Textbook analysis

3.4.1.1 Materials

At the time the research took place, there were more than 80 officially approved English textbooks for primary schools. In order to increase the likelihood that the result of the analysis would more accurately reflect the outcomes in primary school English classrooms, it was decided that the analysis should be limited to the most-circulated textbooks. Unfortunately, the process of compiling a list of top-selling English textbooks for primary school learners was not straightforward.

Several prolonged visits to the official website of the MoE failed to obtain any data on the circulation of all textbooks. Exhaustive searches on the websites of each of the 24 local bureaux of education and other on-line sources proved equally

unsuccessful. There appear to be neither statistics nor official records of the English textbooks used by primary schools on any of the government websites. In an attempt to obtain this information, therefore, an e-mail enquiry was sent to the MoE (on December 10th 2006). In the reply, the MoE stated that to avoid impeding fair trade and the mechanism of a free market, it was inappropriate to perform any official statistical analysis, and suggested approaching each individual school to acquire the relevant information. As each of the local bureaux of education websites provides the web addresses of all the primary schools within its region, and some of these websites do provide a record of the English textbooks used by the particular school, a decision was made to pursue this line of inquiry. There were 2667 primary schools in Taiwan at the time of the research, however, and taking into account the time required to visit the websites of all the schools and the need to ensure a representative result, it was decided that twenty schools from each region would be randomly selected and their textbook use recorded as a means of identifying the most circulated English textbooks. Consequently, around five hundred school websites were visited. It was found, however, that many of those schools who do provide records listed only the name of the publisher. The analysis of use revealed that textbooks published by more than 15 publishers were used in the years 2001 to 2004. By 2005, six different publishers began to dominate the market. Further analysis of the trend in recent years (2005-2007)

showed a diminishing market share for one of those six publishers, and it was therefore decided to eliminate this publisher from the analysis. As textbook publishers in Taiwan tend to publish different sets of textbooks to suit the level of students in different schools, the remaining five publishers were then contacted to obtain information on their most circulated textbooks. Consequently, six series of ELT textbooks published by Hess publishing company, Joy publishing company, Kang Shuan, Longman (Pearson Education) and Kidcastle publishing company were selected for the analysis. Table 3.3 lists key information on the textbooks.

Table 3.3 Series of six textbooks used for ELT in Taiwan in 2005-2007

Publisher Title Volumes Year(s) of publication

Target group

Hess Happy English

(HE)

1-8 2005-2007 Year 3-6

Joy Joy English (JE) 1-8 2005-2007 Year 3-6 Kang-Shuan Hello Darbie (HD) 1-8 2005-2007 Year 3-6 Kang-Shuan New Wow English

(NWE)

1-8 2006-2007 Year 3-6

Kidcastle Magic Land (ML) 1-8 2006-2007 Year 3-6 Longman Go SuperKids

(GS)

1-4 2006 Year 3-6

In alignment with the statutory requirements of the official curriculum guidelines, all five publishers claim to adopt a communicative approach in the design of the textbooks and place great emphasis on their phonics elements. All the textbooks come with corresponding workbooks and teacher’s guides. Although the focus of

the present research is on the analysis of the student books, it is felt that

examining activities in the workbooks may reveal how the content of the lessons was meant to be practised and consolidated and whether phonics may play a role in the process. In addition, as teacher’s guides are likely to contain instructions to teachers on phonics teaching, they are essential to the interpretation of the content of the student books. Hence, workbooks and teacher’s guides are also included in the analysis to supplement and reinforce the findings of the student book analysis.

3.4.1.2 Procedures

Once the textbooks were identified, each of the five publishers was contacted and after being given a detailed account of the purpose of obtaining the textbooks, all agreed to send free sample books. However, among them, Kang-Shuan did not have a complete set of one of the two series of textbooks required for the

research at the time of the contact. After negotiation, the publisher agreed to allow the researcher access to the electronic format of the textbooks (New Wow English) and their associated materials via the company website.

