An Analysis of English Users in Reading and Speaking Text in EFL

Textbooks in Curriculum 2013 used by the First Graders of Junior and

Senior High School

THESIS
Submitted in Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements for the Degree of
Sarjana Pendidikan

Damaris Fajar Dewanti

112008065

ENGLISH DEPARTMENT
FACULTY OF LANGUAGE AND LIERATURE
SATYA WACANA CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY
SALATIGA
2013

An Analysis of English Users in Reading and Speaking Text in EFL

Textbooks in Curriculum 2013 used by the First Graders of Junior and
Senior High School

THESIS
Submitted in Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements for the Degree of
Sarjana Pendidikan

Damaris Fajar Dewanti

112008065

ENGLISH DEPARTMENT
FACULTY OF LANGUAGE AND LIERATURE
SATYA WACANA CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY
SALATIGA
2013
ii

An Analysis of English Users in Reading and Speaking Text in EFL

Textbooks in Curriculum 2013 used by the First Graders of Junior and
Senior High School

THESIS
Submitted in Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements for the Degree of
Sarjana Pendidikan

Damaris Fajar Dewanti

112008065

Approved by:

Nugrahenny T. Zacharias, Ph. D.

Christian Rudianto, M.Appling.

Supervisor

Examiner

iii

COPYRIGHT STATEMENT
This thesis contains no such material as has been submitted for examination in any course or
accepted for the fulfillment of any degree or diploma in any university. To the best of my
knowledge and my belief, this contains no material previously published or written by any
other person except where due reference is made in the text.
Copyright@ 2013. Damaris Fajar Dewanti and Nugrahenny T. Zacharias, Ph. D.
All rights reserved. No part of this thesis may be reproduced by any means without the
permission of at least one of the copyright owners of the English Department, Faculty of
Language and Literature, SatyaWacana Christian University, Salatiga.
Damaris Fajar Dewanti

iv

PUBLICATION AGREEMENT DECLARATION

As a member of the (SWCU) Satya Wacana Christian University academic
community, I verify that:
Name
: Damaris Fajar Dewanti
Student ID Number : 112008065
Study Program
: English Education
: Language and Literature
Faculty
Kind of Work
: Undergraduate Thesis
In developing my knowledge, I agree to provide SWCU with a non-exclusive royalty free
right for my intellectual property and the contents therein entitled:
AN ANALYSIS OF ENGLISH USERS IN READING AND SPEAKING TEXT IN EFL
TEXTBOOKS IN CURRICULUM 2013 USED BY THE FIRST GRADERS OF JUNIOR AND
SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL

along with any pertinent equipment.

With this non-exclusive royalty free right, SWCU maintains the right to copy, reproduce,
print, publish, post, display, incorporate, store in or scan into a retrieval system or database,
transmit, broadcast, barter or sell my intellectual property, in whole or in part without my
express written permission, as long as my name is still included as the writer.
This declaration is made according to the best of my knowledge.
Made in
: Salatiga
Date

: September 4th, 2013

Verified by signee,

Damaris Fajar Dewanti

Approved by

Thesis Supervisor

Thesis Examiner

Nugrahenny T. Zacharias, Ph. D.

Christian Rudianto, M.Appling.

An Analysis of English Users in Reading and Speaking Text in EFL

Textbooks in Curriculum 2013 used by the First Graders of Junior and
Senior High School
Abstract
The study was conducted to examine the representation of the main characters in EFL
(English as Foreign Language) textbooks used by the first grade of Junior and Senior High
School. There were two textbooks were analyzed, Bright (Zaida, 2013) and Pathway to
English (Sudarwati& Grace, 2013). These books were analyzed due to the changing of the
KTSP (Kurikulum Tingkat Satuan Pendidikan) into the new curriculum, curriculum 2013.
The study focused on analyzing the speaking and reading text with the representation of main
characters refers to Kachru (1985) categorization of Inner circle, Outer circle, and Expanding
circle country. The data were analyzed quantitatively. The findings showed that the two
textbooks tended to represent Indonesian main characters as English users in Expanding
circle countries. Moreover, there were three categories being represented through the text
such as Inner circle, Outer circle, and Expanding circle countries other than Indonesia.
Several main characters from ethnic groups in Indonesia were also found in the text. One
implication from the results is that if the textbooks provide a dominant role for Indonesian
main characters which is part of the Expanding circle countries, teacher can try to add some
additional materials about the users of English in Outer circle countries. So that the students
might understand that English users are not limited to the Inner circle Countries (Matsuda,
2002).
Keywords: Inner circle, Outer circle, Expanding circle
Introduction
As a student of English Department (ED) of Satya Wacana Christian University,
Salatiga, I had to take a Teaching Practicum course which required me to teach in a real
school context. In this process, I had to act and behave like a real teacher. Teaching
Practicum course also required me to get engaged with some English textbooks material used
by the English teachers. When I took a look at some textbooks, I realized that English
language had different functions in different parts of the world. The main characters of
English users in the textbooks were significant for the students. They might assume that

