Validation of reading materials in 'High School English' textbooks based on the 2015 national curriculum

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

The educational objectives in South Korea’s 2015 Revised National Curriculum set by the Ministry of Education (MOE) emphasize consistency in education, including English education. However, it is not clear how effectively the objective of consistency is implemented. As classes are highly mediated by textbooks in South Korean schools, this thesis aims to ascertain the consistency of reading materials in High School English textbooks. A mixed methods approach that included analysis and materials evaluation was conducted with six
textbooks. First, textbooks were analyzed in accordance to the core competencies of the 2015 Revised National Curriculum, using an impressionistic and in-depth method of materials evaluation. Next, the Coh-Metrix computational tool and other linguistic analysis tools were used to analyze the readability and text-easibility of reading materials of six textbooks. To substantiate the appropriateness of usage of Coh-Metrix values to analyze locally developed materials, correlations among sixteen Coh-Metrix indices were discussed. Lastly, an in-use evaluation of High School English textbooks was carried out through interviews with fifteen
teachers of first-year high school English (U.S. grade 10). Results revealed that textbooks demonstrated a high degree of cohesiveness in terms of the 2015 Revised National Curriculum. Similarly, readability indicators and text-easibility values demonstrated to a certain extent similar patterns among reading materials of different textbooks. The results suggest that High School English textbooks reflect the 2015 National English Curriculum to a fairly high degree. Accordingly, if these textbooks were to be fully utilized in the classroom context, the efficacy of the newly revised curriculum would be validated. However, in-use evaluation of the
textbooks via interviews revealed discrepancies between the policies of the 2015 national English curriculum and the realization of these policies at the school level.

목차 (Table of Contents)

• I. Introduction 1
• 1.1. Purpose of study 2
• 1.2. Research questions 3
• II. Theoretical background 5
• 2.1. The 2015 revised national English curriculum 5
• 2.1.1. The 2015 revised national English Curriculum for High School 5
• 2.1.2. Role of reading in the 2015 revised English curriculum 13
• 2.1.3. High school EFL textbooks in the South Korean context 14
• 2.2. Materials Evaluation for language teaching 15
• 2.2.1. Methods of analysis and evaluation of materials 15
• 2.2.2. Communicative language teaching and reading 17
• 2.3. Automated tools for Corpus analysis 18
• 2.3.1. Coh-Metrix computational tool 18
• 2.3.2. Readability measurements 19
• 2.3.3. Coh-Metrix analysis on EFL textbooks 20
• III. Research Method 22
• 3.1. Research Design 22
• 3.1.1. Comparative Close-analysis and evaluation of textbooks 22
• 3.1.2. Sampled materials 23
• 3.2. Analysis of reading texts of sampled materials 24
• 3.2.1 Selection of Coh-Metrix values 24
• 3.2.2. Correlation of Coh-Metrix values 25
• 3.3. Interview 25
• 3.3.1. Method of Interview 25
• 3.3.2. Interview participants 27
• 3.3.3. Analysis of Interview responses 28
• IV. Results and discussion 29
• 4.1. Comparative Close-analysis and evaluation of textbooks 29
• 4.1.1. In-depth evaluation on textbooks with a focus on core competencies 29
• 4.1.2. Topic variation of reading passages 42
• 4.2. Linguistic analysis of reading passages 51
• 4.2.1. Type token ratio 51
• 4.2.2. Analysis of readability and text easibility 53
• 4.2.3. Correlation of Coh-Metrix values 60
• 4.3. Results of Interview 64
• 4.3.1. Textbook impression and usage in classrooms 64
• 4.3.2. Core competencies and textbook 67
• 4.3.3. CLT in South Korean High schools 68
• V. Conclusion 70
• 5.1. Summary 70
• 5.2. Implications 71
• 5.3. Limitations 73
• References 76
• Appendix 1 82