Analysis of Content and Context Suitability

of Reading Texts in Year 3 English Textbook

to Students’ Background Knowledge

STUDENT NAME: Nanthini a/p Suppiah

STUDENT NUMBER: PQE 180009

COURSE NAME: Masters of English Education as a Second Language

DEPARTMENT: Department of Education

COURSE CODE: PQE 7005

COURSE NAME: Language Planning & Policy in Education

LECTURER: DR Mohd Rashid Bin Mohd Saad

 CONTENTS

CHAPTER 1 : INTRODUCTION

INTRODUCTION 5

1.1 STATEMENT OF PROBLEM. 6

1.2 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY 7

1.3 RESEARCH QUESTIONS 7

1.4 SIGNIFICANT OF THE STUDY

1.5 OPERATIONAL DEFINITION 8

1.6 LIMITATION 9

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

2.0 INTRODUCTION 11

2.1 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK 11

2.2 REVIEW OF PAST STUDIES 12

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY 14-17

3.0 INTRODUCTION 14

3.1 RESEARCH DESIGN 14

3.2 POPULATION OF THE STUDY 15

3.3 SUBJECT OF THE STUDY 15

3.4 INSTRUMENTS, RELIABILITY & VALIDITY 16

3.5 DATA ANALYSIS 17

CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS 18-21

4.0 INTRODUCTION 18

4.1 REPORTING OF FINDINGS 18

CHAPTER 5: DISCUSSION & CONCLUSION 22-24

5.0 INTRODUCTION 22

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 5.1 DISCUSSION 22

5.2 SUGGESTIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH 24

5.3 CONCLUSION 24

REFERENCES 24-26

APPENDICES 27-29

APPENDIX 1: SEMI STRUCTURED INTERVIEW QUESTIONS 27

APPENDIX 2: DOCUMENT ANALYSIS CHECKLIST 28

APPENDIX 3: READING TEXTS FROM YEAR 3 TEXTBOOK 29

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 ABSTRACT

Content and context of a reading text plays crucial role in students’ comprehension ability of

the text. The reading materials in textbook should be compatible to students’ background

knowledge to meet their leaning needs. This study focuses on analysing the suitability of

reading texts in Module 4 of Year 3 textbook in terms of its content and context familiarity to

students’ background knowledge. The subject of the study encompassed of three reading texts

from Module 4 and two teachers who taught Year 3 classroom in a lower primary school.

Document analysis using content analysis strategy and interview was used as methods to gather

data in this study. The findings revealed that the reading texts in Module 4 of Year 3 textbook

were contradict to learners’ background knowledge as the content and context of the text

unfamiliar with students’ existing knowledge and strategies of adapting the texts are necessary

to familiarise the content and context of reading texts. This study shed lights to policy makers

in choosing reading texts for Malaysian Primary textbooks.

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 CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

1.0 INTRODUCTION

English language has been established as second language in Malaysia and the students

of this globalised language stands from variety of background knowledge and socio-economic

status. This factor will influence their familiarisation with reading texts in English. Text

familiarisation in curriculum textbooks are crucial part in establishing students’ comprehension

on the content of the text (Alfaki & Siddiek, 2013). Reading texts that bridge the gap between

text content and students’ background knowledge able to provide a meaningful English lesson.

There are variety of genres in English reading texts such as narrative, expository,

argumentative and descriptive texts. These genres diverge into different context encompasses

of different background in terms of events, ideas and statements. The variation of context in

different genres should be familiarised with students’ background knowledge to ease their

understanding of reading texts (Crossley, Skalicky, Dascalu, McNamara & Kyle, 2017).

Unfamiliarised context in a reading text can challenges students’ motivation to read the text

and at the same time hinder their interpretation ability of the text.

Moreover, reading texts should be in familiarised context for young students especially

lower primary students to motivate them to read. Young students have low attention span and

lack of interest in reading. Therefore, a familiarised text can attract their attention to read and

understand the texts. Genres like narrative and expository enable young students to digest the

reading texts faster compare to argumentative and descriptive (Hattan, 2019). Reading texts in

Malaysian textbooks underwent a paradigm shift after the introduction of Common European

Framework of References for Languages.

