High School English Textbooks Research Articles

An Analysis of Japanese High School English Textbooks and University Entrance Examinations : A Comparison of Vocabulary

An Analysis of Japanese High School English Textbooks and University Entrance Examinations : A Comparison of Vocabulary

Film-based Materials in Senior High School English Textbooks

Film-based Materials in Senior High School English Textbooks

中学校英語教科書の文化題材に関する一考察 その2 : 談話分析手法を用いた教科書別分析

中学校英語教科書の文化題材に関する一考察 その2 : 談話分析手法を用いた教科書別分析

中学校の英語教科書における「事実情報を求める(asking)」機能に関する研究 : 談話分析からの考察

中学校の英語教科書における「事実情報を求める(asking)」機能に関する研究 : 談話分析からの考察

Evaluation of Iranian Second-Grade High School English Textbook from Teachers’ Perspectives

Among the various tools in educational contexts to affect L2 learners' language proficiency, textbooks play a crucial role (Garinger, 2001) not least because of their inherent property to cater to the learners' specific needs. The aim of this study was to investigate the appropriateness of Iranian High schools “English Textbook 2” from teachers’ perspectives. For this purpose, 80 male and female experienced English language teachers were randomly selected from different high schools in Dezful, Iran. They were chosen based on the availability sampling method. The evaluation of the textbook was conducted quantitatively through a 5-point Likert scale checklist which was proposed by Litz (2005). The textbook evaluation scheme contained 19 items which relied upon four main criteria namely a) layout and design, b) subject and content, c) activities, and d) skills (see Appendix). The results indicated that from the teachers' perspective there was an incongruity between the presumed educational purposes and the teachers and learners' needs. It is believed that the results of the study could provide intriguing hints for the curriculum designers and materials developers to think of adapting the available materials or adopting an alternative textbook which contains an organized layout, useful and real-life subjects and contents, covers relevant skills and activities, and corresponds to teachers’ and learners' emerging needs.

Classroom Application of Form-Focused Instruction-Focusing on 1st Grade High School English Textbooks Based on 2009 Revised Curriculum

Classroom Application of Form-Focused Instruction-Focusing on 1st Grade High School English Textbooks Based on 2009 Revised Curriculum

A Computational Analysis on Inter-Passage Semantic Intertextuality and Consistency of Text Difficulty in High School English Textbooks

This study investigated inter-passage connectivity within a chapter of High school English textbooks in the four linguistic sections—listening, speaking, reading, and writing—in terms of semantic intertextuality and consistency of text difficulty. These two aspects of text such as descriptives (sentence count, word count and sentence length) and readability were investigated by the two recent computational linguistic tools, Latent Semantic Analysis (LSA) and Coh-Metrix. The results from LSA revealed that texts in each linguistic section had a weak semantic intertextuality in a chapter except for the writing section. Through Coh-Metrix analysis, passages in the entire linguistic sections were found to be relatively consistent on sentence length but had high variations in sentence count and word count. Overall the variations appear to differ depending on linguistic section and textbook. Another finding from Coh-Metrix analysis is that the textbooks showed different levels of text difficulty on a few measures even though their target learners are the same 9th grade high school students. This research is limited to partial indices of LSA and Coh-Metrix and quantitative representation of the passages. Pedagogical implications are suggested based on the findings from this study.

A Proposal on the improvement of lexical contents of high school English text books utilizing text mining

A Proposal on the improvement of lexical contents of high school English text books utilizing text mining

A Corpus-Based Analysis of Discourse Markers in Curriculum-Based English Textbooks and the English Entrance Exam in Taiwan

The focus on EFL listening has increased in Taiwan. Although previous studies have confirmed the effectiveness of language learners’ knowledge of discourse markers (DMs) in facilitating their listening comprehension, the time spent on DM instruction is relatively short. Hence, the researcher conducted a corpus-based analysis of the DMs used in junior high school English textbooks, listening workbooks, and the English test in the Comprehensive Assessment Program for Junior High School Students (CAP). The study explored the types of exposure to DMs learners received and sought to determine whether textbook and test writers placed adequate emphasis on DMs. The results revealed that the English textbook and CAP English test corpora had higher frequencies of DMs than the listening workbook corpus. The DMs identified in the three corpora were multi-functional and involved using the senses most common to native speakers’ speech. They demonstrated a clear distinction between spoken and written English. However, the DM distributions were mainly limited to the sentence-initial position. Therefore, textbook writers were suggested to focus more on DM distribution and context. Teachers and learners should be aware of the role of DMs in EFL listening comprehension, familiarize themselves with DMs displayed in textbooks, and use authentic listening materials to compensate for textbook deficiencies.

An Analysis of the Clausal Complement of English Verbs Used in High School English Textbooks

An Analysis of the Clausal Complement of English Verbs Used in High School English Textbooks

Comparative study of metadiscourse markers in ELT textbooks and Iranian localized high school English textbooks

The present study attempted to investigate the use of interactive and interactional metadiscourse markers in two commonly ELT textbooks in Iran, namely, Iranian high school English textbooks, compared with the American English File series. To achieve the purpose of this study, all the reading sections in high school textbooks, Book 3 and Book 4 were selected. To have an equal amount of data in four textbooks, the first 6769 words in American English File Books 3 and 4 and 6769 words in high school English Books 3 and 4 were considered. To ensure the equality of the level of difficulty, the Flesch’s (1948) readability formula was employed. According to Hyland (2005) model, interactive and interactional metadiscourse markers were identified in reading sections of these four textbooks. The descriptive analysis of the study revealed that interactional metadiscourse markers were used more in American English File series, however, interactive ones were applied more in Iranian high school textbooks. The findings showed that there were significant differences in the case of code glosses and evidentials in two series of textbooks. The use of code glosses in Iranian high school textbooks was higher than the other corpus, whereas evidentials were used more than the other interactive markers in American English File series. The results of chi-square analysis indicated that there were significant differences between two textbooks series in terms of using interactional markers. But there were not significant differences in applying the interactive ones. Among different categories of interactional metadiscourse markers, engagement markers were used more than other interactional markers in the Iranian high school textbooks and self-mentions applied more in American English File series. The findings of this study have some useful implications for teachers, curriculum designers, and material developers.