3.4.1.3 Framework for the analysis

In order to collect relevant information for the research questions, a framework of analysis in which eleven aspects of the textbooks were examined was applied:

Research questions

1a: What is the underlying

assumption of the role of phonics reflected in the text books?

1b: How is phonics taught?

1c: To what extent do the phonics skills taught in the textbooks prepare learners for the acquisition of the 1200 basic words, the vocabulary in each lesson and all the sounds in American English? Aspects for analysis  when the teaching of reading and writing starts in relation to the teaching of speaking  when phonics is taught  whether phonics is taught analytically or synthetically  whether there are any perceptible levels of progression  whether the teaching of the sound-letter knowledge follows any specific framework  whether there

are any word building or spelling activities  whether chants or rhymes are engaged to practice phonics  how phonetically

regular the words selected for phonics practice are

 how many of the phonics rules governing the1200 basic words are covered

 to what extent learners can use the phonics rules taught to sound out words in each lesson

 whether the rules cover all

phonemes in American English

3.4.1.3.1 Explanation and justification for research question 1a framework of analysis

 When the teaching of reading and writing starts in relation to the teaching of

speaking:

For L1 learners of English, phonics is intrinsically a mediator between spoken and written language. The network of linguistic knowledge established through

speaking interaction is the foundation of their literacy acquisition (Bald, 2007). The existence of such knowledge is crucial to the effect of phonics teaching because not only does it enable successful phonics decoding to result in comprehension, but it also allows learners to make predictions from knowledge of syntax and context to compensate for deficiencies in phonics knowledge. In other words, when printed words are decoded successfully, the meaning of the words can be easily retrieved. However, when the printed words cannot be easily deciphered through phonics decoding, the existing knowledge allows a range of cueing sources to inform and consolidate the choice and enable learners to monitor and self-correct themselves. It is believed here, therefore, that if phonics is to play a similar role in EFL learning, it is imperative that learners have a spoken repertoire and some linguistic knowledge of the language before proceeding to the learning of reading and writing and that learners’ initial exposure to print words build on their existing spoken knowledge. By examining the onset of the teaching of reading and writing in relation to the teaching of speaking in the textbooks, therefore, it is believed the underlying assumption of the role of phonics in the process of literacy acquisition can be revealed.

 When phonics is taught:

Following the same argument, if phonics is to serve as a mediator between spoken and written words, learners should be made aware of the principle that English words are constructed of phonemes represented by letters and letter combinations and they should be taught the basic rules required for the recognition of their initial print words before demands are made on them to

recognise and spell words. In other words, the teaching process should first focus on listening and speaking practices until learners establish an oral and linguistic knowledge deemed suitable for their level and then required phonics rules taught before learners proceed to print word recognition. Examining when phonics is taught is crucial in clarifying how the textbooks interpret the role of phonics in EFL learners’ literacy development.

3.4.1.3.2 Explanation of and justification for research question 1b framework of analysis

 whether phonics is taught analytically or synthetically

 whether there are any perceptible levels of progression

 whether the teaching of the sound-letter knowledge follows any specific

framework

 whether there are any word building or spelling activities

 whether chants or rhymes are engaged to practice phonics

In the official curriculum guidelines, phonics is placed under the ‘teaching of reading’ and learners are expected to use basic phonics rules to pronounce and to spell words and to recognise words that occur frequently in the main content of each lesson. The official guidelines for materials stress that phonics should be used to help learners acquire the sound-letter links and to pronounce words and place phonics under the pronunciation section. In both guidelines, no reference is made to how phonics should be taught in order to achieve the objectives. The omission of such information can be interpreted as a deliberate attempt by the government to allow freedom and flexibility and a certain degree of autonomy in primary school English education; however, it indicates that how well students learn phonics may rely greatly on how the textbooks chosen by individual schools present phonics teaching. In the absence of official guidelines and research publications on how phonics should be taught to EFL learners, the present research drew on information on how phonics is taught to English L1 learners as the basis for the analysis.

