Fundamental Criteria For Effective Textbook Evaluation

Fundamental Criteria for Effective Textbook EvaluationEFL JOURNALVol. 1 No. 2, 2016www.efljournal.orge-ISSN: 2502-6054, p-ISSN: 2527-5089doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.21462/eflj.v1i2.13Fundamental Criteria for Effective TextbookEvaluationHicham LaabidiFes Sais University, Moroccohicham.laabidi@yahoo.comAbdelhamid NfissiSais-Fes, Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah University, Fez, MoroccoAbstractSince textbook evaluation is an interesting area in the field of applied linguistics, thepresent study intends to investigate Moroccan teachers’ perspectives concerning theEFL textbook “Visa to the World” designed for common core high school students inMorocco. It also aims to assess the effectiveness of this textbook which was suggestedby the Moroccan Ministry of National Education as an instructional material for middleschool students. This means that the researchers intend to highlight teachers’ attitudestowards the textbook through which students obtain the linguistic knowledge needed soas to communicate in English with native and non-native speakers. It is highlysignificant to mention that the study assesses the effectiveness of the textbook, “Visa tothe World”, on the basis of seven main criteria: the physical appearance and format ofthe textbook, the accompanying materials, the content and the topics, the exercises andthe activities, cultural presentation, the four skills and the language methods that thetextbook adopts.Keywords: Textbook evaluation, applied linguistics, instructional materials attitudes,textbooksEFL JOURNAL, Volume 1 (2), 2016141

Fundamental Criteria for Effective Textbook Evaluation1.INTRODUCTIONOne of the general principles that govern education in the Kingdom of Morocco is thatthe individual citizen has the duty of the pursuit of learning. The Moroccan constitutionand the government in turn have the duty of providing learning for citizens. It is also theprinciple of the Moroccan country that Arabic is the language of education in all of itsstages.Regarding the role of English Language Teaching (ELT) textbooks in the process oflanguage teaching and learning, the majority of English language teaching professionalsshare a wide range of opinions about the use and usefulness of ELT textbooks inclasses. According to Tomlinson (1998) some people are against ELT textbooksbecause they are limited in content and application in meeting the needs of the students.On the other hand some scholars are more positive about the use of ELT textbooksbecause, for them, textbooks provide structure and cohesion to the learning process. Nomatter which views one holds, it is a fact that ELT textbooks are used in many languageclasses and they are the key part of teaching. Moreover, the textbook has a vital and apositive part to play in the everyday job of teachers and students in teaching andlearning English. Furthermore textbooks became a universal element of ELT teaching.(Hutchinson and Torres, 1994, Tomlinson, 1998).The purpose of this paper is to investigate Moroccan teachers’ perspectives concerningthe EFL textbook “Visa to the World” designed for common core high school studentsin Morocco. It also aims to assess the effectiveness of this textbook which wassuggested by the Moroccan Ministry of National Education as an instructional materialfor middle school students. This means that the researchers intend to highlight teachers’attitudes towards the textbook through which students obtain the linguistic knowledgeneeded so as to communicate in English with native and non-native speakers.It is highly significant to state that this case study assesses the effectiveness of thetextbook on the basis of seven main criteria: the physical appearance and format of thetextbook, the accompanying materials, the content and the topics, the exercises and theactivities, cultural presentation, the four skills and the language methods that thetextbook adopts. . The specific questions being investigated are as follows:a.b.c.d.e.f.g.h.i.Is the textbook effective in terms of the physical appearance and format?Are the accompanying materials helpful?To what extent is the textbook effective according to the content?Are the exercises and the activities relevant to the students?To what extent are the distinctive cultures presented in the textbook?To what extent is the textbook effective according to the four language skills?To what extent is the textbook effective according to vocabulary presentations?To what extent is the textbook effective according to grammar presentations?To what extent is the textbook effective in terms of the language teachingmethods?EFL JOURNAL, Volume 1 (2), 2016142

