A Content Evaluation of Iranian Pre-university ELT Textbook

Abstract

Textbooks and instruction materials are one of the most important components in any language classrooms all over the world. Considering the significant role of textbook in teaching/learning process, it is therefore very important to conduct EFL textbook evaluation so as to ensure ELT textbooks can effectively facilitate the attainment of the teaching objectives, and at the same time, be economically viable to teachers and students. The present study has attempted to evaluate the Iranian pre-university ELT textbook. To the end, four research questions were posed to determine whether the language used in the pre-university English textbook is authentic, whether the conversations, grammar rules, vocabulary words and expressions presented in this book are used in real-life situations, whether the activities and exercises included in the book are appropriate for communicative learning, and whether the texts, examples, and illustrations of this book are variable enough. Four EFL teachers and 335 pre-university students participated in this study. The evaluation was carried out through an ESL textbook evaluation checklist by Joshua Miekley (2005). The questions take the form of Likert scale. Rating scaled are numerically coded as 1 – totally lacking, 2 – poor, 3 – adequate, 4 – good, 5 – excellent. Following the submission of the questionnaire, the obtained data were analyzed by SPSS which revealed unforeseen results that the participants were not mostly satisfied about this English textbook, because the calculated mean for all the questions were below 3. Therefore the four null-hypotheses were supported.