English belongs to a certain country because of the main characters which was represented in
the textbooks. The main characters were the name that existed and represented in the
textbooks which belonged to a certain country.
The diversity of the main characters existed in the textbooks urged me to have a
research study about the representation of main characters in the EFL (English as Foreign
Language) textbooks. The reason was because nowadays English users were not only from
the Inner circle country, but also people outside the Inner circle country learned and used
English as their foreign or second language. The textbooks used in this research were based
on, curriculum 2013, that Ministry of Education and Culture of Indonesia legitimized. The
transition of Curriculum KTSP (Kurikulum Tingkat Satuan Pendidikan) 2006 to curriculum
2013 by the Ministry was so fast. Temporarily, curriculum 2013 was only implemented for 1st
and 4th grade Elementary School, and 1st grade Junior and Senior High School (WID/ES,
2013). This transition attracts my attention to use the new textbooks of curriculum 2013 as
the object of this research study. Though the changing of curriculum was not triggered by
representation of English users, this study aimed to know the representative of Inner, Outer,
and Expanding circle countries in the new curriculum 2013 textbooks.
Knowing that there were differences of main characters from different English
speaking country, this research study was guided by the following research question: What
kinds of main characters are represented as English users in 7th and 11th grade Indonesian
EFL textbooks? The reason why I choose this topic was because I wondered whether the new
textbooks in Junior and Senior High School used different representation from English
speaking country or not. The fact that nowadays, in the era of English as International
Language (EIL), the inclination for textbooks needed to be EIL-oriented. As McKay (2012)
said that EIL material should be relevant to the domains in which English used in the
particular learning context and EIL materials should include examples of the diversity of
2

English varieties used today (p.81). So, it was important topic to be studied in order to find
out whether the textbooks analyzed had already included the variety of English user(s) or not.
Matsuda (2002), in her study of the representation of users and uses of English in
beginning Japanese EFL textbooks suggested that the textbook that is used for the research
tended to emphasize the Inner circle countries. Matsuda analyzed seven textbooks which
were approved by Monbusho (Ministry of Education in Japan). The result from the study
showed that the Inner circle orientation in the representation of English users and use in the
textbooks used in the research resembled the view of the ownership of English held by
Japanese secondary students.
There were three categorizations of countries that reflected the main characters in
which English used as stated in McKay (2002). The first was Inner circle country (i.e., The
United Kingdom, The United States, Australia, Canada, and New Zealand) (Kachru, 1985).
In the Inner circle country, the majority of people learned English as their first language.
English become their primary language beside spoken another language at home. Beside that
English also become the numerous languages which perform in the society. Outer circle
countries were used English as their second language. These countries were former colonies
of inner circle countries, English was institutionalized. That English language used in
intranational communication (e.g., language of law, medium of education), linguistic
nativization had taken place, and literary works were created in variety of English, despite
other languages (usually indigenous languages) still maintain important functions (Kachru,
1992). Other than that, people from Expanding circle country as a foreign language use it for
international rather than intranational communication. English did not have important
functions like it had in the Inner or Outer circle country.

As the number of people who use English was growth, the functions of it were also
increased. The worldwide spread of English has changed the demographics of the population
of English users. English become the most popular modern language studied in the
Expanding circle countries (Graddol, 1997). In Expanding circle countries, English was
growing vast because this language was studied in school as the foreign language. Here,
Indonesia was in the Expanding circle area since English language was used and learned as a
foreign language. Moreover, the spread of English in Indonesia was very fast because of the
government regulation that English ought to be taught in school. As a response, almost all
students in Indonesia learned English and owned English textbooks. It means by almost all
students in school in Indonesia learned English and have textbooks to help them learn
English.
Since almost all students in Indonesia learned English as their foreign language
(Imperani, 2012), students ought to understand that English used as an international language.
They had to aware of inner circle, outer circle, and expanding circle countries users so that
they were not assumed that English belong to Inner circle countries. Textbooks, which
become the most significant sources of various English users, might play an important role to
their understanding about English as an international language in. Furthermore, textbooks
also played an important role in EFL classrooms. According to Bardovi-Harlig (1996),
textbook is a high prestige source that EFL students tend to perceive because they do not
receive much from the outside classroom. Textbooks made an influential input source for the
students and a place where the logical understanding about the presentation of English
classrooms and students beliefs and also the perception of the English language begin.
Furthermore, by conducting this study, it was aimed to analyze what kinds of main
characters were represented as English users in the EFL textbooks in Indonesia. Moreover,
because of Indonesia population, which consisted of 300 different ethnic groups (Czermak,
4

Delanghe & Weng, 2003), this research was also aimed to analyze what kinds of ethnic
groups in Indonesia which were represented in the textbooks. The new curriculum had been
made legitimate, that was curriculum 2013; I would conduct this research by using the new
textbooks based on the new curriculum. Since the curriculum 2013 legitimated only for the
first year of junior (7th grade) and senior (11th grade) high school, this research would
investigate the textbooks from grade 7th and 11th only. So, by knowing what kinds of main
characters were represented the English users, teacher could teach the students about the
worldwide spread and understanding of English as International language; that the students
might not assume that English belongs to a certain country. In regard of the aims of this
study, a research question appeared to investigate this matter: What kinds of main characters
are represented as English users in 7th and 11th grade Indonesian EFL textbooks?
Theoretical Framework
The aim of the study was to analyze the representation of English users in the
textbooks used by 7th and 11th grade. The focus would be the speaking and reading context
only, due to the differences of the materials in the textbooks. According to Kachrus
categorization of countries in which English used as stated in McKay (2002), there are three
categorizations, those are:
1. Inner circle countries
Inner circle country was for countries where English used as their primary language,
such as Australia, Canada, and The United States. English was not used only by the native
speaker or people in Inner Circle countries, but also between native speaker and nonnative
speaker and between nonnative speakers (Graddol, 1997). The fact, the role of nonnative
speakers in composing the form and a function of the English language had increased. As
Graddol (1997) stated that native speakers may think that English language may belongs to

