lacks of a curriculum, teachers and curriculum
developers have to take into account the wants from students. It is indispensable to know
what students want so that teachers and curriculum developers are able to outline the
executions of the curriculums to suit the wants of students. In a case study, preference over
teachers' professionalism affects students’ intensity of focus, attention span and engagement

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to the lesson (Therrell & Dunneback, 2015). These wants are considered paramount to them,

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however, it is not necessary for the teachers and curriculum developers to mould or execute
the curriculum according to their wants. If the wants of the students do not align with the
intended curriculum, teachers and curriculum developers are on a task to point out the more
important things that they need which prevail their wants (Nation & Macalister, 2010).
understanding on how the syllabus design works, it should be based on which model among
the three. The reason for this is the teachers have long been associated with the process in
designing the syllabus, which is indirectly involved, where they just can contribute the ideas
(Al-Kathiri, 2016). Despite a little involvement in the process, the teachers have to possess a
clear direction in implementing the syllabus as well as the method of assessment and
evaluation. The effectiveness of the syllabus is reflected from the achievement of learning
goals that are tested through the assessment or evaluation of the students (Kaharuddin, Andi
& Yassi, 2015).

Furthermore, in order to increase the quality of the language teaching, the curriculum
development must have a systematic planning, development and regular revision on the
practices in every aspect of language programmes (Caleb, 2018). Thus, in line with this
matter, the teachers must at least have the understanding and clear planning in implementing
the curriculum. Curriculum designers and teachers should work hand-in-hand to ensure the
content and implementation is within the standard quality. They can mould the new
curriculum from nothing or modify and amend the existing curriculum to suit the current
demands appropriately (Nation & Macalister, 2010). This is important, as the learning
outcomes for life-long application would directly affect the performance of the learners’
academic and social.

3.0 GOALS, CONTENTS AND SEQUENCING

3.1 GOAL

In every subject taught, there are goals to achieve at the end of the lesson. Similarly,
in language learning, it focuses on the language, ideas, skills and text acquired along the
course. The content validity of a language course (curriculum) can be gauged based on these
four areas (Nation & Macalister, 2010) in order to ensure the goal intended can be achieved.
Adversely, one of the ways that is always being used by many institutions to gauge or
evaluate the content such as consulting students’ perceptions over the content whether it
achieved the goal intended or not. On the contrary, it is more reliable for the teachers,
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curriculum developers or the administrators to evaluate the content of the course since they
know what are the actual goals

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that students need to experience or achieve (Capa Aydin, Yesim & Cobanoglu, Rahime &
Gülmez, Gülçin, 2017). As we all know that students have their preference in learning which
they just cherry pick the topics that interest them which eventually defeat the actual goal of
the course taught. The content taught does not necessarily fancy them but they as students
need the exposure to prepare them for the real world situations or working life when they at
least get the idea why the content was taught back in the days (Meeder, H & Pawlowski, B.,
2019).

The syllabus developer also must understand that progression of the students plays an
important part in ensuring the goal of the course succeeds. Progression here means how much
did the students have improved since the last time (Mahajan, Mrunal & Sarjit Singh,
Manvender Kaur. (2017) and the success rate in achieving the goals set for the course does
not necessarily to be 100%. In addition, progress helps to motivate the students and teachers
in ways that they are on the right track and approaching the goal, regardless of the pace.
Progress makes students be more devoted in their learning in order to progress more or faster
or at least they increase their knowledge or skill even by little. The essential part is if the
students acquired 5 parts out of 10 parts of the lesson is already sufficient. 50% of something
is much better than a 100% of nothing.

For example, if a group of students are unable to understand English language in their
first class, the teachers have to implement the lesson accordingly without jeopardizing the
goal of the course. The most suitable and thinkable lesson to start is focusing on increasing
the vocabulary of the students which can be carried out through the four skills; reading,
listening, speaking and writing. In addition, these four skills are compulsory for the students
to use them throughout the lesson proficiently, however, it is also important to look at their
progress since the beginning instead of looking at their proficiency at the end of the course.
This is why teachers and curriculum developers need to know the importance of syllabus
design and curriculum development as the goal or the outcome is the ultimate objective,
nevertheless, notable progression is much more important to avoid burnout among the
students.

