Prospect II: A Textbook Evaluation Study based on EFL Teachers’ Perspective

Document Type : Research

Authors

1 Bu Ali Sina University

2 BoAli Sina University

Abstract

Abstract
 
One of the most basic and essential necessities of every educational system is the development, evaluation and adaptation of textbooks. A key condition for safeguarding the foundations of any educational system is the quality and quantity of information that is made available to students through textbooks as an important and widely applicable educational media. Hence, textbook evaluation is of grave significance for the upcoming textbook development and revision projects. Against this background, the present study sets out to evaluate "Prospect II" as a textbook package designed for second grade high school English course in the Iranian public education system. For this purpose, a 65 item Likert scale researcher made questionnaire was developed and pilot tested. Based on the obtained data from the pilot study, the reliability index was found (α=0.9) to be highly acceptable. Moreover, confirmatory factor analyses confirmed the instrument as a valid questionnaire for the intended purpose. The questionnaire was distributed among 236 English teachers from Isfahan, Hamedan, Karaj, Sanandaj, Ghorveh, Rasht and Boroujerd, 200 of whom returned the completed questionnaire. Furthermore 38 English teachers sat for a semi-structured interview. Both quantitative and qualitative data analyses revealed that the teachers regarded the textbook as acceptable considering the language related content, however, they believed that the text is quite unacceptable and poor concerning physical and cultural aspects. Finally, the provision of authentic contexts of language use for the EFL learners was also found to be unsatisfactory.
 
Keywords: textbook evaluation, Prospect II, English Language.   
 
 
[1] Corresponding Author, Associate Professor, TEFL Department, Bu Ali Sina University , ahmadisafa@basu.ac.ir, ahmadisafa@gmail.com
2-5, MA in TEFL, Bu Ali Sina University

Keywords

References

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ZABANPAZHUHI (Journal of Language Research)
Volume 9, Issue 24
December 2017
Pages 7-32

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