them, but they who speak English as second or foreign language will determine its world
future.
2. Outer circle countries
Outer circle country was for countries where English used as their second language,
such as India, Philippine, and Singapore. As Matsuda(2002) believe that the representation of
English users from Outer circle and Expanding circle countries in the textbooks should be
more than the representation English users from Inner circle country, so that the textbooks
would help students to understand that English users were not limited to the Inner circle
countries only. Therefore, by having an understanding in English as International Language
(EIL) that English users were not limited to the Inner circle countries, the students had an
awareness of the diversity of English use today so that they were better prepared in
international context (McKay, 2012).
3. Expanding circle countries
Expanding circle country was for countries where English use as their foreign
language, such as Indonesia, Korea, and Japan. As stated before that Indonesia was one of the
Expanding Circle countries which was learned and used English as the foreign language.
Indonesia was in archipelago of over eighteen thousand islands, has a rich and diverse multicultural heritage. There were over 300 different ethnic groups that spoken over 700 languages
(Czermak, Delanghe &Weng, 2003). It means that there were more than thousands of people
who learned English as their foreign language. The diversity of Indonesia would show up in
this study, by knowing how many kinds of ethnic groups are existed in this country. By
knowing numerous kinds of ethnic groups, the worldwide spread of English in Indonesia
could be seen as Graddol (1997) stated about the worldwide spread English as international
language. Kirkpatrick (2010) also argued that Indonesia is multilingual country which is
learned English as lingua franca.
6

The Study
Research Question
The study was guided by the following research question:
What kinds of main characters are represented as English users in 7th and 11th grade
Indonesian EFL textbooks?
Textbook Selection
The focus of the analysis would be the main characters of representation in speaking
and reading contents from the textbooks. Menteri Pendidikan dan Kebudayaan (Ministry of
Education and Culture) in the new regulation No 68 in 2013 about basic structure and
curriculum framework in First High School (Junior) / Islamic Junior High School and No 69
in 2013 about basic structure and curriculum framework in High School (Senior) / Madrasah
Aliyah determined that the new curriculum will be realized from academic year
2013/2014.Due to the new curriculum, this research used only two books which had been
printed from the same publisher. The first book was Bright, An English Course for Junior
High School Students by Nur Zaida (2013) published by Erlangga. This book has 195 pages,
8 units, and 4 skills (listening, speaking, reading, and writing). The design of the book was
easy to follow for students in the first grade of Junior High School. Each unit has a lot of
activities on listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills that tended the students to be
more active in practice English.
The second book that I analyzed was Pathway to English, for Senior High School
Grade X by Th. M. Sudarwati and Eudia Grace (2013) published by Erlangga. This book has
255 pages, 11 chapters, 4 skills (listening, speaking, reading and writing), and also language
for aesthetic. The design of the book was suitable for students in the first grade of Senior

High School. Each chapter has different theme to help students to think critically about the
existing theme. The analysis of these two books focused on the main characters in the
speaking and reading texts. The reason was because the difference of the books level which
made the contents of the skills also different, so by choosing reading and speaking skills it
would make the research easier to conduct. This research only analyzed two textbooks due to
the limitation of books I had. The analysis was done to find out what kinds of nationality and
what kinds of Indonesian ethnic groups were represented in the textbooks from the speaking
and reading texts.
Instrument of data collection
The data of representation of main characters in the EFL textbooks used by 7th and
11th grade were collected from the two English textbooks. The data were only collected on
the speaking and reading contents only due to the differences of the materials. From Bright
textbook, the speaking contents were represented by the picture of bubbles while the reading
contents were represented by the picture of open book. Moreover from Pathway to English
textbook, the speaking contents were taken from the Speaking part and the reading contents
were taken from the Reading part of the book. The reason why I used these books was
because these books were the new published books and adapted from curriculum 2013. The
data was analyzed quantitatively. Look at the Table 1 below:
Table 1: Checklist of selected main characters from the textbooks
No

Chapter

Skills

Character

Nationality (IC/OC/EC

(Speaking /

Name

other than Indo/unknown)

Topic

Reading)

Note: IC=Inner circle, OC=Outer circle, EC other than Indo=Expanding circle other than Indonesia

Notes

After that, I counted the total number of the main characters based on their nationality, such
as Inner circle (IC), Outer circle (OC), Expanding circle other than Indonesia (EC other than
Indo), and Unknown. For unknown categorize, these main characters did not have any
explanation of their nationality. After that, I wrote it down in table. Look at the Table 2
below:
Table 2: The percentage the nationality of main characters represented in the textbooks
Textbook

Indonesia

IC

OC

EC other than Indonesia

Unknown

Bright
Pathway

to

English (PE)
Total

Since the aim of the study was also to analyze what kinds of ethnic groups of Indonesia in the
textbooks, after done collecting data from Table 2, I would get data of how many Indonesian
main characters which were represented in the textbooks. Based on the former data, I wrote
down the data in a table and counted the total number of the main characters represented as
ethnic groups in Indonesia. Look at the Table 3 below:
Table 3: The percentage of Indonesian main characters as ethnic groups represented in the
textbooks
Textbooks

Ethnic Groups in Indonesia represented in the textbooks

Bright (BR)
PE
Total
Moreover, having the percentage helped me to draw a chart as the data display in my finding
and discussion part.

