The Flaw of Tasks in EFL Textbook for Indonesian Vocational Students of Grade IX

Abstract

For many decades, English teachers around the globe admitted that various tasks exposed to ESL/ EFL students help them conceptualize, practice, and master the language. Therefore, it is not surprising that many studies regarding textbook analysis have been flourished and most of them pleased the National Board of Education Standard. The current study, however, tries to analyze the tasks provided in „Forward An English‟ from a different perspective namely Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) while promoting students‟ analytical and critical thinking. Thus, the book which is designed for Grade IX of Vocational School students became the object of this research. Every task in each chapter was checked, analyzed, and classified into six columns (Revised Bloom‟s Taxonomy by Krathwohl and Anderson) to determine the cognitive level and types of a task as well. Based on 199 item tasks collected in the whole chapters, it was found out that the author presented the tasks in the following order: understanding, application, remembering, while evaluation and creation occupied the least. Moreover, the tasks are found to be mainly in the lower level, few in the middle level, and less in the higher level of the cognitive domain. It can be concluded then that the textbook does not promote students‟ creative and critical thinking skills. Relying on these data, one will not be surprised to witness that many Vocational students played around while working on the assignments.