All of these measures are required to achieve the goal of MOE of Malaysia which all
pupils need to obtain at least A2 level throughout their primary school which is Year 1 until
Year 6. In realizing the goal, it is depending on the effort of the teachers and motivation of
the pupils to achieve the stated standard by the MoE which also followed the CEFR that is
practiced by the whole worldwide.
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 3.2 LEARNING OUTCOMES AND CONTENT

It is normal for every syllabus or content; result is to be expected regardless what the
result is, either positive or negative because the results or outcome indicates the success rate
and suitability of the syllabus to the target group. However, in the government’s efforts
regarding language policies of promoting the use of English so far have not produced any
exemplary results since the standard of English language continues to drop among its students
(Ranjit Singh Gill 2013).

The learning outcome function is to define the level of learning (David, 2000). It has
to be a specific and clear one for the implementers or learners in order to realize the intended
result (University of Toronto, 2008). Its purpose is to avoid confusion or ambiguity in
achieving the learning outcome which remove the probability of the risk wasting time as well
as guiding the teachers and learners what to achieve within particular time periods (Munal &
Kaur, 2017).

According to https://www.cambridgeenglish.org/ website, A2 is the basic level which

is suitable for the young learners like primary school pupils. Therefore, looking at the
learning outcomes laid down by the MoE of Malaysia, it is clearly stated that general learning
outcome for English language throughout the primary school period is the pupils need to
achieve A2 level. This general learning outcome of MoE for English language is inline and in
accordance with the determined level by the framework.

3.3 CONTENT AND SEQUENCING

In my observation, by referring to Get Smart Year 4, the content of the textbook is

quite helpful for learning English language. Furthermore, the topics put in the textbook are
also focusing on the 21st century learning. It focuses on intercultural awareness, critical
thinking and autonomous learning where these elements would produce better pupils. Critical
thinking nowadays really is a demand as we can see high order thinking questions are posed
in examination. Thus, it is necessary for the content to consist critical thinking as it also
intrinsically motivates the pupil to learn more (Brown, 2007). In addition, the content which
promotes autonomous learning is trending nowadays as pupils have access to information at
their fingertips. They sometimes learn better by themselves outside of class as compared to
formal learning session in classroom (Palfreyman and Smiths, 2003).

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 Similarly, the sequencing of the content has to make sense in order to make the lesson
fruitful and fulfil the learning outcome as well as achieving the targeted goals. A proper
structuring and sequencing of content in a syllabus would contributes to better understanding
and better learning experiences (Maitra, S. & Shivakumar, R & MallikarjunaBabu, K., 2015).
Even though Malaysia is using the modular syllabus development approach, sequencing of
the contents is necessary as in practice which Get Smart textbook starts with the very first
skills; listening and speaking, the first level of receptive and productive skill. Then, the
content subsequently focusses on reading and writing which is the second level of receptive
and productive skill.

Reading is a prominent mean in increasing vocabulary number for the development of

the targeted language (Marulis & Neuman, 2010; Mol, Bus, & deJong, 2009; Whitehurst &
Lonigan, 1998). Finally, the last part of the textbook put all grammar elements which
impliedly considered as the least important to learn in the level. Thus, the syllabus from now
and then already did this, however, there were still dropout pupils in this language. What
went wrong? I leave the question to be pondered.

4.0 TEACHING MATERIALS AND TEXTS USED

For the materials and texts used in the textbook nowadays, I think it is not too
intercultural as some people proclaimed. However, it would be nicer if the theme of the
materials does not leave out the sense of Malaysian as we have our own history and values. In
my personal opinion, our values are far much greater than theirs. The only problem is our
society deemed western values are more suitable for nowadays life which is incorrect. We
should instill more of our values to the pupils as they are the next generations of this beloved
country.

However, the quality of the texts presented in the textbook are really different from
what we had in the previous textbook. Perhaps, what makes the texts so different is, it came
from the language native land; United Kingdom. The organization of the texts also very
different where every texts are accompanied with pictures which help pupils to understand
and remember better about the content of the texts.

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5.0 PROPOSED ASSESSMENT METHODS AND PROCEDURES

In Malaysia, there are so many forms of assessments being carried out even in
primary school such as School Based Assessment (SBA) and Classroom Based Assessment
(CBA) which started since 2016 (MoE Website). Not to mention the compulsory
examinations; OTI, mid-term examination, year-end examination and UPSR for Year 6 in
primary school. Why do these form of assessments exist?

