English Teachers’ Preferences in using Instructional Materials for

Senior High School Students in Indonesia

Lailatul Kodriyah

, Neneng Islamiah

, Yudha Aprizani

Universti Islam Kalimantan (UNISKA) Muhammad Arsyad Al Banjari, Banjarmasin & Ph.D student at UPSI Malaysia

Universti Islam Kalimantan (UNISKA) Muhammad Arsyad Al Banjari, Banjarmasin

Keywords: English language teaching (ELT) materials; perception of the teachers; ELT in Indonesia.

Abstract: This study tried to investigate English instructional materials commonly used by English language teachers

in senior high schools in Indonesia. The purpose of this research is to explore and describe the English

teachers’ preferences in using instructional material. It also aims to explore the perceptions of the teachers

and the use of English instructional materials in the classroom. Besides, it also aims to see whether how

teachers choose a specific teaching material. The researcher used questionnaire and interview to collect the

data. Thirty English teachers participated in answering the questionnaire. In addition, three English teachers

were interviewed. Then, the results from the data collection techniques will be analysed and discussed

further. The result of the study is expected to be beneficial for English language teachers, pre service

teachers and curriculum developers when they select appropriate English materials to teach English.

1 INTRODUCTION

The success of teaching and learning process in the

classroom cannot be separated from the availability

of the instructional materials. Tomlinson (2011,

p.xiii) defined language-learning materials as

anything which can be used by teachers or learners

to facilitate the learning of a language such as

cassettes, videos, CD-Rooms, dictionaries,

workbooks or photocopied of exercises. Materials

can be in the form of pages of texts, textbooks,

workbooks, reference materials, pictures, realia (e.g.

bust timetables, event flyers, posters, sales receipt),

virtual artifacts (website and computer programs),

teacher-prepared worksheets, exercises and

activities, students-prepared texts (poems, diary) and

other forms of materials (Epstein, 2010; Hall, 2010;

Guerrettaz & Johnston, 2013). The selection of

proper instructional materials during classroom

instruction is definitely significant. Kitao & Kitao

highlighted that materials are keys element in

language teaching. Besides, the use of suitable

learning materials will motivate students in learning

English by bringing a slice of real life situation into

more complete communication situation (Brinton &

Snow, 2006). Indeed, selecting a suitable

instructional materials is not an easy part as it needs

careful process of selection to choose materials

which covers the learning objectives.

In Indonesia where English takes place as a

foreign language, teachers should use various

teaching resources to help the students in learning

the language (Harsono, 2007, p.170). The use of

instructional materials provides the teacher with

interesting and compelling platform for conveying

information since they motivate learners to learn

more (Okobia, 2011). Using instructional in the

classroom helps the teacher in overcoming physical

difficulties that could have hindered his effective

presentation of a given topic. By preparing good

instructional materials will help teachers to achieve

the learning objectives, deliver the lessons,

communicate with students, to visualize abstracts

course, and to facilitate learning for better results.

Especially, in English learning, using suitable and a

variety of instructional materials can help motivate

learning and developing all the language skills of

speaking, listening, reading, and writing the English

language (Tafani, 2009). Knowing the importance of

instructional materials during teaching and learning

process, this study is conducted in order to analyze

the teachers’ preferences in using English

instructional materials in teaching English for senior

high school students in Indonesia especially in

Banjarmasin, South Kalimantan, Indonesia..

Kodriyah, L., Islamiah, N. and Aprizani, Y.

English Teachers’ Preferences in using Instructional Materials for Senior High School Students in Indonesia.

DOI: 10.5220/0009019600002297

In Proceedings of the Borneo International Conference on Education and Social Sciences (BICESS 2018), pages 263-267

ISBN: 978-989-758-470-1

263

2 OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY

The main purpose of this study is to find out and

describe the teachers’ preferences in choosing

English instructional materials to teach senior high

schools students in Banjarmasin and the teachers’

considerations when selecting the materials during

classroom instruction.

3 RESEARCH QUESTIONS

The research questions in this study are as follow:

a. What are the ELT materials preferred by English

language teachers in the classroom?

b. What are the teachers’ considerations in selecting

ELT materials to teach their students?

4 LITERATURE REVIEW

The success of teaching and learning English cannot

be separated from the availability of the teaching

materials. As it is stated by Allwright (1990) that

materials help to control learning and teaching and it

is a key component to most language programs

(Richards, 2002). Many people have the same

conception between the instructional materials and

textbook. Most of them think that materials refers

only to textbook while actually it is quite different.

Instructional materials, as it is defined by Tomlinson

(2001), refer to anything which can be used to

facilitate language learning. They can be linguistic,

visual, auditory, or kinaesthetic. Further, Richards

(2001) explained that instructional materials not

only a textbook but also other resources such as

novel, plays, computer software, etc. ELT materials

can be classified into two main categories, i.e.

authentic and inauthentic materials. Nunan (2001;

68) defined authentic materials as that are not

created deliberately for teaching purposes. Further,

Peacock (1997) explains that authentic materials are

produced to fulfil some social purposes in the

language community. Examples of authentic

materials are newspapers, magazines, posters, radio

news which was brought in the class, etc.