The cultural content of the reading texts in Malaysian lower primary textbooks are

contradicting with students’ background knowledge. This can be witnessed in Year 3, Get

5
Smart Plus textbook which was implemented in 2019. The reading text in few topics of the

textbook followed the context of native speakers and incompatible to Malaysian students’

background knowledge (Hilton, 2016). Henceforth, this study was conducted to analyse the

content of reading text familiarisation in Year 3 textbook to students’ background knowledge.

1.1 STATEMENT OF PROBLEM

The introduction of Malaysian Education Blueprint 2013 to 2025 has brought lots of

transformation in primary English education. Firstly, Standard Curriculum for Primary Schools

commonly known as KSSR was introduced to establish a new curriculum which enables higher

order thinking in the classroom. Later, to accommodate students’ proficiency development,

Common European Framework of References for Languages (CERF) was integrated at lower

primary English education to synchronise students’ proficiency to CEFR levels of English

language proficiency. It is quite saddening to notice that the evolvement in primary English

education had brought in drastic changes in English lower primary textbooks (Ministry of

Education. 2015).

English language textbooks which were introduced in the beginning of 2018 for lower

primary students were imported from overseas. Unfortunately, it was not localised to

Malaysian context and this hampered problems to leaners’ understanding the reading texts. The

context in the reading texts resembled native culture and contradicted to students’ prior

knowledge (Horiba, & Fukaya, 2015). This at once will inhibit their interest to read the texts

as students face problem in making sense of what they read in local context. Even though,

introducing new culture context in reading texts give different exposure to students but it is

inappropriate for the level of young students (Shamsuddin & Hamid, 2017). This is due to their

weakness in English language proficiency and limited vocabulary content. Therefore, reading

texts in lower primary textbooks should be localised to suit students’ needs (Murtha, 2017).

Several studies had been conducted in examining the appropriateness of lower primary

English textbook contents in align with CEFR and KSSR needs but less was focusing on

6
exploring the reading texts suitability to students’ prior knowledge (Alfaki & Siddiek, 2013.,

Crossley, Skalicky, Dascalu, McNamara & Kyle, 2017., Horiba, & Fukaya, 2015) Besides

that, most of the studies were conducted in survey design that identify teachers’ and students’

perceptions of English textbooks which were then, analysed in quantitative mode using

correlation (Hattan, 2019., Hilton, 2016., Shamsuddin & Hamid, 2017., Murtha, 2017). This

create a gap in literature as well as methodology of studies. A study using qualitative content

analysis should be carried out in understanding the gap between reading texts in lower primary

textbook and students’ background knowledge. This kind of study will benefit the teachers and

Ministry of Education to act in localising the content reading materials in lower primary

schools.

1.2 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

The aim of this study is to evaluate the appropriateness of content and context of Year

3 reading texts in textbooks with students’ background knowledge. This qualitative study will

be conducted using a topic in Year 3 Get Smart English Textbook. The subject of the study

stands from reading texts in Year 3 English textbooks and Year 3 ESL teachers.

There are two main objectives in the study. Firstly, it aims to analyse the content of the

reading materials in Year 3 English textbook. The notion of this study is to identify the content

and context differences in Year 3 reading materials to students’ prior knowledge. Concurrently,

the second objective is to understand how teachers adapt and localise the content and context

in reading materials to meet students’ needs.

1.3 RESEARCH QUESTIONS

This qualitative content analysis aims to evaluate the appropriateness of content and

context of Year 3 reading texts in textbooks with students’ background knowledge. There are

two main objectives in this study and based on the objectives mentioned above, the

fundamental research questions in this study are as follows:

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 1. Does the content and context in reading texts of Year 3 Get Smart textbook familiar to

students’ background knowledge?

2. How does Year 3 ESL teachers adapt the reading materials in Year 3 Get Smart

textbook to localize the content and context to suit students’ needs?

