An Analysis of Academic Encounters: Human Behaviour a Textbook for PCL IInd Year, T.U.

Abstract

This study presents an evaluation on one of the compulsory Englishtextbooks of PCL II Year, T.U., Academic Encounters. The book hasbeen evaluated andanalysed on the basis of its physical and academicaspects. Some of the decisive findings of the study areas follows:  The printing is clear and clean and is free from errors the spacesbetween words, lines and paragraphs are satisfactory and thebinding is durable for an academic year.  The book incorporates interesting readings, data based factualinformationderived from native English culture, and hence is ableto motivate the learners and acculturate them to the targetlanguage.  The content to a great extent exhibits authenticity of the readingmaterials and incorporates paraorthographic texts such as table,diagram, bar, chart etc. and, therefore provides the learners with areading experience anew. Besides, they also make furtherchallenges available to the learner to grasp the message from them.  Regarding organization, it systematically organizes the entire taskinto three distinct and separate sections: PTR, NR, and AYR whichprovide the learners with a sense of orderly progression and getsthe learners to feel secure as they proceed on simple to complex.  The book is not easy in handling in terms of its size,and thecontent lacks varieties and is silent in terms of various literarygenres. This may createanennui on the part of the learners. The book excludes glossary, a very significant part of a languagetext book. It is also not supplemented with teachers manual. The present dissertation is divided into four major chapters. The firstchapter presents introduction, textbooks and their roles, types oftextbooks, theoretical framework for textbook analysis, literature review,and objective of the study. The second chapter deals with the methodology used to carry out thisstudy. The research data have been collected from both primary and secondarysources. The primary source of data includes the respondents’ responsesin written form collected by using two sets of questionnaire, and theresearchers own observation and analysis of the book. The secondarysources of data are the related research works in the field, books, journals,periodicals and the internet. The study population includes the teacherteaching the book and the students studying the book. Similarly thesampling size consists of 40 respondents: 20 teachers teaching in sixdifferent campuses of the Kathmandu valley and 20 students studying atthe same campuses. The third chapter includes the analysis of the data collected from theprimary and secondary sources. The data have beenanalyzedby usingsimple statistical tools such as percentage, charts, diagram, table etc. The fourth chapter enlists the findings and recommendations of the study.