Meanwhile, inauthentic materials or usually called

as artificial materials are materials which specially

designed for learning purposes such as textbook or

listening materials that recorded intentionally for

teaching purposes.

In English language teaching, instructional

materials play an important role as they facilitate

language learning (Tomlinson, 2008), catch students’

attention, motivate students to learn foreign

language, support valuable input (Krashen, 1985) and

authentic language (Lee, 1995), make learning more

concrete and more meaningful as long as guide the

students in practicing the language. From a general

perspective, instructional materials can be

categorized in three groups: (1) traditional materials;

(2) audio and visual materials; and (3) information

communication technologies (ICT) based materials.

It can be highlighted that teaching should be

supported by textual materials (textbook) and other

visual materials such as pictures, flashcards, posters,

charts, etc. Visual materials have big contribution to

help teachers to bring variety of classroom activities

like drills, exercises, instructions and explanation

(Abebe & Davidson, 2012). As English is a foreign

language in Indonesia, the teachers should be able to

combine various English materials to teach their

students to support them in learning.

However, selecting good and appropriate

instructional materials for the teachers is surely not

an easy task. Teachers should be able to pick

materials which match with curriculum, syllabus,

and students’ needs (Syatriana et.al, 2013). There

are some characters of good materials according to

the experts. Brown suggested that a good material

should promote the integrated skills. Further,

Richards (2001; 252) pointed out materials which

are authentic, realistic, contextualized, and relevant

to the learners’ need are categorized into good

materials. Tomlinson (2000) said that materials

should reflect the reality of language use and should

help to create readiness for the students to learn.

It is widely known that materials in language

teaching is crucial as they are a key component in

most language program as it is stated by Richards

(2001); whether the teacher uses a textbook,

institutionally-prepared materials, or his or her own

materials, instructional materials generally serve as

the basis for much of the language input. Even

though materials in language teaching is very

important, researches had focused more on teachers,

teaching and learners rather than on materials

(Richards, 2001). However, it cannot be inferred that

materials had received very little attention in the

professional literature. Some previous studies about

instructional materials have been conducted by

researchers with different focus and object. Cakir

(2015) conducted a study which paid attention on

the English primary teachers’ choices in choosing

English materials which showed that most teachers

were reluctant to use various highly beneficial

materials because of technical problems such as big

classes, limited technological knowledge, limited

time for preparation, etc.

BICESS 2018 - Borneo International Conference On Education And Social

264

Another study conducted Rohmah (2015) about

EFL materials students really need in Islamic Junior

High School showed that materials needed by

students of Islamic junior high school should be

appropriate for big classes and include pronunciation

activities and be supported with recorded examples.

Students need supplementary materials which

include fun activities like games, pictures, and

songs. This is in line with the result of Johannsson

research (2006) which showed that textbook should

not be the only teaching material used in the

classroom because the use of textbook alone would

be boring and not very stimulating for the students.

Zacharias (2003), Hasan (2011), Lien (2010), and

Firmansyah (2015) conducted similar studies which

focused on instructional materials but with different

subjects and objectives.

5 METHODOLOGY

The design used in this study is mixed method

research design in which the researchers combine

both quantitative and qualitative research designs to

collect the data. Thirty English teachers participated

in answering the questionnaire. For qualitative data,

three English teachers were interviewed.

6 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

After distributing the questionnaire to teachers, the

researcher analysed the results of the questionnaire

using SPSS. The results of SPSS output is used to

answer the research question no 1.

RQ 1: What are the ELT materials preferred by

English language teachers in the classroom?

Types of materials Mean

Textbook 4.714

Exercise book 3.857

Newspaper 3.143

Magazine 2.429

Pictures 2.429

Flashcards 3.857

Charts 2.268

Poster 2.857

Real object 3.429

Computer 4.429

Projector 2.857

Audio 2.429

From the results of the questionnaire, it can be

seen that most teachers prefer to have textbook as

the teaching materials for their class with the mean

score 4.714 while the second materials the teachers

prefer to use is computer with the mean 4.429. It is

quite surprising as not many schools in Banjarmasin

provide computer for their students. The third

materials commonly preferred by the teachers to be

applied during classroom instruction is exercise

book with the mean score 3.857. Charts materials

seemed to be last options chosen by the teachers

with the mean score 2.286. From the findings, it can

be concluded that textbook and exercise book still be

the most favourite ones used by the teachers to teach

English for their students.

RQ 2: What are the teachers’ considerations in

selecting ELT materials to teach their students?

In order to know the teachers’ reason in choosing

the preferred materials, the researchers then

conducted interview to three English teachers who

also participated in the questionnaire part. The

purpose of the second research question is to dig

deeper the results from the preceding questionnaire.

There were three teachers as respondents named

with T1, T2, and T3. The researcher then asked the

teachers about their preferences in using teaching

materials and the reasons they chose those materials.

Basically, the three teachers had the same view that

textbook still be their favourite teaching materials.

They said that using textbook is much more efficient

and easy for both teachers and students. It is because

everyone has textbook. Below is the answers of the

teachers.