Procedures of data collection and data analysis

The study used quantitative data analysis. The textbooks (Bright, An English Course
for Junior High School Students and Pathway to English) that were analyzed were two books
used by Junior High School and Senior High School. The textbooks analyzed were for the
first graders of Junior High (7th grade) and Senior High (11th grade) due to the new regulation
of the new curriculum 2013 nowadays.
After having the textbooks, I started to analyze them. First of all, I read and tried to
found the speaking and reading texts. After I finished reading and selecting the texts, I wrote
down the name of the main characters that represented the certain categorization in a table.
Results and Discussion
This section illustrated the number of nationality of the main characters that were
represented in the EFL textbooks used by the first grade of Junior High School and Senior
High School in the new curriculum of 2013. Table 4 below represents where the percentage
of the main characters in each textbook came from and the number of words uttered by those
characters in the main speaking and reading text. The table below was based on Matsuda
(2002).
Table 4: The representation of Nationality of the main characters in speaking and reading text
Textbook

Indonesia

IC

OC

EC other than Indonesia

Unknown

Bright

40 (66%)

21 (34%)

0 (0%)

0 (0%)

0 (0%)

PE

18 (49%)

12 (32%)

3 (8%)

2 (5%)

2 (5%)

Total

58 (59%)

33 (34%)

3 (3%)

2 (2%)

2 (2%)

10

Furthermore, figure 1 represents the data display of the nationality of the main characters in
the textbooks:
Figure 1: The representation of Nationality of the main characters in speaking and
reading text
3%

2% 2%

Indonesia
IC
34%

OC
59%

EC other than Indonesia

Unknown

As seen from the table and the data display above, it was clearly shown that there
were five kinds of nationalities that were represented by the speaking and reading texts in the
EFL textbooks used in this research. From the texts, 59% represented from Indonesia, 34%
represented inner circle countries ( including United States and Australia), 2% represented
expanding circle country other than Indonesia (from Japan), 3% represented outer circle
country (including Singapore and Philippine), and 2% represented unknown characters that
could not be identified the nationality. From data above, it could be seen that the textbooks
used in this study tended to represent Indonesian main characters.
More than half of Indonesian main characters in both textbooks gave impression that
Indonesian used English often. By learning English as their foreign language, Indonesian saw
that English is important; the widespread demand for English was here for the foreseeable
future. English become a vital skill that ought to be learned by the citizens from early an of
age as possible, if their respective countries were to modernize and to be able to participate in

11

todays globalized world as decided by Ministries of Education throughout East and

Southeast Asia (Kirkpatrick, 2009).
I also found that there were also several main characters from different ethnicity in
Indonesia. In paragraphs below, I would discuss the nationality of the main characters from
the textbooks from the highest to the lowest percentage.
Indonesian main characters
The first main character was from Indonesia. One example of the nationality of the
main characters that represented Indonesian character was in the reading text that described
about daily activities. The following text, Text 1, is one example of the main characters of
Indonesia:
Text 1
My Daily Activities
I am Akbar, a junior high school student in Lampung. As a student, my daily routine is studying
at school, but I also do many activities besides going to school.
From Monday to Saturday, I get up at 5 oclock. Then, I make my bed, do some exercise and a
have a shower. After breakfast, I go to school by bicycle. It takes me about 30 minutes from my house to
my school. Usually, I study at school until 12.30 p.m. I return home at 2 p.m. In the afternoon I attend
English and computer courses. I always get home just in time for dinner at 7 p.m. After dinner, I read
books or prepare for school in my room while my parents are watching television in the living room.
I am free at weekends. On Sunday mornings, I get up later than usual. Then, I often go shopping
downtown with my friends. Sometimes we go for a picnic in the countryside. On rainy Sundays, I stay at
home reading books and listening to music.
I am quite happy with my daily activities.
Source: Bright (Nur Zaida, 2013), Unit 4, page 83

As stated in text above, it was shown that the main characters name was Akbar. He is
a junior high school student in Lampung (paragraph 1). Lampung is one of the cities in
Sumatra Island which is located on the south part of Sumatra Island. Cortazzi and Jin (1999,
p.203) note that knowing Indonesian culture as students own culture helps them to be aware
of their own culture. It is hoped that through the existence of this text in textbook, it could

12

make students aware of Indonesian geographic factors as being significant by the Indonesian
students. Moreover, another purpose including this text in the textbook perhaps to make
students think of Indonesians also speak and use English.
Table 5 illustrated the number of ethnicity in Indonesia that showed up in the both
textbook. Indonesia, an archipelago of over eighteen thousand island, had a rich and diverse
multi-cultural heritage. There were over 300 different ethnic groups that were spoken over
700 languages (Czermak, Delanghe & Weng, 2003). The examples of the ethnic groups were
Javanese, Sundanese, Balinese, Ambonese, Lampungnese, etc. According to SIL
International (2001), Indonesia had many islands and each island had several kinds of ethnic
groups. Different ethnic groups also had different indigenous name based on its ethnic group.
Therefore, from the name of the main characters in the textbooks that used in this research,
the diversity of Indonesia would show up. Not only had the Javanese which was the largest
ethnic groups at 45% of the total population been used in the textbooks, but also other
ethnics.
Table 5. The representation of Indonesian main characters in reading and speaking texts
Textbo
ok

Javan
ese

Bright

(0%)

PE

5
(28%)

Total

5 (9%)