Assessment is a process that being used to gather the information to gauge and
understand about the pupils’ knowledge, understanding and their current capability in
applying the knowledge (Huba & Freed, 2000). Therefore, assessments that being carried out
must be aligned with the objectives and the learning outcomes of the syllabus developed so
that the items assessed would produce a credible and relevant data for improvement of the
syllabus later on (Scott, 2001). Thus, assessment is a useful tool to help teachers and syllabus
designers in improving the syllabus at hand in the future.

In my humble opinion, SBA and CBA is a necessity that should be started for a long
time ago. The reason I said such is, SBA and CBA could help pupils to think on their own
feet and encourage them to express themselves more authentically. Moreover, in 21 st learning
trends where it exercises equal opportunity for pupils to participate, cooperative learning is
implemented within the learning session and a democratic environment where they can
express themselves which requires them to think critically and creatively (Arbaa, Jamil &
Ahmad, 2017).

Similarly, SBA helps pupils to avoid rote learning which it emphasis on critical
thinking or problem-based learning (Abdullah, A. & Ahmad, H. & Sukri, Ahmad & Ismail,
Nurhasyimah & Artika, V., 2014). This also lessen the examination pressure over the pupils
where some pupils who are not doing well in academic, can focus on non-academic
assessment which this SBA is a balance assessment (Aunty, 1997).

From my observation, it is undeniable that SBA has several weaknesses in its earliest
implementation and procedure. Nevertheless, with the schools’, teachers’, parents’ and
pupils’ commitment, the implementation of SBA assessment become better every year with
several amendments along the way. Moreover, I think it is the most promising assessment so
far which takes quite important role not lesser than the examination that has been practiced
for years. Thus, with the mutual roles of the SBA and examinations, it has been a well-
balanced
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assessment which uphold the vision of National Education Philosophy to produce individuals
who are intellectually, spiritually, emotionally and physically balanced and harmonious,
based on a firm belief in and devotion to God. Such an effort is designed to produce
Malaysian citizens who are knowledgeable and competent, who possess high moral
standards, and who are responsible and capable of achieving high level of personal well-
being as well as being able to contribute to the harmony and betterment of the family, the
society and the nation at large. (NEP, 1988)

6.0 ROLES OF TEACHERS AS IMPLEMENTERS OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE

SYLLABUS

Teacher is a person who facilitates the learners to gain knowledge, skills, or virtue in a
formal or informal setting. In other words, anyone can be a teacher. However, in
implementing the syllabus, which our focus is English language syllabus, teachers need to
have a set of pedagogical knowledge to teach the language skills in order to realize the
objective of the syllabus and fulfil the needs of the learners (Sugihartini, Nyoman & Sindu,
Gede & Dewi, Kadek & Zakarijah, Masduki & Sudira, Putu., 2020).

Mastery in the subject that would be delivered which is English language is a must.
Unfortunately, we always heard some mentioned that there are groups of teachers who are not
proficient enough to teach (Napisah Kepol, 2017). As a result of lack in capability, the
performance of the pupils is affected and does not reach the standard expected by the MoE.
Therefore, in order to solve this, it is important that the school identify these not proficient
teachers and send them to professional development training which is English language
courses as well as pedagogical course to teach the language effectively (Hazita Azman,
2016). This is one of the way to utilize the existing manpower within the field along with the
future appointment of new English teachers with the appropriate qualification and language
mastery.

Moreover, in nowadays setting, teachers need to equip themselves with 21 st century’s

applications of teaching technologies and skills which to integrate the non-linear thinking
skills and cooperative learning into realization (Lambert & Cuper, 2008). As we aware in Get
Smart textbook, there are several usage of technology in teaching and learning sessions such
as audios, videos, and website links which were not included in the previous textbook used
by the MoE. In addition, in some schools, teachers practice blended learning, for instance,
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flipped

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classroom where teachers only provide a little information on the next topic and the pupils
need to do their own reading or finding on their own in advance (Bull, G., Ferster, B., &
Kjellstrom, W., 2012). Then, the teachers, whether like it or not, must learn and master the
21st century teaching method so that the pupils are not left behind and unable to compete in
the challenging era.

In the issue of CEFR, it is necessary for the teachers to undergo some training
sessions in understanding the concept and usage of CEFR framework before implementing
the lesson accordingly (Uri & Aziz, 2018). This is because the content of the textbook is not
appropriate and not familiar to the pupils’ existing knowledge. Moreover, the teachers need
to skill up themselves with the right skill sets in order to implement the syllabus correctly by
going to courses like Professional Up-Skilling of English Language Teachers (Pro-ELT), the
Native Speaker programme and Expanded Specialist Coach (SISC) (Rozana Sani, 2016).

