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EVALUATION OF THE ENGLISH TEXTBOOK « NEW PROSPECTS » THE CASE OF

THIRD YEAR OF SECONDARY EDUCATION – FOREIGN LANGUAGES STREAM IN
THE REGION OF BISKRA

Thesis · April 2014

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 PEOPLE’S DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF ALGERIA

MINISTRY OF HIGHER EDUCATION AND SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH

Doctoral School of English ‫ـﺔ‬#‫ـﺰ‬%‫ ﻟﻠﻐـــﺔ *ﻹﻧـﺠﻠ‬-*.‫ﺳـﺔ *ﻟـﺪﻛﺘـﻮ‬.‫ﻣـﺪ‬

Department of English ‫ـﺔ‬#‫ـــﺰ‬%‫ﻗﺴــــــﻢ *ﻟﻠﻐـــــﺔ *ﻹﻧﺠﻠ‬

DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE IN

PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF

MAGISTER IN LANGUAGE SCIENCES

EVALUATION OF THE ENGLISH TEXTBOOK

« NEW PROSPECTS »

THE CASE OF THIRD YEAR OF SECONDARY EDUCATION –

FOREIGN LANGUAGES STREAM IN THE REGION OF BISKRA

Candidate: AOUNALI Walid Supervisor: Dr. BAHLOUL Amel

Board of Examiners

Chairwoman: Prof. HOCINE Nacira Professor Badji Mokhtar – University of Annaba

Supervisor: Dr. BAHLOUL Amel M.C. A Hadj Lakhdar – University of Batna

Examiner: Dr. GRINE Nadia M.C. A Badji Mokhtar – University of Annaba

April 2014
!

Dedication

This dissertation is dedicated:

To my parents whose encouragement, love, and support have made my efforts worthwhile to

bring about this dissertation;

To my brothers and sisters for believing in me, I hope my efforts make them proud and reward

their faith in me;

To all my students whom I have taught during my short career at the University of Biskra;

To all my teachers and colleagues in the doctoral school of English, namely Adel, Abdellatif,

Lamdjed and Rédha for their sustainable support to achieve this task.

II
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Acknowledgements

First of all, I would like to thank the Almighty Allah for giving me strength to achieve

this challenging but rewarding task. Secondly, my most heartfelt thanks go to my supervisor

Dr. Bahloul Amel, without whom I would not have been able to accomplish this dissertation.

I am grateful for her suggestions, support, and for her interest in my work. I owe her my

gratitude for correcting all my drafts and whenever I ask her for help and consultation, I found

her present. I should like to extend my sincere thanks to the members of the committee for

accepting to read and to examine my dissertation, namely Prof. Hocine Nacira and

Dr. Grine Nadia.

My special thanks go to all the pupils and teachers who contributed in this research.

I would like to mention many brilliant people helped me in my research among them:

Prof. Christopher Kennedy senior lecturer at Birmingham University and Dr. Gail Horton

for her correction of the first drafts of my questionnaires. As well as, Dr. Souryana Yassine

for helping me in my research documents collection. Finally, many thanks are due to

Prof. Brian John Tomlinson for the insightful suggestions and feedback.

III
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Abstract

The purpose of this study is to examine the suitability and the effectiveness of the English

textbook ‘New Prospects’ which is designed by the Algerian Ministry of National Education

as an instructional material for the pupils of all the streams in third year of secondary

education. The evaluation of the textbook was based on quantitative and qualitative methods,

in which, we used three research tools in order to have a detailed scrutiny of the textbook. For

this end, we analysed the textbook from several aspects using many criteria adopted from

many checklists for evaluating the textbook in terms of its physical appearance, texts, topics,

design, the four skills, and the intercultural content. For the sake of collecting more

information, we have evaluated the Teacher’s Guide using a composite checklist of criteria

carefully chosen from universal checklists. To be more consistent in our evaluation, we

administered two questionnaires to 118 pupils and 20 teachers to survey their views towards

the suitability of the textbook in-use. Meanwhile, syllabus guidelines were gauged in the

teacher’s questionnaire. Finally, we have conducted a classroom observation for a whole unit

of the textbook in-use. The research results revealed two divergent views expressed towards

the evaluated aspects of the textbook. The latter results were obtained from the checklists of

criteria we used in the third chapter together and the questionnaires and the classroom

observation described in the fourth chapter. The present study concluded with some

recommendations and suggestions for improving the use of the English textbook ‘New

Prospects’, which needs adaptation and supplementation. Some practical suggestions were

offered to help teachers and pupils overcome the identified difficulties to use the textbook in

the class successfully.

IV
 List of Abbreviations
1. A.S.: Année Secondaire with reference to 1st, 2nd or 3rd year of Secondary Education

2. CBA: Competency Based Approach

3. CBLT: Competency Based Language Teaching

4. CLT: Communicative Language Teaching

5. CNRSE: Commission Nationale de la Réforme du Système Educatif

6. COBUILD: Corpus of Birmingham University International Language Data

7. DA: Dinar Algérien stands for the Algerian currency Dinar

8. ELT: English Language Teaching

9. ESL: English as a Second Language

10. EFL: English as a Foreign Language

11. EFL1: English as a First Foreign Language

12. EFL2: English as a Second Foreign Language

13. FL: Foreign Language

14. FRE: Flesch Reading Ease

15. P-P-P: Presentation Practice Production

16. SE: Secondary Education

17. SLA: Second Language Acquisition

18. SPSS: Statistical Package for Social Sciences

19. TBLT: Task Based Language Teaching

20. TESOL: Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages

21. TEFL: Teaching English as a Foreign Language

22. TG: Teacher's Guide

V
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List of Symbols

F: Frequency

M: The Arithmetic Mean

N: Number of Items

٪ : Percentage

SD: Standard Deviation

SM: Statistical Mean

x: The Value

x: The mean for Grouped Data

xi : The Independent Variable for the Value

Σx: The Sum of Values

VI
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List of Tables

Table 1. Composite Checklist for Teacher’s Guide ................................................................ 38

Table 2. Syllabus Types Taxonomy ........................................................................................ 47

Table 3. A Sample of a Functional Syllabus (Richards & Schmidt, 2010, p. 236) …............. 52

Table 4. English Teaching Yearly Timing at the Secondary School (SE 1, SE 2, SE 3) …... 77

Table 5. Third Year Secondary Education Syllabus (Teacher’s Guide, p. 71) ....................... 78

Table 6. History of Algerian English Textbooks Used in the Secondary Education .............. 78

Table 7. The Contents of the Textbook ‘New Prospects’ ....................................................... 81

Table 8. ‘New Prospects’ Reading Comprehension Texts ..................................................... 91

Table 9. The Intercultural Outcomes in ‘New Prospects’ ....................................................... 96

Table 10. The Distribution of the Different Types of Tasks in Unit 2 (New Prospects) ........ 98

Table 11. Writing Tasks and Activities in Unit 2 and Unit 4 ‘New Prospects’ .................... 106

Table 12. Participants Number and Distribution in the Four Secondary Schools ................ 115

Table 13. Sections of the Teachers’ Questionnaire ............................................................... 117

Table 14. Sections of the Pupils’ Questionnaire ................................................................... 118

Table 15. The Statistical Reference for the Results Obtained .............................................. 119

Table 16. Teachers’ Age Categories ..................................................................................... 121

Table 17. Teachers’ Gender .................................................................................................. 122

Table 18. Teachers’ Qualification ......................................................................................... 122

Table 19. Teachers’ Experience ............................................................................................ 123

Table 20. Teachers’ Views on the Visual Appearance of the Textbook ............................... 124

Table 21. Teachers’ Appraisal of Units’ Design and Organisation ...................................... 126

Table 22. Teachers’ Evaluation of the Cultural Content of the Textbook............................. 127

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Table 23. Teachers’ Evaluation of the Tasks and Exercises ................................................. 127

Table 24. Teachers’ Appraisal of Group Work Activities in the Textbook …….................. 128

Table 25. Teachers’ Views on the Adaptation of the Tasks and the Activities .................... 128

Table 26. Teachers’ Evaluation of the Texts Suitability in the Textbook ............................ 129

Table 27. Teachers’ Adaptation Techniques of the Texts in the Textbook .......................... 129

Table 28. Teachers’ Use of Audio-visual Aids in the Classroom.......................................... 130

Table 29. Teachers’ Views on the Sufficiency of the Time Allocated ................................. 131

Table 30. Teachers’ Suggestions of the Sufficient Hours per Week .................................... 132

Table 31. Teachers’ Supplementation Materials for Teaching English ................................ 132

Table 32. Teachers’ Usage of Group Work Activities ......................................................... 133

Table 33. Teachers’ Evaluation of the Reading Skills and Strategies .................................. 134

Table 34. Teachers’ Apperception of Pupils’ Speaking Skill ............................................... 135

Table 35. Teachers’ Apperception of Listening Exercises ................................................... 136

Table 36. Teachers’ Evaluation of Adequacy of Exercises in Developing Writing Skill .... 137

Table 37. Teachers’ Evaluation of Pupils’ Difficulties in the Writing Stages ...................... 137

Table 38. Teachers’ Evaluation of the Pupils’ Errors in Writing Composition .................... 138

Table 39. The Matching Between the Textbook and the Objectives Outlined ..................... 139

Table 40. Teachers’ Adaptation of the Existing Syllabus ..................................................... 140

Table 41. Teachers’ Achievement of Syllabus Objectives ................................................... 140

Table 42. Teachers’ Satisfaction About the Teacher’s Guide and its Content ..................... 141

Table 43. Teachers’ Evaluation of the Guidance of the Teacher’s Guide ............................ 142

Table 44. Teachers’ Guide Providence with a Clear and Systematic Guidance ................... 142

Table 45. Summary of Teachers’ Questionnaire Results per section and per question ........ 147

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Table 46. Pupils’ Age ........................................................................................................... 150

Table 47. Pupils’ Gender ...................................................................................................... 151

Table 48. Pupils’ Enjoyment of the English Classes ............................................................ 152

Table 49. Pupils’ Preferences in Learning English ............................................................... 152

Table 50. Pupils’ Estimation of their Level in the Four Skills ............................................. 153

Table 51. Pupils’ Evaluation of the Textbook’s Physical Appearance ................................. 153
Table 52. Pupils’ Evaluation of the Textbook’s Organisation and Design ........................... 154

Table 53. Pupils’ Understanding of the Language Used in the Textbook ............................ 154
Table 54. Pupils’ Appreciation of the Activities of the Textbook ........................................ 155

Table 55. Pupils’ Achievement of the Project Work and Homework .................................. 155

Table 56. Pupils’ Evaluation of the Quality of the Topics in the Textbook ......................... 156

Table 57. Pupils’ Appraisal of the Quality of the Topics in the textbook ............................ 156

Table 58. Pupils’ Appraisal of the Cultural Content of the Textbook .................................. 157

Table 59. The Textbook’s Role in Motivating Pupils ........................................................... 157

Table 60. Pupils’ Evaluation of the Speaking Skill in the Textbook .................................... 158

Table 61. Pupils’ Evaluation of the Reading Texts in the Textbook .................................... 158

Table 62. Pupils’ Evaluation of the Listening Skill in the Textbook .................................... 159
Table 63. Pupils’ Enjoyment of the Writing Tasks in the Textbooks ................................... 159
Table 64. Pupils’ Evaluation of the Writing Skill in the Textbook ...................................... 160
Table 65. Pupils’ Proofreading of their Written Essays ....................................................... 161
Table 66. The Areas that the Pupils’ Focus on when Revising their Essays ........................ 161

Table 67. Pupils’ Satisfaction about the Written Feedback Provided by the Teacher .......... 162
Table 68. Pupils’ Preference of Adding a Glossary to the Texts in the Textbook ................ 162
Table 69. Summary of the Results of Pupils’ Questionnaire per section and per question .. 164

Table 70. Teacher Observation Benchmark .......................................................................... 165

Table 71. The Schedule of the Lessons Observed in the Classroom .................................... 166
Table 72. Triangulation of textbook evaluation, questionnaires and classroom observation 175

IX
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List of Figures

Figure 1. Summative Evaluation Steps ................................................................................... 24

Figure 2. Bases for Language Syllabus Design (adapted from White, 1988, p. 46) ………... 45

Figure 3. Types of Product-Based Syllabuses (adapted from Rabbini, 2002, p. 09) .............. 47

Figure 4. The Structure of Unit One (New Prospects, p. II) ................................................... 84

Figure 5. The Cover Page of the Textbook ‘New Prospects’ ................................................. 85

Figure 6. Organisation and Sequencing of Units Two in ‘New Prospects’............................. 88

Figure 7. Language Outcomes with Reference to ‘Listen and Consider’ ............................... 87

Figure 8. The Distribution of the Different Number of Tasks in (New Prospects)!................. 99!

Figure 9. The Distribution of the Four Skills Tasks in (New Prospects) .............................. 103

Figure 10. The Teacher’s Guide Contents ............................................................................ 109

Figure 11. Teachers’ Gender ................................................................................................. 122

Figure 12. Teachers’ Qualification ....................................................................................... 123

Figure 13. Teachers’ Experience …………………….......................................................... 124

Figure 14. Teachers’ Viewpoints on the Visual Appearance of the Textbook ..................... 125

Figure 15. Teachers’ Assessment of Units’ Design and Organisation ................................. 126

Figure 16. Teachers’ Use of Audio-visual Aids in the Classroom ....................................... 131

Figure 17. Teachers’ Evaluation of the Reading Skills and Strategies ................................. 135

Figure 18. Teachers’ Evaluation of the Pupils’ Difficulties in the Writing Stages .............. 138

Figure 19. Pupils’ Age .......................................................................................................... 150

Figure 20. Pupils’ Gender ..................................................................................................... 151

X
!

List of Graphs

Graph 1. Flesch Reading Ease of New Prospects ................................................................... 93

Graph 2. Triangulation of the Means of Data Collection Used ............................................ 174

XI
!

List of Diagrams

Diagram 1. An Example of a Writing Development Task in (New Prospects, pp. 69-70) ... 107

XII
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CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

Page

1. Background of the Study ....................................................................................................... 1

2. Statement of the Problem ....................................................................................................... 1

3. Aim of the Study .................................................................................................................... 3

4. Research Questions ................................................................................................................. 3

5. Hypotheses of the Study ....................................................................................................... 4

6. Methodology and Research Tools ......................................................................................... 5

7. Significance of the Study ...................................................................................................... 6

8. Structure of the Dissertation ................................................................................................. 7

CHAPTER ONE: THE BASIC CONCEPTS OF TEXTBOOK

EVALUATION

Introduction ............................................................................................................................. 8

1.1 Definitions of Textbook Evaluation!..................................................................................! 8

1.2 Justification for Textbook Evaluation................................................................................!11

1.3 Purposes of Evaluation.......................................................................................................!14

1.4 Textbooks Role..................................................................................................................!16

1.5 Approaches to Textbook Evaluation!................................................................................. 19

1.5.1 Predictive versus Retrospective .............................................................................. 20

1.5.2 Potential versus Suitability ...................................................................................... 20

1.5.3 Impressionistic versus In-Depth .............................................................................. 21

1.6 Types of Evaluation ..........................................................................................................!22

XIII
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1.6.1 Formative Evaluation ..............................................................................................!22

1.6.2 Illuminative Evaluation ........................................................................................... 22

1.6.3 Summative Evaluation ............................................................................................!23

1.7 Steps of Evaluation ........................................................................................................... 24

1.8 Criteria for Textbook Evaluation ...................................................................................... 26

1.8.1 Development of Criteria for Materials Evaluation .................................................. 26

1.8.2 Checklist Approach to Textbook Evaluation .......................................................... 27

1.8.2.1 Sheldon (1988) Checklist for Textbook Selection ....................................... 27

1.8.2.2 Cunningsworth (1995) Checklists for Choosing a Coursebook ................... 31

1.8.2.3 Skierso (1991) Checklist for Textbook Selection ........................................ 34

1.9 Teacher’s Guide ................................................................................................................!37

1.9.1 Criteria for the Teacher’s Guide ............................................................................. 38

Conclusion .............................................................................................................................. 39

CHAPTER TWO: TEXTBOOK DEVELOPMENT AND SYLLABUS

DESIGN

Introduction ..................……………....................................................................................... 40

2.1 Curriculum Development .................................................................................................. 40

2.1.1 The Communicative-Language Teaching ........................................................... 41

2.1.2 The Competency-Based Approach ..................................................................... 43

2.1.3 Considering Learner Autonomy .......................................................................... 43

2.2 Syllabus Design ................................................................................................................. 44

2.2.1 Product-Oriented Syllabuses ............................................................................... 47

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2.2.1.1 The Structural Syllabus .......................................................................... 48

2.2.1.2 The Situational Syllabus ........................................................................ 48

2.2.1.3 The Lexical Syllabus .............................................................................. 50

2.2.1.4 The Functional-Notional Syllabus ......................................................... 52

2.2.2 Process-Oriented Syllabuses ............................................................................... 54

2.2.2.1 The Task-Based Syllabus ....................................................................... 55

2.2.2.2 The Skill-Based Syllabus ....................................................................... 58

2.2.2.3 The Topic/Theme-Based Syllabus ......................................................... 59

2.2.3 The Multi-Syllabus Syllabus .............................................................................. 60

2.3 Teaching the Four Skills .................................................................................................. 62

2.3.1 Listening Skill ....................................................................................................... 63

2.3.2 Speaking Skill ....................................................................................................... 65

2.3.3 Reading Skill ......................................................................................................... 66

2.3.4 Writing Skill .......................................................................................................... 68

2.3.5 Integrating the Four Skills ..................................................................................... 71

2.4 Learning Strategies ....................................................................................................... 72

Conclusion ...................................................................................…........................................!74

CHAPTER THREE: ANALYSIS OF THE CONTENT OF THE ENGLISH

TEXTBOOK ‘NEW PROSPECTS’

Introduction ............................................................................................................................. 75

3.1 Teaching English in Algeria ............................................................................................. 75

3.1.1 Teaching English at the Secondary Level ............................................................... 76

3.1.2 The General Objectives of Teaching English in the Secondary Education ............ 79

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3.2 The Content of the English Textbook ‘New Prospects’ (SE 3) ........................................ 80

3.2.1 Presentation of the Content of a Sample Unit ......................................................... 81

3.3 Analysis of the Content of the Textbook ‘New Prospects’ (SE 3) ................................... 83

3.3.1 General Presentation ...............................................…............................................ 84

3.3.2 Analysis of Physical Appearance and Layout ......................................................... 86

3.3.3 Analysis of Texts ..................................................................................................... 90

3.3.4 Analysis of Topics ................................................................................................... 94

3.3.5 Analysis of Intercultural Content ............................................................................ 95

3.3.6 Analysis of Language Tasks and Strategies Outcomes ......................................... 98

3.3.7 Analysis of Language Skills and Competencies ................................................... 102

3.3.7.1 Receptive Skills ........................................................................................ 103

3.3.7.2 Productive Skills ...................................................................................... 104

3.4 Presentation of the Teacher’s Guide ............................................................................... 109

3.4.1 Evaluation of the Teachers’ Guide ........................................................................ 109

3.5 Discussion of the Hypotheses .........................................................................................!112

Conclusion ............................................................................................................................ 113

CHAPTER FOUR: FIELD WORK

Introduction ..........................................................................................................................!!114

4.1 Data Collection and Analysis!.......................................................................................... 114

4.1.1 Data Collection Instruments .................................................................................. 114

4.1.2 Context of the Study ............................................................................................. 115

4.1.3 Pilot Testing of the Questionnaires ...................................................................... 115

4.1.3.1 Questionnaires for Pupils and Teachers ................................................... 117

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4.1.4 Data Analysis Tools .............................................................................................. 118

4.1.4.1 Statistical Calculation and Interpretation ................................................. 119

4.2 Teachers’ Questionnaire ................................................................................................. 120

4.2.1 Questionnaire Description ..................................................................................... 120

4.2.2 Questionnaire Analysis ......................................................................................... 121

4.2.2.1 Section One: Personal Information and Teaching Experience ................ 121

4.2.2.2 Section Two: Teachers’ Evaluation of the Textbook ‘New Prospects’.... 124

4.2.2.3 Section Three: The Four Skills in the Textbook ‘New Prospects’ .......... 135

4.2.2.4 Section Four: Textbook Alignment with Syllabus Requirements ........... 139

4.2.2.5 Section Five: Teachers’ Evaluation of the Teacher’s Guide ................... 141

4.2.2.6. Section Six: Further Suggestions ........................................................... 143

4.2.3 Summary of Teachers’ Questionnaire ................................................................... 145

4.3 Pupils’ Questionnaire!......................................................................................................!148

4.3.1 Questionnaire Description ..................................................................................... 148

4.3.2 Questionnaire Analysis ......................................................................................... 150

4.3.2.1 Section One: Personal Information ........................................................... 150

4.3.2.2 Section Two: Teachers’ Viewpoints on Learning English ...................... 152

4.3.2.3 Section Three: Pupils’ Evaluation of the Textbook ‘New Prospects’...... 153

4.3.2.4 Section Four: The Four Skills in the Textbook ‘New Prospects’…..…... 157

4.3.2.5 Section Five: Further Suggestions ........................................................... 163

4.3.3 Summary of Pupils’ Questionnaire ...................................................................... 163

4.4 Classroom Observation....................................................................................................!165

4.4.1 Description of the Process ..................................................................................... 166

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4.4.2 Remarks on the Observed Lessons ....................................................................... 167

4.4.2.1 Preparation ............................................................................................... 167

4.4.2.2 Presentation .............................................................................................. 168

4.4.2.3 Execution/Methods .................................................................................. 171

4.4.2.4 Teacher/Pupils Interaction ....................................................................... 172

4.5 Discussion of the Hypotheses ..........................................................................................!173

Conclusion ............................................................................................................................ 173

CHAPTER FIVE: FINDINGS!AND PEDAGOGICAL IMPLICATIONS

Introduction ........................................................................................................................... 174

5.1 Triangulation of Research Findings ...............................................................................!174

5.2 Some Facts about the Textbook ...................................................................................... 176

5.2.1 Advantages of the Textbook ................................................................................. 176

5.2.2 Drawbacks of the Textbook .................................................................................. 177

5.3 Suggestions for Textbook Stakeholders ......................................................................... 178

5.3.1 Suggestions for Teachers ..................................................................................... 179

5.3.1.1 On How to Present the Textbook to Pupils .............................................. 182

5.3.2 Suggestions for Pupils ........................................................................................... 183

5.3.3 Suggestions for Textbook Writers ........................................................................ 184

5.4 The Future Directions of English Textbooks in Algeria ................................................. 188

5.5 Suggestions for Further Studies ...................................................................................... 189

Conclusion ............................................................................................................................ 189

General Conclusion ............................................................................................................... 190

Bibliography .......................................................................................................................... 192

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Appendices

Appendix I: Teachers’ Questionnaire

Appendix II: Pupils’ Questionnaire

Appendix III: Classroom Observation Items

Appendix IV: Contents of the English Textbook New Prospects

Appendix V: Book Map of the English Textbook New Prospects

Appendix VI: Personal E-mail Sent to Prof. Brian John Tomlinson

Abstract in French

Abstract in Arabic

XIX
INTRODUCTION
INTRODUCTION

1. Background of the Study ............................................................................................................ 1

2. Statement of the Problem ............................................................................................................ 1

3. Aim of the Study ......................................................................................................................... 3

4. Research Questions ...................................................................................................................... 3

5. Hypotheses of the Study ............................................................................................................. 4

6. Methodology and Research Tools .............................................................................................. 5

7. Significance of the Study ............................................................................................................ 6

8. Structure of the Dissertation ....................................................................................................... 7

! 1

1. Background of the Study

For an effective educational system, all the participants and the professionals should be involved

and their views must be surveyed; the same process for textbook writing or selection and for

syllabus design alike. Since, teachers, pupils, and textbooks are the focal components of any foreign

or second language classrooms.

The Algerian educational system prescribes the syllabuses and the textbooks used for each level

according to the recommendations of the national committee for curriculum reforms. Since

textbooks represent the core of our educational system which act as an essential resource for both

teachers and pupils. In addition, textbooks play the role of the mediator between the teacher and the

pupil in the classroom, which are used by learners at home for further practice.

Recently, the evaluative studies of language textbooks received more attention and research in

the field of didactics in Algeria.

No textbook can cater for all the teachers and pupils’ needs at a particular level. However, our

aim from this evaluation is to scrutinise the textbook ‘New Prospects’ in order to reveal its

advantages and its drawbacks then how to overcome the noticeable deficiencies. Indeed, our

endeavour to find the noteworthy drawbacks of the textbook is merely objective. In fact, we are not

interested in criticising the textbook without proposing any solutions.

2. Statement of the Problem

The adoption of the Competency-Based Approach (CBA) in the school year 2003/2004 came as

a response to the changing methods of language teaching and the publication of the textbook ‘New

Prospects’ on 2007 came as a continuation of the reforms initiated in 2002. At present, after seven

years of putting it into practice ‘New Prospects’ needs to be evaluated completely since there is a

necessity for a constant change, innovation, and renewal in the field of English as a Foreign
! 2

Language (EFL) teaching materials. The pupils of third year need a good English textbook, which

not only focuses on the four skills but also on the actual application of the learnt skills and strategies

in their daily-life. Similarly, the textbook should prepare the pupils well for the baccalaureate exam.

In Algeria, textbooks play a major role in the educational system wherein they are the only

available teaching material that serves as a link between the teacher and the pupils. Our schools rely

heavily on textbooks for implementing the curriculum and the objectives of the syllabus as well.

In reality, we want to find out textbook’s strengths and weaknesses since English textbooks

cannot cater for all the learners’ needs and teachers’ wants. To this end, we are going to investigate

whether the studied textbook achieved the sought objectives outlined in the syllabus and its

suitability to the teachers and the pupils.

Applying the modern theories of Second Language Acquisition (SLA) and Foreign Language

Learning (FLL) in designing textbooks is very beneficial for learners and teachers in order to

achieve the intended outcomes. Consequently, materials development principles derive from SLA

research, classroom research, and exploiting materials all over the world wherein language

experience needs to be contextualised and comprehensible. Hence, English Language Teaching

(ELT) materials have to be driven by the principles of language acquisition in which units should be

principled, relevant, and coherent.

One of the problems that can emerge when introducing a new textbook, to teachers and

pupils, is the degree of satisfaction among them towards the textbook. Therefore, we are obliged to

find out a way in which teachers and pupils can overcome this dissatisfaction when using a

particular textbook. To this end, textbook evaluation can reveal the main difficulties after spotting

them out in order to propose the appropriate.

! 3

3. Aim of the Study

To achieve our aim, we have conducted this research study because of its importance in the

field of ELT. We aim at investigating the extent to which the reformed system and the new textbook

is suitable to pupils’ level. We also seek to reveal the main problems that have emerged during the

six years of the use of this new textbook.

