EFL Teachers' Perceptions towards Textbook Evaluation

Abstract

—Textbook evaluation helps the teachers find appropriate course books and let them regulate and modify them to meet the learners' needs and also allow for natural interaction to occur. The skilled teachers have the opportunity to report and reflect their perceptions on the usefulness and weakness of the textbook they use in a given class. Although there is a lot of research on textbook evaluation, the newly published textbooks are paid less attention. Therefore, the aim of this study is to review the evaluation of various textbooks which are conducted by EFL teachers all over the world to find out their perceptions toward the strengths and weaknesses of the textbooks. Moreover, this study reviews some studies on Iranian teachers' perceptions toward old and newly published materials "Prospect1"which are taught in schools, the role of teachers in evaluating textbooks, weaknesses and strengths of textbooks and some arguments against materials. This review research illustrates to what extent textbooks provide teachers and students' needs and empower teachers to improve their knowledge about evaluation of each kind of textbooks. The evaluation of textbooks reveals benefits and deficiencies of the teaching materials. Finally, it is recommended that it will be useful for the syllabus designers, experienced and inexperienced teachers, materials developers and educational authorities to evaluate and investigate the newly-published textbooks in order to realize new ways to improve the quality of the materials and revise their contents.