Textbook Evaluation: Looking at Prospect Series through Teachers’ Perspective

Subject Areas : Research in English Language Pedagogy

Sima  Shahmohammadi ¹ (English language Department, Faculty of Language and Humanities, Urmia University, Urmia, Iran)

Received: 2017-11-10 Accepted : 2018-04-15 Published : 2018-09-01

Keywords: Prospect Series, Checklist, Evaluation, Textbooks, Junior High school,

Abstract :

Textbooks play a vital role in the realm of language teaching and learning particularly in formal contexts i.e. schools. In the investigation reported in the current paper, the researcher employed an eclectic checklist derived from previously utilized frameworks aimed to evaluate the textbooks taught in Junior high schools in Iran looking through teachers’ perspectives. To approach the aims of the study, 34 teachers from East and West Azerbaijan with 8- 28 years of teaching experience were asked to evaluate the textbooks on the basis of the provided checklist. Moreover, in order to gain a richer insight to their attitudes toward the textbooks, 8 teachers from the same provinces were interviewed to express their opinions with respect to strength and weak points of the textbooks as well as suggestions to improve the textbooks. The results of the study depicted that pronunciation and task and activities are the aspects of the textbooks that are in need of more improvement and revision. However, vocabulary was the most satisfactory dimension of the textbooks. The findings of the study could help material developers in the process of editing and improving the textbooks.

References:

Akbari, O., Pourabbas, H. (2015). Evaluation of Iranian Second-Grade High School English Textbook Based on Needs Analysis Approach. Journal of Applied Linguistics and Language Research, 2(5), 19-34.

Alavi  Moghaddam,   B.,   Khodaparastan,   Sh., Kheirabadi, R., Anani Sarab, M., Foruzndeh,            

E., & Ghorbani, N.  (2012). English for schools:  Prospect 1.  Tehran:  Iran's School Book Publishers. 

Alavinia, P., & Siyadat, M. (2013). A Comparative Study of English Textbooks Used in Iranian Institute.  International Journal of Asian Social Science, 3 (1), 150-170.  

Azizifar, A. (2009). An Analytical Evaluation of Iranian High School ELT Textbooks from 1970 to 2010, The Journal of Applied Linguistics, 2(2). 52-79.

Byrd, P. (2001). Textbooks: Evaluation for Selection and Analysis for Implementation. In M. Celce-Murcia (Ed.), Teaching English as a second or foreign language, (pp. 415-427). Boston, MA: Heinle & Heinle.

Cheng, W., Hung, L., & Chieh, L. (2011). Thinking of the textbook in the ESL/EFL Classroom, English Language teaching, 4(2), 91- 96.

Cunningsworth, A. (1995). Choosing your course book. Oxford. Heinemann, UK.

Daoud, A., & Celce-Murcia, M.  (1979). Selecting and evaluating a textbook.  In M. Celce-Murcia and L. McIntosh (Ed.), Teaching English as a second or foreign language, (pp. 302 307). Cambridge, MA: Newbury House Publishers

Demir, Y., & Ertas, A. (2014). A suggested Eclectic Checklist for ELT Course book evaluation, The Reading Matrix, 2(1), 243-252.

Edge, J. & Wharton, S. (1998). ‘ Autonomy and Development: Living in the Materials World’. In B. Tomlinson (Ed.) (1998). Material Development in Language Teaching ( 1^st ed., pp. 295-310). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Ellis, R. (1997). The empirical evaluation of language teaching materials. English Language Teaching Journal, 51, 36-42.

Garinger, D. (2002). Textbook selection for the ESL classroom. Center for Applied Linguistics Digest. Retrieved from http://www.cal.org/resources/Digest/0210garinger.html

Ghorbani, M. R. (2011). Quantification and Graphic Representation of EFL Textbook Evaluation Results. Theory and Practice in Language Studies, 1(5), 511-520.