In the current study, we aim at scrutinising the textbook ‘New Prospects’ from different aspects

using both qualitative and quantitative methods of research. Moreover, the main purpose of the

present study is to examine the English language textbook through an impressionistic and an in-

depth approaches and evaluation for its suitability.

The ultimate goal of our research is to confirm the hypotheses put forward throughout this study

and to answer the questions probed. Eventually, the current study will acquaint the researcher with

the suitability of the third year of secondary education textbook in order to identify key issues in the

field related to the status quo of ELT materials scenario in Algeria.

The present evaluation may serve as a basis for similar future studies in textbook evaluation

projects. This research study wishes to provide a practical survey of how teachers have perceived

the textbook in the light of their constant use of its tasks, exercises, and reading comprehension

texts. In reality, we hope that this evaluation would help syllabus designers and textbook writers

who need feedback of their textbooks in order to develop better textbooks in the future.

4. Research Questions

The current study targets at finding the problems that have emerged since the textbook was

initiated, which can be represented mainly pupils’ performance. Therefore, in this research study we

will attempt to answer the following questions:

! 4

1. To what extent does the textbook content conform to textbook criteria in terms of physical

appearance and layout, texts, topics, intercultural content, language tasks and strategies outcomes,

language skills and competencies, and Teacher’s Guide?

2. Does the textbook match teachers’ expectations and pupils’ needs and are the objectives outlined

in the syllabus successfully implemented when it comes to classroom application and its outcomes?

3. Do teachers adapt the content and the tasks of the textbook in order to cope with pupils’ level and

are there any accompanying materials used to supplement the textbook effectively?

The first question aims at checking the textbooks match with different criteria chosen from

universal checklists of criteria, which have been adapted to cope with local requirements. The

study’s interest in this question comes from the suggestions put forward in the literature that most of

the designed textbooks do not match universal and local criteria it sets out to fulfill.

With respect to the second question, its answer will enable us to be acquainted with teachers’

views and expectations about the textbooks they are using. Moreover, we will seek the answer of

whether it suits the Algerian pupils’ needs and interests through surveying their viewpoints.

Concerning the third question, we want to check if the teachers managed to adapt the content of

the textbook and if they used supplementary materials to compensate textbook flaws, if there any,

so as to keep pace with pupils level and wants.

5. Main Hypotheses of the Study

The English language textbook ‘New Prospects’ for Secondary Education, Year Three (SE3),

despite the huge efforts in its elaboration, needs to be evaluated in order to find its advantages and

the weaknesses after five years of its implementation. Consequently, we set out three hypotheses,

which form the framework of our investigation:

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Hypothesis One

The textbook is the only teaching material available in our schools without using any

supplementary materials, we put forward the first hypothesis which states that the English textbook

‘New Prospects’ does not conform to the textbook criteria in terms of physical appearance and

layout, texts, topics, intercultural content, language tasks and strategies outcomes, language skills

and competencies, and Teacher’s Guide.

Hypothesis Two

Our second hypothesis, then, is that the textbook does not match teachers’ expectations and

pupils’ needs. Besides, the objectives outlined in the syllabus were not successfully implemented

when it comes to classroom application and its outcomes.

Hypothesis Three

We hypothesise that the textbook can adequately develop pupils’ level when it is adapted to

their level of comprehension and supplemented with more teaching materials and aids in order to

enhance pupils’ level. In sum, the textbook can be of great help if the content and tasks are adapted

and supplemented effectively.

6. Methodology and Research Tools

In order to verify the aforementioned hypotheses, and to collect reliable and valid data, we

relied upon three complementary research tools: two questionnaires for teachers and pupils along

with a content analysis of the textbook ‘New Prospects’ in addition to a classroom observation of a

whole unit.

To achieve the aim of the study, we have employed a qualitative and a quantitative method. The

qualitative method is represented in the evaluative study of the textbook in chapter three and the

classroom observation in chapter four. However, the quantitative method employed two
! 6

questionnaires which were administered to teachers of English in order to survey their views and

attitudes towards the textbook. Pupils’ questionnaire was distributed in order to gauge their

viewpoints about learning English in general and the textbook in particular.

The means of data collection of the present research study are described as follows:

1. Textbook Content Analysis

We carried out a content analysis of the target textbook of a sample unit, which was selected to

be evaluated vis-à-vis several criteria adopted from many checklists cited in chapter one.

2. Questionnaires

The participants of the study were randomly chosen from four secondary schools, which make

124 pupils and 25 teachers. However, the actual sample surveyed is 118 pupils and 20 teachers.

3. Classroom Observation

We have conducted classroom observation to learn about the actual application of the textbook,

wherein we attended the lessons of a whole unit to observe the teacher and the pupils in the class.

7. Significance of the Study

In this research study, we tend to treat the problems of teaching English at third year of

secondary education and the obstacles that confront learners in mastering this subject. Our central

aim is to investigate the suitability of the textbook ‘New Prospects’ to the pupils of third year of

secondary education because of its importance in the Baccalaureate exam.

The current research evaluates a new English textbook, which is the first textbook in the new

reformed system, based on the CBA. A few case studies were carried out since the new English

syllabus for third year of secondary education was initiated by the National Curriculum Committee

in the Ministry of National Education in March 2006.

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The textbook under scrutiny is designed on the CBA framework under a learner-centred

approach. Therefore, the current research aims at checking the extent to which these approaches are

implemented. The new textbook ‘New Prospects’ is evaluated from different aspects to check its

efficiency and suitability to the teachers and the pupils alike.

8. Structure of the Dissertation

The present study is composed of five chapters. The first chapter presents a literature review for

textbook evaluation in general, and provides an overview of the basic concepts in textbook

evaluation, such as defining textbook evaluation, and its approaches. It deals also with different

types, steps and the criteria of evaluating textbooks. The second chapter is devoted to textbook

development and design which also gives a better understanding of textbook writing, curriculum

development, and syllabus design. The third chapter is concerned with the analysis and the

evaluation of the textbook ‘New Prospects’ in terms of its physical appearance, design, and the four

skills in addition to evaluating the teacher’s guide using several criteria in order to have more

insights about the textbook. The fourth chapter is allocated to the analysis of the pupils and

teachers’ questionnaires in order to get an accurate, useful feedback, and valid results of the study.

The fifth chapter will allow us to propose several recommendations for syllabus designers and

textbook writers as well as pupils and teachers.

 CHAPTER ONE
THE BASIC CONCEPTS OF TEXTBOOK

EVALUATION
CHAPTER ONE: THE BASIC CONCEPTS OF TEXTBOOK EVALUATION
Introduction .................................................................................................................................. 8

1.1 Definitions of Textbook Evaluation!.......................................................................................! 8

1.2 Justification for Textbook Evaluation.....................................................................................!11

1.3 Purposes of Evaluation............................................................................................................!14

1.4 Textbooks Role.......................................................................................................................!16

1.5 Approaches to Textbook Evaluation!...................................................................................... 19

1.5.1 Predictive versus Retrospective ................................................................................... 20

1.5.2 Potential versus Suitability .......................................................................................... 20

1.5.3 Impressionistic versus In-Depth .................................................................................. 21

1.6 Types of Evaluation ...............................................................................................................!22

1.6.1 Formative Evaluation ...................................................................................................!22

1.6.2 Illuminative Evaluation ................................................................................................ 22

1.6.3 Summative Evaluation .................................................................................................!23

1.7 Steps of Evaluation ................................................................................................................ 24

1.8 Criteria for Textbook Evaluation ........................................................................................... 26

1.8.1 Development of Criteria for Materials Evaluation ...................................................... 26

1.8.2 Checklist Approach to Textbook Evaluation ............................................................... 27

1.8.2.1 Sheldon (1988) Checklist for Textbook Selection ............................................ 27

1.8.2.2 Cunningsworth (1995) Checklists for Choosing a Coursebook ....................... 31

1.8.2.3 Skierso (1991) Checklist for Textbook Selection ............................................. 34

1.9 Teacher’s Guide .....................................................................................................................!37

1.9.1 Criteria for the Teacher’s Guide .................................................................................. 38

Conclusion ................................................................................................................................... 39
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Introduction

In this chapter, we are going to present textbook evaluation concepts starting with the basic

definitions of evaluation according to applied linguists. In addition, we will enumerate the main

purposes of evaluation. Besides, the different approaches that are used in evaluation and the role

of textbooks in teaching/learning process. Then, we will illustrate types of evaluation, passing by

steps of evaluation, arriving at the principles of evaluation. Then, we will set out an exhaustive

review of the most common criteria used for evaluating textbooks, which should be fulfilled in

every good textbook. Finally, we will supplement our chapter with several checklists and modals

of criteria for teachers’ guide.

1.1 Definitions of Textbook Evaluation

The term ‘textbook’ refers to any book or manual used in public or private schools as a part

of teaching/learning materials. It is commonly referred to as coursebook. Hereafter, we will use

the terms ‘textbook’ and ‘coursebook’ interchangeably to refer to the school curriculum book.

Textbooks mostly came in a package containing: students’ textbook, teachers’ guide, and

activities book or workbook. In this respect, Tomlinson (1998)!states:

A textbook which provides the core materials for a course. It aims to provide as
much as possible in one book and is designed so that it could serve as the only
book which the learners necessarily use during a course. Such a book usually
includes work on grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, functions and the skills of
reading, writing, listening and speaking!(p. 09).

Several definitions and uses of the term ‘evaluation’ exist in the literature, ranging from a

general scope to more specific ones in curriculum development; such definition were given to

textbook evaluation in different ways. We can cite the most important ones as follows:
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First, we should begin with defining the term ‘evaluation’ as a whole, where we found that

Brown and Rogers (2002) defined evaluation in general terms as “the process of seeking to

establish the value of something for some purpose” (p. 289). In reference to this definition, we

can come to an agreement that it is too broad, and could be used to define any field of study

other than Applied Linguistics and ELT like mathematics or physics curricula.

The previous definition was too broad, we can quote more precise descriptions of evaluation

in the following section, according to Carter and Nunan (2001) evaluation refers to:

A purposeful, cyclical process of collecting, analysing and interpreting relevant

information in order to make educational decisions. Evaluation may focus on the
quality, appropriateness, or relevance of teachers, students, classroom instruction,
in addition to the instructional materials and activities; or, the whole syllabuses or
programmes of instruction. In other words, evaluation in the educational field
involves the teacher and his methods of teaching, the learner and his strategies,
styles of learning (p. 221).

In this definition, we can match evaluation only to the field of ELT, it shows how the process

of evaluation should be done, some criteria that should be met, in the teaching/learning process.

When we limit our scope only to the field of curriculum development and materials

evaluation, we can quote the definition of evaluation in the educational field as “evaluation is

essential to successful education because it forms the basis for appropriate and effective

decision-making. Evaluation in TESOL is the purposeful collection of information to assist

decision-making about teaching and learning in ESL/EFL classrooms and programmes”

(Genesee, 2001, p. 150). Besides, Thornbury (2006) says that evaluation refers to either

curriculum or materials evaluation, or both. It should not be confused with assessment, which is

a general term for testing. Evaluation procedures involve the use of questionnaires, interviews
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(of students, teachers and administrators), and the observation of classes and asking the learners

to fill out checklists.

As a further citation, Johnson and Johnson (1999) regard evaluation of coursebooks in recent

years has taken a more formal connotation in response to several attempts to systematize it, most

saliently through the introduction of the checklists and criteria.

Hutchinson and Waters (1987) point out that materials evaluation is a matter of judging the

fitness of the resources available based on a systematic check, they clarify that “evaluation is

basically a matching process: matching needs to available solutions. If this matching is to be

done as objectively as possible, it is best to look at the needs and solutions separately” (p. 97).

Additionally, Banks (1977) proposes another definition to the term evaluation when he states

“a technical aspect of instruction and a part of the teaching/learning process that gives

continuous feedback of data to keep the system in adjustment” (p. 489).

In Nevo words (1977), evaluation refers to the process of obtaining and providing

information on the merit of goals, designs, implementation and outcomes of the educational

activities, meanwhile it helps to improve educational product during the process of its

development, or demonstrate the merit of the final product when its development has completed.

McGrath (2002) recommends periodic meetings for evaluation where teachers discuss which

parts of the textbooks that have worked well, and what difficulties they may have encountered.

He also says that a lot of useful information could be gained from a post-use evaluation for the

improvement purposes in curriculum renewal.

In their article, Azizifar, Mansour, & Reza (2011) write that textbook evaluation is an applied

linguistic activity through which teachers, scholars, administrators, and materials developers can

“make judgments about the effect of the materials on the people using them” (p. 87).
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In EFL context, teachers rely on textbooks in teaching and giving assignments to the learners.

Hence, evaluation can help us to make an ultimate use of the potential parts of the textbook.

The aforementioned quotations were meant to clarify more textbook evaluation process,

which can be summed up in the assumption that evaluation entails determining the efficacy,

effectiveness and suitability of a particular textbook. In addition to measuring the value and

success of the textbook with regard to the objectives outlined, when comparing it systematically

to certain standards, and criteria using checklists for selecting and evaluating an ESL/EFL

textbook. In the process of evaluation, teachers, and students viewpoints should be surveyed.

1.2 Justification for Textbook Evaluation

Textbooks are the most essential material for foreign language teaching/learning process,

they are often covering multiple skills (listening, reading, writing, speaking, grammar), or

integrate them; they are designed for a particular type of language learners at a particular level.

Richards and Schmidt (2010) indicate that the concept “In general, evaluation is the

systematic gathering of information for purposes of decision making. Evaluation may use

quantitative methods (e.g. tests), qualitative methods (e.g. observations, ratings), and value

judgements” (p. 206). Therefore, the evaluation of educational programs may involve materials,

curriculum, objectives, and achievement tests, in order to make the most effective use of

textbooks in the classroom.

For Sheldon (1988) coursebooks “represent for both students and teachers the visible heart of

any ELT programme” (p. 237). He adds that supplementary textbooks and materials on the other

hand may not carry the same burden for being free to choose. Coursebooks are perceived by

many to be the route map of any ELT programme, but when a textbook is imposed on both

parties (teachers and learners) by a higher authority, and when there is no possibility of change
 12
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or modification. The discontent is without benefit for being futile, the case for our educational

institutions in Algeria wherein the learners’ and teachers’ perspectives are not well surveyed

during textbook writing and design. Furthermore, Sheldon adds that teacher-generated material,

which potentially has a dynamic and maximal relevance to local needs, often has less credibility

than a published textbook but is more effective for particular learners.

The need for textbooks in teaching languages is considered to be a vital component of any

curriculum; however, there is no ideal textbook that can cater for the teachers’ demands,

meanwhile, the learners’ needs which vary from one educational institution to another according

to the available aids for teaching English such as audio-visual aids, realia, flashcards or posters.

Correspondingly, Cunningsworth (1984) reveals that no coursebook will be totally suited to a

particular teaching situation. The teacher will have to find out his own way of using it and

adapting it if necessary. So we should not look for the perfect coursebook which meets all our

requirements, but rather for the best possible fit between what the coursebook offers and what we

as teachers and students need in accordance with our classroom available aids.

In a similar vein, Graves (2000) reports that textbooks are viewed differently, when he

affirmed that by “What one teacher considers an advantage in a textbook, another teacher may

consider a disadvantage” (p. 175). Hence, due to those biases in surveys, subjective evaluation

can happen several times but in order to achieve a reliable evaluation several checklists could be

used. There are many criteria to be taken into consideration when choosing a textbook. Actually,

Skierso (1991) indicates that the importance of the textbook in an English as a second language

or English as a foreign language class makes the selection process crucial.

In the process of textbook evaluation, theorists and experts have proposed several evaluation

checklists based on a set of criteria for selecting good textbooks that can be used by both
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teachers and learners, but it is a hard task for evaluators to adapt these criteria to particular

textbook without a considerable modification. Consequently, Cunningsworth (1995) has

suggested:

Materials evaluation is a complex matter, as there are many variables that affect the
success or failure of coursebooks when they are in use, the number of variables is
reflected in the range and multiplicity of possible evaluation criteria. However it is
important to limit the criteria used, the number of questions asked, to manageable
proportions. Otherwise we risk being swamped in a sea of detail (p. 16).

Admittedly, textbooks are designed by professionals and experts in the field of teaching but

after putting into practice, during the years of its implementation, teachers and students may find

out number of inadequacies in the textbook’s layout, structure and design. At this stage, we

should supplement, amend or change them, but taking into consideration the viewpoints of the

learners and teachers towards the textbook’s efficacy to overcome those drawbacks in the future

textbooks, besides to benefiting from the evaluative studies carried out on the textbooks in use.

As far as textbooks are concerned, Litz (2001) points out “ELT materials (textbooks) play a

very important role in many language classrooms but in recent years there has been a lot of

debate throughout the ELT profession on the actual role of materials” (p. 2).

Textbooks are the core of any curriculum in our classrooms all over Algeria, they are

prescribed as the sole mandatory teaching material in the class from the middle schools to high

schools, whereby language teachers rely heavily on textbooks to support their teaching process

and to develop their student’s learning. Meanwhile, textbook evaluation can be very useful for

teacher development and professional experience in teaching, moreover helping teachers in

obtaining optimum use of a textbook's advantages and recognizing the shortcomings of certain
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aspects such as: layout, organization, content and other characteristics when it comes to course

design and classroom management.

1.3 Purposes of Evaluation

It is necessary that every textbook should comply with the universal criteria for textbook

contents, design, and layout. Our main concern in the present evaluation is to check whether or

not those requirements were met. In doing so, we should follow several approaches to achieve a

wide range of accuracy, as proposed by Weir and Roberts (1994) in order to reach internal and

external accountability for the sake of programme development, so as to have a broad view of

textbook evaluation, it should be characterized by:

- A need for both insider and outsider involvement to ensure adequate evaluation.

- An associated commitment to a deeper professional understanding of the process of educational

change, as well as the results of that change.

- Systematic documentation for evaluation purposes both during implementation and at the

beginning and end of a programme or project’s life.

- A willingness to embrace both qualitative and quantitative methodologies as appropriate to the

purpose of the evaluation and the characteristics of the context under review.

Thus, an extensive evaluation of textbooks by an insider or outsider evaluators such as

teachers and researchers. The latter should use both qualitative and quantitative methodologies of

research as a systematic approach that should fit the aims, goals, and methods of curriculum

development and renewal, if not achieving the aims of the evaluation is impossible and futile.

The evaluation of any textbook for Hutchinson and Waters (1987) is considered as making a

judgement of materials, in which they claim “Evaluation is a matter of judging the fitness of

something for a particular purpose. Given a certain need, and in the light of the resources
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available” (p. 96). They say also that any decision made should be based on a systematic check

of all the important variables. The same idea was expressed by Cunningsworth (1984) when he

states, “Professional judgement, founded on the understanding of the rationale of language

teaching and learning and backed up by practical experience, lies at the base of evaluation

procedure” (p. 74). Hence, evaluation can give us some insights to judge our materials in a

professional way; it also enriches our knowledge and awareness for a better use of our textbooks.

In his turn, Richards (2001) thinks that textbook evaluation has the following purpose:

The purpose of evaluation is to promote review, reflection, and revision of the

curriculum based on careful compilation of information from a variety of different
sources. In order to make decisions based on evaluation, it is first necessary to
review the process of evaluation to ensure that the evaluation was adequately
designed (p. 298).

For Bennett (2003), “evaluation may be undertaken for a variety of purposes. The two main

reasons are to determine the effectiveness of a new programme once it has been implemented,

and to gather information for improving the programme as it is being developed” (p. 7).

As we have seen evaluation examines the effectiveness and the suitability of a certain textbook.

On his side, Tomlinson (2003) mentions two general purposes for carrying out an evaluation:

first, the purpose of accountability, which is to determine whether the stated goals of the

programme have been met. Second, the purpose of programme development is to improve the

curriculum content and to foster teacher-development process.

To conclude, evaluation purposes can be summed up in assisting teachers to cope with the

deficiencies of the textbook in particular points. As well as providing data for teacher trainers,

syllabus designers and textbook writers in each textbook-based teaching institution. We should

adapt and/or supplement educational materials in accordance with teaching/learning situation for
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improving the curricula and the textbooks. Consequently, we can enhance pupils’ outcomes

through textbook evaluation in order to make the right decision of the efficacy of the textbook.

1.4 Textbooks Role

Textbooks paly major role in any language classroom for both teachers and learners.

Hutchinson and Torres (1994) states that the textbook is an almost universal element of English

language teaching and numerous projects have been set up to produce them in various countries.

Henceforth, no teaching-learning situation is complete until it has its own textbook.

Pingel (2010) says, “The most important factor is to determine what goals the textbooks are

designed to achieve. Are they to be primarily sources of information, builders of reading, writing

and critical thinking skills, purveyors of ethical models, or promoters of patriotism?” (p. 14)

(Cunningsworth, 1995, p. 7) asserts that the role of coursebooks in ELT contexts can serve as:

! a resource for presentation material (spoken/written).

! a source of activities for learner practice and communicative interaction.

! a reference source for learners on grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, etc.

! a source of stimulation and ideas for classroom language activities.

! a syllabus (where they reflect learning objectives which have been already determined) .

! a resource for self-directed learning or self-access work.

! a support for less experienced teachers who have yet to gain in confidence.

Another advantage identified by O’Neill (1982) is that textbooks are generally sensitive to

students' needs, even if they are not designed particularly for them, they are efficient in terms of

time and money, but they should allow for adaptation and improvisation in the classroom.
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!!!!!!For Tsiplakides (2011), coursebooks can serve as a syllabus and as a framework of classroom

progress; it is a measure by which teaching can be evaluated by external stakeholders. Similarly,

(Ansary and Babaii, 2002, p. 1) think that the arguments for using textbooks are:

! a textbook is a framework which regulates and times the programs.

! a textbook provides ready-made teaching texts and learning tasks.

! a textbook is a cheap way of providing learning materials.

! a learner without a textbook is out of focus and teacher-dependent.

! for novice teachers a textbook means security, guidance, and support.

In brief, Harmer (1991) states that good textbooks play a major role when he says that:

Good textbooks often contain lively and interesting material; they provide a
sensible progression of language items, clearly showing what has to be learnt
and in some cases summarizing what has been studied so that students can revise
grammatical and functional points that they have been concentrating on.
Textbooks can be systematic about the amount of vocabulary presented to the
student and allow students to study on their own outside the class (p. 257).

Despite the enormous advantages of using textbooks, many authors criticised textbooks for

their design, role and cultural biases. Allwright (1981), for instance, has commented that

textbooks are too inflexible while used in the ELT classrooms and generally reflect the

pedagogic, psychological, and linguistic preferences and biases of their authors. Henceforth, the

educational methodology that a textbook promotes will influence the classroom settings by

imposing external language objectives on students as well as incongruent instructional paradigms

on the teachers. (Ur, 1996, p. 184-185) furthermore mentions some reasons for and against using

of a coursebook. First, she stated some reasons for using it:

1. Framework: it provides a framework for the structure and progress of teaching and learning.

2. Syllabus: it serves as a syllabus: it is followed systematically, carefully planned and selected.

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3. Ready-made text and tasks: it provides texts and learning tasks that are appropriate for the class.

4. Economy: it is the cheapest way of providing learning material for each learner.

5. Convenience: It is a bound package, so that its components stick together and stay in order.

6. Guidance: it can provide useful guidance and support for inexperienced teachers.

7. Autonomy: The learner can use the coursebook to learn new material, review and monitor

progress with some degree of autonomy. A learner without it is more teacher-dependent.

Second, she has stated some reasons against using a coursebook, she mentions the following:

1. Inadequacy: No one coursebook can possibly supply every class, or learner needs satisfactorily.

2. Irrelevance, lack of interest: The topics may not be relevant or interesting for your class.

3. Limitation: A coursebook is confining: it sets structure and sequence may inhibit a teacher's

initiative and creativity, and lead to boredom and lack of motivation on the part of the learners.

4. Homogeneity: Coursebooks have their own rationale and chosen teaching/learning approach.

They do not usually cater for the variety of levels, learning styles and strategies.

5. Over-easiness: Teachers find it too easy to follow the coursebook uncritically instead of using

their initiative; they may find themselves functioning merely as mediators of its content.

As a final point, any textbook has its merits and its limitations; but, still, textbooks are

indispensable components for language teaching, we should respond to these limitations by

adapting or supplementing textbooks. We can conclude with Cunningsworth’s (1984) statement

on this standpoint as follows:

No coursebook will be totally suited to a particular teaching situation. The teacher

will have to find his own way of using it and adapting it if necessary. So we should
not be looking for the perfect textbook which meets all our requirement, but rather
for the best possible fit between what the coursebook offers and what we as
teachers and students need (p. 89).
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Therefore, there is no perfect textbook; hence, teachers should have the choice of adopting

supplementary materials based on their own pupils’ needs and level in accordance with their own

specific teaching situation for the sake of facilitating the teaching/learning task. For this reason,

it is very important for (new) teachers to know how to adapt and use textbooks in the classroom.

(Trujillo et al, 2010, p. 6) proposes some usage procedures for a better use of textbooks such as:

- Feel free to modify/expand/reduce the textbook.

- The book belongs to you; you do not belong to the book.

- Adapt it to your needs.

- Do not use it straightforward; move up and down, forward and backward.

- There is life out of the textbook: Add materials/information/resources to your textbook.

- There is no best textbook, only a better way to use it.

- Evaluate your textbook and ask your students about it.

- Check the teacher’s book for ideas, suggestions or further activities.

1.5 Approaches to Textbook Evaluation

Textbook evaluation could be achieved in many forms using different approaches to achieve

a precise and accurate revision of textbooks’ performance at the different stages of its use.

According to Tomlinson (1998) and Cunningsworth (1995), evaluation can be a pre-use

when it focuses on the predictions of potential value before use. Secondly, whilst-use evaluation

focuses on what the learners are doing whilst the materials are being used in teaching-learning

context. Finally, post-use evaluation focuses on the analysis of what will happen by the end of

using those materials, for measuring their efficiency in order to use them again in the future.

We have three basic approaches to textbooks evaluation, which can be summed up in:
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1.5.1 Predictive versus Retrospective

Evaluating textbooks are carried out through either predictive or retrospective manner. For

Tsiplakides (2011) the basic principles of each type are summarised in the following:

a- Predictive evaluation refers to evaluation with the aim of deciding what materials to use. It is

conducted by experienced teachers and educators, they will need to read and consult books and

articles dealing with materials evaluation, which provide a set of criteria for evaluating teaching

materials using one of the following researchers’ checklists such as (Cunningsworth, 1984;

Skierso, 1991; McDonough & Shaw, 1993; Ur, 1996; Ansary & Babaii, 2002; Mackiely, 2005).

Such sets of criteria assist teachers in conducting a predictive evaluation in a systematic way.