1.4 SIGNIFICANT OF THE STUDY

Firstly, this study will be beneficial to Malaysian teachers as it will create awareness to

check for text familiarisation to students’ background knowledge before English lessons.

Besides that, this study also provides strategies for teachers to adapt the reading material to

meet localise content and context.

Secondly, this study will benefit the Malaysian Ministry of Education as it will become

an eye opener to the authority to take immediate action by localising the content and context

of the textbooks. It is undeniable that the Ministry is struggling in improving students’

proficiency in English language in line with CEFR levels but factors such as students’ prior

knowledge should be taken into consideration before choosing English textbooks for lower

primary students (Murtha, 2017). This is to aid students making sense of what they read.

Finally, this study also benefits the educational researchers as it lays a new platform for

them to explore textbooks reading text familiarity in future studies. Studies in curriculum has

been popular among researchers but studies on textbook reading texts content analysis is a new

ideology being introduced through this study for development of second language teaching and

learning (Hilton, 2016). Therefore, this study becomes a pillar for future researches to be

carried out focusing in this subject matter.

1.5 OPERATIONAL DEFINITION

Context refers to a situation that shapes the setting for an idea, statement or event and

in terms of which it is easy to understand fully. The origin of the term “context” is from Latin

“context” which means “a joining together, scheme, structure, to join by weaving.” Context is

8
of various types according to the situation or circumstance (Tan & Abidin, 2018). The historical

context refers to the period in which something happened or was created. No one can

understand the past custom or practice properly without looking at the historical context.

When talking about a text, context can also refer to the chunks of the text that preceded

and follow a passage or word and clarify its meaning. Hence, it is essential to understand the

entire context of a text to understand its meaning. Context is also a notion which students’

study in linguistics and other language sciences (To, 2015). Context is categorized into two

categories: verbal context and social context. Verbal context is the text or speech surrounding

a sentence, phrase or a word. Social context is the social identity that is construed and displayed

in text and discourse by language users.

On the other perspective, content is the subject matter in a text. The origin of the term

contest is from Latin “contestāri” which means “to call to witness, testārī means to testify.

Content is the material which is being dealt with in a speech or literary work. Before creating

content, thinking beyond the creative capacity of the material is necessary.

Content can be of many types and varies according to the topic of speech and discourse

(Crossley, Skalicky, Dascalu, McNamara & Kyle, 2017). For example, if we take all three

components, the introduction, the body and the conclusion of an essay, it can be taken as the

content. Thus, the material which someone writes, collect or gather about the given topic is the

content of a document. The term content is also used to talk about videos, articles, essays,

speeches, etc. In general, the word content refers to all what is contained in any work.

1.6 LIMITATION

Basically, this study draws several limitations in terms of the methodology of this study.

The participants of this study consist of reading texts from one topic in Year 3 textbook and

two ESL teachers from an urban primary school. The number of sample and participants are

too small since it was a purposive sampling for a qualitative study. It is assumed that a larger

sample may probe questions to the data collection of this study.

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 Furthermore, the environment factor of the participants may play role in questioning

the generalisation of findings. All the participants are from same school environment and this

does not cater teacher’s perspective from secondary schools nor rural areas. Hence, the results

in this study are applicable only for urban Year 3 ESL teachers of same environment as the

participants.

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 CHAPTER 2

LITERATURE REVIEW

2.0 INTRODUCTION

Literature review is the groundwork that builds the ideology of a study. The theory

applied by other scholars in similar studies addresses related and main theories that support

this study. It is a noticeable aspect that this study mainly related with theory of reflective

thinking and interlinked with theory of instructional management. Furthermore, the idea of this

study was deprived from the gap found in previous researches. This chapter addresses the

theoretical framework and review of past studies related to this study.

2.1 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

The main purpose for reading is to comprehend the ideas in the material. Without

comprehension, reading would be empty and meaningless. Providing a basis for this study is

the existing theory by Thomas G. Gunning, the Schema Theory. Gunning (1996) defines a

schema as the organized knowledge that one already has about people, places, things, and

events.