Incecay,   G.,   &   Incecay,   V.   (2009).   Turkish   university   students’   perceptions   of   communicative and non-communicative activities in EFL classroom. Procedia Social and Behavioral Sciences, 1, 618-622.

Jahangard, A. (2007). Evaluation of EFL materials taught at Iranian public high schools. ELT Journal, 9(2), 130-150.

Javanmehr, R. (2013). Post-use Evaluation of English Book 2 for its Effectiveness in Iranian High Schools. Journal of Academic and Applied Studies. 3(8). 22-31.

Karavas-Doukas, E. (1996). Using attitudescales to investigate teachers' attitudes to the communicative approach. English Language Teaching Journal, 50(3), 187-98.

Littlejohn, A. (1998). The analysis of language teaching materials: Inside the Trojan Horse. In B. Tomlinson (Ed.), Material development in language teaching, (pp. 190-216). Cambridge: CUP.  

Mares, C. (2003). “Writing a course book.”  In B. Tomlinson (Ed.). Material development in language teaching, (pp. 130-140). London: Continuum.

McDonough, J., & Shaw, C. (1993). Materials and Methods in ELT. Oxford: Blackwell.

McGrath I. (2002).  Materials Evaluation and Design for Language Teaching. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.

Mirzaei, N., & Tabatabaei, O. (2017). Textbook Analysis: Comparing the Recent and the Old   First Grade High School English Textbooks, Teachers and Learners’ Perspective in Focus. Research English Language Pedagogy, 5 (2), 167-180.

Rashid, N., & Kehratfard, R. (2014). A Needs Analysis Approach to the Evaluation of Iranian Third-Grade High School English Textbook. Sage Open, 1-9.

Razmjoo, S. A. (2010). Developing a Textbook Evaluation Scheme for the Expanding Circle. Iranian Journal of Applied Language Studies, 2(1), 121-136.

Rea-Dickens, P. & Germaine, K. (1992). Evaluation. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Ruben, G.  (2010). Missing pages?  A  study  of  textbooks  for  Dutch  early  childhood  teacher  education. Teaching and Teacher Education. 26(3), p371-376.

Sheldon, L. (1987). ELT Textbooks and Materials: Problems in Evaluation and Development. London: Oxford.

Sheldon, L. (1988). Evaluating ELT textbooks and materials. English Language Teaching Journal, 42(4), 237-246.

Skierso, A. (1991). Textbook selection and evaluation. In M. Celce- Murcia (Eds.), Teaching English as a second or foreign language, (pp. 432- 453). Boston, MA: Heinle & Heinle Publishers.

Soori, A, & Kafipour, R, Soury, M. (2011). EFL Textbook Evaluation and Graphic Representation. European Journal of Social Science, 26 (3), 481-493

Tomlinson, B. (Ed.). (1996). Materials development in language teaching. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Tomlinson, B. (2001). Materials development. In R. Carter and D. Nunan  (Ed.), The  Cambridge  guide  to  teaching  English  to speakers    of    other    languages, (pp.    66-71). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Tomlinson, B. (Ed.). (2003). Developing materials for language teaching. London: Continuum.

Torki, F, & Chalak, A. (2017). An Evaluation of English Textbooks Used in Iranian High Schools: Teachers and Learners’ Attitudes. Research English Language Pedagogy, 5 (1), 52-60.

Tosun, S. (2012). A comparative study on evaluation of Turkish and English foreign language textbooks. Social and Behavioral Sciences, 70, 1374-1380.

Tucker, C.A.  (1975). Evaluating beginning textbooks. English Teaching Forum, 13, 335-61.

Ur, P. (1996). A Course in Language Teaching, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Williams, D. (1983). Developing criteria for textbook evaluation. English Language Teaching Journal, 37(3), 251-255.

Yasemin K. (2009) .Evaluating the English textbooks for young learners of English at Turkish primary education. Procedia Social and Behavioral Sciences, 1(1), p79-83.