English Language Teaching, Curriculum  and Material Development


LLT Journal, e-ISSN 2579-9533, p-ISSN 1410-7201, Vol. 25, No. 2, October 2022, pp. 758-761 

 
LLT Journal: A Journal on Language and Language Learning 

 http://e-journal.usd.ac.id/index.php/LLT 

Sanata Dharma University, Yogyakarta, Indonesia 

 

758 

 

 

BOOK REVIEW: ENGLISH CURRICULUM  

AND MATERIAL DEVELOPMENT 

 

Title   : English Curriculum and Material Development 

ISBN   : 978-602-9312-26-3 

Author   : Pryla Rochmahwati, M.Pd 

Publisher  : Stain Po Press 

Page   : 96 Pages 

 

Zul Astri 

Universitas Muslim Maros, Indonesia 

correspondence: zulastri17@gmail.com 

https://doi.org/10.24071/llt.v25i2.5160 

received 13 September 2022; accepted 20 October 2022 

 

This textbook, entitled "English Curriculum and Material Development," 

covers a variety of subjects in 11 Chapters. It is good for educational practitioners 

who are always in touch with the curriculum and syllabus. This book was written 

by a lecturer at the Ponorogo State Islamic Institute named Pryla Rochmawati. It 

consists of 4 main parts, namely Curriculum and Syllabus, Component of 

Curriculum, Curriculum in Indonesian Context, and Material Development. 

However, here I will briefly explain one by one the chapters contained in this book.   

Chapter 1 discusses the concept of curriculum and syllabus, including its 

definitions, the different, kinds of syllabus, and their importance in language 

teaching. Chapter 2 examines a component of the curriculum called Need Analysis. 

It discusses the definition, purpose, and targets, as well as the steps and techniques 

for doing a need analysis. Chapter 3 is concerned with the conceptualization of 

aims, goals, and objectives. Chapter 4 discusses Assessment and Testing, 

emphasizing the how and why of assessment and testing. Chapter 5 covers materials 

as a component of the curriculum. This section discusses the basis for material 

design, the material blueprint, and the origins of materials.  

Chapter 6 focuses on the teaching concept, which encompasses the roles of 

institutions, teachers, the teaching and learning process, and the application of 

curriculum through lesson plans. Chapter 7 examined the concept of evaluation. It 

discusses the approaches, purpose, and procedures used in conducting curriculum 

evaluation. Chapter 8 discusses the curriculum and syllabus in the Indonesian 

context. Chapter 9 discusses the SMA/MA English curriculum, including the 

syllabus and lesson plans for this grade. Chapter 10 focuses on the SMP/MTs level 
curriculum, including the syllabus and lesson plans for this grade. Finally, Chapter 11 

examines the concept of material development in English language teaching. This 

textbook is intended to augment the teaching and learning processes in the English 

Curriculum and Material Development course, as well as to encourage students to 

be active and motivated learners. 

Part one of this book highlights the definition of curriculum, the definition of 

https://doi.org/10.24071/llt.v25i2.5160


LLT Journal, e-ISSN 2579-9533, p-ISSN 1410-7201, Vol. 25, No. 2, October 2022, pp. 758-761 

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the syllabus, the difference es, the kinds of the syllabus, and the importance of 

curriculum in language teaching. In this chapter the author shows the different 

definitions between curriculum and syllabus where the two words sometimes 

confuse us as the reader, then the author explains several types of syllabuses based 

on the theory of Brown (1995) along with examples of each of which according to 

Brown there are 7 kinds of syllabus namely structural syllabus, situational 

syllabuses, topical syllabuses, functional syllabuses, Notional Syllabuses, Skill-

based syllabus and the last the is task-based syllabus. With this material, the reader 

can understand more about the types of syllabuses. Furthermore, the author also 

describes the importance of curriculum in language teaching, which says that an 

effective curriculum offers good impressions on many sides. It provides 

administrators, teachers, and students with a good impact. 

Part one presents the basics of the difference between curriculum and syllabus 

and, outlines examples of syllabi and their importance in the learning process. The 

material in this part is certainly very important and is very appropriate to be placed 

in the first chapter because the material presented is the basis for understanding the 

material in the next chapter. 

Part two of this book consists of 6 chapters discussing needs analysis, aims, 

goals and objectives, Assessment and Testing, Materials, Teaching, and Evaluation. 

Part two of this book starts from chapter 2 which discusses need analysis which 

includes explaining the definition of need analysis, the purposes of need analysis,  

the target of need analysis, and also the steps and techniques for conducting need 

analysis. In this chapter, the author explains that the term needs analysis is related 

to activities to collect information that will serve as the basis for developing a 

curriculum that will meet the needs of a particular group of students (Iwai, et al, 

1999), then the material is continued with an explanation of the material, targets, 

and steps in carrying out need analysis. I think the order of writing the material by 

the author has been done systematically. 

Chapter 3 in this book is still part of part two which discusses aims, goals, 

objectives, and the importance of goals and objectives. This book describes 3 types 

of objectives according to Bixler. They are Cognitive, Affective, and Psychomotor. 

And what's interesting about this part is that each explanation is accompanied by an 

example so that the reader can understand it well. 

Chapter 4 of this book discusses the curriculum components related to 

assessment and testing. This chapter explains the meaning of assessment and test 

according to experts and also the decision in carrying out testing which is divided 

into 4 namely proficiency decisions, placement decisions, diagnostic decisions, and 

achievement decisions. Besides that, this chapter also explains test designs,  

students’ knowledge of the questions, and matching tests for decision purposes and 

also at the end of the chapter we can find two sub-chapters that discuss adopting, 

developing, and adapting language tests and also about organizing and using test 

results which discusses several steps that can be taken after having developed a test 

to be used in groups of students. 