Therefore, it is designed to inquire the future or potential performance of a given textbook.

b- Retrospective evaluation is designed to examine materials that have actually been used. In this

way, the teacher decides whether a specific textbook is worth using again, or if a new one has to

be used. It can be conducted through two main ways. First, is to engage in what is known as

‘impressionistic evaluation’. This involves teachers’ summative judgment of the materials they

have used. Second, is to try to collect information in a more systematic manner, and conduct an

empirical evaluation.

Therefore, this evaluation provides a reflective assessment of the textbook that has been used for

determining its efficiency and suitability for future use again.

1.5.2 Potential versus Suitability

Cunningsworth (1995) has proposed two approaches to evaluate textbooks, which are

evaluation for potential or for suitability:

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a- Evaluation for potential is done to evaluate textbooks in general, without having specific

classrooms or learners in mind. For instance, evaluating a particular textbook for the sake of

looking for what situations it could be successful, regardless of a predetermined use.

b- Evaluation for suitability involves matching the textbook against specific requirements and

criteria such as the learners’ objectives, the learners’ background, and the resources available, etc.

The main difference between evaluating for potential and evaluating for suitability is

represented in the following two questions for each type. First, potential evaluation when there is

no predetermined use in mind in terms of what situations the textbook can be used in, we ask:

What would this textbook be good for?

Second, when evaluation is contrasted against a set of criteria, therefore it is evaluation for

suitability we ask: Would it be good for my class?

1.5.3 Impressionistic versus In-Depth

For McGrath (2002) evaluating teaching materials is carried out using two basic approaches:

a- Impressionistic evaluation is based on a general overview of the material, which involves

examining the features mentioned in the coursebook.

b- In-Depth evaluation aims at analysing specific sections in the coursebook for examining its

suitability to learners’ level and teachers wants. This agrees with Cunningsworth (1995) when he

says, “For this we need in-depth evaluation which is more penetrating in its approach” (p. 2).

He further comments on this point as follows:

A combination of both approaches, involving an impressionistic overview of the

whole material and an in-depth examination of representative samples of the
material will form a sound basis for evaluation and for the ensuing choice of the
most suitable coursebook for adoption (p. 2).
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1.6 Types of Textbook Evaluation

In fact, textbook evaluation could be conducted through three main types:

1.6.1 Formative Evaluation

It refers to process or progress evaluation, which is carried out through successive studies

that are primarily seeking to gather data during the process of implementation, for the sake of

developing the teaching programme. A formative evaluation seeks answers to questions about

the process of implementation and how it is related to the achieved curriculum. We ask the

question: How effective and successful was the programme in achieving its goals?

Thornbury (2006) defines the concept as “an ongoing (or formative) evaluation – that is, a

process of getting feedback on the curriculum in action” (p. 77). Conversely, concerning the use

of this type of evaluation, Lodico et al (2010) asserts, “formative evaluation will be used to

address issues as the program is happening. A typical question related to this type might be:

- Are all the stakeholders aware of the program and its offerings?” (p. 362).

Rea-Dickins and Germaine (1992) assert that formative evaluation intends to improve the

curriculum by identifying the strengths and weaknesses of all the aspects of teaching and

learning. As Graves (2000) asserts:

The purposes of formative evaluation are to evaluate what is effective and to

change what isn't so that the course effectively meets the students' needs, to give
students a voice in their learning, to provide information for the design of the
course (p. 215).

1.6.2 Illuminative Evaluation

Benett (2003) sketches out the history of this type of evaluation to the early 1970s as a new

style of educational evaluation in the United Kingdom. It is introduced by Malcolm Parlett and
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David Hamilton in their very influential paper 'Evaluation as illumination: A new approach to

the study of innovative programmes', they argued strongly against classical approaches to

evaluation.

Furthermore, Parlett and Hamilton identify two key concepts in illuminative evaluation, the

instructional system and the learning milieu. First, the instructional system is what they call a

'catalogue description' or an idealized specification of the programme, which includes a set of

pedagogic assumptions (about teaching and learning). Second, the learning milieu, which is the

network of cultural, social, institutional and psychological factors that affect the environment in

which students and teachers, and work altogether.

From another corner, Richards (2001) states that illuminative evaluation’s objective is to

establish a deeper understanding of the programme and its different aspects. In addition to

extending teachers’ knowledge about teaching and learning in the classrooms, because it raises

the consciousness of teachers and ELT practitioners to what actually happens (as opposed to

what is supposed to happen). Accordingly, Richards and Schmidt (2010) define its aim as:

It seeks to provide a deeper understanding of the processes of teaching and

learning that occur in a programme without necessarily seeking to change
the course in anyway as a result (p. 289).

1.6.3 Summative Evaluation

A summative evaluation seeks answers to questions about which relationships exist between

the goals of the programme and its outcomes. It is also named an outcome or impact evaluation,

which refers to a study that is primarily seeking to gather information on the effectiveness of the

programme after it has been implemented.

Thornbury (2006) defines it as “a final (or summative) evaluation – that is, when the

outcomes of the programme are evaluated according to the goals that were at the outset” (p. 77).
 24
!

But when it comes to the use of this type, Lodico et al (2010) states “summative evaluation will

be used to answer the overall evaluation question:

- Did students in the after - school program have a significant increase in their academic

achievement over those students who did not participate?” (p. 362).

As far as summative evaluation is concerned, we can enumerate seven steps for making out

this type of evaluation as follows:

Step1: considering the students

summative evaluation

Step 2: considering the context

Step 3: establishing goals and objectives

Step 4: planning the syllabus

Step 5: designing the materials

Step 6: teaching the course

Step 7: evaluating (summative evaluation)

Figure 1. Summative Evaluation Steps

According to Rea-Dickins and Germaine (1992), summative evaluation is intended for the

purposes of accountability, that is, the extent to which the textbook writers are answerable for the

quality of their work; hence, it is conducted for the benefit of decision makers. They say further,

summative evaluation is set out to pass an evaluative judgement on the end product of a teaching

programme using different measures and criteria to decide the effectiveness of the textbook.

1.7 Steps of Evaluation

(Tomlinson, 1998, p. 221) envisages three-step procedure for materials evaluation to find out

their merits and demerits and their suitability for the learners. It is summed up in:
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1- Identification:

- Identify the relevant contextual information relating to the students, the teachers, the course
syllabus and the curricula as well as the institution.

- Describe the project and the methods using a systematic approach.

- Design evaluation process and the content of the project.

2- Analysis:

- Analyses of the results.

3- The acual judging:

- Report the findings.

- Propose recommendations for textbook writers.

(Lodico et al, 2010, p. 375-376) mention four steps in designing a program evaluation, those

steps in conducting an evaluation are greatly influenced by the evaluator’s adopted approach.

Step 1: Develop an Evaluation Plan

For most evaluation projects, a plan is developed in the initial stages. An evaluation matrix is

a common planning tool used by evaluators during this stage, through identification of

stakeholder groups from whom data will be collected, tools or methods used to collect data, type

of data being collected (formative or summative), and timeline when data will be collected.

Step 2: Develop Evaluation Capacity

After developing an evaluation matrix, evaluators work to develop what they refer to as

capacity. This is the process used in developing the various evaluation tools needed to collect

quantitative and qualitative data. Surveys, observational protocols, focus group and interview

protocols are some examples of the tools that evaluators use to carry out their data collection.
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Step 3: Collect and Analyze Evaluation Data

After collecting the data, the evaluator analyzes the data using the appropriate methods. For

quantitative data, the evaluator might use descriptive and inferential statistics. Identifying themes

and patterns and other qualitative analyses are conducted on interview, focus group, and

observational data. Triangulation of quantitative and qualitative data from different sources can

help evaluators ensure they are collecting valid and reliable data.

Step 4: Report Writing and Dissemination

After collecting and analyzing the data, the evaluator writes a report and disseminates the

findings to the client and/or stakeholder groups. In a successful evaluation, the evaluator has

established a relationship with the clients and stakeholder groups involved in the process and the

findings from the report will be used to make necessary changes to the program.

1.8 Criteria for Textbook Evaluation

Textbook evaluation criteria are a set of needs analysis of the learners, teachers, and

institutions, which are based on universal features of good EFL textbooks. Likewise, several

checklists make use of Bloom’s taxonomy (1956) to assess the processes of analysis and

synthesis of information and the skills that textbooks like (Skierso, 1991).

1.8.1 Development of Criteria for Materials Evaluation

Following (Tomlinson, 2003, p. 6), developing criteria is a long and difficult stage during

which the participants are helped to develop a number of answerable and informative criteria

according to the following categories:

! Universal Criteria (i.e. those applicable to any instance of language learning material)

! Content Specific Criteria (i.e. those applicable to the type of materials (e.g. business English;

listening skills; extensive reading; writing; speaking )

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!

! Medium Specific Criteria (i.e. those applicable to the medium of the materials (e.g. textbook;

video course; computer assisted course)

! Local Criteria (i.e. those related to specific contexts of learning)

Strictly speaking, we should say that developing criteria for our local textbooks is a necessity

to cope with the constant change in teaching methods and pedagogy in addition to the learners’

needs and teachers’ demands.

1.8.2 Checklist Approach to Textbook Evaluation

Many checklists were proposed by different authors and researchers for evaluating textbooks

in the field of curriculum development and renewal. As has been stated before, many criteria in

common to most of the checklists. After a close examination of those checklists, we sought to

present the most commonly used checklists in evaluating textbooks, we mention the following:

1.8.2.1 Sheldon (1988) Checklist for Textbook Selection

(Sheldon, 1988, p. 242-244) proposes an exhaustive checklist for selecting an ELT textbook, he

sees that every textbook should fulfill the following criteria and requirements:

Rationale

- Why was the book written in the first place, and what gaps is intended to fill?

- Are the objectives spelt out?

Availability

- Is it easy to obtain sample copies and support material for inspection?

- Can you contact the publisher's representatives in case you want further information about the
content, approach, or pedagogical detail of the book?
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User definition

- Is there a clear specification of the target age range, culture, assumed background, probable
learning preferences, and educational expectations?

Layout/graphics

- Is there an optimum density and mix of text and graphical material on each page?

- Are the artwork and typefaces functional? colourful? Appealing?

Accessibility

- Is the material clearly organised?

- Is it possible to have a clear view of the 'progress' made, and how much still needs to be covered?

- Are there indexes, vocabulary lists, section headings, and other methods of signposting the
content that allow the student to use the material easily for revision or self-study purposes?

- Is the learner (as opposed to the teacher) given clear advice about how the book and its
contents could be most effectively exploited?

Linkage

- Do the units and exercises connect in terms of theme, situation, topic, pattern of skill
development, or grammatical/lexical 'progression'?

- Does the textbook cohere both internally and externally (e.g. with other books in a series)?
Selection/grading

- Does the introduction, practice, and recycling of new linguistic items.

- Is the linguistic inventory presented appropriate for your purposes, bearing in mind the L1
background(s) of your learners?

Physical characteristics

- Is there space to write in the book?

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- Is the book robust? too large? too heavy?

- Is it a book that could be used more than once, especially if it is marked by previous students?
Appropriacy

- Is the material substantial enough or interesting enough to hold the attention of learners?

- Is it pitched at the right level of maturity and language, at the right conceptual level?
Authenticity

- Is the content realistic, being taken from LI material not initially intended for ELT purposes?

- Do the tasks exploit language in a communicative or 'real-world' way? —

Sufficiency

- Is the book complete enough to stand on its own, or must the teacher produce a lot of ancillary
bridging materials to make it workable?

- Can you teach the course using only the student's book, or must all the attendant aids
(e.g. cassettes) be deployed?

Cultural bias

- Are different and appropriate religious and social environments catered for, both in terms of
the topics/situations presented and of those left out?

- Does the coursebook enshrine stereotyped, inaccurate, condescending or offensive images of

gender, race, social class, or nationality?

Educational validity

! Does the textbook take account of broader educational concerns (e.g. the role of learning

skills, concept development in younger learners, the function of 'knowledge of the world', the

exploitation of sensitive issues, and the value of metaphor as a cognitive learning device)?
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!

Stimulus/practice/revision

- Is the course material interactive, and are there sufficient opportunities for the learner to use
his or her English so that effective consolidation takes place?

- Is allowance made for revision, testing, and on-going evaluation/marking of exercises and
activities, especially in large-group situations; are ready-made achievement tests provided for

the coursebook, hardpressed teacher, are 'self-checks' provided?

Flexibility

- Can the book accommodate the practical constraints with which you must deal, or are
assumptions made about such things as the availability of audio-visual equipment, pictorial

material, class size, and classroom geography; does the material make too many demands on

teachers' preparation time and students' homework time?

- Can the material be exploited or modified as required by local circumstances, or is it too rigid
in format, structure, and approach?

- Is there a full range of supplementary aids available?

Guidance

- Is there advice about how to supplement the coursebook, or to present the lessons in different ways?

- Are tape scripts, answer keys, 'technical notes' (in the case of ESP textbooks), vocabulary
lists, structural/functional inventories, and lesson summaries provided in the Teacher's Book?

Overall value for money

- Is the coursebook cost-effective, easy to use, and successful in your teaching situation, in
terms of time, labour, and money?
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1.8.2.2 Cunningsworth (1995) Checklists for Choosing a Coursebook

In fact, Cunningswoth (1995) proposes a checklist for textbook evaluation and selection

organised under four criteria:

1- They should correspond to learners’ needs. They should match the aims and objectives of the

language learning program.

2- Textbooks should be chosen that will help equip students to use language effectively for their

own purposes.

3- They should take account of students’ needs as learners and should facilitate their learning

processes, without dogmatically imposing a rigid ‘method’.

4- They should have a clear role as a support for learning. Like teachers, they mediate between

the target language and the learner.

More importantly, Alan Cunningsworth in his book ‘Choosing your Coursebook’ presents

several criteria in form of checklists for evaluating coursebook in terms of the skills integration,

listening, speaking, reading, and writing:

(Cunningsworth, 1995, p. 65) checklist for the skills integration contains the following:

! Is practice in all four skills included? If so, is it balanced?

! Do the skills progress in terms of complexity and difficulty?

! Do the presentation and practice activities include the integration of skills in realistic contexts?

! Does the coursebook use authentic material at an appropriate level (e.g., intermediate, etc)?

! If semi-authentic material is used, is it nevertheless a good model for learners to follow?

Moreover, (Cunningsworth, 1995, p. 68) proposes a detailed checklist for listening skills

development comprises of the following points to take into consideration during the evaluation:

! What kind of listening material is contained in the course?

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!

– Does listening form part of dialogue and conversation work?

– Are there specific listening passages?

! If there are specific listening passages, what kind of activities are based on them -

comprehension questions, extracting specific information, etc?

! Is the listening material set in a meaningful context?

! Are there pre-listening tasks, questions, etc?

! What is the recorded material on audio-cassette like in terms of:

– sound quality,

– speed of delivery,

– accent,

– authenticity?

! Is there any video material for listening to show facial expression and gesture, etc?

Besides, (Cunningsworth,1995, p. 70) mentions that evaluating materials in terms of

speaking skill, one should consider the following:

! How much emphasis are there on spoken English in the coursebook?

! What kind of material for speaking is contained in the course? This may include:

– Oral presentation and practice of the language items.

– Dialogues.

– Role-play.

– Communication activities (information gap).

! Are there any specific strategies for conversation, or other spoken activities, e.g. debating?

! Is any practice material included to help learners to cope with unpredictability in spoken discourse?
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!

(Cunningsworth, 1995, p. 80) adds a number of other points to assessing reading skill

when analysing the reading content in the materials. These are the following:

! How authentic are the texts?

! Is the reading text used for introducing new language items (vocabulary, grammar)?

! How long are the texts? Do they encourage intensive/ extensive reading?

! Is there a focus on the development of reading skills and strategies?

! Are there range of exercises and activities linked to the reading passages?

! Is the subject matter appropriate (challenging, topical, varied, culturally accepted)?

! What types (genres) of text used? Are they appropriate?

! Are the texts complete or gapped?

! Does the material help comprehension by, for example: – setting the scene.

– providing background information.

– giving pre-reading questions?

! What kind of comprehension questions are asked:

– Literal (surface) questions.

– Discourse-processing questions.

– Inference questions.

! To what extent does the material involve the learner’s knowledge of the world?

As far as writing skill tasks are concerned, (Cunningsworth, 1995, p. 84) suggests that

coursebooks should have a clear guidance on:

! How does the material handle controlled writing, guided writing, free or semi-free writing?

! Is there appropriate progression and variety of writing tasks?

! Is attention given to the written form, and teaching punctuation, spelling, and layout?
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!

! Is there emphasis on the written English and its different styles according text type?

! How much emphasis is there on accuracy?

! Are learners encouraged to review and edit their written work?

! Is a readership identified for different writing activities?

Concerning the cultural considerations, for (Cunningsworth, 1995, p. 92) when evaluating a

coursebook, one should pay attention to the following points:

! Are the social and cultural contexts in the course-book comprehensible to the learners?

! Can learners interpret the relationships, behaviors, intentions of the characters portrayed in

the book?

! Are women given equal prominence to men in all aspects of the course-book?

! What physical and character attributes are women given?

! What professional and social positions are women shown as occupying?

! What do we learn about the inner lives of the characters?

! To what extent is the language of feeling depicted?

! Do the course-book characters exist in some kind of social setting, within a social network?

! Are social relationships portrayed realistically?

1.8.2.3 Skierso (1991) Checklist for Textbook Selection

Skierso developed an evaluative checklist contains fifty-nine criteria grouped in six categories:

1. Bibliographical data:

! Author qualifications.

! Availability of accompanying materials.

! Completeness.

! Quality of supplementary materials.

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!

! Effective cost.

2. Aims and goals:

! Targeted students’ specifications.

! Matching to students’ needs.

! Matching to syllabus requirements.

! Compliance with overall educational concerns.

! Feasibility.

3. Subject matter:

! Suitability and interest level.

! Ordering.

! Variety of text types.

! Content grading.

! Level of abstractness.

! Register.

! Cultural sensitivity.

! Content accuracy.

! Cultural integration.

4. Vocabulary and structures:

! Grammar.

! Number and sequence appropriacy (of structures).

! Accuracy.

! Clarity and completeness.

! Meaningful context in terms of:

! Vocabulary.
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!

! Load suitability.

! Appropriate context.

! Suitable readability level.

! Inclusiveness per text.

! Inclusiveness per syllabus.

! Suitable sequence of progression.

! Adequate control of presentation.

! Balanced distribution.

! Presentation, practice, and relying suitability.

! Recycling for reinforcement and integration.

! Standard language.

! Suitability of sentence length and syntactic complexity.

! Cultural presentation.

! Accessibility.

5. Exercises and activities:

! Satisfaction of syllabus objectives.

! Fulfillment of student objectives.

! Effectiveness.

! Sequencing toward communication.

! Meaningful communication.

! Communicative development.

! Internalization via active participation.

! Production of critical thinking.

! Instructional clarity and appropriacy.

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!

6. Layout and physical make-up:

! Motivational attractiveness.

! Suitability, look and type dimensions.

! Organizational clarity and function.

! Effectiveness in presentation.

! Relativity, linkage and integration.

! Stereotype free, accurate, authentic portrayal.

! Suitability of artwork.

! Illustrative clarity and simplicity.

1.9 Teacher’s Guide

Generally, teacher’s manual or teacher’s guide (TG) comes as a component of the whole

material package, which is usually, accompanied by a learners’ textbook, a workbook, and

pronunciation CDs as well as a set of tests. The most important material after the learners’

textbook, it is the teacher’s book, which plays a major role in the teaching process. It acts as a

guideline for teachers, especially for less experienced ones, in preparing their lessons; it also

reduces the preparation time. It advises teachers on how to cope with different learners’ learning

styles, since a single textbook cannot be suitable for all the learners. However, teachers can

accommodate and supplement the textbook according to learners’ level, needs and wants.

Cunningsworth (1995) stresses that teachers’ books have to fulfill the following functions:

- Setting out the guiding principles and the objectives of each course.

- Providing practical guidance on how to use the material in the class.

- Describing the basis for the selection and grading language content.

- Giving an overview of the way the course will be constructed for effective use in the class.
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1.9.1 Criteria for the Teacher’s Guide

Since any checklist needs adaptation to fit the local requirements and situation of teaching

leaning process. We have set a composite systematic list of criteria for evaluating the TG of the

textbook New Prospect. We adopted the most relevant criteria from the checklists of (Robinett,

1978), (Skierso, 1991), (Cunningsworth, 1995), (Helmsley, 1997), and (Mackiely, 2005) to

elaborate one list of criteria to be used in our evaluation of the TG:

TEACHER’S GUIDE EVALUATION CRITERIA

A. General Features

1.Does it include a contents map?

2. Does it indicate the role of the teacher at different stages?

3. Providing practical guidance on how to use the material in the class.

B. Methodological Guidance

4. Are teachers given techniques for activating students’ background knowledge before
reading the text?
5. Does the manual suggest a clear, concise method for teaching each lesson?
6. Does it provide some regular tests for evaluating the students’ progress?

C. Content of the Manual

7. Does the TG make explicit an awareness of different learning styles and strategies?
8. Does the TG explicitly inform the teacher how it can best be used for teaching each skill?

9. Does the TG suggest appropriate ways for the teacher to evaluate each activity, lesson,
and sequence of lessons?
10. Does it offer a clear answer keys

D. Supplementary exercises and materials

11. Are there accompanying materials: workbook, audio, video, posters, and tests?

12. Does the TG provide supplementary exercises for each language skill?

Table 1. Composite Checklist for Teacher’s Guide

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Conclusion

We have attempted, in this chapter, to give a full review of the basic characteristics of

textbooks from the fundamental definitions of textbooks to the process of textbook evaluation.

We have introduced several checklists for evaluating textbooks, which embrace global

considerations of methodology, needs of the learners, the teachers, and the culture of the

language.
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CHAPTER TWO
TEXTBOOK DEVELOPMENT AND

SYLLABUS DESIGN
CHAPTER TWO: TEXTBOOK DEVELOPMENT AND SYLLABUS DESIGN

Introduction ..................……………................................................................................................ 40

2.1 Curriculum Development ........................................................................................................... 40

2.1.1 The Communicative-Language Teaching .................................................................... 41

2.1.2 The Competency-Based Approach .............................................................................. 43

2.1.3 Considering Learner Autonomy ................................................................................... 43

2.2 Syllabus Design .......................................................................................................................... 44

2.2.1 Product-Oriented Syllabuses ........................................................................................ 47

2.2.1.1 The Structural Syllabus ................................................................................... 48

2.2.1.2 The Situational Syllabus ................................................................................. 48

2.2.1.3 The Lexical Syllabus ....................................................................................... 50

2.2.1.4 The Functional-Notional Syllabus .................................................................. 52

2.2.2 Process-Oriented Syllabuses ........................................................................................ 54

2.2.2.1 The Task-Based Syllabus ................................................................................ 55

2.2.2.2 The Skill-Based Syllabus ................................................................................ 58
2.2.2.3 The Topic/Theme-Based Syllabus .................................................................. 59

2.2.3 The Multi-Syllabus Syllabus ....................................................................................... 60

2.3 Teaching the Four Skills ........................................................................................................... 62

2.3.1 Listening Skill ................................................................................................................ 63

2.3.2 Speaking Skill ................................................................................................................ 65
2.3.3 Reading Skill .................................................................................................................. 66
2.3.4 Writing Skill ................................................................................................................... 68
2.3.5 Integrating the Four Skills .............................................................................................. 71

2.4 Learning Strategies ................................................................................................................. 72

Conclusion ............................................................................................…........................................!74

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Introduction

In this chapter, we will tackle the procedures that textbook designers adopt in curriculum

development and writing from different angles. As well as, the appropriate language teaching

methods and approaches for their textbooks to be communicative such as Competency-Based

Approach (CBA) and Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) that most textbooks nowadays are

based on; then, we move to a narrower scope, which is learners’ autonomy and cooperative learning

and teaching that should be incorporated in present textbooks. In addition to reviewing, the most

relevant issues to teaching approaches and syllabus types with a special reference to Functional-

Notional (F/N) syllabus and Task-based Language Teaching (CBLT). Finally, we will conclude our

chapter with an overview of how to teach learning strategies.

2.1 Curriculum Development

The terms curriculum development, and curriculum design are mostly used interchangeably.

But before we identify them. We see it as a necessity to define the term curriculum. We can give the

most common definitions. First, for White (1988), curriculum refers to the totality of content to be

taught and aims to be realised within one school or educational programme. In addition, for

Thornbury (2006), “the curriculum of an educational organization refers to the whole complex of

ideological, social and administrative factors which contribute to the planning of its teaching

programmes” (pp. 60-61). A curriculum embodies at least four different kinds of decisions:

1. Decisions about the objectives or goals of the programme.

2. Decisions about the content – from these decisions the syllabus will be derived.

3. Decisions about the method of instruction.

4. Decisions about how the programme is evaluated.

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Furthermore, Richards and Schmidt (2010) define it as “the total programme of formal studies

offered by a school or institution, as in the secondary school curriculum” (p. 152). He puts forth,

curriculum development refers to the study and development of the goals, content, implementation,

and evaluation of an educational system. In language teaching, curriculum development (also called

curriculum design) includes the following:

a- The study of the purposes for which a learner needs a language (needs analysis).

b- The setting of objectives, and the development of a syllabus, teaching methods and materials.

c- The evaluation of the effects of these procedures on the learner’s language ability.

2.1.1 The Communicative-Language Teaching

Communicative language teaching known as (CLT) has been regarded as a major innovation in

language teaching methods since the 1970s. Congruently, Hymes (1972 in Pride & Holmes)

proposed four sectors of communicative competence. First, “whether something is formally

possible” this refers to the notion of grammaticality, whether an utterance is grammatically correct

or not. Second, “whether something is feasible” this one deals with the notion of acceptability.

Third, “whether something is appropriate in relation to a context in which it is used”. Fourth,

“whether something is in fact done, actually performed” (p. 281). Thus, a sentence may be

grammatically correct, feasible, appropriate in context, but have no possibility of actually

occurring.

Given the above, CLT has become the most prevalent approach in use today, especially, in

teaching English as a foreign language (TEFL). This led to a profound change in language teaching

goals, syllabuses, materials, and classroom activities. Since the application of this approach, from

that time, major shifts occurred in TEFL worldwide, such as:

- A shift in textbook development where communicative textbooks and materials were designed.

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- A shift in syllabus design where functional-notional syllabus emerged which replaced the

traditional grammar syllabus such as lexical one (emphasis on grammar and vocabulary).

- A shift in materials adopted where emphasis, under the influence of CLT theory, was put on real-

life language use, all that, led to encouraging the use of authentic materials.

- A shift in learning approaches which puts communication first, this led to developing other

communicative approaches, such as task-based language learning, cooperative language learning,

and content-based instruction within learner-centredness approach. As Medjahed (2011) describes

the Algerian educational system in the secondary level as:

In speaking about the adopted approaches for ELT in Algerian secondary school
education, we should refer to two phases where two approaches have co-occurred.
The first one is the Communicative Approach. After discovering and trying many
approaches and methods (the Grammar Translation and the Direct Methods), the
Algerian educational designers agreed upon the perfection of this approach (p. 73).