Schemata / Background Knowledge

People

Places

Events

Things

Text Comprehension

Figure 1: Schema Theory theoretical framework

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 The above theory is relevant to the study for it involves an interaction between the

reader’s own knowledge and the text, which results in comprehension. This theory emphasized

on the factors that influence students’ comprehension and highlights the suitability of texts to

students’ prior knowledge.

2.2 REVIEW OF PAST STUDIES

A study conducted by Tan, Ismail, & Abidin, (2018) investigate the levels of cognitive

domains of Malaysian Mathematics primary four textbooks developed under the old and new

curriculum based on Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) 2015

Mathematics Framework. This study adopted content analysis where the mathematical tasks

from the textbooks were classified in terms of type of tasks and cognitive domain. The results

of the study showed that a large portion of mathematical tasks in the two textbooks are in the

‘knowing’ domain even though improvements have been made in the new version of

mathematics primary four textbook which has more mathematical tasks in ‘applying’ and

‘reasoning’ domain compared to the old textbook.

The findings of the study suggest the structure of Malaysian textbook to be updated to

the current world changes by increasing the tasks in applying and reasoning domain. However,

the effort to reduce the gap between the intended curriculum and the supporting textbooks need

to be carefully planned such that students of different abilities can benefit. Meanwhile

practitioners must be smart in selecting and providing extra supplementary resources to serve

the need of their students.

Alfaki & Siddiek, (2013) have carried out a study that aims at investigating the role of

activating background knowledge in reading comprehension through text previewing. In this

study a previewing strategy called THIEVES is used to verify this hypothesis. The researchers

hypothesize that if students preview a text before reading it, they are likely to understand its

content better. In order to investigate this, the researchers conducted an experimental study

using a t-test as a statistical measure of the data. The study concluded that previewing a text

12
through THIEVES as a prior knowledge activator - facilitates better comprehension. We found

a positive correlation between previewing a text through THIEVES as a pre-reading activity

that aims to activate prior knowledge and better reading comprehension.

A study on examining and revealing images of gender-stereotyped occupations from

primary school English textbooks and uncover gendered attributes from these images were

carried out by Shamsuddin & Hamid, (2017). The images in the textbooks are investigated

based on how representational meanings reveal agentic and communal qualities. Images were

analysed through identifying patterns and relationships of images to attributes from Social Role

Theory. This study found 126 images represented in professional occupations and 81 images

represented in non-professional occupations.

Results showed that occupational images of males were linked to more self-assertive

and agentic qualities while females were portrayed with more caring, communal qualities.

Social semiotic analysis revealed that more males were shown as professionals such as

architects, and doctors whereas females are more portrayed with professional occupations such

as nurses and teachers, and non-professional males were also included with agentic qualities,

portrayed by farmers and firefighters. This study asserts that a more gender-equitable solution

would be to give children a wider range of portrayals of men and women in order to

communicate gender norms to children.

Liu & Khine (2016) carried out a research on content analysis of science textbook. The

study aimed to find out the distributional pattern and illustration characters of different

diagrammatic types in the Bahrain’s primary science books. Descriptive statistical analysis was

carried out. A one-way ANOVA test was performed to check if there are any distributional

differences between textbook and workbook categories. Findings of the study summarized the

characteristics of diagrammatic usage in the Bahrain primary science books. The textbook

analysis method used in the research also provided some insights for researchers interested in

analysing the usage of diagrams and other illustrations in science learning contexts.

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 CHAPTER 3

METHODOLOGY

2.0 INTRODUCTION

Methodology of a research is the core of a study that used to gather enough data to

derive generalised findings in a study. This chapter elaborates on the research design,

population and subject of the study, instruments, validity and reliability of instruments,

procedure of the study, pilot test, data analysis and summary of the chapter.

