TEXTBOOK EVALUATION: TARGET NEEDS ANALYSIS OF VOCATIONAL STUDENTS MAJORING IN HOSPITALITY
Institut Bisnis Nusantara
Textbook is one of the important elements in English language teaching. As the importance of
textbook, it should reflect on the students’ needs. However, many studies revealed that most
textbooks, especially ESP textbook were not satisfying and did not meet students’ needs. There
were not many studies about ESP textbook evaluation in Indonesian context. The present study
explored about to what extent the materials in the ESP textbook used by English teacher in teaching
ESP in a particular vocational school majoring in hospitality meet the language needs in hospitality
industry. Questionnaires were distributed to 24 students majoring in hospitality to explore about
their needs, wants, and lacks. To confirm the students’ needs in actual workplace, semi-structured
interview sessions were conducted to hotel employers. The results from questionnaire and
interviews were used as the criteria to evaluate the textbook together with textbook evaluation
criteria. The results revealed that the English language skills, especially English-speaking skill was
important for the students from hospitality program. There were 21 hospitality competencies that
needed English skills in their implementation discovered in this study. However, the materials in
the textbook did not accommodate the students’ needs to improve English speaking skill.
Furthermore, the textbook covered only five out of 21 hospitality competencies that were needed
by hospitality students.
Keywords: needs analysis target needs analysis textbook evaluation vocational school English for specific purposes