The UK national literacy strategy (NLS) framework for teaching (DfEE, 1998) established a sequence by which phonics should be taught:

Students should…

 Be able to hear and say phonemes: s, m, k, t, g, h, in the initial position  Recognise all initial consonant and short vowel sounds (a-z, ch, sh, th) in

speech and in writing; to identify and write correct initial letters in response to the letter sound, word, object or picture.

 Discriminate, write and read final sounds in simple words.

 Discriminate, write and read middle (short vowel) sounds in simple words: ‘a’ (fat), ‘e’ (wet), ‘i’ (pig), ‘o’ (pot), ‘u’ (mug).

 Read and spell words ending in ck, ff, ll, ss, ng

 Discriminate, blend and spell initial consonant clusters: bl, br, cl, cr, dr, dw, fl, fr, gl, gr, pl, pr, sc, scr, sk, sl, sm, sn, sp, spl, spr, squ, st, str, sw, tr, tw, thr, shr, and common ending clusters: ld, nd, lk, nk, sk, lp, mp, sp, ct, ft, lt, nt, pt, st, xt, lf, nch, lth

 Discriminate, spell and read the common spelling patterns for the long vowel phonemes: ee, ea, ai, a_e, ay, ie, i_e, igh, i_e, y (fly), oa, oo, o_e, ow, oo, u_e, ew, ue

 Discriminate, spell and read the common spelling patterns for the vowel phonemes: u (pull), oo (good), ar (car), oi, oy, ow (cow), ou (sound)  Discriminate, spell and read the common spelling patterns for the vowel

phonemes: air, are (scare), ere (there), ear (bear), or (sport), oor (floor), aw (claw), au (caught), ore (more), er, ir, ur

 Discriminate spell and read the common spelling patterns for the vowel phonemes: ear (fear), ea (bread)

The framework takes into account a considerable body of developmental research on both selection of the phonemes to be taught and the order in which the sound-letter knowledge is taught. For instance, the inclusion and positioning of the 6 consonants /s/, /m/, /k/, /t/, /g/ and /h/ at the early stage of

phonics teaching is a decision based on difficulty; to move from the easiest to the most difficult of consonant phonemes to identify (NLS, 1999). Similarly with level of progression, children are taught to segment the phoneme at the initial position of a word, e.g. /b/ in ‘bed’, then the phoneme in final position, e.g. /d/ in ‘bed’, and then the medial vowel, e.g. /e/ in ‘bed’ as the cognitive milestone for children is the ability to segment the phonemes in initial position (Henderson & Beers, 1980; Gentry, 1982; Read, 1986). Once the ability is firmly established, children will be able to progress to segment phonemes in other positions. Once children can segment and blend vowel phonemes, they can spell and read simple CVC words. The teaching of sh, ch and th at this point allows the introduction of the concept of the one phoneme/two letter pattern. The arrangement also takes into account that the three consonant clusters can be found at both the initial and the final position of words and will, therefore, enable children to continue practicing identifying the phonemes in initial and final positions. In general, a step by step guidance is provided so that learners can progress from identifying, segmenting and spelling CVC words to CCVC words as the relevant rules are taught.

In the framework, strong emphasis is also placed on a systematic, regular and frequent teaching of phonological awareness, the ability to rhyme and to relate this to spelling patterns, the ability to read words by sounding out and blending separate parts of words and to write words by combining the spelling patterns of their sounds.