As Larsen-Freeman (2002) puts it, “the goal of CLT is to enable the students to communicate in

the target language, and to do this the students need knowledge of the linguistic forms, functions,

and meanings” (p. 128). The teacher’s role in CLT is to facilitate the communication in the

classroom; he/she should establish situations to promote communication.

Larsen-Freeman (2002), supporting this view, asserts that the authentic materials can be used in

the classroom while adopting CLT depending on the students’ level as follows:

If they are at high intermediate level of proficiency, the teacher can ask the students to:

- Use a real newspaper article.

- Assigns the students homework, requiring them to listen to radio or a television broadcast.

For students with lower proficiency in the target language the teacher can ask the pupils to:

- Write a paragraph as they listen to a live weather forecast when working on predictions.

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- Describe realia that do not contain much language, so a lot of discussion could be generated.

- Unscramble a passage (a text) in which the sentences are in a scrambled order.

2.1.2 The Competency-Based Approach

To begin with, competence is defined as the ability to do something well. What is more,

competency refers to “a specific practical skill (sometimes called key competencies) ... these skills

form the basis of the course design, and are the goals of classroom instruction and testing” as

(Thornbury, 2006, p. 39) defines it.

For (Richards & Schmidt, 2010), CBLT focuses on teaching the essential skills, knowledge and

behaviours needed to perform competencies; in other words, it develops the student’s ability to

apply different skills and tasks in situations that are usually encountered in everyday life. According

to Docking (1994, p.16 quoted in Lakehal-Ayat, 2008) the principles of CBLT are:

Competency-based language teaching is designed not around the notion of subject

knowledge but around the notion of competency. The focus moves from what students
know about language to what they can do with it. The focus on competencies or learning
outcomes underpins the curriculum framework and syllabus specification, teaching
strategies and assessment (p. 181).

In Algeria, the newly designed language textbooks and syllabuses in French or in English are

based under the framework of CBLT, for the sake of developing learners’ ability of using language

skills outside the classroom through performing tasks similar to real-world situations. They are

learner-centered which offers opportunities to learners to express more their selves.

2.1.3 Considering Learner Autonomy

Learner autonomy was first introduced by Henri Holec in 1980 in his article Autonomy and

Foreign Language Learning addressed to the Council of Europe on adult education. (Holec, 1981,

p.3) defines it as the “ability to take charge of one’s own learning, this ability is not inborn but must

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be acquired either by natural means or by formal learning.” Holec (1980) states, “Autonomous

learner is capable of taking charge of his own learning and nothing more” (p. 4).

For Wenden (1991), if “they have acquired the learning strategies, the knowledge about

learning, and the attitudes that enable them to use these skills and knowledge confidently, flexibly,

appropriately and independently of a teacher. Therefore, they are autonomous” (p. 15).

Learner autonomy, then, aims to equip – particularly adult – learners with responsibility for

self-study and strategies for independent learning. Autonomous learners should be aware of their

learning styles, and highly motivated so as to learn without depending on a teacher.

Nunan (1997) proposes five levels for developing learner autonomy completely as follows:

1. Awareness: learners are made aware of pedagogical goals, contents and learning strategies.

2. Involvement: learners are actively involved in the learning.

3. Intervention: learners are encouraged to modify and adapt their goals, learning styles and strategies.

4. Creation: learners set up their own goals and plans for self-directed learning.

5. Transcendence: learners move beyond classroom setting for independent learning

As for Harmer (2001), teachers can promote autonomous learning in a number of ways:

1. Learner training: can give the students strategies for dealing with different problems in learning.

2. Homework: encourages students to study out of the class without the help of a teacher.

3. Keeping ‘learning journals’: many teachers ask students to keep journals or diaries of their

learning experiences, in the hope that their students will then reflect on their lessons.

2.2 Syllabus Design

Curriculum and syllabus are often used interchangeably, which requires clarification. For

Thornbury (2006) “the term curriculum is more general and concerned with beliefs, values and

theories. Whereas the syllabus occupies a narrower position which represents the way these beliefs,

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values and theories are realised in terms of an instructional programme” (p. 62). Thus, syllabus

specifies what is to be learnt and states how it will be taught at each level.

On their views, Prabhu and Yalden (1987) assert that a syllabus is a kind of support of what is

to be implemented in the classroom as a form of guidance in the construction of lesson plans. It is a

decision-making of the content to which learners will be exposed while they are learning, along

with selecting and grading items according to their difficulty and usefulness.

Moreover, White (1988) observes syllabus design as “a complete syllabus specification will

include all five aspects: structure, function, situation, topic, skills. The difference between

syllabuses will lie in the priority given to each of these aspects” (p. 92). It is summarised as

follows:

Bases for language syllabus design

CONTENT SKILL METHOD

SITUATION TOPIC LANGUAGE LEARNING PROCEDURAL

PROCESS
Contextual Informational Receptive/ Skill Learning Cognitive focus
focus focus Productive Acquisition focus Task-based
focus Learner-led

FORM FUNCTION
Structural Notional/
focus Functional
focus

Figure 2. Bases for Language Syllabus Design (adapted from White, 1988, p.46)

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For Dubin and Olshtain (1986), the shape of the syllabus is a problematic matter, wherein

“course planners must reconcile that language is infinite, but a syllabus must be finite” (p. 51).

Hence, they have illustrated five t.pes of syllabuses which we can find in textbooks as follows:

1- The linear format focuses on sequencing and grading units around structures, but this type does

not work well with notional or functional categories, e.g. English Alpha by Kenton Sutherland.

2- The modular format integrates thematic or situational language content with a skills orientation

regarding the course outcomes. Each module rests a 2-3 week period. E.g. Cutting Edge by Chris

Redston and Frances Eales; and English in Mind by Claire Thacker and Cheryl Pelteret.

3- The cyclical format enables teachers and learners to work with the same topic more than once.

Items reappear at a more difficult level each time. E.g. New Headway by John and Liz Soars.

4- The matrix format gives users maximum flexibility to select topics from the table of content. The

matrix suits the situational content. E.g. Face2Face by Chris Redston and Gillie Cunningham.

5- The story-line format was brought up by Wilkins to maintain coherence and continuity between

notion and functions in a syllabus. E.g., English for Life by Tom Hutchinson.

As far as materials are concerned, Hutchinson and Waters (1987) point out “Any teaching

material must, in reality, operate several syllabuses at the same time. One of them will probably be

used as the principal organizing feature, but the others are still there” (p. 89). On the same plane,

Rabbini (2002) states that eclecticism is a common feature of the majority of textbooks under the

communicative banner. Thus, attempting to combine various aspects of each syllabus in designing

teaching materials is the most common approach in textbooks writing. In our case, Algerian

textbook writers combine many syllabuses in designing a single textbook for each level.

Most applied linguists and syllabus designers categorised syllabuses into two dichotomies, each

one, in turn, have several syllabuses underlying it, they are illustrated in the following table:

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Focus on what to teach on how we learn

Proponents
Wilkins (1976) Synthetic (propositional) Analytic (process)
White (1988) Type A (interventionist) Type B (non-interventionist)
Breen (1984), Yalden (1987) Product-oriented Process-oriented
Nunan (1988), Rabbini (2002)

Table 2. Syllabus Types Taxonomy

2.2.1 Product-Oriented Syllabuses

A product-oriented syllabus focuses on the outcomes from the learning process by the end of

the curriculum application in predetermined stages through which learners can communicate.

Primarily, White (1988) matches Type A syllabi to focus on the content and the pre-

specification of linguistic or skill outcomes, whereas Type B on an experiential “natural growth”

approach (p. 44). Wilkins’ (1976) notes that synthetic syllabuses come in a series of separate

linguistic features, such as grammatical structures, vocabulary, and speech acts, which are taught

separately in a linear sequence, where learners are expected to re-synthesise those separate

linguistic parts into a complete language system and skills, in order to use them for communicative

purposes. In the next figure, Rabbini (2002) mentions three main product-oriented syllabuses types:

Figure 3. Types of Product-Based Syllabuses (adapted from Rabbini, 2002, p. 9)

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2.2.1.1 The Structural Syllabus

In effect, structural syllabus is used as synonymous with grammatical syllabus. By definition,

this type focuses on the grammatical structures such as sentence patterns, parts of speech, and

tenses, which are organised in terms of their complexity, frequency, and usefulness. As Willis

(1990) puts forward, “a grammatical syllabus demands a methodology which focuses on the correct

production of target forms. It is form-focused” (p. 5).

On other words, Breen (1984a) labels this kind of syllabuses as a formal syllabus which focuses

upon phonology, grammar, morphology, and discourse; he continues to say that it prioritises

correctness and accuracy. He writes, “Formal syllabus identifies language use with skill use and

typically proposes that the skills be worked upon in a sequence from the receptive to the

productive” (p. 85). Thus, listening and reading serve as a basis to speaking and writing skills.

However, it is criticised potentially for its overemphasis on language structure and neglects

communicative competence, also it impedes learners’ creativity and their active role in learning.

In ELT, several textbooks have been designed entirely around form-based methods such as

audiolingualism. For instance, the textbooks, which were used in Algeria in the 1970’s, such as

Success with English, Coursebook I (1970), and Success with English Coursebook II (1971).

2.2.1.2 The Situational Syllabus

A situational syllabus is often defined as a teaching course in which the content is organised on

specific real-life situations, henceforth, the selection, organization, and presentation of language

courses is based on concrete situations in accordance with learners’ needs. It is widely used in

language teaching textbooks, as Richards and Schmidt (2010) assert, “Situational Language

Teaching is a grammar-based method in which principles of grammatical and lexical gradation are

used and new teaching points presented and practiced through situations” (p. 531).

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The features of the situational syllabuses in language teaching are summarised as follows:

- Situational language teaching adopts an inductive approach to the teaching of grammar whereby

explanation is avoided and, in turn, the learner is expected to deduce the meaning of any structure

or vocabulary item from the situation in which it is presented.

- All language courses are practiced orally before being presented in written form, therefore,

reading and writing are taught only after an oral presentation.

- Grammatical structures and lexical items are graded from simple to complex.

- New items (lexical and grammatical) are introduced and practiced situationally.

Wilkins (1976) writes that one this type of syllabuses is “learner rather than subject-centered”

(p. 16), it targets to create a spontaneous speaking through presenting real-life situations. In reality,

the situational approach to language teaching was used in Algeria for the three secondary school

levels through using L.G. Alexander’s textbook Practice and Progress (1967).

In fact, when we discuss the tenets of this syllabus, we should mention P-P-P cycle, as

Richards (2006) writes “in a typical lesson according to the situational approach, is now most

commonly associated with a three-phase sequence, known as the P-P-P cycle, standing for:

Presentation, Practice, and Production methodology” (p. 8).

In reality, three P-P-P cycle works in a sequence that follows the following methodology:

- Presentation: The new grammar structure is presented, often by means of a conversation or short

text. The teacher explains the new structure and checks students’ comprehension of it.

- Practice: Students practice using the new structure in a controlled context, through drills or

substitution exercises.

- Production: Students practice the new structure in different contexts, often using their own content

or information, in order to develop fluency with the new pattern.

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Byrne (1976) explains teachers’ role within each P-P-P stage as follows: at the presentation

stage, the teacher has the role of informant, at the practice stage as a conductor by giving each

learner a chance to participate; finally, at the production stage, the teacher acts as an adviser.

The disadvantages of this type of syllabuses are represented in the following criticism:

Situations are based on predictability, and neither all the language structures are tackled nor all the

emergent properties of situations are predictable; the linguistic generalities cannot be used across

the various situations taught. Even more, it is impossible to figure out all the situations that the

learners are likely to meet in reality. As claimed by Rabbini (2002) the situational syllabus is limited

for students whose needs were included in the syllabus. Likewise, Skehan (1996) criticises this

syllabus because of “The underlying theory for a P-P-P approach has now been discredited. The

belief that a precise focus on a particular form leads to learning and automatization no longer

carries much credibility in linguistics or psychology” (p. 18).

2.2.1.3 The Lexical Syllabus

For Thornbury (2006), the lexical syllabus has emerged out of the developments in corpus

linguistics and discourse analysis; as a reaction to the traditional approaches, which usually focus

on grammatical structures. In language teaching, this type prioritises vocabulary (i.e. lexis) over

grammar in its syllabus design and classroom teaching. However, the lexical syllabus is not

designed as a mere word list, but it is intended to design a syllabus that links the learning of

vocabulary with grammar, in a thematic way, to cope with real-life communicative contexts.

In his book, Willis (1990) suggests that lexical syllabus was proposed as a new approach to

language teaching using the large corpus database termed as COBUILD project between Collins

and the English Language Research Department at Birmingham University. As a result, Collins

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COBUILD English Course textbooks were written by Willis & Willis, which were based on a

corpus of 20 million entries from English language all over the world.

For Willis (1990), each level has its own amount of vocabulary to be learnt as follows:

Level 1 would aim to cover the most frequent 700 words together with their common
patterns and uses. Level 2 would recycle these words and go on to cover the next
800 to bring us up to the 1,500 words, and Level 3 would recycle those 1,500 and
add a further 1,000 … and Level 4 with 2,500 words in the language (p. vi).

Accordingly, each level from the above-mentioned levels matches to the elementary level, the

intermediate level, the upper intermediate level, and the advanced level respectively.

Lewis (1993) argues that many grammar mistakes are caused by insufficient vocabulary and

lack of collocation awareness in particular, as a result students cannot understand and

produce lexical phrases. He sums up the guiding principles of his lexical approach as follows:

1. The grammar/vocabulary dichotomy is invalid.

2. Collocation is used as an organizing principle.

3. Successful language is a wider concept than accurate language.

4. The Observe-Hypothesise-Experiment cycle replaces the Present-Practise-Produce Paradigm.

5. Most importantly, language consists of grammaticalised lexis–not lexicalised grammar.

The lexical approach was subjected to the criticism levelled by Brumfit (1979), when he writes

that it takes no cognisance of how a second language is learned; however, Willis and Lewis have

reinforced their arguments to adopt this approach with many theoretical justifications, such as

Michael Lewis in his book (2002) “Implementing the Lexical Approach.”

In fact, the COBUILD textbooks designers select the lexical patterns, collocations and word

frequency in their textbooks by listing those lexical phrases in relation to real-world usage.

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2.2.1.4 The Functional-Notional Syllabus

It emerged in the early 1970's, as a result of several works done by experts in the Council of

Europe such as Wilkins and van Ek. This syllabus was primarily designed to meet the needs of

adult learners, tourists, or people engaged in academic, cultural, technical, or economic activities.

Strictly speaking, N/F syllabus can have many implications for the process of teaching; for

instance, prioritising the semantic aspect in language learning and teaching. In addition, Wilkins

(1972) states, “In the model we have a producer and a receiver, but we also have positive

interaction between the two in the sense that the receiver in turn becomes a producer.” (p. 78).

Furthermore, it focuses on authentic language materials and the importance of role playing.

In N/F syllabuses, the input is selected and graded according to the communicative functions

that language learners need to perform at the end of the course. The N/F syllabuses contain, on the

one hand, a broader view of language functions provided by philosophers of language as speech

acts (i.e. requesting, describing, suggesting, and identifying, as well as expressing feelings), on the

other hand, notions are concepts that include age, color, size, comparison, time, etc. For example:

Type of discourse Skill Function Exponents

Vocabulary Structures

spoken speaking asking for directions bank Can you tell me

listening harbour where X is?
museum Where is X?

Table 3. A Sample of a Functional Syllabus. (Adapted from Richards & Schmidt, 2010, p. 236)

For Wilkins (1976), the notional syllabus came as a reaction to the limits of the grammatical

and situational syllabuses, which seeks teaching the language through forms and for the latter by

recreating situations in which the native speakers use the language. He explains:

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The notional syllabus is in contrast with the other two because it takes the desired
communicative capacity as the starting-point. In drawing up a notional syllabus
instead of asking how speakers of the language express themselves or when and
where they use the language, we ask what it is they communicate through language.
We are then able to organize language teaching in terms of content rather than the
form of the language (p. 18).

He (1976) further claims, “the whole basis of a notional approach to language teaching derives

from the conviction that what people want to do through language is more important that mastery of

the language as an unapplied system” (p. 42).

Therefore, the advantage of the N/F syllabus is that it takes communication into account from

the beginning without overlooking the critical role of grammatical and situational components.

Moreover, this syllabus regards testing as systematic way of assessing integrated skills in order to

know what learners can do and their overall capacity to communicate in the target language.

For the implementation of the N/F syllabus van Ek and Trim contributed with three influential

books, which are used in the Council of Europe: Waystage (1990) for a lower level, Threshold

Level (1990), and Vantage (2001) for a higher level at ascending levels of competence. They (2001)

describe N/F syllabus as follows: “Thus ‘I'm sorry to be late for dinner’ combines the function of

‘apology’ with the general notion of ‘lateness’ and the specific notion of ‘dinner’.” (p.23).

Therefore, “By specifying language functions, general notions and specific notions in relation to

themes and tasks, we identify the basic elements of communication.”

The most successful textbooks in the late 1970s and the 1980s were based on Wilkins’ N/F

syllabus, such as those written by Jones Leo the first entitled “Functions of English” and the second

“Notions of English” which were published by Cambridge Press in 1979 and 1982 respectively.

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Yet, despite its merits, it is criticised for placing heavy demands on the learners. Besides,

notions and language functions are overlapping and cannot be graded systematically, when

compared to the structures of language. The product model also has a number of shortcomings;

such as presenting the syllabus as a pre-existing plan (ready-made), which has no contribution or

supplementation by the teachers and learners. In addition, Johnson and Johnson (1999) assumes

that “It is now rare to find textbooks which are organized exclusively along N/F lines” (p. 232).

As a final point, Widdowson (1978) insists on the fact that there is shift from sentence to

notion, which is, an advance. But it still leaves us with a long way to go. We still have to face the

complexity of real communication. Consequently, we can embed this syllabus with other syllabuses

to design communicative materials that suit learners’ needs and teachers’ prospects.

In sum, Breen (1984a) states that each of the latter four types of syllabuses attempt to answer

the following question: “What does a learner of a new language need to know, and what does a

learner need to be able to do with this knowledge?” (p. 85).

2.2.2 Process-Oriented Syllabuses

For Rabbini (2002), the process syllabuses were developed because of the failure of product-

oriented syllabuses to enhance communicative language skills. As Breen (1984b) describes the fact

that the product-oriented syllabus specifies a “repertoire of communication.” (p. 51). However, this

type represents a “capacity for communication”. Equally, He (2001) adds, “A process syllabus

therefore represents an orientation to how learning is done which deliberately locates the selection

and organisation of the actual syllabus of the classroom group within the collaborative decision-

making process undertaken by teacher and learners in a language class” (p. 154).

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In designing process-oriented syllabuses, the major concern is to order the language items into

larger communicative units, and for Nunan (1988), it focuses on the learning experience and the

learner who analyses language in a natural way in order to develop an overall competence.

In recent years, the role of the learner in language syllabus design (namely, in the planning,

application and evaluation of the syllabuses) has been encouraged. Consequently, many research

studies were conducted on learners’ needs in order to develop a more learner-centred approach.

2.2.2.1 The Task-Based Syllabus

In fact, Task-Based Language Teaching (TBLT) has received a significant consideration since

mid-1980s by applied linguists like Prabhu (1987), Nunan (1989), Willis (1996a), Skehan (1996),

Ellis (2003), and Samuda & Bygate (2008). As a result of the Bangalore Project, it was originated

by Prabhu and implemented from 1979 to 1984 with 18 teachers and 390 pupils aged 8 to 15, for

English classes in India. Davies and Beretta evaluated the project in 1984 and confirmed its

satisfactory results and, later, the project has attracted a lot of attention from EFL theorists and

researchers, as the first example of the procedural syllabus and TBLT in practice.

We have cited three definitions for ‘tasks’ that are widely quoted in the literature. Willis (1990),

for example, defines task as “By a task I mean an activity which involves the use of language but in

which the focus is on the outcome of the activity rather than on the language used to achieve that

outcome” (p. 127). While Prabhu (1987) considers it as “An activity which required learners to

arrive at an outcome from given information through some process of thought and which allowed

teachers to control and regulate that process” (p. 24). Skehan (1998) has pointed out, it is “An

activity in which: meaning is primary; there is some communication problem to solve; there is

some sort of relationship to comparable real-world activities; task completion has some priority; the

assessment of the task is in terms of outcome” (p. 95).

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The task-based syllabus, then, views tasks as the central unit of instruction in the classroom

activities when it comes to its syllabus design. (Samuda and Bygate, 2008, p. 58) suggest that:

! Tasks define the language syllabus, in response to the operational needs of specific learners.

! Tasks are seen as essential in engaging key processes of language acquisition.

! Tasks are selected on the basis that they replicate or simulate relevant real-world activities.

! Assessment is in terms of task performance with reference to language being taught.

Therefore, the tasks play a critical role in Task-based instruction and its course design. As Ellis

(2003) asserts, “Tasks, then, hold a central place in current SLA research and also in language

pedagogy” (p. 1). Henceforth, this syllabus came as an innovative type unlike the previous

syllabuses whereby tasks were not pre-planned but evolved in a series of purposeful activities.

Correspondingly, Prabhu (1987) indicates that task-based syllabus calls for designing new teaching

materials that allow teachers to modify tasks, omit some tasks or alter their order and, when

possible, devise their own tasks for any class at any time according to learners’ ability. He used

three types of tasks as follows: information gap, reasoning gap, and opinion gap activities.

In reality, tasks have many practices mainly the usage of language as means of communication

through engaging in real-life tasks in normal settings like job interview, problems-solving activities,

or expressing feelings and sharing experiences. In performing a task, we can use the four skills, as

Ellis (2003) states, “Like other language activities, a task can engage productive or receptive, and

oral or written skills, and also various cognitive processes” (p. 16).

Jane Willis (1996a) has suggested a comprehensive framework for task-based learning lesson,

in a more student-centered methodology; it is sequenced in following stages:

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1- Pre-task

In the pre-task phase, the teacher will introduce the topic to be learnt. Additionally, the teacher

uses activities that the students are expected to learn in the task phase like recalling key phrases,

grammatical constructs, or playing a recording showing the task. Meanwhile, the students are

supposed to take notes of the pre-task activities or the recording as a brainstorming.

2- Task cycle
During the task stage, the students do the task, in pairs or small groups, usually reading and/or

listening. In the meantime, the teacher acts as monitor who encourages students.

In the planning step, the teacher plays the role of advisor in performing the task through helping

students in preparing their written or oral reports and tasks to present to the class.

In reporting stage, the students then present their spoken or written reports to the class. Here the

teacher selects who speaks next, and may give a written or an oral feedback.

3- Language focus

In the analysis step, the focus will be on language where students may notice some language

features during consciousness-raising activities performance, while the teacher reviews what

occurred in each task either text or transcript. It may also include useful words, phrases, and

patterns that the students used in the report stage, and the difficulties they had.

The teacher may use the practice stage or the post-task phase to cover the forms that need more

rehearsal in the analysis stage. It is an opportunity for the students to practise other features

happened in the task, and to encourage reflection on how the task was performed.

Despite the fact that task-based language learning is increasingly promoted worldwide

including Algeria, yet, there are drawbacks to be considered in planning TBLT syllabus. As a first

challenge, in group work tasks, some learners can "be lazy" and rely on others to do the project

work and learning assignments. A second challenge is that the task-based lesson, is that, it may lose

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one of its benefits if the lesson was not adequately planned and sequenced or allocate unfitting

time. A third challenge, is the difficulty of implementing task-based teaching where classes are

large and time limited and/or space inflexible.

In sum, Samuda and Bygate (2008) criticised this type saying, “TBLT has been imposed on

teachers on the basis of limited research findings, generalised from laboratory-based studies in

conditions that do not reflect the realities of the average teaching situation worldwide” (p. 58).

2.2.2.2 The Skill-Based Syllabus

The skill-based syllabus, focuses on the four skills in language learning; reading, writing, lis-

tening, and speaking, and breaks each skill down into its components. Besides, one skill can be

stressed on the other depending on the needs of the learner. Likewise, Thornbury (2006) asserts,

“Language skills contrast with language systems. The systems include the grammar, vocabulary

and phonology of the language, whereas the skills are customarily divided into the two productive

skills: speaking and writing, and the two receptive skills: listening and reading” (p. 205).

Language systems are the rules that govern using language appropriately, that is, linguistic

competence. Skills are things that learners must be able to do in order to be competent in a

language, for example, understanding a spoken language from listening comprehension, writing

well-formed essay, giving an oral presentations, reading a magazine and so on.

In terms of course design, Dubin and Olshtain (1986) refer to the process as, “Skill specification

must be based on a careful survey and evaluation of the needs of a particular student population in

terms of present and future expectations” (p. 50). They add that the skill-oriented approach mainly

focuses on more carefully defined, specific needs for language use with respect to specific areas of

content or knowledge which state the syllabus objectives, such as: by the end of the course learners

need to be proficient in reading strategies like skimming, scanning, … etc.

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The purpose of skill-based instruction is to develop learners’ communicative competence

through urging learners to use the language systems in actual skills. Also, to enable learners to:

- Deduce meaning from authentic texts, take notes, and to scan or skim books effectively.

- Write an application letter, paraphrase or summarise ideas, and to use a dictionary skillfully.

By and large, recent textbooks are based on this type of syllabuses in their course distribution

and their designers claim that they integrate the four skills in a balanced way.

2.2.2.3 Topic/Theme-Based Syllabus

In recent years, textbooks writers have used thematic syllabuses in organising their courses; that

is, developing units around themes and topics. As Rabbini (2002) states, “the focus of syllabuses

has shifted from structure to situations, functions and notions to topics and tasks” (p. 1).

EFL textbooks at different levels offer theme-based courses where topics usually appear dealing

with real-life issues of students; as mentioned by Harmer (2001), “Topics provide a welcome

organising principle in that they can be based on what student will be interested in” (p. 298).

In practice, under the thematic learning instruction, organisation of the syllabus is based on

different themes depending upon the topic. In turn, Forgarty (1997) divides it into the next steps:

! Deciding a theme: Theme can be decided by teacher and sometimes by students and it can be a

smaller concept (e.g. climate) to a large and integrated system (e.g. ecosystem).

! Integration of theme with existing curriculum: Next step of thematic learning is designing the

theme in an integrative ways to keep the skill and content knowledge in mind.

! Designing Instructions and co-curricular plans: This step includes organizing other resources and

extra-curricular activities for demonstrating the theme (e.g. field trip or visit a garden).

! Group Activities and discussion: It enables students to participate and reach on a shared

perspective of the theme. This also helps in creative exploration of the subject.