Fundamental Criteria for Effective Textbook Evaluation2. PREVIOUS STUDIESHutchinson et al. (1987) defines evaluation as “a matter of judging the fitness ofsomething for a particular purpose” (p.41). The evaluation of textbooks is considered animportant activity in the life of the English teacher. When we talk about the evaluationof the textbook, most of the teachers are concerned with selection of the textbooks i.e.predictive evaluation. However, most teachers are not even aware of retrospectiveevaluation, which is on-going evaluation of the textbooks which takes place after thebook has been selected for use.Sheldon (1988) provides two main reasons justifying the need to evaluate textbooks.First, the evaluation is expected to help the teacher or the programme developer to makewise decision as far as the selection of the most appropriate textbook. Second, theevaluation will make the teacher familiar with the weaknesses and the strengths of thetextbook. This will encourage the teacher to make suitable modifications andadaptations to the materials in their future instruction. In this context, it is essential tostate that Cunningsworth (1995) and Ellis (1997) identify three types of textbookevaluation: “pre-use”, “in-use” and “post-use” evaluations. Evaluation of textbooks forpre-use purposes aids teachers in selecting the most suitable textbook for a particularlanguage classroom. “In-use” evaluation helps the teacher to investigate the weaknessesor the strengths of the textbook while it is being used. The last type of evaluation, “postuse”, aids the teacher to reflect on the quality of the textbook after it has been employedin different learning situations.Since there is not a strict criterion that may be appropriate and applicable in allteaching/learning situations when the concern is the evaluation of textbooks, theselection of the criterion may be quite subjective. As Sheldon (1988) points out “ no oneis really certain what criteria and constraints are actually operative in ELT context,worldwide, and the textbook criteria are empathetically local” (p.241). Because thenature of the teaching/learning environment may differ from one context to another, asSheldon (1988) emphasises, “global list of criteria can never apply in most localenvironments, without considerable evaluation” (p. 242). Therefore, it is necessary totake into consideration the needs and the interests of the learners in distinctive learningsituations while deciding on criteria for evaluation of textbooks. It is worth-noting thatthere are numerous criteria suggested by different researchers. Some of these criteria arepresented in this section.3. RESEARCH METHODOLOGYThe study is carried out with 50 English language teachers employing the textbook toteach students English language during 2011 -2012 academic year in Morocco. Datacollection instrument used in the study is the questionnaire to assess the overalleffectiveness of the textbook from the point of the view of the teachers. It is importantto mention that the questionnaire targets only high school teachers who use thistextbook to teach Moroccan students to become competent writers and speakers ofEFL JOURNAL, Volume 1 (2), 2016143

Fundamental Criteria for Effective Textbook EvaluationEnglish language. The total number of the participants in this investigation is 50teachers of English working in high school as stated before. It is important to note thatall teachers use the textbook “Visa to the World” approved by the Moroccan Ministry ofEducation to teach common core students.Background information concerning the gender and ELT experiences of the teachersTable 1 : Gender of the ercentage70 %30%100It is apparent from the table that the majority of the participants (70%) are males whilefemales make up 30% of the teachers involved in the study.Table 2 : Years of teaching experience:Years of teaching experience 1 to 5 years 6 to 10 year 11 to 15 years 16 to 20 years More than 20 0%50100As it can be seen from the table, the participants in this study are experienced since themajority (90%) of this population has more than five years of experience in teaching.The results show that only 10 % of the participant teachers have five or less than fiveyears of experience. Thus, it can be emphasized that most of the participants in thisinvestigation are quite experienced.Table 3 : Years of using the textbook “ Visa to the world”:Years of using the textbook 1 to 5 years 6 to 10 year 11 to 15 years 16 to 20 years More than 20 00%00%100%Table (3) illustrates that out of the 50 participants in the study, 35 of them (70 %) havebeen using the textbook “Visa to the World” from 1 to 5 years. The rest of theEFL JOURNAL, Volume 1 (2), 2016144

Fundamental Criteria for Effective Textbook Evaluationparticipant teachers (30 %) have been teaching common core students using the targettextbook from 6 to 10 years. It is worth-noting that none of the respondents exceeds tenyears.In this study, the researchers use the questionnaire so as to collect necessary data.Indeed, questionnaires are considered as one of the most helpful and useful instrumentsto collect much information in a short period of time. The questionnaire is one of thecommon tools used in conducting surveys. It can easily be administered and can collectsufficient data given that it is properly constructed.The questionnaire employed in this research is written in English and it contains 45items. It is adopted from four sources: from a checklist by Tomlison, et al. (2001), achecklist by Ereksoussy ( 1993), a checklist by Thein (2006) and from a textbookevaluation model by Al-Hajalain (2003). The questionnaire items concerning theevaluation are based on certain criteria consistent with the literature.In the questionnaire, the dominant type of questions is the likert scale. A four-pointlikert scale is used in which responses range from ‘strongly agree’ to ‘stronglydisagree’. The questionnaire consists of two main parts : A & B. The first part isdesigned to attain information about teachers’ gender, the length of experience inteaching and the length of using the targeted textbook. The second part is divided intofive sub-sections.Sub-section I : The questions (1 – 5) are designed to collect information about thephysical appearance and format of the textbook such as the attractiveness of the cover.Moreover, the objective is to get enough information about the general organization ofthe textbook.Sub-section II : This part of the questionnaire consists of three questions (6 – 8) toobtain information about the supplementary materials such as the teacher’s guide, theworkbook, the CD-ROMS and the cassettes.Sub-section III: This section includes five items (9 – 18) related to the topics, exercisesand activities used in the textbook.Sub-section IV: The items (19 – 41) are designed to gather information about thelanguage skills, vocabulary and grammar in the textbook.4. FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION4.1. The Physical Appearance and Format of the textbook :The first research question, ‘Is the textbook effective in terms of the physicalappearance and format?’ was measured through five items in the teachers’ questionnaireand the responses are presented in Table (4).EFL JOURNAL, Volume 1 (2), 2016145