Balin
ese
2
(5%)
1
(6%)
3
(5%)

Lampung
nese

Cirebone
se

Bandung /
Sundanese

Jakartanese

Kupang
nese

South Sumatra /
Palembangnese

Unknown

1 (3%)

1 (3%)

0 (0%)

0 (0%)

0 (0%)

0 (0%)

36 (90%)

0 (0%)

0 (0%)

2 (11%)

2 (11%)

1 (6%)

2 (11%)

5 (28%)

1 (2%)

1 (2%)

2 (3%)

2 (3%)

1 (2%)

2 (3%)

41 (71%)

From the data gathered, there were several ethnic groups of Indonesia that were
represented in the textbooks reading and speaking text. Figure 2 represents the data display of
the representation of Indonesian main characters in reading and speaking text with the name
of the ethnic groups:

13

Figure 2: The representation of Indonesian main characters in reading and speaking texts

Javanese

9%
5%

2%

Balinese

2%

Lampungnese

3%

Cirebonese

2%

Bandung/Sundanese

3%
3%

Jakartanese
Kupangnese

71%

South Sumatra/Palembangnese
Unknown

The table above showed the number of ethnicity from the main characters in both
textbooks. The ethnicity which were represented in the textbooks were Javanese 9%, Balinese
5%, Lampungnese 2%, Cirebonese 2%, Bandung/Sundanese 3%, Jakartanese 3%,
Kupangnese 2%, South Sumatra/Palembangnese 3%, and for 71% is unknown. It could be
seen that the Indonesia main characters represented only eight ethnic groups, and the other
was unknown. In paragraphs that follow, I would discuss the Indonesia main character
represented in the textbooks.
Another example of Indonesian main characters that represented in the textbooks was
Javanese main characters. The example of the Javanese main characters was Text 2 below:
Text 2
Dialogue 3| Salma is introducing her father to Ms Yuniarti.
Salma
Gunawan
Ms Yuniarti

: Dad, Id like you to meet Ms Yuniarti Sugianto. She is my teacher.

: I am Gunawan. How do you do Ms Sugianto? Pleased to meet you.
: How do you do? Pleased to meet you.

Source: Bright (Zaida, 2013) Unit 1, Page 10

14

On the text, it was clearly seen that Salma, Gunawan, and Yuniarti Sugianto were the
name of typical Javanese. I was Javanese and lived in the Javanese people community. Those
names were familiar in our society that most of the people still use name with preface (Su-)
like in the name Sugianto. Another example was my parents name, my fathers name is
Suwarto and my mothers is Sukarsih. Both of them are Javanese and their name has preface
(Su-). Besides that, Gunawan was also Javanese name that Javanese people still use in their
society.
Another example of Indonesian main characters that represented in the textbooks was
Balinese main characters. The example of Balinese main characters is Text 3 below:
Text 3
3. Ketut
Firman

: Which one is Lisa?

: She is sitting between Salma and Hendrik.

6. Ketut
Hendrik

: I cant find the can. Do you know where it is?

: Look! Its on the chair.
Source: Bright (Zaida, 2013), Unit 3, Page 55

Ketut was indigenous name from Bali. Bali was a province of Indonesia which was
located between Java and Lombok. Balinese usually used their indigenous name to make an
identity of their children. In the text above, the name Ketut means the fourth children of the
family. Meanwhile, Firman was an Indonesian name means commandment or Gods word.
Besides that, Hendrik also an Indonesian name even though it is absorbed from Inner or
Outer circle country. Moreover, the text above was taken between the Indonesian main
characters that were supported by a picture refer to the Indonesian people.
To make it clear for the analysis, below was another example of Indonesian main
characters that represented as the main character in the textbook. Look at Text 4:

15

Text 4
This is Ananda Mirza Iryanti. You can call her Mirza.
Mirza was born in Cirebon, 8 June 2001. She is a student of SD Nagari 1 Cirebon. She won the best
dancer consecutively in Cirebon for three years, 2010, 2011 and 2012. She is a popular young dancer in
Cirebon. She always dances perfectly. She practices every day. She started dancing when she was seven
years old. She is good at Indonesian traditional dances, especially Jaipong.
In the future Mirza does not want to be a doctor or an engineer. She wants to be a professional dancer.
She wants to master traditional dances.
Source: Bright (Zaida, 2013), Unit 8, Page 189

Ananda Mirza Iryanti was clearly stated as Cirebonese, because she was born in
Cirebon and going to school at SD Nagari 1 Cirebon (paragraph 2, line 1). Cirebon was a port
city on the north coast of the Java Island; the exact location was in the province of West Java.
In the text above, Mirza was also known as an Indonesian traditional dancer. She was good at
Jaipong dance. Jaipong was a traditional dance from West Java. Children and teenagers
nowadays tended to choose modern dance to learn than traditional dance which was their
heritage. The reason why this dance included in this text above, perhaps to maintain the
intangible cultural heritage (UNESCO, 2003). Moreover, by knowing the additional
explanation that students got from the text, students might understand that Indonesian people
was one of the user English language.
The other example of Indonesian main characters was Kupangnese which is the
people from Nusa Tenggara Timur (NTT) or East Nusa Tenggara. In this research,
Kupangnese represented 2% of the Indonesian main characters. The example of Kupangnese
main character is Text 5:

16

Text 5
Henrietta Manu NTT Kupang
This is typical for government installations. Operation and maintenance should be well-budgeted and
appropriately allocated. Operation and maintenance is often difficult to verify, hence many
opportunities to steal public funds. How ironic!
Source: Pathway to English (Sudarwati& Grace, 2013), Chapter8, Page 167.

