Forms and functions of International and Local EFL Workbook Activities

Subject Areas : Journal of Teaching English Language Studies

Danial Shirzadi ¹ , Houshan Yazdani ²

1 - amir-mazandarani street iran-zamin ally nazanin apartment
2 - Arak University

Received: 2018-06-17 Accepted : 2018-08-04 Published : 2018-09-01

Keywords: Evaluation, Proficiency, Activity, Workbook,

Abstract :

English language teaching market (ELT) inundated with course book packages containing astudent’s book, a teacher’s guide, workbooks, CD’s, videos, and test materials. A host ofresearchers have focused on course book evaluation and analysis and considered the selectionand evaluation of materials as an essential procedure in order to enhance out comes for thelearners who use them. This study thrusts to analyze different types of activities included in theelementary and pre-intermediate work books of five widely-used international workbooks andtwo newly developed national workbooks, prospect and vision series, in Iran. In internationalworkbooks there was a shift from elementary to intermediate level leading to developinglearners’ proficiency. However, this study showed no dynamic patterns of activities in the visionand prospect workbooks within the four activities form and three functions. Suggesting thatlearners are at elementary level of developing their linguistic competence within workbookmilieu and this lack of harmony can have a bad effect on their language proficiency growth.

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