Exploring Communicative Language Teaching Principles Alignment of English Textbook in Saudi Arabia Middle School

Abstract

This paper aims to analysis an English language textbook used in “middle school” (high school) in Saudi Arabia in-depth, to ascertain the type of pedagogy pushed by the teacher’s book. The criteria of analysis are adapted from Communicative Language Teaching (CLT). These criteria are used to analyses the textbook in terms of how communicative it is and personalised, how authentic, how meaningful; its degree of linguistic complexity; whether it is scaffolded, accuracy or fluency oriented; and how much of all each of these categories is in the textbook activities. The methodology of this paper is qualitative and presents only one aspect, textbook analysis, of a broader case study which forms part of a Ph.D. project that explores the factors behind the failure of implementation of CLT in Saudi Arabia. The results of this analysis show that in the textbook there is a careful balance between accuracy and fluency. There are some person, alised and meaningful activities, however most of the activities lack of authenticity which limits freedom for the students in using use the target language.