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To sum up, theme-based instruction provides continuity across the courses and progression in

learners’ proficiency level. Correspondingly, Cameron (2001) writes that the essential notion of

theme-based teaching is that many different activities are linked together by their content; the

theme or topic runs through everything that happens in the classroom and acts as a connecting

thread for pupils and teacher. However, Belouahem (2009) criticises this syllabus saying, “Such an

organization has not been proved satisfactorily enough to rely completely upon” (p. 114).

2.2.3 The Multi-Syllabus Syllabus

In fact, process- and product-oriented syllabuses must afford a coherent plan for teachers and

learners to achieve their outlined goals. It should be a single syllabus as a combination of

procedures and outcomes. This obliges textbook designers to plan courses and tasks based on a

multi-layered syllabus that integrates structures, functions, themes, and tasks, according to the

changing learners’ needs at each proficiency level. Similarly, Richards (2001) describes syllabus

designers when they organise their language program as follows:

Currently, the practice of adhering to one type of syllabus throughout the language
program is rare. Rather syllabus designers tend to resort to multi-syllabus. There are
two ways for syllabus designers to do so. First, they can design a multi-syllabus,
incorporating features of currently popular syllabuses. Second, they can choose to
adopt a different type for the different stages of the program (p. 164).

As (McDonough and Shaw, 2003, p. 42) give several claims made by textbook writers when

designing their syllabuses in one integrated framework, they state:

- Multi-syllabus approach is designed for systematic development of all the four skills.

- In this approach the emphasis is put on pronunciation, study skills and vocabulary learning.

- Authentic and semi-authentic reading and listening practice for immediate communication.

- Allowance for different learning styles and strategies in addition to teaching situations.

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- Up-to-date topics focus on the real-life English use and need to use it in today's world.

- Encourages learner independence and develops fluency, accuracy for mastering the language and

confidence to communicate successfully in English.

Furthermore, Wilkins (1976) and McDonough (1993) stressed the need for multi-dimensional

syllabuses in which the units of any typical textbook would be specified according to a number of

different components, e.g., structures, notions, functions, skills, topics, tasks, etc.

Since eclecticism is the main feature of most teaching materials; in the meantime, each syllabus

has its own weaknesses and strengths, henceforth, whether process or product-oriented syllabuses

we have used, we must see them as complementary rather than contrary to each other. As

Hutchinson and Waters (1987) compromise, “it is wise to take an eclectic approach, taking what is

useful from each theory and trusting also in the evidence of your own experience as a teacher”

(p. 51). They continue further stating (1987), “Any teaching material must, in reality, operate

several syllabuses at the same time. One of them will probably be used as the principal organizing

feature, but the others are still there” (p. 89).

From the aforementioned statements, we can deduce that most current textbooks claim to entail

a combination of the following aspects:

- The four skills must be integrated, together with pronunciation, study skills, grammar and

vocabulary learning;

- The communicative skills should be given priority and the focus will be on the process of

learning and learners’ learning styles and strategies;

- The use of authentic English in real-world situations, developing learners’ autonomy, and using

language for immediate communication, as well as practising it outside the classroom.

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The emergence of the multi-syllabus approach has led to planning many frameworks in syllabus

design and materials development, provided that it must be carefully structured within a systematic

development of all four skills and learning strategies. In addition to combining all the

aforementioned syllabuses good features in adopting the best teaching materials for learners.

2.3 Teaching the Four Skills

To start with, in our daily lives, there is no clear-cut distinction between the four skills; though,

the division into four skills has been a principal one in terms of course design and lesson planning

in language teaching. Although, often there will be a focus on one skill at a particular situation in

the course but all of them have to be integrated to ensure a better learning experience.

By contrast, the discrete alignment of the four skills, into receptive skills (listening and reading)

and productive skills (speaking and writing), is not always effective and realistic. As Johnson and

Johnson (1999) explains, “One of the major features of the traditional language teaching paradigm

has been the separating out of the so-called FOUR SKILLS of listening, speaking, reading and

writing into pedagogically convenient units of learning” (p. 322). Therefore, this view still

represents the frequently used sequence for designing most language teaching materials and

textbooks and its language teaching courses in each unit.

The current view towards designing effective teaching materials within CLT endeavours to

integrate the four skills in a balanced way instead of teaching them separately. In this model, as

described by Byrne (1981), Nunan (1989), and Johnson and Johnson (1999) the learners practise all

the four skills in topic-focused units such as sport, jobs, holidays, … etc. Moreover, each skill can

also be broken down into sub-skills within the overall goal of providing realistic learning

frameworks. Hence, writing can cover writing letters, taking notes, descriptions, and reports too.

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The teaching of integrated skills in the classroom should incorporate role-plays, simulations, and

project works and so on, according to the specific requirements of the learners.

2.3.1 Listening Skill

To begin with, our learners during the lesson often consider listening as an unimportant skill.

Nonetheless, this is a misleading perception over its importance in developing communicative

competence, because listening is not a passive skill that requires learners to be quiet but it demands

active involvement from the listener.

The listening process involves three main models, a bottom-up processing, a top-down one, and

an interactive model. As stated by Flowerdew and Miller (2005), “According to the bottom-up

model, listeners build understanding by starting with the smallest units of the acoustic message:

individual sounds, or phonemes. These are then combined into words, which, in turn, together make

up phrases, clauses, and sentences” (p. 24). Hedge (2000) as well states, “Top-down comprehension

strategies involve knowledge that a listener brings to a text, sometimes called ‘inside the head’

information, as opposed to the information that is available within the text itself” (p. 232).

However, the third model embodies a combination of the both processes good features.

In listening activities like in tasks, we can divide the listening process into three stages:

Pre-listening stage: the aim is to establish a framework for listening so that students do not

approach the listening task with no points of reference. The pre-listening stage ensures a higher

level of success and may lead to greater confidence.

While-listening stage: the learners are supposed to listen to a tape-recorded or following a written

text. Their purpose is to help them develop comprehension skills and elicit messages from the text.

It is important to develop learners’ ability to understand the general messages, not every single

word of the text.

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Post or Follow-up listening activities: Tasks may require overall understanding or interpretation of

the text, recordings, etc. or they can be extensions on the work done in pre- or while listening.

In her book ‘A Course in Language Teaching’, Ur (1996) classified types of listening exercises

into four major categories:

- No overt response in which learners do not realise any task, such as stories, songs, and films.

- Short responses where learners reply with a limited answer, like ticking items or true/false.

- Longer responses with a long reply and full responses, e.g., summarising or note-taking.

- Extended responses with suggested solutions, like problem-solving activities or interpretation.

From our experience, we observed that EFL learners face many problems in understanding

listening comprehension courses, among those difficulties we list:

- Difficulties caused by the pronunciation of the teacher and his speech speed.

- The failure to concentrate and interpret simultaneously.

- The lack of an adequate linguistic background and information on the topic of the lesson.

- Learners face difficulties if the listening takes a long time that makes topics hard to understand.

Ur (1996) proposes as solution to textbooks’ limitation on this aspect, “If the range and variety

in a book you are using is very limited, you may be able to remedy this by improvising your own

activities or using supplementary materials” (p. 114).

All in all, for novice teachers who cannot improvise fluently in the target language, or are

worried about their spoken language is not a good enough (native model); such teachers prefer to

rely not only on recordings, but also on a written text they can read aloud. However, it is teacher’s

duty to make the learners aware of what they hear and to practise outside classroom, and how to

overcome those problems.

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2.3.2 Speaking Skill

Nowadays, textbook writers and syllabus designers give the speaking skill a central position and

emphasis in their courses. Meanwhile, its importance is recognised among teachers and CLT

practitioners. Mostly, any language course targets at developing learners’ abilities in the four

language skills, especially the speaking skill which is ultimate except for some cases where the

focus is put a particular skill for a specific purpose in the course or the syllabus.

Generally speaking, this skill in the EFL context is commonly thought to be equivalent to the

proficiency in the target language, that is, the fluency and accuracy for learners mean the mastery of

that language. Yet, this requires a lot of practice not only in the classroom like answering teacher’s

questions or repeating sentences but it also calls for using the language communicatively with other

speakers outside the classroom in real-life situations.

In teaching speaking teachers can adopt many approaches, Thornbury (2006) writes:

Approaches to teaching speaking vary. Traditionally, speaking was considered to be

a by-product of teaching grammar and vocabulary, reinforced with work on
pronunciation. This view has been replaced by approaches that treat speaking as a
skill in its own right. One such approach is to break down the speaking into a
number of discrete sub-skills, such as opening and closing conversations,
turn-taking, repairing, paraphrasing, interpreting, etc (p. 209).

He further states that topic-based approach can be useful to encourage learners to speak freely.

In general, learners should be able to reproduce what they have learnt in each unit including the

language skills, competencies, and strategies in a meaningful conversation. At the level of

classroom, Bygate (1987) states, “By giving learners ‘speaking practice’ and ‘oral exams’ we

recognize that there is a difference between knowledge about a language, and skill in using it. This

distinction between knowledge and skill is crucial in the teaching of speaking” (p. 3).

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In short, speaking activities develop communicative skills on both accuracy and fluency.

Besides, (Byrne, 1987, p. 11) divides the speaking activities into four groups: .

Accuracy activities controlled by the teacher and done with the whole class. .

- Accuracy activities directed by the learners and done in pairs (occasionally in groups). .

- Fluency activities controlled by the teacher and done with the whole class.

- Fluency activities directed by the learners and done in pairs (occasionally in groups).

Finally yet importantly, it is worth mentioning that speaking permits only a limited time for

deciding what to say, and how to say it, and clarifying the intentions we mean. Henceforth,

teacher’s oral feedback can be very useful for the learners at the different stages of speaking.

Moreover, they should encourage and promote using the target language, among learners, as a

means of communication in the group work tasks inside the classroom.

2.3.3 Reading Skill

Teaching reading is a wide scope in second language education. On one hand, it can refer to

teaching of illiterate students who cannot read in their first or second language. On the other hand,

it can refer to teaching learners more reading skills and strategies that aim at improving their

previous reading skills in the first and second language.

Firstly, the reading process has many models in treating texts when reading, we mention:

As far as bottom-up reading model is concerned, the reader understands meaning from decoding the

letters, then words, and other features in the text. In Davies’ words (1995), it is “the direction of

processing is from 'bottom-level' features of text to 'higher levels', that is, from the identification of

letters to sounds, to words, to sentences and finally to meaning and thinking” (p. 169).

In contrast, in top-down reading model the reader interprets meaning of the whole language as

he/she assumes alternative connotations to the unclear words in the text. The reader resolves this

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ambiguity using his/her prior knowledge of the subject. In other words, the learner expects the

words of the text from the theme, and then he reconstructs the main ideas to infer the meaning of

the unclear words encountered in the text in reading.

In the interactive reading model, the reader passes through the bottom-up, and top-down models at

the same time depending on the type of text, his/her background familiarity with the topic. It can

ensure the accurate and rapid processing of information.

The types of reading most commonly used are intensive reading and extensive reading.

According to Johnson and Johnson (1999), “intensive reading (slow and careful reading to 'absorb'

the text) and extensive reading (fairly rapid reading, typically for pleasure or interest)” (p. 333).

As to reading strategies, defined as conscious practices used by successful learners by which the

learners try to overcome some difficulties in reading. For example, proficient readers use cognitive

and metacognitive strategies in their reading, the same as learning the language. On this regard,

Munby (1978) has proposed many benefits of reading strategies to understand texts:

- Recognise difficult words quickly from the context.

- Skimming (quickly reading through a text to get the gist or the main ideas).

- Scanning (quickly searching for specific information in the text, and ignoring everything else).

- Use text features (i.e., headings, subheadings, pictures, layout) to predict the content of a text.

- Distinguish the genres of texts (i.e., text-type, purpose, and organization).

- Use prior knowledge to work out the meanings within a text.

In general, teachers should encourage their learners to read a variety of authentic texts, from

different genres and themes such as passages, articles, magazines, short stories, or novels. Reading

comprehension can enrich their linguistic knowledge on how to use language correctly.

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Finally, Alderson (2000) suggests that assessing reading activities should involve responses

similar to real-life reading tasks as far as possible, “The challenge for the person constructing

reading tests is how to vary the reader’s purpose by creating testing methods that might be more

realistic than cloze tests and multiple choice techniques” (p. 249).

2.3.4 Writing Skill

In recent years, teaching writing to first or second language learners has attracted a lot of

research and attention. Moreover, most of learners’ tests and exams are of a written form not oral

exam. Still, writing for many foreign language learners represents a painful and a difficult task.

In fact, the writing skills is very important in designing teaching materials and textbook, as

Raimes (2002) states, “Goals, theories, content, focus, syllabus, materials, activities, feedback, and

course evaluation are substantive matters that we have to address whenever we design a writing

course” (p. 314). In addition, writing tasks follow the same format as an introduction, body, and

conclusion, which is organised in a narrative, descriptive, explanatory, or argumentative genre.

Moreover, (Raimes, 1983, p. 95) classify it into three main types as follows:

1. Controlled writing: students are supplied with the content and/or form. In controlled tasks, more

is given to the students: an outline to complete, a model to follow, or a passage to continue.

2. Guided writing: students are given a first sentence, a last sentence, an outline to fill out.

3. Free writing: students generate, organize, and express their own ideas, in their own sentences.

Collaborative writing is very significant in enhancing students writing, as Harmer (2004) states,

“Successful collaborative writing allows students to learn from each other. It gives each member of

the collaboration access to others’ minds and knowledge” (p. 73). To him, it can be attained

successfully through project works, as he (2004) writes, “There are many possible areas for project

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work, such as producing a class newspaper, guides to a town, or ‘books’ on historical or cultural

topics” (p. 103). In the same respect, Hamlaoui (2009) states that:

Collaborative writing is viewed as one of the effective ways experimented in

foreign language writing classes. Group writing is an effective way to help students
overcome inhibition and passivity in the writing class… our students who work
together to create, write, review, respond to, and assess classmates’ writing can
benefit from each other’s experiences and perspectives, and will gain self-
confidence, and autonomy (p. 11).

As Zamel (1982) notes that our students need to experience writing as a process of creating

meaning. To (Brown and Hood, 1989, p. 6), the writing process depends on the following aspects:

- Who you are writing to or for (reader)

- Why you are writing (purpose)

- What you are writing about (content)

- Where you are, how much time you have, how you feel, etc. (situation).

As far as writing is concerned, it can be centered either on a product-oriented approach that

focuses on the end-result of writing, or on a process-oriented approach which stresses the process of

writing itself. For Maybin (1994), the process approach emphasises the fact that:

Process writing shifts the focus from the finished product to the processes which
pupils need to go through as writers. It aims to give pupils a greater sense of
ownership and enhance pupils’ commitment to their work. This approach has been a
major influence on policy and classroom practice in many schools (p. 166).

In the Process Approach, the writers typically go through four stages in the writing process:

1. Pre-writing: the writer generates ideas and brainstorms thoughts on the topic provided.

2. Drafting: the writer jots down his/her generated ideas and organise them in a good form.

3. Revising: the student reviews his/her draft to check the accuracy of content and organisation.

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4. Editing: the student amends his/her final draft according to teacher and peers feedback.

In effect, some teachers mark students’ compositions considering the following principles:

- Content: it entails unity, coherence, cohesion and the continuity of the ideas in the composition.

- Organization: it covers the correct use of words use, sentences, and paragraphs in the essay.

- Grammar: it involves subject-verb agreement, verb tenses, and sentence building rules.

- Vocabulary: it encompasses the appropriate usage of words, collocations, lexical chunks.

- Mechanics: it includes the punctuation, spelling, and capitalization of the composition.

(Ur, 1996, p. 164) has suggested a detailed framework for evaluating textbooks’ writing tasks:

1. Would my students find the activity motivating, stimulating and interesting to do?

2. Is it of an appropriate level for them? Or would they find it too easy/difficult/sophisticated?

3. Is the kind of writing relevant to their needs?

4. Would I need to do some preliminary teaching in preparation for this activity?

5. In general, do I like this activity? Would I use it?

Alike, (Hyland, 2003, p. 99) suggests that we must modify writing textbooks to suit our classes:

- Adding: supplementing what the textbook offers with extra readings, tasks, or exercises.

- Deleting: omitting repetitive, irrelevant, potentially unhelpful or difficult items.

- Modifying: rewriting rubrics, examples, activities, or explanations to improve its relevance.

- Simplifying: rewriting to reduce the difficulty of tasks, explanations, or instructions.

- Reordering: changing the sequence of units or activities to fit more with course goals.

Frequently, our English learners make many punctuation mistakes, as Kharma and Hajjaj

(1989) explain, “Arabic does not use punctuation marks as extensively as English does, and there is

no capitalization in Arabic, either” (p. 107). For this reason, teacher’s role in the process of writing

should not only be restricted to correcting students’ written products, but it should also focus on the

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content rather than form. Furthermore, it involves monitoring and collaborating with students step

by step through giving advice, offering models to follow, and positive feedback.

2.3.5 Integrating the Four Skills

In teaching language skills, we can distinguish between two approaches; firstly, a segregated-

skill approach which represents the traditional methods that offer teaching language skills

discretely, such an approach would not prepare learners for using language in real-life

communication. On the contrary, the integrated-skill approach, as a hybrid form, combines the

content-based language instruction with task-based instruction. The first integrates the four skills

into a theme, while the second focuses on doing tasks through using language communicatively.

On this respect, Richards (2006) writes that “Advocates of CLT however stressed an integrated-

skills approach to the teaching of the skills. Since in real life the skills often occur together, they

should also be linked in teaching, it was argued” (p. 11). Therefore, this approach lets teachers to

monitor learners' progress and to promote learning content in real-life tasks.

By integrating the skills, we can equip learners with more autonomy in language use, that is,

from this innovative approach we can provide learners with a comprehensive input in order to

become a basis for an effective output. Thus, learners’ role in this approach can be more positive, if

they contribute in every step of the learning process. By doing this, we can encourage learners to

make decisions in the classroom and act naturally so as to make learning more motivating.

In practice, the Algerian textbooks’ writers claim that they integrate the four skills with

grammar, language functions, and themes/topics areas at the same time in each unit of the textbook,

in order to apply the CLT and CBA effectively. As expressed by Brown (2000):

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We have considered five different ways to approach the integration of the four skills.

The principal idea here is for you not to assume that all your techniques should be

identified with just one of the four, but rather that most sucessful interactive

techniques will include several skill areas (p. 244).

2.4 Teaching Learning Strategies

At the outset, learning strategies refer to the techniques or tools used by successful learners

consciously in order to enhance their learning and for developing communicative competence.

Learning strategies are commonly classified into cognitive strategies, metacognitive strategies, and

social/effective strategies. In this respect, Rubin (1987) defines learning strategies as “any set of

operations, steps, plans, routines used by the learner to facilitate the obtaining, storing, retrieval and

use of information” (p. 19). In the same way, O’Malley and Chamot (1990) consider learning

strategies as “the special thoughts or behaviors of processing information that individuals use to

help them comprehend, learn, or retain new information” (p. 1).

Successful language learners are apt to choose strategies that work well, whether cognitive (e.g.,

interpreting, translating) or metacognitive (e.g., planning, self-monitoring) strategies, learners ought

to use them together, supporting each other. As a result, often there is an apparent progress in

learners’ outcome, proficiency, and achievement either in general or in specific skills.

In her book, Oxford (1990) classified language learning strategies system into six categories,

memory strategies, cognitive strategies, compensation strategies, metacognitive strategies, affective

strategies, and social strategies, which were divided into direct and indirect strategies.

1. Direct strategies are those behaviors involving direct use of the language:

- Memory strategies for entering new information into memory and retrieving it. Also, learners

create mental linkages, applying images and sounds, reviewing and applying activities.

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- Cognitive strategies for manipulating the language for perception and production of meaning. It

operates directly the incoming information by inferencing, summarising, and deduction.

- Compensation strategies for overcoming limitations in existing knowledge. Such as guessing

logically meaning in listening and reading, and overcoming limits in speaking and writing.

2. Indirect strategies support language learning but they do not directly involve language use:

- Metacognitive strategies for organizing, self-regulating, and evaluating learning progress.

Metacognitive strategies are used to oversee, regulate, or self-direct language learning.

- Affective strategies for managing emotions and attitudes in learning. For example, lowering your

anxiety, encouraging yourself, and taking your emotional temperature.

- Social strategies for communicating and learning with others. Thus, social strategies are very

important, for instance, asking questions, cooperating with others and expressing sympathy.

In fact, direct and indirect strategies are equally important and necessary in improving learning.

In practice, learning strategies can be taught explicitly or just implicitly through training

learning to use those strategies for enhancing their learning. In this regard, O’Malley & Chamot

(1988), proposed the following framework for teaching EFL/ESL students learning strategies:

- Preparation: we raise students’ awareness of their strategies.

- Presentation: we have to provide the rationale for strategy use, describe, and model it.

- Practice: we should involve students in using learning and communication strategies.

- Evaluation: we can help student to evaluate his or her own strategy use.

- Expansion: we train and help students to transfer their strategies to the new tasks.

As a final point, Ellis (1994) writes, “The study of learning strategies holds considerable

promise, both for language pedagogy and for explaining individual differences in second language

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learning. It is probably true to say, however, that it is still in its infancy” (p. 558). Henceforth, it

needs more evidence through a lot of research and practical case studies on EFL/ESL contexts.

Conclusion

In this chapter, we have tried to present the main points taken into account in the process of

writing and developing language textbooks. We have also mentioned the currently used approaches

for teaching foreign languages such as CBA, and CLT that most textbooks, at present time, are

based on. In addition, we talked about the main types of syllabuses in order to have an in-depth

insight on syllabus design. Finally, yet importantly, we presented the four skills and how to teach

each skill in the context of foreign language classrooms, and then we dealt with the issue of

integrating the four skills in teaching materials. In conclusion, we have attempted to describe the

most important learning strategies used by learners to facilitate their language learning, which

should be embedded in any language textbook.

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CHAPTER THREE

ANALYSIS OF THE CONTENT OF THE

ENGLISH TEXTBOOK

‘NEW PROSPECTS’
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CHAPTER THREE: ANALYSIS OF THE CONTENT OF THE ENGLISH

TEXTBOOK ‘NEW PROSPECTS’

Introduction .................................................................................................................................. 75

3.1 Teaching English in Algeria .................................................................................................. 75

3.1.1 Teaching English at the Secondary Level .................................................................... 76

3.1.2 The General Objectives of Teaching English in the Secondary Education ................. 79

3.2 The Content of the English Textbook ‘New Prospects’ (SE 3) ............................................. 80

3.2.1 Presentation of the Content of a Sample Unit .............................................................. 81

3.3 Analysis of the Content of the Textbook ‘New Prospects’ (SE 3) ........................................ 83

3.3.1 General Presentation ...............................................…................................................. 84

3.3.2 Analysis of Physical Appearance and Layout ............................................................. 86

3.3.3 Analysis of Texts ......................................................................................................... 90

3.3.4 Analysis of Topics ....................................................................................................... 94

3.3.5 Analysis of Intercultural Content ................................................................................. 95

3.3.6 Analysis of Language Tasks and Strategies Outcomes .............................................. 98

3.3.7 Analysis of Language Skills and Competencies ........................................................ 102

3.3.7.1 Receptive Skills ............................................................................................ 103

3.3.7.2 Productive Skills ........................................................................................... 104

3.4 Presentation of the Teacher’s Guide .................................................................................... 109

3.4.1 Evaluation of the Teachers’ Guide ............................................................................ 109

3.5 Discussion of the Hypotheses ..............................................................................................!112

Conclusion ................................................................................................................................. 113

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Introduction

The present chapter is divided into four parts. The first part sheds the light on the teaching of

English and its objectives in the Algerian educational system. As for the second part, it

introduces the textbook ‘New Prospects’ and its organisation. The third part is the core division

of our evaluative study of the textbook in which several criteria employed using a descriptive-

analytical approach to analyse the content of a sample unit. The textbook will be scrutinised by

means of content analysis on eight sections namely, general presentation, units design and

organization, texts, topics, intercultural content, tasks and strategies outcomes, and language

skills and competencies. Moreover, we will evaluate teacher’s guide using a composite checklist.

Finally, we will conclude our third chapter with a discussion of one of the hypotheses put

forward in our study.

3.1 Teaching English in Algeria

ELT in Algeria has been practiced since independence, ever since the status of English has

witnessed an increasing importance. In 1993, English introduced for pupils to choose as first

foreign language (EFL1) instead of French. In 2003, with the New Reforms, English was taught

only as EFL2 starting from the first year of middle school. As far as Algerian pupils are

concerned, Hayane (1989) points out that English benefits from a prestigious place among

Algerians, namely with young learners who are influenced by the language of mass media, world

entertainment, and internet, which is not equal to French, that is, the language of the colonialists.

In the Algerian Educational System, schooling is free and mandatory from the first grade of

primary school to fourth grade of middle school. English is taught in a limited context, in which

teachers use textbooks in the classroom as the main source of imparting knowledge. However,

French is used in the workplace and in teaching sciences and technologies.

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In the past, prior to 2003, English teaching begins either from the 4th grade of the primary

school if it was chosen as an EFL1, or it can be chosen as an EFL2 from the 2nd year of the

fundamental school. In the school year (2003/2004), with the New Reform, witnessed the

adoption of the CBA in teaching. What is more, the Ministry of Education prescribes curricula

for schools, designs materials, and publishes textbooks for public and private schools nationally.

In fact, there are two stages for teaching English in the Algerian educational system, which

are in both of the middle and secondary levels. The pupils usually start their learning of English

at the age of eleven where they spend four years in the middle school, and three years in

secondary cycle, until the last year, which is pre-university level before passing the

Baccalaureate exam, which enables them to go to university.

The reforms of the educational system, which are attributed to CBA, aim to enhance

communicative competence. The reforms until now have not yet been successfully implemented

in the English curriculum to create communicative textbooks and competent learners.

Secondary education pupils study for three years and then sit for the Baccalaureate

examination. The study is provided in public and private secondary schools and technicums.

In sum, the Algerian textbooks should be evaluated and revised periodically. However, in our

case the textbooks since their publication, they will be used for many years without any

modification until a substantial change of schoolbooks or an overall reform occurs.

3.1.1 Teaching English at the Secondary Level

The secondary education lasts for three years then ends with the Baccalaureate exam which

enables pupils to enter university if they pass it. Besides, secondary education is divided into

three branches as a literary, scientific or technology division, and its main role is preparing the

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pupils to carry on their studies in the higher education and scientific research. It is organised in

three branches which are, in turn, distributed into 9 streams. The divisions are as follows:

1- The branch of literature: Literature and Philosophy Stream, Foreign Languages Stream,
Literature and Islamic Sciences Stream.
2- The branch of sciences: Experimental Sciences Stream, Mathematics Stream, Technical

Mathematics Stream, Management and Economy Stream.

3- The branch of technology: Civil Engineering Stream, Mechanical Engineering Stream,

Electrical Engineering Stream.
According to the Secondary Education guidelines prescribed by the Ministry of Education,

the time allotted for English teaching is 3 hours per week for the middle schools, and for the

secondary schools, it ranges from 3 hours to 5 hours per week at most according the streams.