In short, in order for a teacher to be a great implementer of the syllabus, he or she

must have the right skill set and the appropriate mastery over the subject taught. It is
important as the pupils’ or learners’ understanding over the subject would be affected by the
performance of the teacher. Misconception or misunderstanding about the subject among the
learners could be occurred if the teachers themselves are incompetence in delivering the
content of the subject aptly.

7.0 POTENTIAL CHALLENGES FACED BY THE SYLLABUS DESIGNERS IN

MALAYSIA

Challenge is common in everything where it poses hardship in terms of problem,

inability or something to be fulfilled in making something better. Our education system has
gone through series of changes and amendments in the recent 10 years in seeking the best
education for the learners. One of the reasons for these changes and amendments is the world
has become a global village and requires people to keep up in order to stay relevant (Darren,
O. & Alexander, H., 2011).

In the process of designing a syllabus, it usually involves teachers and stakeholders

who has various interests in shaping the syllabus. Looking at the nature of those two, there
would be contradictions in deciding the requirements and needs that to be included in the
syllabus

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(Mariana, 2013). Therefore, with the differences of interest, there are several challenges faced
by the syllabus designers in developing a suitable syllabus for the learners.

In Malaysia, we can see several possible challenges faced by the syllabus designers in
developing a syllabus. One of the challenges is to meet the needs of the learners, for instance,
the issue of CEFR in its early implementation, the content of the textbook used, Supermind,
not suitable as the level of the vocabulary is considered high for the learners in Malaysia. A
textbook should be using contain materials that help pupils to do learning in-depth either in
class or self-study (Cuuningsworth, 1995).

The similar case was happening to PPSMI, the highlighted issue was the objective of
the syllabus itself, whether it was to measure the science and mathematics knowledge or to
measure the English proficiency of the learners. It was said that over 50 thousand Malays
learners were dropout from school due to inability to keep up with the teaching of Science
and Mathematics in English (Laman Web Maklumat dan Pendidikan Dong Jiao Zong
30.9.2008). As a result, PPSMI is discontinued and now cause trouble to some of the pupils
that are used to learning Science and Mathematics in English are struggling to match the
Malay terms with English terms.

In conclusion, these situations could be the dilemma for the syllabus designers where
sometimes they have to take a leap of faith in designing a manageable content in line with the
assessments practice, curriculum design and the needs of the learners as well the demands of
the stakeholders.

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 PART II

1.0 COMMENT ON THE MAJOR FINDINGS OF NEED ANALYSIS

Based on the findings of need analysis that has been carried out, first, regarding
motivation of the respondents to learn English as they perceived English as an important
language to learn nowadays where 66.7% out of 240 respondents are really motivated to learn
English. This has shown that more pupils enjoy learning English which indirectly motivated
them to learn more. In addition, moved by external factor which parents encouraged them to
be good in English which the number hit 96.3% and pupils are motivated to learn English
better to please their parents.

Secondly, the readiness of the students to acquire and use the language is reflected by
84.4 % which most of the respondents stated that they have the skill in listening and they
indeed understood what their teacher spoke. This have shown that the pupils are ready to gain
more knowledge about the targeted language.

Thirdly, most pupils, which is approximately 87.5%, prefer to work in group rather
than working alone. This indicate that pupils are comfortable communicating in the targeted
language and have mutual understanding towards each other when completing tasks as a
group.

2.0 READINESS OF LEARNING ENGLISH LANGUAGE

As teachers, it is important to know the level of knowledge, language acquisition and

proficiency in order to determine their abilities in completing learning tasks accordingly
(Differentiating Instruction Based on Student Readiness, 2017). The ideal purpose of to know
students’ readiness is to determine which methods or teaching procedures can be
implemented by teachers to improve learning and for the students to gain meaningful and
exciting learning experiences.

Table 1 shows both agreement and disagreement of students’ readiness in learning

English. The percentages represent the responses of the respondents. For item 18, ‘I know
how to listen and understand when my teacher talks in English’, 84.4 percent of the
respondents showed agreement to the statement. This means that they are comfortable while
learning and can understand their teacher when they speak using the target language. It can
also be further
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concluded that teachers do use English when teaching the language and this can give the
exposure to the students of how the language can be used in their everyday lives.

