Materials Development & Textbook Analysis
Hossein Ali Manzouri; Zia Tajeddin; Gholam Reza Kiany
Abstract
Scholarship on English as an International Language (EIL) has called for more research on the beliefs of nonnative teachers and learners of English about the inclusion of linguistic and cultural norms of EIL in ELT textbooks. To address this call, the present study examined the beliefs of 251 teachers ...
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Scholarship on English as an International Language (EIL) has called for more research on the beliefs of nonnative teachers and learners of English about the inclusion of linguistic and cultural norms of EIL in ELT textbooks. To address this call, the present study examined the beliefs of 251 teachers and 254 learners of English in Iranian private language institutes. Data for the study were collected through an adapted questionnaire and follow-up interviews. The results of the study unraveled the teachers' advocacy of the inclusion of cultural and language norms of nonnative English varieties into the textbooks. Regarding learners’ beliefs, the results of the study showed that they disagreed with the inclusion of nonnative varieties in language teaching materials, and agreed only with the representation of native cultures in the textbooks. Contrary to these findings, it was found that both teachers and learners disapproved of teaching EIL in ELT classrooms, signifying their preference for the prioritization of Anglo-American norms. The findings have implications for ELT materials development and the need to raise teachers' and learners' awareness of EIL.
sasan baleghizadeh; Yahya gordani
Volume 1, Issue 1 , June 2012, , Pages 33-58
Abstract
Materials evaluation studies have constantly demonstrated that there is no one fixed procedure for conducting textbook evaluation studies. Instead, the criteria must be selected according to the needs and objectives of the context in which evaluation takes place. The speaking skill as part of the communicative ...
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Materials evaluation studies have constantly demonstrated that there is no one fixed procedure for conducting textbook evaluation studies. Instead, the criteria must be selected according to the needs and objectives of the context in which evaluation takes place. The speaking skill as part of the communicative competence has been emphasized as an important objective in language teaching. The present study explored the core units of spoken grammar inherent in four widely-used ELT textbooks following McCarthy and Carter’s (2002) classification. A coding scheme was developed to make it possible for the researchers to use the classification in codifying the data. The data were then analyzed to detect the units of spoken grammar inherent in the target textbooks. Results from codification of dialogues and transcripts of audio recordings showed that the units of spoken grammar are not evenly distributed in these ELT textbooks. In addition, a significant difference was found between the textbooks in their inclusion of different categories of the spoken grammar.