3.1 RESEARCH DESIGN

This research was a qualitative study that embraces qualitative case study as research

design. This study adapted qualitative research approach as it aimed to analyse and evaluate

the content and context of reading materials in Year 3 textbook. Moreover, this research also

aimed to discover the strategies used by teachers in localising the context and content of reading

materials in Year 3 textbook. Indeed, this implicates in-depth analysis of the elements which

supports findings of the study rather than using numeric data analysis (Creswell, 2014). This

qualitative study will be carried out in case study design to explore the phenomena of reading

texts suitability in Year 3 textbook.

According to Baxter and Jack (2008), case study refers to a methodical investigation

that describes and explains the phenomena of an occurrence. Case study research design was

chosen as it is more appropriate for the research questions of this study. The use of ‘how’ kind

of research questions in this study implicates the investigation of specific event to understand

the nature of occurrence of the event (Yin, 1994).

Henceforth, case study was chosen as research design in this study to explain the

suitability of Year 3 textbook’s reading materials to students’ background knowledge. Besides

that, it was a holistic single case study in which reading texts in textbooks and two ESL teachers

were used to study a single case. Naturally, it was an explanatory type of study as it analysed

14
the content and context suitability of reading texts in Year 3 textbook and how teachers

localised the texts before teaching the students.

3.2 POPULATION OF THE STUDY

The population of this study consists of Year 3 ESL students. The main purpose of this

study was aimed to understand the suitability of context and content in reading texts of Year 3

textbook to students’ background knowledge. The Year 3 students in this study population used

Bahasa Malaysia as their mother tongue whereas English served as their secondary language.

In fact, these students are mostly from intermediate level of proficiency with limited

vocabulary and language knowledge. They were familiar with local content and have rare

exposure to outside world. Despite, the population resided in urban area but most of the

students were from poor socio-economic status.

3.3 SUBJECT OF THE STUDY

The subject of this study comprised of reading texts in Year 3 English textbook serve

as the main subject of this study. There are 10 modules of units in Year 3 Get Smart textbook

but only one module was selected to analyse its content and context suitability to Year 3

students. The choose unit for this study was Module 4: Year In, Year Out. The reading texts in

this module will be analysed in terms of content and context suitability to students’ background

knowledge.

In addition, two teachers were selected as secondary samples for interview session.

Purposive sampling was carried out to choose the participants for this study. Both participants

were 30 years old and have bachelor’s degree in TESL. They have been teaching Year 3 for

the past five years. The participants were teaching English language to Year 3 ESL leaners and

they participate voluntarily in this study. The participants of the study are Cheong and Joshita

(all pseudo-names).

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3.4 INSTRUMENTS, RELIABILITY & VALIDITY

This case study emphasizes qualitative method of data collection. Two types of data

collection methods were executed to collect data for this study. The methods were document

analysis and interviews. Furthermore, triangulation was implemented in order to improve the

validity and reliability of the results as the agreement of results between the two methods able

to prove that the results correlates with each other and valid, rather not methodological artefact

(Mills, 2014).

Firstly, document analysis was selected as one of the data collection method to provide

findings on texts content and context suitability to students’ prior knowledge. The researcher

utilised content analysis strategy to analyse the content and context in each reading texts in the

chosen topic. The validity and reliability of this instrument is regulated with triangulation

method. The data source from interviews will be used to check for reliability and validity of

the document analysis. The codes from interview transcriptions were used to support the

finding in document analysis. Moreover, the researcher used checklist to guide the document

analysis process to maintain the reliability of the data.

Secondly, interview was selected as another method to gather data as it is efficient in

providing in depth information for the findings. For this research, semi structured interview

employed by Calandra, Brantley-Dias and Dias (2006) in their study was used to facilitate the

interview sessions. The researcher will implement face-to-face personal interview among the

teacher participants. This is to make sure the participants were able to response freely and at

the same time to ask questions that only related to the specific teacher.

The interview questions will be focusing on teachers’ perception on the reading texts

in Year 3 textbook and strategies used to localise the content and context of the texts. The data

from the interviews was transcript and member check with participating teachers was carried

out to preserve the validity and reliability of the data. These transcripts will be used to analyse

16
similarities and contradict perception that will reveal reliable and valid findings for this study.

The list of interview questions was attached in appendix 2 for references.