Table 1: Students’ readiness to learn English

Additionally, most of the responses showed agreement to all of the items. It can be
concluded that most of the respondents have the ability to use the language. For example, to
listen and respond to friends, greet other people in English, talk about oneself, use the
dictionary, read English texts and even grammar items. This is mainly because they are
already used to the teaching and learning methods and materials that have been used since
they were in Year 1. Still, quite a number of them did not know how to speak well in English,
the meaning of some English words, how to pronounce some English words and some
terminologies or elements of grammar. Therefore, these are the aspects that teachers can
emphasize more in their teaching and learning processes.

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3.0 MOTIVATION FOR LEARNING ENGLISH LANGUAGE

Educators need to acknowledge students’ motivation in order to know where the

students stand in terms of having the interest to learn and what are the factors that can
contribute in increasing their level of motivation. Table 2 shows the percentages of every
Likert’s scale indicator which start with Strongly Agree (4), Agree (3), Disagree (2) and
Strongly Disagree
(1) of the respondents’ motivation to learn English.

From table 2, it can be seen that most of the responses supporting the statement of
students are indeed motivated to learn the English language. The first item of the
questionnaire asked about their perception towards the importance of English in their lives
and 66.7 percent of them strongly agreed and 30.4 percent of them agreed with the statement.
On the contrary, only 3 percent of the respondents showed disagreement in indicating English
is important. As for the second item of ‘I love learning English at school’, 97.1 percent of the
respondents showed agreement which means that they enjoyed learning the language at their
respected schools which indirectly increased their motivation to learn English.

In recognizing students’ extrinsic motivation, item 5 sought for their thoughts on their
parents’ expectation of them towards being proficient in the language. 96.3 percent of the
students agreed to the item ‘My parents want me to be good in English’ which showed that
their parents also think that they need to acquire English and thus motivate them to learn the
language. Still, 3.8 percent which is equivalent to 9 out of 240 respondents showed
disagreement with the item. This showed that the respondents did not receive much extrinsic
motivation from the parents which may lead to their conception towards learning English.

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 Table 2: Students’ motivation to learn English

Students’ interest in learning language skills also can be obtained by the responses of
items 13 to 17. Most of the respondents like listening to songs or conversation in their
learning of the language due to the 93.3 percent showing agreement to item 13. Only 17.9
percent of the respondents showed disagreement in both items 14 and 15 which indicate their
lack of interest in talking and reading in English. Still, a majority of them do like to talk and
read in English with 42.5 percent of the respondents strongly agreeing with the item ‘I like to
talk in English’. More interestingly, most of the respondents have more interest towards
reading rather than writing with a slight difference of 1.2 percent. This can be concluded that
teachers can do a reading activity first to increase and enhance students’ motivation in
learning English before proceeding to writing activities. Teachers may be particular in
choosing the right and suitable reading and writing materials in order to fulfil the needs of
students’ learning abilities.

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4.0 PROBLEMS IN LEARNING ENGLISH LANGUAGE

Before finding out the solutions in teaching and learning of English to the Year 4
primary school students, the identification of problems is important and essential. Table 4
indicates the number of percentages of either agreement or disagreement for items 33 until

44.
Table 3: Problems in Learning English Language

From Table 3, it can be seen that most of the respondents showed agreement to all of
the items (33 to 44) in regards to problems in learning English. This shows that the present
syllabus and curriculum of English are catering to their language needs to most of the
respondents. Still, it is still vital to focus on the disagreements and analyze what needs to be
improved so that it can benefit the students that face problems. One of the prominent one is
relating to students’ confidence in talking casually with their friends in English. 31.7 percent
of the students disagree with the statement ‘I can talk with my friends casually and
confidently’. This shows that some of them are still not comfortable or used to talking
voluntarily and casually in English with their friends. Therefore, teachers can provide
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lessons with more

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opportunities and give more interesting topics for students to talk about with their friends in
class. The more they talk willingly, the better they can be in using the language effortlessly.

With regard to the teaching methods, most of them, with 61.6 percent of the
respondents prefer to work alone even though 87.5 percent which is equivalent to 210
respondents love to do group activities. This shows that they learn better if they communicate
with their friends while doing tasks or activities in class. Still, individual work is also needed
to be implemented in lessons but not on a larger scale.