At the Secondary level, the timetable differs depending on each branch or stream and the year:

Branches Hours (per week) Hours (per year)

SE 1 SE 2 SE 3 SE 1 SE 2 SE 3
Common Branch Sciences and Technology 3 / / 81 / /
Common Branch Literature 4 / / 108 / /
Literature and Philosophy (Lit Philo) / 4 4 / 108 108
Foreign Languages (FL) / 5 4 / 135 108
Experimental Sciences (ES), Mathematics (Math) / 3 3 / 81 81
Technical Mathematics (TM), Management and
Economy (Ec.)
Electrical Engineering, Civil Engineering, / 3 3 / 81 81
Mechanical Engineering

Table 4. English Teaching Yearly Timing at the Secondary School (SE 1, SE 2, SE 3)

As prescribed in teacher’s guide, each stream must cover all the aspects of the syllabus

within four mandatory units, which indicates that the pupils do not need to study the total six

units. Thus, every stream is committed to teach the following themes in the time allocated:

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Themes Math – TM – ES – Ec. Lit Philo –FL

Unit 1: Ancient Civilizations

Unit 2: Ethics in Business

Unit 3: Education in the World

Unit 4: Advertising, Consumers, and Safety

Unit 5: Astronomy and the Solar System

Unit 6: Feelings, Emotions, and Humour

Table 5. Third Year Secondary Education Syllabus (Teacher’s Guide, p. 71)

English language teaching in the Algerian schools depends heavily on textbooks, which are

used by teachers refer to cover the syllabus in the schooling year, and pupils as well use their

textbooks to practise the four skills in each unit, which is organised around thematic lessons.

The following table shows the history of the local textbooks used in the secondary cycle:

Level Title of the textbook Author of the textbook Year of publication

1° A.S New Lines Kisserli, A. et al. 1981

1st year of My New Book of English Bereksi, K.E.S. et al. 1997
secondary
education Spotlight on English Merazga, L. et al. 2004
At the Crossroads Arab, S.A. et al. 2005

2° A.S Midlines Menasseri, H.et al. 1985

2nd year of New Skills Menasseri, H.et al. 1987
secondary
education. The New Midlines Achour, K. et al. 1997
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Getting Through Riche, B. et al. 2006

3° A.S Think it Over Menasseri, H.et al. 1988

3rd year of Comet Benzian, A. et al. 1997
secondary
education. New Prospects Arab, S.A. et al. 2007

Table 6. History of Algerian English Textbooks Used in the Secondary Education

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3.1.2 The General Objectives of Teaching English in the Secondary Education

In fact, according to the pedagogical recommendations presented by the National

Commission for the Reform of Education, the Algerian syllabus designers in 2002 has adopted

the CBA to teach all school matters including foreign languages subjects. Therefore, textbook

writers and the syllabus designers changed their teaching materials scope to focus on the learning

process and the learner rather than the product of learning and teacher-centred instruction. As a

shift in English teaching, learning strategies were introduced on the textbooks of Secondary

School, which is an attempt to acquaint the learners with cognitive and metacognitive strategies,

that is, raise their awareness of the benefits of learning strategies. They are usually used by good

language learners, which are embedded in a deliberate and learnable way in the textbook.

The overall objectives of teaching English in Secondary Education according to the new

curriculum are outlined in the ‘Programme d’Anglais Deuxième Langue Étrangère’(1) in 2006:

- The sequence of objectives in a consecutive mode, wherein the first year syllabus accumulated

with the second years acquired competences, after that third year syllabus will consolidate the

overall competencies attained from language skills and strategies.

- The terminal objective is that the pupils must produce a written essay correctly and legibly, in

different types of writing (descriptive, narrative, argumentative, expository, and creative).

- Teachers continue developing pupils’ skills and strategies targeted in SE1 and SE2, meanwhile

focusing on the Baccalaureate exam.

- In SE3 syllabus, English teaching aims at consolidating, deepening, and developing the sum of

knowledge, skills, and interpersonal skills acquired previously in the first and second year.

- The goal of English teaching is to help our society to integrate harmoniously with modernity.

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Programme d’Anglais Deuxième Langue Étrangère: Syllabus of English as a Second Foreign Language !

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The general goals and objectives of teaching English in the secondary education, as claimed

by curriculum developers are represented in using the textbooks to enable teachers with a

minimum time of preparation to present each lesson in order to complete the syllabus in the due

time. Second, they aim at fostering learners’ autonomy, and facilitating the task for learners to

use English in order to cope with the changing world. Third, they aim to raise pupils’ awareness

of the English-speaking cultures and integrating this awareness with the Algerian culture.

3.2 The Content of the English Textbook ‘New Prospects’ (SE 3)

New Prospects is an official English textbook designed by the Ministry of National

Education for third year pupils. For the authors the textbook complies with the New English

Curriculum objectives for SE3 as laid out by the National Curriculum Committee in March 2006.

The table of contents in ‘New Prospects’ is offered in a book map formula and it includes six

entitled thematic units, which are arranged into five main sections for each unit, which in turn,

consists of language outcomes, skills and strategies outcomes, learner’s outcomes, and

intercultural outcomes, besides to project outcome. The latter sections are split into functions,

grammar, vocabulary, in addition to the four skills development and the intercultural awareness.

The present textbook, in the table of contents provides six different theme-based units, with

thematic/topic-based syllabus. The textbook’s content can be illustrated in the following table:

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Contents/Units Topics Pages

Contents pp. II-III
Foreword pp. IV-VII
Book Map pp.VIII-XIII
Unit one : Exploring the past Ancient Civilisations pp. 14-44
Unit two : Ill-gotten gains never prosper Ethics in Business pp. 45-73
Unit three: Schools: Different & Alike Education in the World pp. 74-105

Unit four : Safety First Advertising, Consumers and Safety pp.106-134

Unit five : It’s a giant leap for mankind Astronomy and the Solar System pp.135-164

Unit six : Keep cool! Feelings, Emotions and Humour pp.165-195

Listening Scripts pp.196-205

Grammar reference pp.206-238

Resource portfolio pp.239-270

Acknowledgements pp.271-272

Table 7. The Contents of the Textbook ‘New Prospects’

We should mention that the organisation of the textbook units follows exactly the same

sequence of items, tasks, and layout. Furthermore, the number of pages for each unit is

approximately balanced; what is more, is that each unit is presented in a distinct colored three

lines along each unit. The textbook contains extra sections besides to the units called

Foreword, Book Map, Listening Scripts, Grammar Reference, and Resource Portfolio.

3.2.1 Presentation of the Content of a Sample Unit

According to the authors of the textbook Riche et al (2007), every unit of the textbook

contains two parts with two sequences for each part. The first part, “Language Outcomes” is

divided into Listen and consider and Read and consider. The emphasis of these two sequences is

to perform the tasks around the text through the study of grammatical structures, vocabulary,

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pronunciation, and spelling. The aim of this part is to give the students enough input and

exposure to the theme.

In the meantime, the second part “Skills and Strategies Outcomes” deals with the structural

and discursive aspects of the text, in order to develop students’ compositional skills and their

communication strategies. In this step, we can notice two sequences Listening and Speaking and

Reading and Writing, with a special reference on the practice of the four language skills and

social skills such as collaborative work, peer assessment, problem-solving situations, and so on.

In addition to these parts, there are different sections such as “Intercultural Outcomes” found in

each unit aim at getting pupils to use their skills and strategies inside and outside the classroom.

Each unit along the textbook starts with two images that aims to give the pupils an idea about

the theme or the topic of the unit. This section includes a remainder of the project outcome in

terms of performing it in pairs, small groups, or an individual project work.

Furthermore, each unit contains a section called “Think, pair, share” which is a rubric aims

to enable students to re-invest their listening and reading comprehension of the topic in speaking

or writing using a certain function (advising, comparing, informing, etc.) in pair or group work.

In the whole units of the textbook there is a section called, “Take a break” which is designed

as rest in the middle of the unit wherein pupils discuss a funny situation, proverbs, language

games or jokes about the theme of the unit. After that, the textbook displays another section

termed “Research and Report” intended to give pupils extra tasks and assignments in which they

use technological skills in their research like class presentation, fieldwork, or making web page.

The textbook is project-based presented as a sub-heading at the beginning of each unit and as

a web-based page. The section of “Project Outcome” is an area in which the pupils reflect their

output by practicing and integrating all the skills and strategies that have been learnt throughout

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the whole unit. The tasks differs according to unit theme which can involve writing a charter of

ethics), making a profile of an ancient civilization, making a survey on the impact of advertising,

designing an educational prospectus. Pupils also have the opportunity to design an astronomy

booklet, or write a booklet about strong emotions.

As for the “Assessment” section, it is of two main kinds found at the end of each unit. First,

it targets to train the pupils to auto-evaluate their skills and strategies integration through self-

assessment combined with peer assessment. In the second place, the objective assessment which

is devised by the teacher to the pupils in order to check their learning progress of language items.

As a conclusion to each unit, we can notice “Time For…” that refers to time for fun where

we can find famous songs presented with colorful images, emoticons, and singers’ photo. This

section suggests entertaining songs, poems in accordance with the theme of each unit.

3.3 Analysis of the Content of the Textbook ‘New Prospects’ (SE 3)

The general goals of the New English Curriculum can be achieved by the end of the

secondary education level. The latter objectives to be attained through three continual textbooks

designed by the same authors. Firstly, ‘At the Crossroads’ is the first English textbook for the

Algerian pupils in their first year of English study in the Secondary School. Then, on the second

year, the latter book is succeeded by ‘Getting Through’ which is intended for the second year

pupils. Thirdly, ‘New Prospects’ is the last book of the series of the three textbooks designed for

intermediate learners. It incorporates six units dealing each with discrete themes and topics (see

table 6). Typically, the textbook has a recurring design along all the units, whereby the units are

constructed of similar sequences and tasks types, which are arranged in the same layout.

Actually, each unit is made up of the same parts in identical order and sequence, for example:

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UNIT ONE: Exploring the past.

Language outcomes
• Listen and Consider ………………………………………..……………….. 15
• Read and consider ………………………………………..………………….. 29
Take a break ………………………………………..….……………………….. 30
Skills and strategies outcomes
• Research and report ………………………………...……………………….. 31
• Listening and speaking …………………………………………………….. 32
• Reading and Writing ……………………………………………………….. 36
• Project outcome ……………………………………………………………….. 42
Assessment …………………………………..………………………………….. 43
Time for ………………………………………..………………………………….. 44

Figure 4. The Structure of Unit One (New Prospects, p II)

Having said that, each unit in the textbook follows the same format shown above; we decided

to evaluate just one unit in order to avoid needless duplication. On this regard, we have chosen

the second unit of the textbook (Unit 2: Ill-gotten gains never prosper) because it must be taught

to all the streams whether literary, scientific or technological branch. Our evaluative study is

based on the application of the criteria in chapter one using a qualitative analysis of the textbook.

3.3.1 General Presentation

1. Bibliographical Information

- The title of the textbook: ‘New Prospects’

- Level of proficiency: 3rd year of Secondary Education cycle (7th year of English study)

- Authors of the textbook: Bouteldja RICHE (Head of Project), Si Abderrahman ARAB, in

collaboration with M’hamed BENSEMMANE

- Publisher: Office Nationale des Publications Scolaires (O.N.P.S) Algiers: Algeria.

- Date of Publication: 2007

- Number of pages: 272

- Components: Pupils’ Textbook, Teacher’s Guide, and the Syllabus of SE3

- Price: 250 DA

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Generally, in terms of physical appearance the book is acceptable based on our scrutiny of

the quality of images, illustration and the spacing between the lines in the texts. Besides, the title

of the book is indirect and enthusiastic but it is difficult for many learners to understand. Though,

the textbook is not accompanied with audio CDs for listening, DVD videos to watch, or

Workbook for more practice. The textbook have assessment part at the end of each unit still it

does not offer supplementary materials like achievement tests, flash cards and posters. As well,

there is no glossary which should give definitions of the key words stated in the reading texts.

2. Cover of the Textbook

Figure 5. The Cover Page of the Textbook ‘New Prospects’

The textbook’s cover page is illustrated from ElWatan(2), which depicts a photo of the university

of Algiers on the front cover and the one of Bejaia on the back. It serves as a prompt to pupils to

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ElWatan is an independent Algerian daily newspaper.

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work hard in order to succeed in their pre-university level. Similarly, the cover page embodies

two cultures in Algeria which are the Arab and Kabyle one to avoid any cultural bias.

We can say, therefore, that the general appearance of the textbook is fairly lacking

attractiveness, durability in usage, and it does not provide enough pedagogical support and

accompanying teaching materials to facilitate the teaching/learning process.

3.3.2 Analysis of Physical Appearance and Layout

We can notice that all the units follow an identical in the layout, organisation, and sequence.

For instance, unit two contains two parts, six sequences and many rubrics, as following figure:

Unit 2: Ill-gotten gains never prosper

Ethics in Business:
Fighting Fraud and Corruption

Sequence 1: Sequence 2: Sequence 3: Sequence 4: Sequence 5: Sequence 6:

Listen and Read and Research and Listening and Reading and Project
consider! consider Report Speaking! Writing Outcome !
! !

Getting started Getting started Before listening Before! reading

Let’s hear it Taking a closer As you Listen As you Read

look After Listening
Around the text Around the text After reading

Grammar Explorer Grammar Explorer Say it in writing Writing development

Vocabulary Explorer! Vocabulary Explorer!

Pronunciation and spelling Pronunciation and spelling

Think, pair, share! Take a break!

Figure 6. Organisation and Sequencing of Unit Two in “New Prospects”

- Part One: Language Outcomes

It holds two sequences and each one contains two or three sections around the text as follows:

− Sequence 1: Listen and consider

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Listen and consider begins with stating Language outcomes to be achieved, which involves

some tasks dealing with listening comprehension. It aims at developing the capacity to listen for

responding to a question orally or in writing, for example, answering comprehension questions.

The listening task is developed in three steps: first, Getting started activity is meant to stimulate

the pupils’ background knowledge of the topic. Second, Let's hear it, is passages to be read by

the teacher and the pupils are obliged to reply the tasks which focus on particular patterns of

language mentioned in the text, those tasks are found in grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation and

spelling explorers. Third, Think, pair, share tasks call for an interaction with other pupils and

their teacher. This sequence adapted from contains the following outcomes:

Language outcomes

● Expressing wish and desire with wish and it’s high time
● Asking for and giving advice and warning using should, ought to and had better,
● Pronouncing words ending in -ics
● Making a public statement

Figure 7. Language Outcomes with Reference to ‘Listen and Consider’

− Sequence 2: Read and consider

Read and consider begins also with stressing Language outcomes to be realised by the end of

the unit, it involves developing reading strategies like brainstorming and fact-finding. Indeed,

Read and consider consists of six rubrics. The first one is Language outcomes. The second,

Getting started, urges learners to discuss the topic before reading. The third rubric, Taking a

closer look, involves reading the texts individually, and answering the comprehension

questions. Likewise, there is another rubric termed Around-the-text related to two types of

activities Grammar Explorer concerned with the grammar of the text and Vocabulary Explorer

cares for the building vocabulary skills, lexis and sentence structure. The fourth rubric,

Pronunciation and Spelling, deals with practice of English phonetic and phonological rules. The

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fifth rubric, Think, pair, share, stresses individual work, pair work, and group work. The last

rubric, Take a break, presents activities deal language games, proverbs, songs, etc.

The latter sequences represent the receptive skills introduced to make use of listening and

reading comprehension of the text, they aim at getting students internalise the linguistic input

which they later exploit in producing oral and written discourse in the second part of the unit.

Each one of the previous sequences ends with in a rubric named Think, pair, share. For instance:

In (New Prospects, p. 52), pupils were asked (think) to write a short public statement about

fighting fraud and corruption, they were provided with main ideas using a spidermap. Then each

has to compare his spidermap with his partner to exchange ideas (pair). Afterwards, they join a

group to write the draft, they were given an introduction and useful information on writing.

Finally, they review (share) their public statement then one pupil will read it aloud to the class.

Part Two: Skills and Strategies Outcomes

This part includes four sequences meant to rehearse the productive skills using their input in

part one via tasks by composition strategies and skills together with communicative strategies.

− Sequence 3: Research and Report

The pupils engage responding to the tasks and assignments orally or in a written mode,

either alone, in pairs, or cooperatively in groups. It boosts teamwork and negotiation of meaning.

For instance, in (New Prospects, p. 52), pupils have the choice to choose one of two assignments

about punishment of people made frauds, or ethical issues in some foreign countries like cloning.

− Sequence 4: Listening and Speaking

Listening and speaking progresses from the pre-listening stage, which is termed as Before

listening, it comes with activities that predicts content of the text. Then, As you listen, moves to

activities requesting learners to listen for gist. After that, After listening, is post-listening stage

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activities targets to assist learners which involves of bottom-up listening of the texts. The fourth

subheading, Say it in writing, is a situation of integration which lets pupils to jot down their main

ideas related to the listening content in a piece of writing.

− Sequence 5: Reading and Writing

Reading and writing begins with skills and strategies outcomes on reading and writing to be

accomplished by the pupils in this sequence. As in the previous sequence, we notice pre-reading

stage as Before reading, and reading stage in As you Read, and finally After reading all focus on

the pupils’ use of skimming, scanning and summarising skills to understand the authentic texts.

In Writing development, pupils can express their ideas and feeling, give arguments with a good

command of language rules and the techniques of organisation, cohesion and coherence.

− Sequence 6: Project Outcome

The project outcome is a complex performance task to be done by the end of the unit, usually

involves extensive pupils’ inquiry and research using their competencies, strategies and the

abilities accumulated on the topic. Learners can benefit greatly from the projects through

enhancing their command of language and practising the skills and strategies they have acquired

throughout the theme.

The units are concluded with Language Assessment, it is intended for pupils to check their

progress (self-evaluation), and the project work of each learner in the group is assessed by the

teacher or another learner (peer assessment). This stage finishes with an objective assessment

devised by the teacher who selects a suitable text from the 23 extra texts provided for extensive

reading for that purpose from the resource portfolio.

Our analysis of the units’ layout, design, and skills sequencing indicates that there is a special

emphasis put on Writing whereas the speaking skill was overlooked. As far as the overall layout

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of units is concerned, each one has an identical design and organization, which can make the

textbook redundant, routine and even uninteresting or boring after a number of lessons. As

Hutchinson and Waters (1987) point out, “the author needs to recognise that layout, format,

typography, and graphics are essential for a successful textbook” (p. 8).

Another problem with the activities and tasks, which are not balanced, is the fact that the

textbook is too busy with sequences and various time-consuming activities in which teachers

cannot have sufficient time to cover the whole unit adequately. Consequently, they go quickly

through sequences without giving the learners enough time to practice and process what they

have learnt. The density, diversity, and length of its components do not match the weekly time

allocated in the yearly planning. This is why, many teachers stated that they skip important tasks

like Think, pair, share and Assessment because of the limited of time given to each unit.

Additional useful components of at the textbook like extensive reading texts in resource

portfolio and grammar reference. Though, it lacks glossaries and vocabulary lists,

communicative activities for with further opportunities to use the language in a meaningful way.

3.3.3 Analysis of Texts

The textbook contains a wide range of text types that have a relationship with the six basic

themes and topics of the book. It offers a large number of authentic texts adapted from books and

newspapers besides to some others written by the authors, as shown in the following table:

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Texts Units Titles Page Source

Text 1 Unit 1 Algeria at the Crossroads of pp. 22-23

Civilizations The Encyclopedia of Africana,
p.69
Text 2 Unit 1 Text pp. 37-38 Victor Skip, Out of the Ancient
word, penguin. 1967, p.61.
Text 3 Unit 2 Imitating property is theft pp. 54-55 The Economist, May, 17th 2003.

Text 4 Unit 2 Text pp. 66-67 Bill Mascull, Business

Vocabulary in English, p.90
Text 5 Unit 3 Education in Britain pp. 83-84 Guide to British and American
Culture, p.66.
Text 6 Unit 3 Education in America pp. 98-99 D.K. Stevenson, American life
and Institution, USIA, 1992.

Text 7 Unit 4 How is your Energy Balance pp.114-115 Written by the authors.

Text 8 Unit 5 The Solar System pp.143-144 The Book of Popular Science,
Grolier and Alan. E. Nourse,
The Giant Planets.
Text 9 Unit 5 Text pp.157-158 International Herald Tribune,
Tuesday, July 5, 2005, p.8.

Text 10 Unit 6 Feelings, Emotions and pp.174-175 The Oxford Guide to British
Humour and American Culture, p.192.

Text 11 Unit 6 What I have lived for p. 186 Bertrand Russell, 1872-1970.

Text 12 Unit 6 The Unicorn in the Garden pp.189-190 James Thurber, Fables of our
Time, pp. 196-198.

Table 8. ‘New Prospects’ Reading Comprehension Texts

In the textbook, texts serve as tool that opens for the learners new horizons on the world and

enrich their linguistic and cultural knowledge. In fact, the authors state that “New Prospects”

includes intensive/extensive reading and focus on the development of reading skills and

strategies by exercises and activities linked to the reading comprehension passages.

Texts evaluation and analysis tries to provide answers to the following criteria adapted from

(Cunningsworth, 1995, p. 80):

1. Is there a focus on the development of reading skills and strategies?

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2. How long are the texts? Do they encourage intensive/ extensive reading?

3. Is the content age-appropriate?

In fact, in the following analysis of reading comprehension texts, we used two types of

Readability Scoring tests in order to know the extent to which the texts of textbook is

suitable to pupils age and the progression of difficulty from the first unit to the last one. In this

regard, readability tests or readability formulas are methods for evaluating the readability of

text, usually by counting the number syllables, words, and sentences. Readability tests are

frequently used as an alternative to surveying the comprehensibility and the ability to

understand texts among human readers.

For getting the approximate grade for learners to comprehend texts, we use SMOG index:

1. Count a number of sentences at least 30 (three samples of ten consecutive sentences each)
2. In those sentences, count the polysyllable words (words of 3 or more syllables).
3. Calculate using the following formula:

A. Smog Index:

Text 1: Algeria at the Crossroads of Civilizations

Text 2: Imitating property is theft
Text 3: Education in Britain
The result of Smog Index is: SMOG New Prospects = 13.18

The results of the ‘New Prospects’ texts indicates that they correspond the reading level of

Grade 13 that is a college student, as McLaughlin (1969) states, “It is to be understood that

SMOG Grades 13-16 indicate the need for college education” (p. 645). Therefore, the texts

tested are not age-appropriate and beyond learners level.

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B. Flesch Readability Test:

It is designed to indicate comprehension difficulty when reading a passage of contemporary

academic English. The Flesch Reading Ease (FRE) use the core measures (word length,

number of syllable and sentence length), using the following formula: :

Scores can be interpreted as displayed in the table below:

Index 0-30 30-50 50-60 60-70 70-80 80-90 90-100

Difficulty Very Difficult Difficult Fairly Difficult Normal Fairly Easy Easy Very Easy

Text 1: 39.08
The results of FRE of New Prospects: Text 2: 41.67 = 45.39
Text 3: 55.26

The calculation of the score of the three texts distinctly and their mean ratio revealed that the

texts in general are not easy in reference to learners’ linguistic and cognitive level. According to

Flesch the texts level are best understood by “high school graduate”. He relates the reading level

of this kind of texts equivalent to reading Time Magazine!or New York Times.

As shown above, Graph 1 exhibits that texts difficulty begins at a difficult level of reading,

and then declines a little bit in the second text then decreases more in the third text, which is

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fairly difficult (more easy text). This graph reveals that the gradual increase of texts difficulty is

quite irregular whereby the first two units are more difficult than the final one.

A close inspection of the textbook texts revealed that they long (two-page texts) for the

learners and teachers as well. As well as, the comprehension questions asked about the text are

mostly literal (direct) questions, discourse-processing like paraphrasing, and inference questions.

It seems that most of the reading texts are from authentic materials and provided with

phonemic transcription. Nevertheless, the choice of some authentic reading texts is inappropriate

for the level of the pupils. For example, (in unit 2, pp. 55-56) the text is authentic material

adapted from The Economist weekly newspaper; however, it was difficult and long for learners.

In contrast, the learners take advantage of four to five extensive reading texts for each unit in

resource portfolio for leisure. Besides, the textbook focuses on the development of reading skills

and strategies such as skimming, scanning, summarising and recognising types of discourse.

We should say that errors in the first version of textbook published in 2007 was corrected and

rectified in 2011/2012 version as well as some units’ titles changed like last unit (Keep cool!)

changed to (We are family) and some texts added in resource portfolio.

3.3.4 Analysis of Topics

Needless to say, the textbook is designed on Topic-based and Task-based syllabuses, which

aim at developing communicative competence through meaningful activities around six topics.

On the same plane, each unit is entitled in a theme and a topic as above-mentioned in (table 7).

The table of contents displays that topics are the crucial organizing principle, which are

related to the themes of the unit. As to the number of topics, the textbook is limited to six units

cover several subject that cope with literary, scientific and technological concerns and interest. In

this respect, each stream should study four units according to learners’ specialty such as the topic

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of ‘Astronomy and the solar system’ in unit 5 in taught to scientific and technological streams

only whereas literary stream is not obliged to teach it, for more details see (table 5).

In this section, we are going to evaluate the textbook according to Skierso’s (1991) criteria:

- Are the topics up-to-date?

- Whether the topics are interesting for the learners or not?

The textbook compiled greatly on technologic and literary topics that can attract learners’ in

widening their knowledge such as (unit 1) whereby they explore the past and (unit 3) in which

they know about American and British educational systems, as well as the last topic (unit 6)

where pupils can express their feeling and describe their emotions. However, not all the topics

are not relevant to learner’s interest, that is, learner’s in the current generation favour discussing

topics from daily life technologies like social networking (Facebook), mobile phones, internet

and telecommunication. All the prior topics can be of great importance for learners rather than

those of the current textbook such as Astronomy (unit 5) and Advertising (unit 4). Some other

key topics are not given place in the textbook such as tourism, sports, and lifestyles of the

English-speaking countries, which are pertinent to pupils’ interest who prefer everyday topics.

Despite the facts that the textbook contains a great deal of interesting topics, particular units

are not up-to-date topics and motivating to adolescent learners. As expressed earlier, English

language textbooks should give this issue a predominant concern when writing textbooks

through surveying learners’ preferences and wants rather than prescribing out-of-date topics.

