Grammar Textbook by Steven L. Shaw

Article title : Grammar Textbook
Writer         : Steven L. Shaw
Journal/Newspaper : TESOL Quarterly, Vol. 26, No. 4 (Winter, 1992), p. 753
Date published : 1992         Number of words: 319
List no. : 218

This article is written by Steven L Shaw, a guest editor in unniversity of Washington who explaines that grammar textbooks, once have not received enough attention, have drastically changed. He said that in order to become part of the communicative approach for ESL classes, Grammar textbooks have been flooding the TESOL market in recent years. The textbooks reviewed below were chosen because they claim communicative, integrated, or contextualized approaches. Some researches often show that the "communicative approach" goes no further than the title. Sometimes, the claim of communicative approach of a grammar text includes nothing more than asking students to work in pairs to practice grammar drills. The writer suggests.
The writer put himself as an observer and adviser for the instructor. He hoped with his brief reviews, the instructors will be more selective in choosing the textbook.
I do agree with what the writer that the flooding of grammar textbook makes the teachers or instructors must be selective in choosing textbooks used in the class because not all textbooks are suitable for learners. I think, the permission of publishing books should be taken up with the approval of National curriculum and text books authorities which help create healthy competition in publishing quality books and will ultimately eliminate the substandard ones that are causing much harm to the learners.
In 1997, the spreading of textbooks for junior high school in Indonesia was very wide, including English textbook. Unfortunately, there was found numerous errors at almost every page in the English textbook (Kompas, October, 3, 1997; and Aprianti, 1999). Furthermore, the project of this providing book didn’t get out from the issue of corruption (Kompas, September, 9,10,17, 20,1998)