Overall, from the data, teachers should focus more on the listening and speaking
activities in order to capture the correct way of using the language, provide wider and
interesting topics for the students to talk about that fit to their level of proficiency and
interest, talk in English with students because they love to listen to their teachers speaking in
English, expose how the native speakers speak by providing audios or videos of them using
the language and finally, provide ample of examples when explaining any content or
grammar structure to increase their understanding.

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 PART III

1.0 10-CRITERIA CHECKLIST OF EVALUATION TEACHING MATERIALS

Teaching is a complex process which involve many aspects that would influence the
learning outcome or product quality i.e. learners. Pedagogical skills are really matter in
conveying the content knowledge to explain to the learners in simpler and easier way to
digest the knowledge. Besides that, teaching materials are essential to in delivering the
knowledge as they function as reference for the teachers as well as the learners. Moreover,
the selected material must be suitable to the learners’ level as learners need to do their self-
study where teachers might not be there to explain, so, the materials must match the
appropriate level of the learners. Thus, the following points would be the criteria to check
teaching materials.

The criteria that can be used to evaluate the language teaching materials are basically
depending on the need analysis done by the teachers or syllabus designers. The following
points would be the general and possible criteria to evaluate teaching materials. However,
material evaluation is a unique procedure which is mainly subjective and no neat formula,
grid, or system will ever provide a definitive yardstick to impose onto the evaluation criteria
(Sheldon, 1988, p. 245)

The first criteria that can be used to evaluate the teaching material is the publication.
In this 21st century, there are many types of available publications, printed and digital form
(Berg E., 2001). There are pros and cons for both forms of materials in terms of accessibility and
availability. Let us look at the accessibility first, for digital material, it certainly requires electronic
device, which is mobile device to be more specific, in order to access it (Antonio, J., 2016). Basically,
almost everyone has mobile device like mobile phones and tablets as it is considered as a necessity
instead of luxuries. This is a good trait for a teaching and learning material since it is accessible
anytime, anywhere and without hassle since anyone can use their mobile device to access it.
Furthermore, it would be helpful for people with disability as well like blind people can use speech
function instead of Braille (Bühler,
C. & Fisseler, B., 2007). On the contrary, the printed materials have their own pros and cons. The pros
for printed material, it does not require additional device and electricity. It can be read anywhere as
long as the material is brought along. In addition, for pupils, the most suitable materials so far are
printed books which could keep their focus on learning since gadget could be a distraction to them
and the usage must be within teacher or adult supervision. This has been proven during this MCO
period due to Covid-19, teachers have problems in carrying out the online class which using digital

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instruction and materials in teaching and learning session without the help and supervision from
parents and guardian.

22
 Second criterion to be evaluated is cultural aspect of the teaching materials. In Kim Hae-Dong
(2006), it was addressed that cultural tone in the teaching and learning materials is important. This
criterion also eases the teachers or syllabus designers to develop the appropriate content for the
materials (Mahardika, I., 2018). In the same article, the local cultural aspects help learners to relate
the language usage within the local setting that they live daily as it reduced “foreign” sense of the
language. In addition, using culture of other country could more or less detriment the language
learning as the learners do not experience the culture which they unable to use the vocabulary learned
within the context. However, the vocabulary about the culture would be usable if the teachers could
find the most similar local celebration or festival to the foreign culture learned in the material (David
Palfreyman, 2003).

The third criterion for evaluation of the teaching material is the sequencing. Sequencing can
be divided into two categories which are content sequencing and goal sequencing (Purwanti, 2017). It
is important to arrange the content in an appropriate sequence as it would affect or influence the
effectiveness of teaching and learning session as well as learners’ absorption of knowledge. In my
opinion, the content sequencing should be based on Bloom’s Taxonomy as the lowest stage is to
acquire information which is knowledge to the highest stage, create. Therefore, in each topic, the
content should begin with easy content to the harder one throughout the end of the topic (James, B. &
Fogarty, R.,1986). Similarly, in sequencing goal where learners are given the knowledge or
information through reading and listening activities first that involves receptive skill as to prepare
themselves before doing the productive skill which are speaking and writing. It is out of normality to
ask learners to write an essay when they are not having the appropriate set of vocabulary. As a result,
we can see this sequencing has been used in KBSR and KSSR textbooks where it starts off a topic
with listening skill and speaking which is two-way communication and to the end of the topic, reading
and writing. Thus, this criterion is really useful in evaluating a teaching material for the learners.