Last but not least, the validity and reliability of the selected instruments were given

concern by using triangulation of data technique. The data gain through interviews, and

document analysis was triangulated to check for similarities and contracting findings that will

deter the objectivity of the study. Besides that, any queries that emerges during document

analysis will be rectified during interview session.

3.5 DATA ANALYSIS

Data analysis for this study was carried out through five steps content analysis strategy

(Krippendorff, 1989). Firstly, the reading text was chosen for content analysis. Secondly, the

researcher defined the units and categories of analysis. Thirdly, the researcher develops a set

of rules for coding. In this step, the researcher made use of checklist to record the analysis

procedures and took notes of the interpretation from analysis. Fourthly, the researcher used

coding techniques to form codes based on the interpretation from the analysis. Lastly, once

coding was completed, the collected data was examined to find patterns and draw conclusions

in response to the research question.

Besides that, the raw data from interview was transcribed and analysed using thematic

analysis. The thematic analysis for this study followed six steps developed by Braun and

Clarke. Coding and themes analysis were utilised to obtain findings to answer the research

question. Later, both codes and themes from document analysis and interview were

triangulated to check for similarities in findings. And triangulation was used to correlate the

validity and reliability of findings for this study. Evidences from primary data will be utilised

to explain the result in detail during the narration.

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 CHAPTER 4

FINDINGS

5.3 INTRODUCTION

The analysis of data through coding techniques revealed the emergent of significant

themes as it relates to the content analysis of the selected reading texts to students’ background

knowledge. The identified themes will be discussed in following section coded with examples

from the gained data. In this chapter, the reporting of findings that consists of the findings from

initial interview of teacher participants and discovery of themes through coding analysis from

document analysis will be addressed to reveal the outcome of the study.

4.1 REPORTING OF FINDINGS

The reporting of findings was divided into two sections. The first section will be

discussing on the findings obtained from document analysis and the next section on findings

from interview transcriptions.

4.1.1 Findings From Document Analysis

The reading texts in Year 3 Get Smart textbook for Module 4 were analysed using

content analysis method. Two categories of analysis were studies in the texts that are context

and content categories. The findings from the analysis are represented in the table below.

Reading Texts Codes Themes Categories of

Analysis
Seasons Around the World Canada Countries Context
Australia
Thailand
Song lyrics autumn Seasons Context & content
Seasons Around the World winter (3)
The Snow Globe spring
summer (3)
sunny (3)
snowing (4)
raining
Song lyrics cold (3) Weathers Content
Seasons Around the World hot (2)
The Snow Globe windy

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 cool
warm
Seasons Around the World December Months Context
February
Song lyrics school Places Context
The Snow Globe park
beach (2)
Song lyrics learn and play Activities Content
Seasons Around the World make a snowman
The Snow Globe (2)
swim and play
skiing
swimming
windsurfing
sailing
Seasons Around the World hats Clothes Content
coats
gloves
scarves
t-shirts
shorts
Seasons Around the World Snowman (2) Things Content
The Snow Globe flowers
snow globe
Table 1: Coding analysis of reading texts in Module 4 Year 3 Textbook based on content and

context category

The content analysis revealed five types of content and four types of context found in

the reading texts of Year 3 textbook. The themes for content category encompassed of

seasons, weathers, activities, clothes and things. On the contrary, the themes for context

category comprised of countries, seasons, months and places. There was interception of

themes between content and context analysis as some of the codes can be used for both

categories depending on the reading texts.

The frequency of codes that emerge on different texts were also recorded to notice the

frequency of context or content been established in the topic. The code with highest frequency

is ‘snowing’. This code was used in all the reading texts in this topic. The next codes with

second highest frequency were ‘winter’, ‘summer’, ‘sunny’ and ‘cold’. These codes were used

in all the reading texts of the topic. The codes that emerge twice between the texts were ‘hot’,

19
‘beach’, ‘make a snowman’ and ‘snowman’. The other codes were used once in the selected

reading texts.