The text above was a comment from an article in the newspaper. It was clearly stated
that Henrietta Manu was from NTT Kupang.
In the textbooks, there were 71% of the main characters could not be identified their
ethnic groups. The reasons that they could not be identified are:
1) There was no additional information or explanation about their ethnic groups.
2) The name was too common, so that it could not be identified as the member of one
ethnic group.
3) The name of the main characters was adapted from inner circle country or other
country.
Those three reasons made the selection of which main characters was the member of which
ethnic groups so hard. I decided to put them in the unknown group to make the collection of
data easier.
The findings above showed that the widespread English as the language which was
learned by countries outside the Inner circle countries was true. As Crystal (2003a:67-69;
2003b: 108-109) noted that about 750 million speakers of English as a foreign language is
speakers from the countries of Expanding circle. That is potentially a lot of Indonesian are
users the English language to communicate with and the widespread of English use in
different places in the world. As Lauder (2008) believes that the extremely widespread use of

17

English means that there is a great deal of variation in the English which is used in different
places.
Inner Circle (IC) country
The next nationality that I wanted to discuss now was from inner circle country. In the
Inner circle country, the majority people learn English as their first language, such as
Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States. English become their primary
language even they speak another language at home. Beside that English also become the
numerous languages performs in the society of the Inner circle countries (Kachru, 1985). An
example of the main character from inner circle country is Text 6 below:
Text 6
To be honest, I must say that some principals prefer making money than paying attention to the students. It is
difficult to find the principals and teachers who are exemplary figures. Brawls have frequently occurred in the
same area for years, but there has been no effort to take preventive actions.
(Horace Melbourne Australia)
Source: Pathway to English (Sudarwati& Grace, 2013), chapter 9, page 188

Horace was an example of the main characters from inner circle. In the text above, it
was stated that Horace was from Melbourne, Australia. Another example of Inner circle main
characters that represented in the textbook was in the following text, Text 7, below:
Text 7
Michele and I are deeply saddened by the lost of life, injuries and damage that have occurred as a result of
the recent earthquake and tsunami in West Sumatra.
At the same time, I am heartened and encouraged by the remarkable resilience of the Indonesian people and
the commitment of their Government to rapidly assist the victims. Meanwhile, our thoughts and prayers are
with the Indonesian people and all those affected by this tragedy.
26 October 2006
Barack Obama
President of the United States
Washington, DC
Source: Pathway to English (Sudarwati& Grace, 2013), Chapter 7, page 136

18

Barack Obama was the main character from the text above who comes from inner circle
country. He was the President of the United States. In the text above, he wrote a letter of
condolence for Indonesia. Even though the topic was about earthquake and tsunami in
Indonesia, the main character was from inner circle country.
The findings supported Kachru (1985) that the main characters of the text were from
Inner circle country categories. English become a part of the countrys important institutions,
and it plays a primary language in the society.
Outer Circle (OC) country
Outer circle country was former colonies of inner circle countries, English was
institutionalized. English language had acquired an extended range of uses in intranational
communication (e.g., language of law, medium of education), linguistic nativization had
taken place, and literary works were created in that variety of English, although other
languages (usually indigenous language) still maintained important functions (Kachru, 1992).
In the textbooks that used for this research, there were two countries that represented outer
circle country. There are Singapore and Philippines. An example of the main character from
outer circle country was Text 8 below:
Text 8
I personally feel that the deaths of two high school students in Jakarta reflect the poor quality of our
educational system.
Many teachers these days do not instill in their students the value of humanity.
(Vince Gill Singapore)
Source: Pathway to English (Sudarwati&Grace, 2013), Chapter 9, Page 188

As seen from the text above, Vince Gill was from Singapore. Singapore was the
country which uses English as one of the official languages and also a former colonies of the

19

United Kingdom as the inner circle country. Another example that represents the outer circle
country main character was Text 9 below:
Text 9
Stop Giving Alms to Beggars
The City Social Welfare and Development office in Manila, Philippines appealed to the public to refrain from
giving alms to beggars. The authorities are very concerned with this matter for several reasons.
Firs, the beggars are abusing peoples generosity. Children and babies are sometimes used t gain sympathy.
Some beggars dont use the money people give them for essential needs such as food. Once I saw a child I
gave money to because he said he was very hungry. But then a few minutes later I saw him using the money to
bet in some gambling games he and his pals were into, said Henry, a bank teller in Manila.
Second, the local authorities are having difficulties with the entry of beggars, who regularly come up to Manila,
usually on holidays and occasions where the number of tourist normally increase. When the authorities notice
the group is here again, they advise them to go back to their hometown. But after they are sent home, they
always come back. This is why we ask the public not to give alms because it gives them a reason to come
back, said Fangasan, one of the local authorities.
Third, giving alms to beggars doesnt help them in the long run and actually hurts them by taking away their
motivation to work. We tell them to go back to their hometown because there are poverty alleviation projects
in their towns, Fangasan added.
Thus, stop giving alms to beggars from now on because it will increase the number of beggars coming to
Manila and it will not give them freedom from poverty, said Fangasan.
Source: Pathway to English (Sudarwati&Grace, 2013), Chapter 11, Page 239

From the text above, Henry and Fangasan were two people from Manila, Philippine.
Philippine was one of the outer circle countries because English was the official language of
the country beside Tagalog language. The percentage of the main characters from outer circle
countries in the textbooks was fewer than I expected. This result was different as Matsuda
(2003) stated that, () textbooks can include more main characters from the outer and
expanding circles and assign these characters larger roles in chapter dialogues than what they
currently have. (p.724). The finding showed that the main characters are from Singapore and
Manila which are included in Outer circle area. English become a part of the countries
important institutions and plays an important second language role in a multilingual setting.