The fourth criterion in evaluating a teaching material is the vocabulary level. In developing
the materials for English language, which is the second language of the land, need an appropriate set
of vocabulary taught in every level. The vocabulary taught must be suitable for the current usage at a
particular level and slowly add up higher vocabulary difficulty for the next level of education. This is
necessary as mentioned in Abd. Manan, Nor Liza, and Sarimah (2013), that Malaysian English
syllabus did not accommodate the appropriate academic vocabulary needs in secondary school for the
students to pursue a degree program in universities. Thus, the criterion must be emphasized when
evaluating and choosing the teaching materials for the language.

The fifth criterion for evaluating the teaching material is the graphic and colour in the
material. It is evidently proven that colours stimulate human brain and affect its function in a
mysterious way where colours can regulate emotion (Sroykham, W. & Wongsathikun, J. &
Wongsawat, Y., 2014). We
23
can understand from this statement that colours play a significant role in affective area. In other
research paper, it is said that colours affect the way we see things and process information which
colours increase the potential in memorizing pictures and words (Myers, 2004). In addition, the
proverb of “A picture is worth a thousand words” is not merely a wise quote, a series of study of
recognition tests have shown that the human brain can recollect more than 2000 pictures with at least
90% accuracy, even with short periods of presentation times (Martin, K., 2020). In short, this criterion
of evaluating the materials must include the quality of colours and graphic illustration usage in the
teaching material in order to increase the learners’ performance and the possibility in achieving the
intended learning outcomes.

The sixth criterion is the content level of the material. It is important to evaluate the content
level so that it is really appropriate for the learners’ aptitude. Since English is a foreign language, it
would cause some issue in its acquisition and therefore the acquisition must be done in stages. Thus
the teaching material must be examined accordingly to the needs of the learners and the level of
adeptness of the material among the learners (Tomlinson, 2012). If the level of the material is too high
for the learners, they cannot comprehend and absorb the lesson which would be waste of time and
energy as well as money. Thus, it is important to ensure the level of the content is suitable to the
learners so that they are learning the language at the appropriate pace and would benefit every bit of
the content delivered to them.

Next, the seventh criterion is the exercises and questions that accompanied the content within
the teaching material. This criterion is important because some of the selected teaching materials have
issue on this as the exercises and questions were too hard or too simple. As a result, learners could not
really test their newly learned or existing knowledge by using the questions in the material. Most of
the questions from textbook, for instance, are straightforward questions which not really challenge the
language of the learners. However, thinking of it, the possible reason for that the textbook cannot
provide the key answers for those questions in the same textbook which would defeat the purpose of
the exercises or questions, perhaps. Thus, in the future, this criterion should be considered by the
syllabus designers when choosing the materials for teaching and learning.

The eighth criterion is the skills emphasised along the teaching materials selected. Language
is considered as a life skill as it grows and develops through usage and practice. Therefore, within the
materials used, there must be language skills emphasised such as listening, reading, speaking and
writing. These four skills are pertinent in language learning as the language is used in verbal and
written form where speaking and listening skill are needed in verbal communication while reading
and writing skill for written communication. It is noticeable in the textbooks used in schools, it
sequences the skills accordingly by starting off a topic with verbal skill set like listening and speaking.

24
Toward the end of the topic it deals with skills that related with text which are reading and writing.
In addition, starting

25
from Year 3, grammar section is added which emphasis on word classes or part of speech and tenses
that indicates the need of using the language semantically correct. Thus, all the skills that required in
using a language need to be emphasised in teaching and learning which need to be included within the
teaching materials.

Then, the ninth criterion for evaluation of teaching materials is the learners’ ‘process
competence’ towards the materials. Learners are human beings who have intellect, emotions and
abilities and these factors make us different from one to another. Everyone in a classroom has this
differences in terms of intellect, emotions and abilities usually named as ‘heterogeneous’ traits. In my
opinion, a good teaching material covers all levels of learners which is ranging from weak, average
and excellent learners so that the learners can participate in the teaching and learning session.

The last criterion for teaching material is the size and thickness. Back in the day, during my
schooling days, the textbooks are very thick. Our school bag was very heavy as we have multiple
subjects to learn in a day and we are not allowed to leave the textbooks at school. There were
complaints about the daily textbooks load which could hurt some of the learners as they have to
shoulder the load to school. Thus, the size and thickness of the materials need to be considerably
reasonable for the learners’ body endurance where learners have to bring materials for different
subjects.

26
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