4.1.1 Findings From Interview Transcriptions

Two teachers who were teaching Year 3 English language subject were interviewed

regarding the textbook that they use during teaching and learning session. Then verbatim

transcription was applied on the raw interview data to translate the audio into word form. The

transcriptions were analysed using thematic analysis and the findings are represented in the

table below.

Interview questions Codes Themes

What is the social and cultural Malay Students’ background
background of your students? poor family
fluency
low proficiency
Malaysian culture
What is your opinion on Year 3 Not localised Textbook Content &
Get Smart textbook? unfamiliar content context
different context
new context
limited vocabulary Vocabulary
vocabulary repetition
fun learning Learning method
hands-on activity
speaking activities project-
based learning
What is the context and content Seasons Unfamiliar Context
in reading texts of Module 4: different climate
Year In, Year Out Year 3 different countries
textbook? dissimilar events
unfamiliar vocabulary Unfamiliar Content
new vocabulary
appropriate sentence Content appropriateness
structure
simple sentences
indirectness grammar
repeated grammar
Does the content and context Unfamiliar Disagreement of content
suitable to your students’ difficult and context
background knowledge? incomprehensible
enquiry

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 How do you localize by means Malaysian climate Adaptation strategies
of adapt the reading texts in events in Malaysia
Module 4 to suit your students’ Malaysian culture
background knowledge? familiar vocabulary
new texts
supplementary texts
discovery learning
Table 2: Coding analysis of interview transcriptions

The analysis of interview transcriptions revealed nine themes. The themes

were students’ background, textbook content and context, vocabulary, learning method,

unfamiliar content, unfamiliar context, content appropriateness, disagreement of content and

context and adaptation strategies.

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 CHAPTER 5

DISCUSSION & CONCLUSION

5.0 INTRODUCTION

The findings obtained through the selected instruments were sufficient to answer the

research questions in this study. It gives insight on the content and context used in reading texts

if Year 3 textbook. This study was conducted to get in depth information on what are the

contradict element in Year 3 reading texts and ways to adapt the text to local context. In this

chapter, the discussion and suggestions for future research will be discussed in further.

5.1 DISCUSSION

In this section, the findings of the study will be used to answer the research questions

of this study. Firstly, to answer the first research question, findings on the themes related to

reading texts will be used, whereas to dispute the second research question, the themes from

findings related to texts adaptation strategy will be used to show the correlation of the attained

findings in addressing both research questions.

5.2.1 First Research Question

Does the content and context in reading texts of Module 4 in Year 3 Get

Smart textbook familiar to students’ background knowledge?

1. How does Year 3 ESL teachers adapt the reading materials in

This research question emphasized the codes analysed from document analysis. The
Year 3 Get Smart textbook to localize the content and context to
codes for context revealed that the context in reading texts in Module 4 Year 3 textbooks are
suit students’ needs?
contradict with the students’ background knowledge. The context used in the reading texts are

from other countries such as Canada, Australia and Thailand. These countries are not familiar

with students’ knowledge as they neither live in nor visit the countries before.

Besides that, the context of seasons introduced in the texts are not reciprocal to the

climate of students’ country. The seasons such as autumn, winter, spring, snow are not familiar

22
to the students social living and only the seasons sunny, summer and raining are related to their

daily life. The context of months and places are familiar to students’ prior knowledge as they

had been exposed to the context before.

This finding also correlates to the themes found from teachers’ interview. In which a

contradiction can be found between themes such as the theme unfamiliar context to the theme

students’ background. The context used in the reading texts has limited connection with

students’ background knowledge.

On the other hand, the codes for content suitability in reading texts also contradict with

students’ background knowledge. The reading texts demonstrates content that are unfamiliar

to the students that can be witnessed from the themes, seasons, weather, activities, clothes and

thins. These themes represent codes that are apart from students’ background knowledge which

resulted in unfamiliar context as agreed on the theme found in teachers’ interview that is

unfamiliar content.

5.2.2 Second Research Question

How does Year 3 ESL teachers adapt the reading materials in Year 3 Get

Smart textbook to localize the content and context to suit students’ needs?