20

Expanding Circle (EC) country other than Indonesia

The next nationality was from expanding circle country other than Indonesia. From
the textbook that I used in the study, there were two countries that included in expanding
circle country. Those countries were Japan and Manila. Expanding circle country was a
country that the people learn English as a foreign language and used it predominantly for
international, rather than intranational, communication (Matsuda, 2002). An example of the
main character from expanding circle country other than Indonesia is Text 10 below:
Text 10

I am deeply saddened to hear that there were so many people who suffered and were killed by an earthquake on
25 Oct. in Mentawai, West Sumatra, and the Mount Merapi eruption on 26 Oct. in Yogyakarta.
From the bottom of my heart, I convey my condolences to the families of the people who were killed and pray
for the injured victims to immediately recover.
Naoto Kan
Prime Minister of Japan
Tokyo
Source: Pathway to English (Sudarwati& Grace, 2013), Chapter 7, page 137

From the text above, it was clearly stated that the main characters name was from
expanding circle country. Naoto Kan was from Japan and he was the Prime Minister of
Japan. The widespread of English was not only in Outer circle countries but also in the
Expanding circle countries. The text above showed that English users in the Expanding circle
country use English as their foreign language because they recognized the importance of
English as international language but which were not given English any special official status
(Lauder, 2008).

21

Unknown
There was 2% of unidentified main characters nationality. These main characters did
not have any explanation of their nationality. The example of unknown main character was
Text 11 below:
Text 11
Dear Achmad,
Last Sunday was a fine day and the first thing I did in the morning was to go to Bukit Cemara Park to
lead a mutual aid to clean up the park.
I used to go to this park to walk and exercise at least once a week, but I have been unable to do
so lately die to final examinations. After hearing some complaints from some jogger friends who used to
jog in this park, I went to my headmaster to organize the mutual aid activity starting at 9 a.m.
When I arrived at the park, my jogger friends told me that the park ha been cleaned up in the
past few weeks and the contractor of the park even reinstalled the pillar of the gate which had been
broken for half a year.
My friends and I walked around the park to pick up rubbish for about an hour. Then, I rushed
back home to take a quick shower.
You know what, my body ached after all that work. I had a great appetite during lunch. After
lunch, I went back home and slept for two hours and a half. Oh my God, I have not slept a bit earlier
that night.
Oh God, age is catching up. I did not realize my body had been so exhausted after that one hour
of mutual aid.
You know, the funny thing is, I hardly have time to clean up my own home, I used to hire a
part-time maid to do it, and now I went to sweep and clean up the park. Hahaha!
Cheers,
Theresa Kok
Source: Pathway to English (Sudarwati&Grace, 2013), Chapter 10, Page 214-125

On the text above, Theresa Kok was represented unidentified main character. There
was not any explanation or additional information which explains who Theresa Kok is.
Based on the analysis above, there were four categories of main characters
represented in the textbooks. If I combined the number of Indonesian main characters and the
main characters from expanding circle countries other than Indonesia, the percentage was still
bigger than the inner circle countries. The inclusion of users in the outer circle and the
expanding circle countries that students were unfamiliar with would help them see that
English uses were not limited to the inner circle countries (Matsuda (2003), p. 725).

22

Conclusion
The purpose of this study was to analyze what kinds of main characters are
represented in the EFL textbooks in curriculum 2013 used by first grade of Junior and Senior
High School. The results of this research study revealed important points related to the main
characters represented in the EFL textbooks mentioned. Based on the data analysis and the
discussion, the two textbooks tended to represent Indonesian main characters as included in
Expanding circle countries. Other main characters represented were included Inner circle
countries (Australia, The United States), Outer circle countries (Singapore and Philippine),
Expanding circle countries other than Indonesia (Japan) and unknown categories.
In addition, there were two things that become the limitation of this study. The first
thing was the textbooks used in this study were only textbooks for the first grade of Junior
and Senior High School. It was due to the reason why the government legitimized the
curriculum 2013 to the first graders of Junior and Senior High School. The second things
were the contents from the textbooks that I used in this research. I only used the speaking and
reading text in the textbooks due to the differences of the textbooks level. The third thing was
the total number of the textbooks used in this study itself. The reason why my study only
used analyzed two kinds of textbooks was because of the limited books I had. Therefore,
having an adequate amount of time available it was hoped that further study would be able
analyze more than two books used by Junior and Senior High Schools students. Based on the
results in this study, the following points are recommended:
1) Besides Indonesian main characters, the teachers could add additional materials/
texts about other Expanding circle categories. It was because the result of this
study seemed that the Indonesian main characters (such as Papuanese, Ambonese,
Borneo, and Maduranese) represented in the textbooks quiet a lot. Therefore, a
variety of materials about other Indonesian ethnic groups was also needed.
23

2) It was very clear that the result of this study showed Outer circle country were
very limited (3%). It was necessary to put several texts that include the main
characters from Outer circle countries. So that the students could get more
knowledge about the English users from Outer circle countries.
One implication from the results was that if the textbooks provide a dominant role for
Indonesian main characters which was part of the Expanding circle countries, teacher could
try to add some additional materials about the users of English in Outer circle countries. By
adding some additional materials that had some different English users from different
categories (Kachru, 1985), the student might understand that English was not limited to Inner
circle countries, but it was now use as international language that people in the world could
use English. As believed by McKay (2012) that one central goal of English as International
Language materials needs to provide students with an awareness of the diversity of English
use today so that they are better prepared in international context. Moreover exposure to
Outer circle and Expanding circle countries other than Indonesia through representation of
English users in those countries would help students understand that English users are not
limited to the Inner circle Countries (Matsuda, 2002).