Continuing the previous chapter, chapters 5 and chapter 6 discusses the 

curriculum components related to materials and teaching. These two chapters 

certainly cannot be separated from one another and the order of presentation is 

correct because where there is material, after that there must be a teaching and 

learning process. Chapter 5 discusses the framework of material design, material 



LLT Journal, e-ISSN 2579-9533, p-ISSN 1410-7201, Vol. 25, No. 2, October 2022, pp. 758-761 

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blueprints, and also about the origin of the material which is the same as making an 

assessment, in the manufacture of materials there are also adopting materials, 

developing materials, and also adapting materials. Meanwhile, chapter 6 outlines 

the teaching and learning process, the role of institutions and teachers, and also 

about the application of curriculum through lesson plans. The last chapter in part 

two is still discussing the curriculum components related to evaluation. In my 

opinion, the material on "assessment and testing" should be juxtaposed with 

evaluation material, such as the presentation of material in the book Nation and 

Macalister (2010) because, in my opinion, these two things cannot be separated from 

each other. Where there is an assessment and after that there must be an evaluation. 

This chapter discusses the approaches to evaluation, the purpose of evaluation, and 

procedures used in conducting curriculum evaluation which is listed in 6 steps 

starting from 1) aspects of the curriculum to be evaluated, 2) choosing an appropriate 

evaluation design/method, 3) Data collection, 4) Identify the sources of 

information/data, 5) Analysis of information, 6) Reporting of information. This 

material is practical and can be applied by related to curriculum making 

Part two discusses the components of the curriculum starting from need 

analysis, adopting, developing, and adapting materials and assessment to the 

curriculum evaluation stage so that readers can understand systematically because 

it is presented quite well. 

Part 3 consists of 3 chapters that discuss the development of the curriculum in 

Indonesia starting from 1947 to the 2013 curriculum (revised edition). Then 

continued with the development of the English language teaching syllabus in 

Indonesia which started from 1984 to 2013. As a reader with an English teacher 

background, of course, this material provides a wide range of thoughts and views 

regarding the development of the English language syllabus in Indonesia but lacks in 

this part is the absence of presenting concrete examples that can show the  

differences between each syllabus from the beginning of its development. Maybe 

this can be input for the author for the development of material contained in the 

future. The last two chapters in this part discuss the syllabuses and lesson plans for 

SMA/MA Level and SMP/MTs Level. In my opinion, these two chapters were not 

very well prepared when presented in this book because chapter 9 uses the 

Indonesian language whereas the whole book should be in English. Then, in chapter 

10, there is no presentation of the material so the author looks unprepared in 

presenting the material as a whole. 

In this part, the writer discusses the concept of material development based on 

the expert, namely Tommlinson (2004) who said that material development is 

something done by writers, teachers, or learners to provide sources of language input 

and promote language learning. Furthermore, Tomlinson also discusses the 

principles of developing materials which of course will be very useful for both 

formal and non-formal teachers. This section also explains the types and 

characteristics of teaching materials and developing materials. In this section, 

several methods of developing materials are explained by experts such as 

Tomlinson, Jack C. Richards, Dick and Carey, and also Finney. The author states 

that all models might be applicable and well employed in developing language 

instructional materials. However, modifications can be made to the 

syllabus/material development model to suit particular instructional needs, 

purposes, and available resources. 



LLT Journal, e-ISSN 2579-9533, p-ISSN 1410-7201, Vol. 25, No. 2, October 2022, pp. 758-761 

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This book provides material that is very suitable for use by educators or 

people involved in curriculum development. The material is presented 

systematically in this book which starts from the basic theory of the curriculum and 

syllabus and then the final chapter presents practical steps in conducting curriculum 

design and in material development. 

However, there are also shortcomings in this book, namely that there are 

chapters that do not seem to be too mature to be presented in the material, namely 

chapters 9 and 10. In the future, the author can develop the writing of this book 

perhaps by making a new edition that contains more complex contents and is 

accompanied by concrete examples so that it can be used by education practitioners 

as one of the guidebooks in developing curriculum, syllabus, and materials that will 

later be able to realize an interactive teaching and learning process which is one of 

the goals of writing this book. 

 

References 

Bixler, B. (2006). Writing educational goals and objectives. Retrieved from 

http://med-fom-clone-pt.sites.olt.ubc.ca/files/2012/05/WritingEducational-

Goals-and-Objectives.pdf  

Brown, J. D. (1995). The elements of language curriculum: A systematic approach 

to program development. The Modern Language Journal, 80(4), 532–533. 

https://doi.org/10.2307/329733  

Iwai, T., Kondo, K., Limm, S. J. D., Ray, E. G., Shimizu, H., & Brown, J. D. (1999). 

Japanese language needs analysis. Retrieved from 

http://www.nflrc.hawaii.edu/Networks/NW13/NW13.pdf 

Nation, I. S. P., & Macalister, J. (2010). Language curriculum design. New York 

& London: Routledge.  

Tomlinson, B., & Masuhara, H. (2004). Developing language course material: 

RELCPortfolio series 11. Singapore: RELC Publisher. 

http://med-fom-clone-pt.sites.olt.ubc.ca/files/2012/05/WritingEducational-Goals-and-Objectives.pdf
http://med-fom-clone-pt.sites.olt.ubc.ca/files/2012/05/WritingEducational-Goals-and-Objectives.pdf
https://doi.org/10.2307/329733
http://www.nflrc.hawaii.edu/Networks/NW13/NW13.pdf