The framework reveals that many factors can contribute to the efficacy of phonics instruction. For instance, whether phonics is taught analytically or synthetically through texts or text reading or as a separate set of skills and knowledge and whether the introduction of phonemes and the letters or letter combinations follow any particular framework (i.e. the sequence of knowledge of letters to be learned) and whether there is any level of progression (i.e. from identifying sounds at initial position to other positions and to CV or CVC word segmentation) can all impact on the effect of phonics teaching. In addition, as successful decoding involves not only the knowledge of the alphabetic code but also the skills of segmentation and blending (phonological processing skills), examination of whether there are any regular phonics word building and spelling activities to recycle learned phonics rules and whether words selected for practicing phonics skills exhibit particular phonemic structures (i.e. whether the words contain consonants and vowels in varying combinations) cannot be ignored. Furthermore, as repetition is an

important element of the learning equation (Linse, 2007), use of rhyme or chants in the textbooks to enhance word attack skills can also have an impact. As a phoneme can be represented by one or more letters and the same spelling may represent more than one sound, whether the selection of words for practice takes into consideration their phonic regularity may affect the extent to which foreign language learners view phonics as a reliable instrument. For the purpose of the research, all these aspects of the textbooks were examined.

3.4.1.3.3 Explanation of and justification for research question 1c framework of analysis

Although the government defines the learning objective for phonics as ‘to enable learners to use basic phonics rules to sound out words’, it does not provide information on what the ‘basic phonics rules’ are and neither does it specify the words that learners are expected to be able to sound out. Once again, these decisions are left entirely to the textbook writers. To know the possible effect of phonics teaching, therefore, it is essential to know what phonics rules are included in the textbooks and whether they are sufficient for learners’ various needs.

 How many of the phonics rules governing the basic 1200 words are covered:

In order to judge the adequacy of the number of sound-letter associations taught in each set of the textbooks, it is necessary for the current research to create a measuring instrument in the form of a list of phonics rules that learners need to know to enable comparisons. However, what rules learners need to learn depends on the role phonics plays in the learning process. If phonics serves as the mediator between spoken and written language, the rules required should be the basic rules which govern the vocabulary of the lessons. If phonics is to be used as a system of pronunciation, then in addition to the rules required for each lesson, ultimately, all the possible rules of English should be taught. As primary school learners are still at the foundation building stage in their English learning, it

is perhaps unrealistic to expect that the substantial number of possible sound letter links in English can be acquired within the time frame. Nonetheless, criteria for selecting adequate rules to be taught are necessary if teaching is to be

effective. In the official curriculum guidelines the MoE does not specify what words learners are expected to be able to sound out as the result of phonics instruction, but it does provide a list of 1200 basic words as part of the basis for primary school English textbook compilation. It is therefore justifiable to compile the list of rules from these 1200 words. Hence, each of the 1200 words was individually analyzed for its sound-letter relationships and then the number of occurrences of each rule was calculated. The list of possible sound-letter

associations obtained was modified to exclude exceptional letter-sound links (see Appendix 3.8) and then was compared with the list of rules retrieved from each of the textbooks.

It has to be pointed out, however, that the analysis has not been a straightforward process, largely because what constitutes a rule and what should be considered as an exception and how words should be separated into different components is not always transparent. For instance, though the letter combination ‘ar’ as in ‘warm’ is linked to the phonemes in American English only once in the 1200 words, this link occurs in many other common English words. In addition, careful

consideration is required to decide, for example, whether ‘cage’ should be divided into ‘c’ ‘a’ ‘ge’ , ‘c’ ‘a_e’ ‘g’ , ‘c’ ‘a_e’ ‘ge’ or ‘c’ ‘age’.

In order to make the rules as relevant as possible to the content of learning and taking into account what is achievable within learners’ ability and time available, it was decided that rules should be selected according to their occurrence in the 1200 words only.

 To what extent learners can use the phonics rules taught to sound out words

in each lesson:

Another important indication of whether the phonics knowledge taught is sufficient for learners’ needs is to examine the extent to which learners can use the rules to tackle words in each lesson. Conforming to the requirement of the MoE, all the textbooks divided the vocabulary in each lesson into ‘vocabulary for production’ or