3.3.5 Analysis of Intercultural Content

In New Prospects, each unit have intercultural outcomes, which aims at widening pupil's

cultural knowledge of the different people around the world, as well as learning how to talk

about their own culture and accept the others. As stated by (Cunningsworth, 1995):

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Foreign language teaching textbooks no longer just develop concurrently with the
development of foreign language pedagogy in a narrow sense, but they
increasingly participate in the general cultural transmission with the educational
system and in the rest of society (p. 90).
As indicated by the authors of the textbook, these outcomes were integrated in learner’s

outcomes, as shown in the table below:

Unit Intercultural outcomes

1 - Developing positive attitudes towards one’s culture and those other peoples.
- Raising awareness about the contribution of the various civilizations to man’s progress
2 - Developing awareness about the importance of fighting fraud at international level.
- Comparing how different countries fight corruption and fraud.
3 - Comparing educational systems: past and present.
- Raising awareness about the differences between educational systems in the world.
4 - Raising awareness about the effects of advertising on different cultures and societies.
- Understanding the importance of integrating cultural features of a society into advertising.
5 - Developing interest in outer-space exploration.
- Discussing the change of mentalities brought about by the advances in astronomy.
- Raising awareness about the contributions of various people have made to astronomy.
6 - Developing understanding of the expression of feelings across different cultures.
- Raising awareness of others’ thoughts and feelings.

Table 9. The Intercultural Outcomes in ‘New Prospects’

However, there is no actual cultural syllabus included in the book aims at enabling the pupils

to discover the distinct foreign cultural aspects, in which the authors can devote a whole unit for

culture of the language and its society (e.g. accents, marriage, lifestyles, family, religion, etc.).

Regarding the issue of whether or not the textbook provides a comprehensive cultural input,

we use the following criteria suggested by Cunningsworth (1995) and Sheldon (1988):

- Does the textbook reflect cultural characteristics of the target language?

- Does the textbook include information about different people from different countries?

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- Does the textbook enshrine inaccurate or offensive images of gender, social class, or race?
As for culture, we find that there is no real content, which may open horizons about the target

language culture, except for some extracts. For example, in (pp. 83-84), ‘Education in Britain’

and in (p. 97), a diagram about the education in the U.S.A, likewise, there is a text in unit 6, (pp.

174-175), entitled ‘Feelings’ describing expressing feelings among British and American people,

also in this unit, in (pp. 179-180), there is a text about Princess Diana’s life story.

As for the second criterion, the textbook provides various facts, pictures, and illustrations in

both foreign and native learners’ culture at the beginning of each unit. Furthermore, in Unit 1,

(p. 30), the rubric ‘take a break’ is about Ancient Greek myth of Ulysses, also in the same unit,

(p. 35), a timeline of the Western civilization was given.

It is worth mentioning, in every unit, there is, an English song or a poem that has a cultural

viewpoint, providing an enjoyment and some hints about traditions of English-speaking people.

Concerning third criterion, the textbook uses one inappropriate religious picture, which can

be offensive for pupils as it portrays our prophet Yusuf (in unit 1, (p. 40), in the rubric ‘writing

development’) since depicting prophets, messengers, and companions is prohibited in Islam.

In general, the textbook offers good opportunities for pupils to learn about the culture of the

people and society from English-speaking countries and to talk about their achievements, for

example, in unit 5, (p. 162), the project outcome is about ‘Designing an astronomy booklet’.

Moreover, the textbook represents some snapshots from the western and the non-western world:

- In unit 1, pictures of the ancient Greek myth of Ulysses and the Ancient Egyptian civilization.

- In unit 3, a picture of a secondary education pupils Britain.

- In unit 5, two pictures of an Algerian observatory and Greenwich Royal Observatory in Britain.

- In unit 6, a picture of the marriage of Prince Charles with Princess Diana.

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3.3.6 Analysis of Language Tasks and Strategies Outcomes

Any textbook aims at both teaching knowledge and skills besides to prepare learners

effectively for success on examinations and to utilise the acquired skills and strategies in their

daily life. Therefore, it holds various exercises similar to those might pupils come across in

exams and tests. Accordingly, the tasks presented in New Prospects should act as preparation

tests by the end each lesson or unit. Besides, the textbook must provide a lot of meaningful

exercises and activities to practice language skills and learning strategies.

On whether or not the textbook provides comprehensive and communicative tasks, we use

the following criteria adapted from (Sheldon, 1988, p. 244):

- Is allowance made for revision, testing, and on-going evaluation; are ready-made achievement
tests provided for the coursebook, are 'self-checks' provided?

- Do the exercises and activities reinforce what students have already learned and represent a
progression from simple to more complex?

With regard to tasks, the textbook includes different types of tasks distributed in unit two,

they were analysed then demonstrated in the following table and graph:

Components
Unit 2 Grammar Vocabulary Pronunciation Language Skills Functions
Listen and consider 7 2 1 7 4
Read and consider 6 4 1 3 2
Listening and speaking 6 2
Reading and writing 4 2
Project outcome 1
Total 11 6 2 21 10

Table 10. The Distribution of the Different Types of Tasks in Unit 2 (New Prospects)

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25 21
20
15 11 10
10 6
5 2
0

Figure 8. The Distribution of the Different Number of Tasks in (New Prospects)!

Textbook analysis in terms of tasks reveals that the authors pay attention to the diversity of

exercises for each skill at its different stages. The tasks are clearly explained and progress from

simple to more complex; however, large number of tasks should be reduced to focus only on

what the pupils can master to cover the whole unit on time. In addition, ‘think, pair, share’ tasks

can boost cooperative learning, similarly ‘research and report’ rubric can be assigned as a

homework then presented in the class. The ‘project outcome’ aims to develop learner autonomy.

Unfortunately, there are no tests or models for exams neither in the textbook nor teacher’s

guide. In effect, teachers overcome this shortcoming through adaptation and/or supplementation.

With regards to tasks and activities, it can be suggested that overcoming time insufficiency

can be accomplished by assigning some exercises as homework for learners to be done at home.

A close inspection of the textbook reveals the existence of metacognitive strategy represented

in self-check progress reports at the end of each unit called ‘language assessment’ that help

pupils evaluate their learning progress and revise what have been learnt alongside the entire unit.

Regarding the second criterion; that is, the role of tasks in developing learning progressively.

We started evaluation with “Listen and Consider” rubric and “Listen and Consider” rubric as

fact finding, which comes directly after “Language outcomes” that states the learning objectives:

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• Expressing wish and desire with wish and it’s high time.
• Asking for and giving advice and warning using should, ought to and had better.
• Pronouncing words ending in –ics.
• Making a public statement.
After that, the pre-task termed as Getting Started in both rubrics, which initiates

brainstorming and prompts learners’ background knowledge about the topic through

comprehension questions and describing a picture. As shown in New Prospects (p. 46):

• Look at the picture and say what it shows. Then do tasks 1 and 2 below.

In fact, the picture shows unethical practices wherein questions are about ethics in business.

The second part in both rubrics, entitled ‘Let’s hear it’ about listening to an interview and

‘Taking a closer look’ about reading a text and answering comprehension questions. They are

followed by ‘around the text’ which contains ‘grammar explorer I & II’ to practise the rules in

its context meanwhile there is a tip for pupils to refer to ‘grammar reference’ for explicit rules.

However, some activities in the previous sections are beyond learners’ level, as we noticed

most of teachers skip difficult exercise such as ‘which clauses in the sentences are subordinate

clauses, and which ones are the main clauses’. The other activities in ‘vocabulary explorer’ are

concerned with word building such as suffix –ty, odd words, and prefixes dis- il-. The next

subheading is ‘pronunciation and spelling’ offers tasks related to one of the “Language

outcomes”; that is, using weak forms in connected speech, pronouncing final –ed and -s, as well

as stress shifting suffixes like –ic. Yet, from all the previous features, pupils are taught only

pronouncing final –ed and –s since the other features are difficult and not included in the exams.

The third rubric ‘Listening and Speaking’, starts with stating skills and strategies outcomes:

• Listening for gist.

• Listening for detail.
• Responding to opinions.

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• Defending opinions/points of view.

• Writing an argumentative speech.

With regard to this rubric, in the pre-task ‘Before listening’ pupils were asked to discuss

some questions about a picture ‘business is business’ and give their opinions about an unethical

practice. Then in the next task ‘As you listen’ aims at stimulating debate, whereas the third task

‘After listening’ asks pupils for expressing their opinions about the topic in a short dialogue

using an explicit instruction in the coping box (p. 62):

Coping
When we listen to debates about important issues, we don’t listen to get information but also to
appreciate the opinions/arguments which are expressed. As we listen we evaluate these opinions
by agreeing or disagreeing with them. We also form our own opinions about these or say issues
at the same time.

The last task, in the rubric ‘Saying it in writing’ the pupils are supplied with a topic sentence

and some expanding notes combined with many useful language expressions then they are asked

to write a draft in favour of ethics in business.

As a general remark, in this rubric speaking was overlooked and even listening tasks are

difficult for learners wherein there is no written dialogue to read except for a table contains

different statements to read; this is why, some teachers avoid teaching this task in the classroom.

The last rubric in of unit two, ‘Reading and Writing’ starts over again with ‘Skills and

strategies outcomes’ to be attained by the end of this sequence shown in (p. 65) as follows:

● Skimming
● Scanning
● Responding to a text
● Guessing the meaning of words from context
● Identifying and using reference words
● Writing a policy statement

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In this sequence, the pre-task ‘Before reading’ is about replying to questions concerning the

text to be read. After that, the task ‘As you read’ requires pupils to:

1- Skim through the text below and do tasks A and B.

2- Now scan the text and answer the following questions.
3- Find in the text words that match the following definitions.
After reading the text and responding to the previous questions, pupils are asked to do post-

task ‘After reading’ that embraces the ‘Coping’ box deals with the use of possessive adjectives

and reference words. At last, in ‘Writing development’ the pupils are demanded to write a policy

statement about ethics in business using some guidelines and useful language expressions.

We notices in this sequence that the textbook does not offer explicit guidelines for learners

and teachers to achieve the numerous objectives aforementioned. As a result, teachers should

focus only on the practical outcomes.

As far as the limitations of the tasks are concerned, our evaluation reveals that the textbook

lack focus on communicative activities and in particular the speaking skill, also there is a

prominence of grammar practice and vocabulary, which deviates from the (CLT) approach that

stresses communication. On the other hand, the textbook’s activities foster learner’s autonomy.

3.3.7 Analysis of Language Skills and Competencies

As mentioned earlier in ‘units design and organistion’ section, the underlying syllabus of the

textbook New Prospects is the multi-syllabus within a CLT approach (topics and skills),

followed by a language syllabus (grammatical and lexical) and a (functional) general language

functions and language learning strategies. The current syllabus holds and integrates both

productive (speaking and writing) and receptive skills (listening and reading). However, it does

put more emphasis on listening, reading and writing rather than speaking. As shown below:

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25 21
20 16
15
10 8
6
5
0
Listen and Read and Listening and Reading and
consider consider speaking writing

Figure 9. The Distribution of the Four Skills Tasks in (New Prospects)

!!!!!!!‘New Prospects’ aims to develop the following three competencies:

- Interacting
- Interpreting
- Producing
As stated in the syllabus, the reason behind introducing these competencies is mainly to

enable the pupils to negotiate the meaning, observe, reflect, analyse, synthesise as well as assess

through “inductive learning” individually and with peers.

3.3.7.1 Receptive Skills

Receptive skills are practised in New Prospects through using both 'top-down' and 'bottom-

up' models for both skills. Similarly, bottom-up model in listening starts with a picture or

passage, which requires pupils to derive meaning and expect the subject matter of the unit

through interpretation. Conversely, Top-down model used for reading skill that require learners

to use their background knowledge as well as explicit topic ‘text’ to attain comprehension.

With reference to ‘Listen and consider’, it aims to facilitate the main difficulties that pupils

always encounter in their comprehending of oral messages to get the general meaning. In this

regard, the textbook offered a large number of listening activities at the expense of the other

skills especially speaking. So as to develop a number of listening skills and strategies, including

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listening for gist and details, inferring meaning from context, recognize sounds, and learning

stress patterns and intonation guidelines.

In each unit, the teacher reads a listening script found at the end of the textbook. After

listening to the script in a form of an interview about ‘anti-corruption association’, the pupils are

asked to fill in gaps using missing words to check their comprehension. The advantage of the

scripts is introducing new grammatical and lexical items in ‘Grammar explorer’ and

‘Vocabulary explorer ’through performing meaningful tasks. However, the only disadvantage in

this sequence is the lack of audio tapes for listening in order to develop pupils’ pronunciation.

With regard to ‘Read and consider’, the textbook offers authentic texts adapted from

magazines, encyclopedias and books to instruct the pupils to predict the content of a text and

read efficiently using the strategies like skimming, scanning and recognising types of discourse.

For example, the text ‘Imitating property is theft’ in unit 2, is meant for the all streams which

aims at raising awareness about negative effects of intellectual property theft and developing a

sense of active citizenship.

It can be remarked that the textbook needs adaptation and supplementation especially in

relation to the listening scripts and reading texts, which are complicated, full of difficult words

and too long texts that are not suitable for the learners’ level of proficiency.

3.3.7.2 Productive Skills

Speaking is the most difficult skill for pupils, and its activities takes place through the

presentation of dialogues and practice of role-plays in pairs and group work activities. Moreover,

the speaking tasks are sometimes presented in pronunciation practice with listening activities.

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With respect to ‘Listening and speaking’ rubric, the speaking tasks require pupils to respond

to opinions and defending theirs, in addition to debating and arguing. For instance, speaking

activities are controlled and listening tasks acts as an input, as in Unit 2, (p. 63), the question is:

• Task: With your partner, prepare a short dialogue asking for and giving opinion about ethics
in business. Agree or disagree with your partner’s opinions. E.g.:
You: Do you think that women are more honest than men in business?
Your partner: ___________________________________________
In addition, the textbook contains also representing findings and using illustrations to tell

stories and share ideas about the subject to be discussed mostly in pairs to appeal pupils more.

The textbook overlooked the speaking skill, whereas listening is overstressed. The teacher

should create more opportunities for learners’ interaction to use pair-work exercises and role-

plays intended to increase more the individual practice. Furthermore, other types of tasks could

be proposed for encouraging communication skills such as presenting topics orally, turn-taking,

making requests, giving information, and acting out idiomatic expressions and plays effectively.

The writing process is vital subject for pupils in their exams and later life outside the class,

thus they should develop their writing skills and strategies in good writing styles. Consequently,

for this reason, each unit states again the skills and strategies that learners have to reach by the

end of the sequence. With these skills, pupils can then certainly write an expository, descriptive,

or argumentative genre in a form of an essay, write a story, or summarise a text. Moreover, write

a review for a book or a film and one of these can appear regularly in their examinations or tests.

Writing is taught through free and controlled models as a problem solving process. Pupils

analyse a specific genre in the first two units together with the form of the essay (e.g. Unit 1,

page 29 and Unit 2, p. 69). However, there is no part for teaching the steps of the writing

process. Each unit covers several writing activities; as shown in the following table:

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Unit Topic Page

2 * Writing a short public statement about fighting fraud and corruption. p.52
* Writing an opinion article about counterfeiting. p.58
* Writing a policy statement of ethical investment using some guidelines. p.69
4 * Free writing about the possible changes in our life styles. p.112
* Writing an expository article about food safety. p.119
* Writing an argumentative speech stating opinion about advertising. p.127
* Writing a letter of complaint about disappointing advertisement. p.130

Table 11. Writing Tasks and Activities in Unit 2 and Unit 4 ‘New Prospects’

Typically, the textbook uses pictures, diagrams, Coping box instructions, and plans in order

to make the pupils familiar with the topic, as well as draw their attention to the theme. For

instance, in (Unit 1, p. 31 and Unit 2, p. 58) there are many expanding notes and useful language

information given to facilitate the writing task for pupils.

In each unit, there is a ‘think, pair, and share’ sub-rubric for encouraging collaborative

writing, and ‘say it in writing’ as a part of learning outcomes, in addition to the ‘project work’

which impulses the pupils to develop their writing skills/techniques and to foster their autonomy.

Despite the fact that the textbook offers a variety of writing tasks ranges from controlled,

guided, free and semi-free writing to develop pupils’ abilities and skills. However, it can be

remarked that many tasks are difficult and long which can be done individually rather than in

pairs, also the textbook lacks punctuation activities that have to be added by teachers in the class.

As for ‘writing development’ section in the sequence ‘reading and writing’, enables the pupils

to express their opinions, give reasons, present arguments and they will be able to do the writing

tasks. By the end of the year, the pupils should write an organised, cohesive, and coherent essay

on the different genres; for example, in unit 2, the task is about writing a policy statement:

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• Suppose you were the manager of an ethical investment fund, i.e. a fund which
invests only in socially responsible businesses. Write a policy statement to inform
potential fund contributors about it. Follow the guidelines below.

1- Think over the opening statement in the diagram below.

_________________
The people and organisations who put their money into our fund want us to invest in ethical
ways, and we work hard to make their desires a reality.

_________________ __________________
supporting statement 1 supporting statement 2

________ ________
reason A reason B
_________ _________
__________!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!__________!
reason C reason D

__________
Conclusion
Diagram 1. An Example of a Writing Development Task in (New Prospects, pp. 69-70)

Expanding notes
• avoid companies that endanger the environment.
• refrain from investing in certain sectors - tobacco, arms manufacturing,
nuclear power, or uranium extraction.
• not place money in companies that lack ethical labour standards
(E.g. using child labour, bad working conditions ...).
• choose to invest in well-managed companies (transparent financial accounting).
• invest in companies that balance economic growth with social responsibility.

2- Write supporting statements in the diagram. Then jot down reasons to explain/illustrate your

statements.

3- Write your first draft of the policy statement using the relevant information in your diagram.

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4- Exchange drafts with your partner for error checking. Then write a final version and hand it to

your teacher.

The example above is a guided writing model aims at promoting the spirit of collaborative

writing and peer-to-peer feedback. The teacher instructs the pupils about the importance of the

opening statement and how to develop it into supporting statements. He/she also guides the

pupils’ on how to use the relevant information in the diagram and the useful language items.

As a positive feature of the textbook is the integration of the four skills in each unit, however,

it is in unbalanced way where the writing skill is overemphesised on the expense of the other

skills because of, as the authors claim, the fact that Baccalaureate is exclusively of written mode.

Each unit ends up with a ‘project work’, which is a comprehensive and complex task, usually

performed by the end of the unit. It aims at training pupils to make an extensive inquiry using

some guidelines in their drafts but the assessment tools of products are not specified in the

textbook or teacher’s book. However, the number of project works is large and most of the pupils

bring them ready-made from the web. Thus, teachers should as Aimeur (2011) suggests:

The number of project works designed for ELT in the Secondary School should
be reduced. In fact, completing five projects in the first year, eight in the second
and six in the third is time consuming and requires a lot of efforts on the part of
the learners. Add to this, English is not the only subject in which learners realize
projects at the end of each file of the textbook (p. 128).

She also recommends that teachers can assign three projects per year, that is, one project

work during each trimester. This would enable pupils to achieve their project works easily

relying on their selves in which accuracy should not emphasised over fluency.

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3.4 Presentation of the Teacher’s Guide

First, the Teacher's Guide (TG) is very helpful for teachers in the classroom, which can

contain a lot of valuable information on how to use the Pupil's Textbook efficiently and how to

overcome the difficulties that may happen in its application. In addition, it may offer lesson plans

and extra activities for more practice.

In fact, the TG is designed by the same authors of the Pupils’ Textbook; it contains a detailed

specification of the contents of each unit in addition to the keys of all the activities and tasks in

the Pupil's Book. The TG contains the following items:

ERRATA ………………………………………………..….…… 04
KEY FEATURES OF THE COURSEBOOK ………………..…. 09
ANSWER KEY: UNIT 1 ………………..………………..…….. 22
ANSWER KEY: UNIT 2 ……………………………………….. 42
ANSWER KEY: UNIT 3 ……………………………………….. 55
ANSWER KEY: UNIT 4 ……………………………………….. 69
ANSWER KEY: UNIT 5 ……………………………………….. 82
ANSWER KEY: UNIT 6 ……………………………………….. 98

Figure 10. The Teacher’s Guide Contents

With regard to the TG, unfortunately, not all the teachers, that we surveyed, were provided by

the school with copies of the TG but they can download it from many websites(3).

3.4.1 Analysis of the Teacher’s Guide

Teacher’s guides seem to be ignored by all the previous studies in this scope in the Algerian

context, therefore, we decided to evaluate the TG using a composite checklist designed by the

researcher contains twelve criteria, and the following remarks were noticed in our evaluation:

A. General Features:

1. Does it include a contents map?

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
(3)
http://www.edudz.net/upload/etudes/3AS/AUTRE/3as-autre-anglais-livre-prof.pdf

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Yes, the TG includes a content map with page number shows the subjects to be discussed.

2. Does it indicate the role of the teacher at different stages?

No, the TG focuses on the description of the approach that textbook is designed on in ‘Key

features of the coursebook’ and the ‘Organisation of the coursebook’! which, in turn, explains

each unit in details and its sequencing without dealing with the tasks. .

3. Providing practical guidance on how to use the material in the class. .

Yes, the TG gives a practical guidance for each unit, for example, in page 21, the authors of the

TG provides some suggestions for teachers on how to present the content of units to pupils. .

B. Methodological Guidance: .

4. Are teachers given techniques for activating students’ background knowledge before reading the text?

Yes, most of the reading texts were supplied with instructions, for instance, in the TG, page 27:

- Go through the language outcomes preview with your students the objectives of this section.

- Have the students identify the location of Algerian World Heritage sites, preferably on a map.

- Interact orally with the students using the title and the illustration to the text on pages 22-23.

E.g. What does the picture represent? What does the text deal with? Where is it taken from?

5. Does the manual suggest a clear, concise method for teaching each lesson? ?

No, the TG offers just some practical instructions on the way teachers develop the tasks, yet, no

single teaching method was mentioned explicitly, also no timing for each sequence was specified

which obliges teachers to skip some tasks in order to finish the entire unit in the due time. .

6. Does it provide some regular tests for evaluating the students’ progress? .

Yes, the rubric ‘Language assessment’ enables the pupils to check their progress using a

checklist ranked in ‘very well, fairly well, and not well’ which contains the language items learnt

during the one unit. After that, the teacher will make a test for assessing pupils’ skills and

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strategies by means of one of the texts in the ‘resource portfolio’ and the TG suggests one model

test with answer keys and grading scheme. .

C. Content of the Manual: .

7.! Does the TG make an explicit awareness of different learning styles and strategies?

No, concerning the learning styles there is no explicit or implicit indication about it neither in

textbook nor in the TG, but regarding learning strategies, the TG stresses the integration of the

three kinds of strategies within the four skills using TBLT to achieve the objectives outlined. !!!!!

8.! Does the TG explicitly inform the teacher how it can best be used for teaching each skill?

Yes, since the textbook is skill-based, the TG offers explicit many instructions on how to teach

each skill discretely, as well as integrating listening with speaking and reading with writing. .

9. Does the TG suggest appropriate ways for the teacher to evaluate each activity, lesson, and

sequence of lessons? .

No, the TG provides merely answer keys and how to explain the tasks of the textbook to pupils.

However, the evaluation of the pupils’ products, and how to deal with errors and difficulties is

not presented, which is confusing for many novice teachers who do not know how to overcome

learning difficulties. It can be overcome through make-up sessions or giving similar tasks easier.

10. Does it offer a clear answer keys?

Yes, the TG offers answer keys for each task and even the free writing tasks. The solutions are

accompanied with guidelines and some cultural information, for example, in page 28, TG offers:

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Taking a closer look (p. 21)

Interact orally with the students using the title and the illustration to the text on pages 22-23.
E.g. What does the picture represent? What does the text deal with?
Where is it taken from ? To whom is it addressed?
Have them skim through the text to check some of the answers they have providing during the
interaction. Then move on to the task proper.
Key:
1.False 2.True 3.True 4.True 5.False
Have the students refer to the text to justify their answers.

D. Supplementary Exercises and Materials: .

11. Are there accompanying materials: workbook, audio, video, posters, and tests? .

No, there is no supplementary teaching materials other than the textbook and teacher’s guide..

12. Does the TG provide supplementary exercises for each language skill? .

No, there is no single activity or exercise provided in the TG, which can substitute the difficult or

the long ones for the pupils.

In sum, from our scrutiny of the TG page by page we found that it is indispensable for

teachers since it contains answer keys and several ideas for teachers on how to present the

content of the textbook, however, it failed to consider the following points:

1- Indicate the role of the teachers and the learners too in every stage of the lesson.

2- Expecting learning difficulties and providing advice to overcome them.

3- Offer guidelines for evaluating how well lessons are accomplished.

4- Present extra exercises and sample progress tests.

In effect, for most of the teachers the TG is regarded as source of answer keys to the textbook

exercises, whereas the less experienced teachers consider it useful and they rely heavily on it.

3.5 Discussion of Hypotheses

On the basis on the results obtained from our analysis and evaluation of the contents of the

textbook and the teacher’s guide, the first hypothesis ‘the English textbook ‘New Prospects’ does

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not conform to the good textbook criteria’ in which we used a set of criteria from many

checklists in order to evaluate the textbook according to the aforementioned criteria.

Accordingly, after a careful scrutiny of the textbook, it has met merely three criteria out of

eleven. In fact, it showed many deficiencies concerning the physical appearance, topics, the tasks

and activities, and the intercultural content. Therefore, the textbook needs a lot of

supplementation and adaptation in order to conform to good textbook criteria.

Conclusion

In conclusion, we have noticed that the balance between the four skills is not appropriate, it

seems that there is an emphasis on reading and writing on the expense of listening and speaking

in the textbook. In addition, the textbook devotes a good deal of activities for pair work and

group work and others for problems solving tasks in the ‘project work’ and ‘research and

report’. This textbook has no glossary, which obliges pupils to use other strategies such as using

the dictionary or deducing the meaning of single words from the context. Most speaking

practices are presentations and making speech, there are few pair work tasks or dialogues.

