Secondary School English Teachers‟ Practice Of Adapting Textbooks: The Case Of Ninth And Tenth Grades English Teachers At Bulga General Secondary And Preparatory School

Abstract

The principal intent of this study was to assess English teachers‟ practice of adapting textbook materials in the newly revised ninth grade and tenth grade English textbooks with particular reference to English teachers at Bulga General Secondary and Preparatory School. To conduct the study, qualitative research design was employed and the data were analyzed qualitatively. The data were collected from two grade nine English teachers and two grade ten English teachers through observation and interview. In addition, data were also gathered through document analysis from randomly selected twenty students‟ exercise books from both grade levels and the teachers‟ daily lesson plans. The major findings of the study revealed that the subjects of this study are not aware of textbook adaptation though they adapt some textbook materials unconsciously, without considering the principles and theories of textbook adaptation. In other words, although teachers assume that they are doing their best in using the textbooks to facilitate the language learning, they still need more orientation concerning the way they use, evaluate and adapt textbook materials to make the contents suitable to their students‟ interest, age and level of language proficiency. In addition, the results of the study showed that teachers usually evaluate textbook materials before beginning the actual class for the purpose of their own understanding not for the sake of making the textbook materials suitable to their students. Besides, teachers often use too much deletion on skill-based contents and too much addition on grammar-oriented topics. In other words, among the different types of textbook adaptation techniques which are proposed by different scholars they often practiced two of the techniques frequently. What is more, the major factors that restrain teachers from adapting textbook materials were found to be teachers‟ lack of awareness, expertise and confidence in implementing textbook adaptation properly and purposefully. On the basis of the major findings and conclusions reached, recommendations were put forward so as to enable teachers to implement textbook adaptation based on the principles that have been established by scholars.