The theme Adaptation strategies found from teachers’ interview analysis demonstrate

the codes Malaysian climate, events in Malaysia, Malaysian culture, familiar vocabulary, new

texts, supplementary texts and discovery learning. These codes suggest that, teachers should

adapt the text into Malaysian context by integrating Malaysian climate and culture to produce

texts that are familiar to students’ background knowledge. In order to do so, teachers can have

to make wise selection of terminology that represents familiar context and content to the

students.

Apart from that, teachers also agree that, new texts can be used as dominant texts to

suit students’ needs rather than depending on reading texts in textbook. the reading texts in

23
textbook can be utilised as supplementary texts to introduce new culture context to the students.

Besides that, teachers can be creative by involving discovery learning among the students by

introducing the learning through compare and contrast between the culture context difference

in Malaysia and other countries. This enable students to engage cognitively, behaviourally and

emotionally during the lesson.

5.2 SUGGESTIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH

There are few recommended suggestions for amendments to be made in future research

which focus in the similar field. A bigger scale study should be conducted in this focus to

explore the suitability of textbook reading texts among larger number of participants. Besides

that, quantitative or mix-method study should be deployed in this area of focus to explore the

study in different perspective. This can bridge the gap in literature as more qualitative studies

were done in this field.

Furthermore, results from quantitative and mix-method design will add variation to the

findings related to effectiveness of video critique strategy and can be compared to derive

generalisation of findings. On the other hand, future studies should address participants from

different cultural context to gain insight on the influence of the study in different context. A

multiple case study can be used for this purpose as it cost and time effective.

5.3 CONCLUSION

The finding in this small-scale study clearly proved the reading texts in Module 4 of

Year 3 textbook is inappropriate to the students’ background knowledge. It was revealed that

these texts should be adapted to local context to promote reading interest among the students.

Despite this study addresses positive findings, there are still few limitations in this study

such as time constrain and number of participants. Future studies should address the gap present

in current study and implement studies focusing in this field with different perspectives to

emphasize appropriate choice of reading texts in lower primary textbooks.

24
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Creswell, J. W. 2014. Research Designs: Qualitative, Quantitative, And Mixed Methods

Approaches. Thousand Oaks, California: SAGE Publications.

Crossley, S. A., Skalicky, S., Dascalu, M., McNamara, D. S., & Kyle, K. (2017): Predicting

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Krippendorff, K. (1989). Content analysis. In E. Barnouw, G. Gerbner, W. Schramm, T. L.

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Publications.

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 Appendix 1

Semi-Structured Interview Questions

1. Salutation & Greetings.

2. How long you have been teaching English for lower primary students?

3. Which year are you teaching in this school?

4. What is the social and cultural background of your students?

5. What is your opinion on Year 3 Get Smart textbook?

6. What is the context and content in Module 4: Year In, Year Out Year 3 textbook?

7. Does the content and context suitable to your students’ background knowledge?

8. How do you localize by means of adapt the reading texts in Module 4 to suit your

students’ background knowledge?

Adapted from Murtha, (2017) – Masters Thesis

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 Appendix 2

Document Analysis Checklist

Bil Verification Checklist Items Remarks

Category
1. English The document is checked against Grammatical
Language Errors
Statement Construction reviewed (simple 8-12
words)
Punctuation marks properly used US English used
Spell checked
Appropriate use of repetitions, illustrations
explanations, analogy’s
2. Subject The depth of the document for the readers vs. ease of
Content use
Each aspect is being covered Clarity: Each topic is
clearly explained
Brevity: Explanation is made to the point, self-
explanatory yet not lengthy,
Precision: the statements use precise words that are
significant to the domain usage Is the document
categorization appropriate
3. Subject The situation in the texts
Context The event description
The culture represented in the text

Adapted from To, (2015) – Doctoral Thesis

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 APPENDIX 3

Reading Texts From Year 3 Get Smart Textbook

A) Song Lyrics

B) Seasons Around the World

C) The Snow Globe

Source – Module 4, Year 3 Get Smart Textbook

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