Evaluation of English Textbooks in Terms of Textuality Standards

Putting a number of sentences together in order to build a text, the sentences must comply with the criteria such as cohesion, coherence, intentionality, acceptability, contextualization, informativeness and intertextuality. The text should bear these criteria in order to fulfil the intended communicative features. Therefore, in this study, it is aimed to develop "The Text Evaluation Rubric" and to evaluate the texts in the 9th grade English textbooks by means of this rubric. For this purpose, relevant literature has been searched and a rubric with seven dimensions and including textuality criteria has been prepared. To ensure the content validity of the rubric, experts have been consulted. The weighted Kappa Coefficient was examined for reliability. In terms of dimensions of the rubric, the reliability value of Cohesion dimension is .596; that of Coherence dimension is .917; that of Intentionality is .882; that of Acceptability is .851; that of Contextualization is .948; that of Informativeness is .875 and that of Intertextuality is .880. Moreover, the validity of rubric is provided by inspection of content, structure and extent. These results show that "The Text Evaluation Rubric" developed to evaluate the texts is a reliable and valid rubric. This rubric can be an alternative tool to evaluate the texts being in high school English textbooks.

Corpus-based analysis of adjective synonyms used in new high school English textbooks, centering on fast, quick, and rapid

The present article discusses the authenticity of the vocabulary used in new high school English textbooks published in 2015, focusing on adjective...

“A Comparative Study of the Discourse Marker but in a Conversation Corpus, Korean High School English Textbooks, and Global ELT Textbooks.”

“A Comparative Study of the Discourse Marker but in a Conversation Corpus, Korean High School English Textbooks, and Global ELT Textbooks.”

An investigation into the use of speech acts and language functions in Iranian high school English textbooks

Criticism has been leveled against English textbooks on the grounds that they often fail to provide classroom learners with adequate opportunities for learning authentic language (Vellenga, 2004). This could be due to the fact that, instead of making use of authentic language samples native speakers produce, many textbooks draw on native speakers’ intuitions about language use, which might not always be reliable. This study investigated the use of speech acts presented in Iranian high school English Textbooks I, II, and III. To this end, speech acts in the conversations segments of these books were analyzed from the perspective of Searle’s (1976) speech act model and Lakoff’s (1973) view of politeness. The results revealed that there were, in total, 298 instances of speech acts used in high school textbooks. It was also found that language functions in these books are presented unequally and some of them recur throughout the books, with no specific pattern being followed. Since high school English textbooks in Iran are not communication-oriented, it was concluded that these books cannot possibly develop pragmatic competence in language learners.

A Comparative Study of Vocabulary in High School English Textbooks in South Korea and China: a Corpus-Based Analysis of Lexicon

A Comparative Study of Vocabulary in High School English Textbooks in South Korea and China: a Corpus-Based Analysis of Lexicon

DEVELOPMENT OF CULTURAL AWARENESS IN IRANIAN ENGLISH CLASSES

The development of cultural awareness in Iranian high school English classes has been one of the major problems of language learning in Iran. Actually most of our students do not have any clear knowledge about the culture of the people whose language they learn. The fact that as time passes the intercultural communication between this generation of students and the English language communities will become weaker and weaker in future. Their ability to express themselves in the English language fluently after studying English at school for six years seems not to be satisfactory. It seems that it is partly due to the textbooks used, and partly to the kinds of instruction, procedures and techniques used for teaching English as a foreign language at high schools. In this paper the researcher has taken an analytic look at the course objectives and English language textbooks written for the high school students by carefully analyzing the content of high school English textbooks prepared and published by the Ministry of Education in Iran.

Analyzing Cultural Issues in High School English Textbooks in Japan

<p>It cannot be denied that intercultural understanding is crucial in the process of learning English at elementary school, junior high school, high school, and so on. This paper analyzes the high school English textbooks approved by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (henceforth, MEXT) in Japan from the perspective of intercultural understanding. It elucidates the types of the articles, the countries treated in the articles, and the purposes of the materials for cultural understanding. Then it discusses the characteristics of the cultural materials presented in the high school English textbooks. The result of the research shows the materials contain various kinds of categories, many materials concerning English-speaking countries. However, an important fact is that there is still too much focus on Japan and America. Finally, the paper suggests the future direction of the materials in the textbooks in order to facilitate the better intercultural understanding in the global world.</p>

Analysis of visual materials in Korean high school English textbooks and learners’ responses

Analysis of visual materials in Korean high school English textbooks and learners’ responses

Canonical Construction Sequences in Junior High School English Textbooks and Negative Conceptual Transfer

Canonical Construction Sequences in Junior High School English Textbooks and Negative Conceptual Transfer