Coursebook Development and Evaluation for English for General Purposes Course

Abstract

Writing a coursebook is a demanding task and more important than writing is how to evaluate it in order to pin point its weaknesses and improve them. If we yearn to produce a quality and useful coursebook, we need to consider how to develop and evaluate it. The study reported in this article describes the process in which the researcher developed and evaluated a coursebook (Reading English in Action) for the English for General Purposes (EGP) course at the University of Tabriz, Iran. In order to investigate this coursebook’s virtues and weaknesses, the researcher taught it for four semesters and asked six of his colleagues to use it for their EGP courses. A questionnaire was developed based on a checklist that had been prepared by the researcher and distributed to the six language professors who taught the coursebook and 480 students who studied it for one semester. A semi-structured interview was conducted with the six professors and twenty four students. The aim was to carry out in-use and post-use coursebook evaluation because these are more valid and reliable than pre-use one. Since the objective of the EGP course was to develop the students’ reading skill and strategies, the present coursebook was written to fulfill these goals. However, the results of the study depicts that mere emphasis on reading bores the students and they require more interactive communicative use of the language. This study can provide invaluable insights for material writers, curriculum developers, and language teachers.