T1: Well…. Hhmm it depends I think. Depend on

what topic I teach in that day. Mostly I prefer to

use textbook because I think every student have it

and it is easy to use you know. But, If the content

in the textbook is not adequate, I ask my students

to browse article in the internet.

T2: Hmmm usually, before coming to the class, I

require the students to read materials in the

textbook and bring hmm articles about the

specific topic or theme as additional materials.

But actually, hhmm.. I prefer to use textbook

because it needs less effort and…. and…..it can

save my time to prepare the teaching materials.

Besides that, to check the students

understanding, I prefer to have LKS (exercise

book) for the students.

T3: I prefer to use textbook you know….as every

student already have it but I did not strictly used

it because right now students can freely access

English Teachers’ Preferences in using Instructional Materials for Senior High School Students in Indonesia

265

any information related to the materials in the

internet. That’s good to enrich the students

understanding. But still, I put textbook as my

most favourite teaching materials because it

covers the curriculum and teaching objectives.

T1 has seven years teaching experience. From

the answer, it can be underlined that she put

textbook at the first choice in teaching. However,

she does not rely on the textbook only. She also

suggests her students to look for the additional

information in the internet if the materials in the

textbook is not enough. T2 has five teaching

experience and he mentioned that he prefers to use

textbook because it needs less effort and does need

much time to prepare the materials. Nonetheless, he

also uses additional teaching materials namely

exercise book and article from the internet. It is in

line with the respond from T3 that even though she

put authentic materials as helpful resources for her

students to get additional knowledge, she still

prefers to have textbook as the most favourite

teaching materials. It is because textbook provides a

good teaching framework. It was in the same line

with what Ur (1998) said that textbook offers

explicit framework which clues teachers and

students in what they have done and what will be

done.

From the answers of the three respondents, it can

concluded that they cannot teach without a textbook.

Textbook plays a very crucial part during their

classroom instruction as it is stated by Tomlinson

(1998). Besides, as it is stated by Pamungkas (2010),

textbook is one type of learning materials which is

well-written, tightly organized, and greatly

condensed. A textbook also comprises the core

materials for a language-learning course where

various issues are covered considering the learning

needs of the students within a course period

(Tomlinson, 2011). To sum up, even though

technology and internet has evolved rapidly, the use

of textbook in the classroom is indeed undeniable.

Beside textbook materials, the three participants

also use additional materials during classroom

instruction. T1 uses articles from the internet as

additional resources if the information in the

textbook is not adequate for the students. Her

preference on using articles in the internet is based

on the reason that it is easy for the students to get

and free. In contrast, T2 prefers to use LKS or

exercises book to check the students’ understanding

on specific materials. He often asks his students to

bring articles in the classroom as additional

information so that the students do not only get

information from the textbook. T3 participant

prefers to have authentic sources from the internet

for her teaching materials. However, she said that

textbook still be the most favourite when it comes to

the English language teaching. From the

participants’ answers, it can be assumed that

textbook only is not enough to be used in the

classroom because sometimes the information found

in the textbook does not support the topic being

discussed. Therefore, teachers have to find other

additional materials to motivate the students in

learning English. And the participants’ choice is

authentic materials or articles from the internet as

their additional teaching materials.

When the researcher asked the participants about

their perceptions on the use of same teaching

materials during teaching and learning, they said that

it is not good for students as it may cause boredom

for them in learning English. T1 participant suggests

to prepare several additional materials because

students usually easy to get bored when they have to

read the textbook. Besides, she said that textbook

has several disadvantages if teachers cannot

combine it with other teaching materials. She further

explained that relying too much on textbook can

restrict the teacher’s creativity. T2 has the same

perception with T3 that rely heavily on textbook is

not good for their teaching because most of the

dialogue presented in the textbook is unnatural and

sometimes contains cultural bias. That is why

combining several types of instructional materials

for teaching is better rather than heavily rely on

textbook or one type of teaching material only.

The results from the participants’ respond is in

line with the findings of the previous study

conducted by Johannsson (2006) which showed that

textbook should not be the only teaching material

used in the classroom because the use of textbook

alone would be boring and not very stimulating for

the students. However, the use of textbook with the

combination of additional materials were considered

to work well as teachers and students benefit from

the advantages of both textbook and alternative

materials. The results of the previous studies

conducted by Firmansyah (2015) and Hasan (2011)

also support the findings of this study.

7 CONCLUSION

The aim of the present study is to find out and

describe the teachers’ preferences in choosing

English instructional materials to teach senior high

schools students in Banjarmasin and the teachers’

BICESS 2018 - Borneo International Conference On Education And Social

266

considerations when selecting the materials during

classroom instruction. From the findings, it can be

concluded that Indonesian teachers, especially in

Banjarmasin, tend to choose textbook as their first

teaching materials. It can be seen from the mean

score of textbook materials which shows the highest

mean among the other materials, i.e. 4.714. It is also

supported by the results of the interview with three

teachers which showed that commonly they prefer to

have textbook during classroom instruction.

However, they do not rely only on textbook. Rather,

they combine the textbook with alternative materials

such as article from the internet, work book or

exercise book, and other authentic materials.

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