Evaluating an ESP textbook: a case study of English for banking purposes at EDBI

Abstract

An English language textbook for banking purposes had been designed based on the language needs of EDBI staffs. Consequently, an English course for banking purposes was held at EDBI using the designed book. To ensure about the validity and quality of the textbook, it was evaluated by 2 language experts through an interview before the course and 30 bank’s staffs as the learners through a set of questionnaire after the course. Based on the quantitative and qualitative findings of the study, both language experts and EDBI’s staffs had positive attitudes toward the materials, topics, activities and tasks, language skills and physical appearance of the text book and recognized it relevant to their language needs. However, they asked for some modifications such as edition of misspelling and ungrammatical use of some sentences and additions of new materials such as a glossary and business and banking correspondences to the existing ones. The results of the study became a basis to further improvement and correction until the draft would be finalized as a ready use material. Therefore, some modifications and alternations were conducted based on their evaluations to make the product more valid and more practical. The findings of the present research bear significant implications for materials developers and teachers especially in applying appropriate materials in ESP courses and evaluating the textbooks in the related studies.