24

Acknowledgement
First of all, I would like to thank to Jesus Christ for all His kindness, strength, and
bless. Also, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my thesis supervisor,
Nugrahenny T. Zacharias, Ph. D. in giving me her time, suggestions, support, and also
guiding me patiently during my consultation time so that I could finish my thesis. I would
also show my appreciation to my examiner, Christian Rudianto, M.Appling., for his
willingness in reading and examining my thesis.
I also thank to Bapak, Ibuk, and dek Natan for their patience, support, prayers and
care. Also to all ED lecturers and friends, 2008ers, and my beloved friends: Dewa, Tyas,
Bintang, Vitus, Mayang, Wimbo, and Nita. I would never forget experiences we have shared
together and I would say thank you so much for your time, help and support so that I could
start and finish my thesis. Finally, I would say thank you for Dudu, Citra Poko, and Yayas for
their help in the completion of my thesis writing.

Damaris Fajar Dewanti

25

References
Bardovi-Harlig, K. (1996). Pragmatics and language learning: Bringing pragmatics and
pedagogy together. Pragmatics and Language Learning, 7, 21-39.
Cortazzi, M. & Jin, L. (1999). Cultural Mirrors Materials and Methods in EFL classroom. In
E. Hinkel, Culture in Second Language Teaching and Learning (pp. 196-219).
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Crystal, D. (2003a). English as a Global Language, (2nd ed). Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.
Crystal, D. (2003b). The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language, (2nd
ed.)Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Czermak, K., Delanghe, P., Weng, W. (2003). Preserving Intangible Cultural Heritage in
Indonesia. Unesco.
Graddol, D. (1997). The future of English? London: The British Council.
Imperani, E.D.A., (2012). English Language Teaching in Indonesia and its relation to the
role of English as an International Language. E-journal UPI, 1(1). Retrieved July
25, 2013, from http://ejournal.upi.edu/index.php/psg/article/view/43
Kachru, B. B. (1985). Standards, codification and sociolinguistic realism: TheEnglish
language in the outer circle. In R. Quirk & H. G. Widdowson (Eds.),English in the
world: Teaching and learning the language and literatures(pp. 11-30). Cambridge,
MA: Cambridge University Press.
Kachru, B. B. (1992). Models for non-native Englishes. In B. B. Kachru (Ed.),The other
tongue: English across cultures (2nd ed.) (pp. 48-74). Urbana, IL:University of
Illinois

26

Kirkpatrick, A. (2009). Learning English and other languages in multilingual settings: Myths
and principles. China: The Hong Kong Institute of Education.
Lauder, A. (2008). The status and function of English in Indonesia: a review of key factors.
Makara, Sosial Humaniora 12(1), 9-20.
Matsuda, A. (2002). Representation of users and uses of English in beginning Japanese EFL
textbooks. Japan Association for Language TeachingJournal, 24(2), 182-200.
Matsuda, A. (2003). Incorporating World Englishes in Teaching English as an International
Language. TESOL Quarterly, 37(4), 719-729.
McKay, S. L. (2002). Teaching English as an International Language: Rethinking Goals and
Approaches. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
McKay, S. L. (2012). Teaching Materials for English as an International Language. In A.
Matsuda, Principles and Practices of Teaching English as International Language
(pp. 80-93). Canada: Multilingual Matters.
Peraturan Menteri Pendidikan dan Kebudayaan Republik Indonesia Nomor 68 Tahun 2013
Kerangka Dasar dan Struktur Kurikulum Sekolah Menengah Pertama/ Madrasah
Tsanawiyah. Menteri Pendidikan dan Kebudayaan Republik Indonesia. Jakarta.
Peraturan Menteri Pendidikan dan Kebudayaan Republik Indonesia Nomor 69 Tahun 2013
Kerangka Dasar dan Struktur Kurikulum Sekolah Menengah Atas/ Madrasah Aliyah.
Menteri Pendidikan dan Kebudayaan Republik Indonesia. Jakarta.
Sudarwati, TH. M. & Grace, E. (2013). Pathway to English. Jakarta: Erlangga.
SIL International. (2001) Languages of Indonesia, SIL International Indonesia Branch,
2001,Jakarta.

27

UNESCO (2003) Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage, 29
September - 17 October 2003, Paris, 32nd Session, Online at
http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0013/001325/132540e.pdf
WID/ES. (2013, April). Presiden Minta Kurikulum Baru Diterapkan Mulai Tahun Ajaran
Baru 2013/2014. Retrieved July 25, 2013, from http://setkab.go.id/berita-8082presiden-minta-kurikulum-baru-diterapkan-mulai-tahun-ajaran-baru-20132014.html
Zaida, N. (2013). Bright: An English Course for Junior High School Students. Jakarta:
Erlangga.

28