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CHAPTER FOUR

FIELD WORK
CHAPTER FOUR: FIELD WORK

Introduction ...............................................................................................................................!!114

4.1 Data Collection and Analysis!............................................................................................... 114

4.1.1 Data Collection Instruments ...................................................................................... 114

4.1.2 Context of the Study .................................................................................................. 115

4.1.3 Pilot Testing of the Questionnaires ........................................................................... 115

4.1.3.1 Questionnaires for Pupils and Teachers ........................................................ 117

4.1.4 Data Analysis Tools ................................................................................................... 118

4.1.4.1 Statistical Calculation and Interpretation ...................................................... 119

4.2 Teachers’ Questionnaire ...................................................................................................... 120

4.2.1 Questionnaire Description ......................................................................................... 120

4.2.2 Questionnaire Analysis .............................................................................................. 121

4.2.2.1 Section One: Personal Information and Teaching Experience ..................... 121

4.2.2.2 Section Two: Teachers’ Evaluation of the Textbook ‘New Prospects’…..... 124

4.2.2.3 Section Three: The Four Skills in the Textbook ‘New Prospects’ ............... 135

4.2.2.4 Section Four: Textbook Alignment with Syllabus Requirements ................ 139

4.2.2.5 Section Five: Teachers’ Evaluation of the Teacher’s Guide ....................... 141

4.2.2.6. Section Six: Further Suggestions ................................................................ 143

4.2.3 Summary of Teachers’ Questionnaire ....................................................................... 145

4.3 Pupils’ Questionnaire!...........................................................................................................!148

4.3.1 Questionnaire Description ......................................................................................... 148

4.3.2 Questionnaire Analysis .............................................................................................. 150

4.3.2.1 Section One: Personal Information ................................................................ 15

 4.3.2.2 Section Two: Teachers’ Viewpoints on Learning English ........................... 152

4.3.2.3 Section Three: Pupils’ Evaluation of the Textbook ‘New Prospects’........... 153

4.3.2.4 Section Four: The Four Skills in the Textbook ‘New Prospects’……...…... 157

4.3.2.5 Section Five: Further Suggestions ................................................................ 163

4.3.3 Summary of Pupils’ Questionnaire ........................................................................... 163

4.4 Classroom Observation.........................................................................................................!165

4.4.1 Description of the Process ......................................................................................... 166

4.4.2 Remarks on the Observed Lessons ............................................................................ 167

4.4.2.1 Preparation .................................................................................................... 167

4.4.2.2 Presentation ................................................................................................... 168

4.4.2.3 Execution/Methods ....................................................................................... 171

4.4.2.4 Teacher/Pupils Interaction ............................................................................ 172

4.5 Discussion of the Hypotheses ..............................................................................................!173

Conclusion ................................................................................................................................. 173

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Introduction

The purpose of the overall research study is to evaluate the textbook ‘New Prospects’ from

multiple facets using different tools to arrive at consistent, pertinent, and reliable results as well

as avoiding any bias or subjectivity. The present chapter also focuses on the methodology used,

presenting the participants of the study, the instruments, and data analysis procedures in the

current study. It is also devoted to the analysis of the teacher’s/pupil’s questionnaires and

classroom observation process. The collected data and the results will enable us to identify the

textbook’s strengths and weaknesses from the pupils’ and teachers’ perspectives. Furthermore,

classroom observation was also utilised to collect data about the textbook in the actual classroom

practice of the textbook.

4.1 Data Collection and!Analysis

In the forthcoming section, we are going to discuss the methodology we used in our study.

4.1.1 Data Collection Instruments

In the present study, we used a combination of both quantitative and qualitative methods,

which give more reliability and validity to the research study. In effect, as we know, the use of

multiple data collection methods can eliminate biases, and add more consistency to the findings.

The quantitative data was gathered via two questionnaires for both teachers and pupils whereas

the qualitative data was brought from the classroom observation of the textbook application.

We have opted for a questionnaire, which is substantial source of information for many

researchers in order to obtain a representative quantitative data. In this regard, Cunningsworth

(1995) contends that a the most successful and effective procedure for evaluating textbooks is to

discuss their users’ views. Since the main users of the textbooks are the students and teachers,

therefore, their opinions toward textbooks should be collected. Likewise, (Dörnyei, 2003, p. 9)
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asserts, “By administering a questionnaire to a group of people, one can collect a huge amount of

information in less than an hour, and the personal investment required will be a fraction of what

would have been needed for, say, interviewing the same number of people.”

4.1.2 Context of the Study .

. The present survey was conducted in the region of Biskra and the participants, Foreign
Languages Stream pupils, were from four secondary schools. As shown in the table below:
Name of Secondary Schools Number of Pupils

Colonel Saïd Abid 28

Hakim Saadane 32

Larbi Ben M’hidi 30

Colonel Si El-Haouès 34

Total Number of Participants 124

Table 12. Participants Number and Distribution in the Four Secondary Schools

4.1.3 Pilot Testing of the Questionnaires

A pilot study was conducted to assess the clarity of the pupils’ and teachers’ questionnaires,

so as to collect more information about the items difficulty. In fact, the pilot testing of the

surveys was administered in one secondary school on December 2011, with a total number of 32

pupils and 3 teachers, after the supervisor of the researcher corrected the questionnaires. The

purpose of the pilot study was to find out to what extent the questions were clear and

understandable to the pupils and teachers as well. As a result, after conducting the pilot testing,

we revised many questions then rewrote them to increase their clarity and to facilitate the

analysis of results, wherein we used the four-point Likert scale instead of yes/no questions. The

feedback of the pilot study enabled us to enhance both of the questionnaires in the following:
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1. Teachers’ questionnaire:

- We reduced the number of the overall questions from 35 to 28 items.

- We reformulated most of the questions.

- We changed the open-ended questions from absolute ‘yes/no’ type to Likert four-point scale.

2. Pupils questionnaire:

- Due to large number of unfinished questionnaires in the pilot study, we translated the questions

into Arabic in order to enable all the pupils fully understand the items since our main goal is to

get a representative and accurate answer not to measure their achievement or level in English.

- We reduced the number of the questions from 35 to 23 questions.

- We changed many questions from ‘yes/no’ type to a four-point Likert scale.

When discussing with the pupils and teachers the issue of questions clarity and length, we

concluded that the cause of the low number of the questionnaires returned and mostly incomplete

papers was caused by their unfamiliarity with the vocabulary used in those questions. Thus, we

opted for the translation the entire questionnaire into Arabic rather than explaining each difficult

word and question in Arabic on the board.

After the pilot study and before writing the final draft of the questionnaire, we have sent via

e-mail a copy of both the questionnaires and the outline of our dissertation to Prof. Christopher

Kennedy, a senior lecturer at Birmingham University. He has, in turn, forwarded our

questionnaires to Dr. Gail Horton who had corrected the very first draft of the questionnaires.

Likewise, we contacted Prof. Brian John Tomlinson, the scholar in materials development and

evaluation, who provided us with insightful suggestions on the questionnaires.

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4.1.3.1 Questionnaires for Pupils and Teachers

The researcher has designed the teachers’ questionnaire with 28 items in simple, explicit, and

specific questions to fit pertinently the research requirements and the pursued objectives.

Through the use of open-ended questions using a four-point Likert scale and just three ‘yes’ and

‘no’ question types. In addition, we used multiple-choice answers for some questions to avoid

misinterpretations views and get precise responses and others with a possibility to write

comments. The summary of the teachers’ questionnaire sections is represented in the following:

Section One ! Personal Information and Teaching Experience

Section Two Teachers’ Evaluation of the Textbook ‘New Prospects’

Section Three The Four Skills in the Textbook ‘New Prospects’

Section Four Textbook Alignment with Syllabus Requirements

Section Five ! Teachers’ Evaluation of the Teacher’s Guide

Section Six! Further Suggestions

Table 13. Sections of the Teachers’ Questionnaire

In fact, the teachers our survey were chosen randomly from four secondary schools who have

been teaching third year pupils for more than two years; they count 20 teachers.

As for pupils’ questionnaire, in this survey, we have chosen randomly four secondary schools

pupils from the Foreign Languages Stream. In response to the pilot study, we have translated the

questionnaire addressed to pupils into Arabic due to the learners’ misinterpretation of some

questions; thus, to get more accurate and reliable responses. Meanwhile, we distributed the final

version of the pupils’ questionnaire on April 2012 to 124 pupils but only 118 papers were

returned completely answered. Henceforth, in this study, the results and the analyses are based

on a sample comprised of 118 participants instead of the total number surveyed 124 pupils.
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We insisted on the participants during the distribution of the questionnaires their answers are

very important. Afterwards, the questionnaires will be used for the scientific research only, they

will be neither evaluated by the teacher over the English proficiency nor the identity of the pupil

should be mentioned. Moreover, the pupils’ questionnaires were distributed before the end of the

lesson then we collected questionnaires administered at the end of the session then we asked the

rest of the pupils who did not finish their questionnaires to bring them back in the next session.

Thanks to the teachers who kindly encouraged their pupils to contribute in our survey we have

got most of the questionnaires were returned with full answers to the items.

We have divided the questionnaire into:

Section One! Personal Information

Section Two! Pupils’ Viewpoints on Learning English

Section Three ! Pupils’ Evaluation of the Textbook ‘New Prospects’

Section Four! The Four Skills in the Textbook ‘New Prospects’

Section Five! Further Suggestions

Table 14. Sections of the Pupils’ Questionnaire

We have reformulated several questions for the sake of a logical, concise, and free of bias

survey, in which we give priority to the reliability and validity of the means of data collection.

4.1.4 Data Analysis Tools

The data obtained will be analysed in a descriptive analytic approach and represented into

tables, histograms (bar graphs), and pie charts according to the nature of the question itself

whether Likert scale, yes/no or multiple-choice questions. Moreover, the percentage of each

question was represented in each table. The comments and suggestions will be summarised in

tables showing the informants’ views.

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We applied the arithmetic mean in the calculation of the results, which is often referred to as

the average of the sum of all the scores divided by the number of scores. As shown below:

Sum of the values (ΣX)

The arithmetic mean (M) =
Number of subjects (N)

4.1.4.1. Statistical Calculation and Interpretation

We used the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS 17.0) to analyse the data through

descriptive statistics. The SPSS calculations were applied to each question and per section for

each group of question to calculate the statistic mean and the Standard Deviation for the

questions of a four-point Likert scale. In fact, The SD is a common measure of the spread of

distribution data, which is broadly used in statistics for the assessment of variability. It explains

the variation or dispersion from the average mean. A low SD shows that the data tend to be very

close to the mean, whereas high SD shows that the data is spread out in a large range of values.

The results of the participants’ views and evaluation of each question were interpreted

according to the values represented in the following table:

Estimation Four-point Likert scale Statistical Mean Percentage Weight

From To From To

Very High 4- Strongly Agree 3.26 4 75 % 100 %

High 3- Agree 2.51 3.25 50 % 74.99 %

Low 2- Disagree 1.76 2.50 25 % 49.99 %

Very Low 1- Strongly Disagree 1 1.75 0% 24.99 %

Table 15. The Statistical Reference for the Results Obtained

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4.2 Teachers’ Questionnaire

The aim of the questionnaire for teachers is to investigate teachers’ views on the English

textbook ‘New Prospects’ from different aspects. The questionnaire is, therefore, used as an

important tool that helps us verify one of our research questions “Does the textbook meet

teachers’ expectations and pupils’ wants” and particularly whether the textbook is of a

considerable help and efficacy for teachers in realising the objectives of the syllabus.

4.2.1 Questionnaire Description

The questionnaire is composed of 28 questions grouped into six sections. The first section

requested personal information and teaching experience and the questions asked are five about

age, gender, English teaching diploma, and teaching experience. In the second section, teachers

were asked to evaluate the textbook ‘New Prospects’ and to express their perceptions on its

content during their teaching using it. The questions in this part ranged from surveying teachers’

views on the textbooks’ physical appearance to its topics and teaching the four skills …etc. .

. The third section deals with alignment of the textbook with syllabus requirements and

matching its objectives, however, the fourth section is dedicated to the teachers’ guide and to

what extent the teachers are satisfied with its guidance and help. Furthermore, the fifth section

put emphasis on the four skills in which we asked about speaking, listening, reading, and the

project work, writing process, and the feedback given to pupils. As a concluding section, we

insisted on teachers to express any suggestions for improving the future textbooks quality.

We have handed 25 questionnaires to teachers of English from the four secondary schools

mentioned earlier and other teachers we know such as colleagues and three former teachers of

the researcher. We have chosen 20 complete questionnaires to analyse out of 21 returned. All the
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teachers surveyed have been teaching third year level for more than two years. Henceforth, they

have already used the textbook and they know well its content.

4.2.2 Questionnaire Analysis

In this descriptive analytical part, we are going to analyse the results of the questionnaires,

and represent the mean values calculated in percentages which will be displayed in tables and

graphs, then we will proceed in the interpretation of the results for each questions and section.

4.2.2.1 Section One: Personal Information and Teaching Experience

Q1. What is your age?

Age Frequency Percentage

Less than 25 years-old 4 20 %

26 to 31 years-old 6 30 %

32 to 37 years-old 2 10 %

38 to 44 years-old 5 25 %

Over 45 years-old 3 15 %

Total 20 100 %

Table 16. Teachers’ Age Categories

We can notice that half of the teachers are young aged under 31 year-old followed by more

than third of them aged between 32 and 44 year-old while less than quarter are over 45 year-old.

This means that our sample is covers three main populations, a young energetic and enthusiastic

teachers with less experience and a second category of active teachers with a considerable

experience whereas teachers over 45 year-old have long experience in teaching using textbooks.
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Q2. What gender are you?

Gender Frequency Percentage

Male 7 35 %

Female 13 65 %

Total 20 100 %

Table 17. Teachers’ Gender

35%

Male

Female

65 %

Figure 11. Teachers’ Gender

As can be seen from the table and the figure above, the participants in this study are mostly

female teachers (65%) and the distribution of males (35%) is one third of the whole population.

Q3. What is your qualification?

Qualification Frequency Percentage

a- BA (License degree) 12 60 %

b- MA (Master degree) 2 10 %

c- PES(1) 6 30 %

Total 20 100 %

Table 18. Teachers’ Qualification

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
(1)
!Diplôme de Professeur de l’Enseignement Secondaire en la langue Anglaise: means Diploma of Teacher of
English in the secondary cycle, it is awarded from teacher training institutes after 5 years of study.
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The purpose of this question is to identify the qualification of the teaching staff in the high

schools, as indicated in the table above, the majority of teachers hold a License Degree (60%)

while the qualified teachers with a PES degree represent (30%) which is about a third of the

population whereas only 2 teachers (10%) have a Master Degree. However, the teacher’s level

can be enhanced through experience and teaching training workshops for teacher development.

10%

60%
BA (License degree)
MA (Master degree)
PES

30%

Figure 12. Teachers’ Qualification

Q4. How many years have you been teaching English?

Years of experience Frequency Percentage

1 to 5 years 3 15 %

6 to 10 years 2 10 %

11 to 15 years 7 35 %

16 to 20 years 5 25 %

More than 20 years 3 15 %

Total 20 100 %

Table 19. Teachers’ Experience

In this question, we have classified the teachers’ years of experience into five categories,

each made up of 4-year period. The participants of the study represented all the categories.!!!
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50%

40% 35%
30% 25%
20% 15% 15%
10%
10%

0%
1 to 5 years 6 to 10 years 11 to 15 years 16 to 20 years More than 20 years

Figure 13. Teachers’ Experience

As far as the teaching experience is concerned, we can discern that the largest proportion of

the surveyed participants are experienced teachers (75%) of them have more than 10 years of

teaching experience. This displays that they are familiar with the English teaching and the third

year syllabus. Therefore, they have been using the textbook ‘New Prospects’ since its

application, which enables them to identify the strengths and the shortcomings of the textbook.

However, the novice teachers with less than 10 years of experience represent (25%) of the

overall teachers. Besides, there are three teachers (15%) with more than twenty years in ELT.

The average mean of the whole population is 18 years of experience in teaching English.

4.2.2.2 Section Two: Teachers’ Evaluation of the Textbook ‘New Prospects’

Q5. The textbook is visually attractive to your pupils in terms of illustrations, cover, and texts.

Scale options Frequency Percentage Mean S.D

4- Strongly agree 0 0%
3- Agree 11 55 %
2- Disagree 7 35
2.45 0.47
1- Strongly Disagree 2 10 %
Total 20 100 %

Table 20. Teachers’ Views on the Visual Appearance of the Textbook

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55%

35%
Strongly Agree

Agree

Disagree

10% Strongly Disagree

Figure 14. Teachers’ Viewpoints on the Visual Appearance of the Textbook

Table (19) and Figure (13) show that more than half of the teachers (55%) expressed their

satisfaction of the physical appearance of the textbook and its attractiveness. Despite the fact that,

(35%) of the teachers indicated that textbook’s illustrations, cover and texts are unattractive while

two teachers (10%) conveyed their strong disagreement towards those features in the textbook.

However, the striking result is that no single teacher chose strongly agree which means they do

not consider it as an excellent textbook in the physical appearance. The statistical mean of this

statement is (2.45) which tends to be low and the standard deviation is (0.47).

If you see it attractive, what is interesting to your pupils in the textbook?

In fact, among those teachers who agreed on the attractiveness of the physical appearance of the

textbook, just two teachers expressed their views. As illustrated in the following table:

- The combination of texts, pictures, and graphs in colours.

- The kind of the illustrations that are found in the book especially those related to grammar.
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Q6. The design and organisation of units is appropriate, clear and effective.

Scale options Frequency Percentage Mean S.D

4- Strongly Agree 3 15 %

3- Agree 6 30 %

2-Disagree 9 45 % 2.50 0.78

1-Strongly Disagree 2 10 %

Total 20 100 %

Table 21. Teachers’ Appraisal of the Units’ Design and Organisation

30%
15%
Strongly Agree

10%
Agree

Disagree

Strongly Disagree

45%

Figure 14. Teachers’ Assessment of the Units’ Design and Organisation

The results of table (20) revealed that the number of teachers (45%) who are not satisfied

with the textbook’s design and organization of units outnumbered the teachers (30%) who show

approval to textbook’s sequence of units. In addition, out of the surveyed teachers (15%) of them

strongly agreed with the statement while (10%) disagreed strongly. In this statement, the

statistical mean is (2.50) and the standard deviation scored (0.78).

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If you disagree, please state why?

In fact, the teachers who disagreed on the sequence of the units stated the following reasons:

- The sequence of the four skills is not appropriate for the lesson plan.
- The units are dense and long for pupils and teachers.
- Adapting the order of skills as listening and reading at the beginning then speaking and
writing come at the end of the unit.
!

Q7. You find the textbook useful to learn about the English-speaking cultures.

Scale options Frequency Percentage Mean S.D

4- Strongly Agree 4 20 %
3- Agree 2 10 %
2-Disagree 8 40 % 2.00 0.71
1-Strongly Disagree 6 30 %
Total 20 100 %
Table 22. Teachers’ Evaluation of the Cultural Content of the Textbook

The wide majority of teachers (40%) disagreed that the cultural content about English-

speaking countries in the textbook is far from the norm while (20%) of the teachers strongly

disagreed. We think the reason behind this discontent is the lack of explicit texts about culture

such as famous cities, celebrities, life-styles and other issues about the English culture. This

statement scored (2.00) as a mean and (0.71) as a standard deviation.

Q8. The tasks and exercises in the textbook ‘New Prospects’ are relevant to pupils’ interests.

Scale options Frequency Percentage Mean S.D

4-Strongly Agree 0 0%
3-Agree 9 45 % 2.25 0.51
2-Disagree 7 35 %
1-Strongly Disagree 4 20 %
Total 20 100 %

Table 23. Teachers’ Evaluation of the Tasks and Exercises

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Actually, (45%) of the teachers agreed that the tasks and exercises of the textbook are

relevant to pupils level and interests. Surprisingly, no single teacher strongly agreed on this

statement. However, those teachers who did not agree on this issue represent (35%) and those

who strongly disagreed are (20%) out of the population surveyed. This statement scored (2.25) as

a mean and (0.51) as a standard deviation.

Q9. The group work activities of the textbook encourage cooperative learning.

Scale options Frequency Percentage Mean S.D

4-Strongly agree 4 20 %
3- Agree 13 65 %
2- Disagree 2 10 % 3.00 0.66
1- Strongly Disagree 1 5%
Total 20 100 %

Table 24. Teachers’ Appraisal of Group Work Activities in the Textbook

From the table (24) above, we can remark that the wide majority of teachers (65%) favoured

the group work activities in the textbook and (20%) strongly agreed on this matter. However,

two teachers (10%) expressed their disagreement towards the cooperative learning strategies

tasks and only one (5%) strongly agreed. As a final point, some teachers avoid using group work

activities because it is very difficult for teachers to monitor all the pupils’ performance.

Q10. Tasks and activities should be adapted to suit pupils’ needs.

Scale Options Frequency Percentage Mean S.D
4- Strongly agree 6 50 %
3- Agree 7 35 %
2.75 0.79
2- Disagree 3 15 %
1- Strongly Disagree 4 20 %
Total 20 100 %

Table 25. Teachers’ Views on the Adaptation of the Tasks and the Activities
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As we have pointed out before, most of the teachers (50%) strongly agreed to adapt the tasks

of the textbook to suit their pupils’ level and the class size and (35%) showed their agreement.

On the other hand, (15%) of the teachers disagreed to adapt the tasks they use and (20%) of the

teachers strongly disagreed to adapt them.

Q11. The texts in the textbook ‘New Prospects’ are suitable to pupils’ level.
Scale Options Frequency Percentage Mean S.D
4-Strongly Agree 2 10 %
3-Agree 3 15 %
2-Disagree 8 40 % 1.65 0.42
1-Strongly Disagree 3 15 %
No answer 4 20 %
Total 20 100 %

Table 26. Teachers’ Evaluation of the Texts Suitability in the Textbook

The table (26) above shows that only two teachers (10%) provided a strong agreement

answer to this question and (15%) agreed, whereas the large majority of teachers (40%) consider

the texts of the textbook as unsuitable to pupils’ level and the rest teachers (15%) chose strongly

disagree option. However, four teachers (20%) left this question unreplied.

If you agree, what do you use in adapting them?

a- Use similar texts on the same theme which fit your pupils’ level; 7 43.75%
b- Extracts from specialist books related to pupils’ level; 1 6.25%
c- Authentic articles adapted from Internet websites; 4 25 %
d- Replace difficult words with easier synonyms; 2 12.5 %
e- Reduce text length: omit parts or paragraphs. 2 12.5 %
No answer 4 20 %
Total 16 100 %

Table 27. Teachers’ Adaptation Techniques of the Texts in the Textbook

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The majority of teachers (43.75%) supplement the texts of the textbook through adapting

similar passages related to the theme of the unit, which they think they fit their pupils’ level who

find a difficulty in understanding the texts. Some other teachers (25%) use authentic texts

downloaded from the internet to suit the pupils’ level and interest. Yet, some other teachers

(12.5%) supply the text with synonyms for difficult words or they reduce its length and the same

percentage pointed out that they reduce the length of the paragraphs. Only one teacher (6.25%)

stated that he/she uses specialist materials like books, novels, or magazines to compensate the

limitations of the current texts.

Q12. You often use audio-visual aids in your class to supplement the textbook.

Scale Options Frequency Percentage Mean S.D

4-Strongly Agree 2 10 %

3-Agree 6 30 %

2-Disagree 3 15 % 2.05 0.44

1-Strongly Disagree 9 45 %

Total 20 100 %

Table 28. Teachers’ Use of Audio-visual Aids in the Classroom

From this question, we wanted to survey to what extent the audio-visual resources such as

audio-cassettes, educational videos, and slideshows are frequently used in the classroom, which

can play significant role in exposing the pupils to native speakers’ conversation. Moreover,

using audio-visual aids in the class can make the lesson more attractive to learners who are used

to learn through the traditional materials only such as the blackboard and the books merely.

The statistical mean of this statement is (2.05) and the standard deviation is (0.44).
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30 %
15 %
10 %
Strongly Agree

Agree

Disagree

Strongly Disagree

45 %

Figure 16. Teachers’ Use of Audio-visual Aids in the Classroom

It is clear from the figure (16) that the majority of the participants (45%) did not use any

audio-visual aids in their classes. To some extent, (30%) of the teachers often and very often

have used those resources in the class, whereas (15%) use it rarely and (10%) sometimes use it.

Q13. Can you cover the textbook in the time allocated?

Scale Options Frequency Percentage Mean S.D

4- Strongly Agree 2 10 %

3- Agree 2 10 % 1.87 0.72

2-Disagree 9 45 %

1-Strongly Disagree 7 35 %

Total 20 100 %

Table 29. Teachers’ Views on the Sufficiency of the Time Allocated

Due to the length of each one of the four units to be taught for each stream, we can see that

the vast majority of teachers (80%) regard the time allocated for teaching English is insufficient

to cover the four units prescribed sufficiently, this is why the last unit of the textbook ‘Feelings,
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emotions, humour and related topics’ is not included in the Baccalaureate exam. However, some

teachers (30%) from their experience expressed that they can cover the textbook in the due time.

If the time is insufficient, how many hours per week do you suggest?

4 hours/week 2 10 %

5 hours/week 16 80 %

6 hours/week 2 10 %

Total 20 100 %

Table 30. Teachers’ Suggestions of the Sufficient Hours per week

Most of the teachers (80%) think that the time that should be given to teaching English is 5

hours per week in order to cover the textbook adequately. Still, two teachers suggest that 4 hours

per week are sufficient, while the other teachers (10%) recommend 6 hours per week to apply the

syllabus accurately. As we mentioned before, the literary streams have 4 hours per week whereas

the scientific streams have 3 hours.

Q14. You have books as a supplementary for teaching English in the classroom.

Scale Options Frequency Percentage Mean S.D

4-Strongly Agree 4 20 %

3-Agree 6 30 % 2.40 0.61

2-Disagree 4 20 %

1-Strongly Disagree 6 30 %

Total 20 100 %

Table 31. Teachers’ Supplementation Materials for Teaching English

As table (31) indicates, the number of teachers who supplement the textbook is equal to those

who did not. Therefore, (20 %) teachers strongly agree that they complement the textbook with
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other teaching materials to suit their pupils’ level and teachers’ wants, besides (30%) of the

teachers agree on this issue. But, half of the teachers (50%) do not supplement the textbook

wherein they use it as the unique resource in the classroom without any supplementary book. The

statistical mean of this statement is (2.40) and the standard deviation is (0.61).

Would you please mention its title and author if possible?

Teacher 1 English grammar _ English pronunciation _ English tests

Teacher 2 English grammar for beginners / Guide methodologique en evaluation pedagoique/

Standardised English tests / Salah Chiad the blue book of grammar and
pronunciation , English grammar in easy way, in addition to Web Resources

Teacher 3 I do not remember their authors. They are: Pass your Bac, prepared by me, Can I

help you, Get well prepared for your Bac.

Teacher 4 Jeremy Harmer How to teach English

Teacher 5 Workbook – Anglais 3°AS, by Chenni Abdelfateh and Benbouza Abdellah

Teacher 6 English, Open Doors by Mustapha Louznaji

The rationale behind this question is to get an idea about the type of the materials used to

supplement the textbook, we found that most teachers design their own resources or use the

internet as well as utilising the locally produced materials and tests for the Baccalaureate pupils

or some of the international English books.

Q 15: In your view, which one of the following drawbacks the textbook have?

a- It is too long for the assigned class hours; 5 25%

b- It does not give enough time to practice. 15 75%

Table 32. Teachers’ Perception of the Textbook’s Drawbacks

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From the table (32) above, we observe that the wide majority of teachers (75%) confirm

that the notable disadvantage of the textbook is the lack of practice inside or outside the

classroom; while quarter of the teachers (25%) think that the content is too long for the

allocated class hours. Thus, pupils need a workbook to supplement the textbook which will

contain self-study tasks besides to some answer keys of the previous Baccalaureate exams.

c. Others, please specify.

It is not attractive for pupils, it doesn't seem interesting for them so, the teacher has to make

efforts to cope with learners and have to adapt constantly, that needs efforts as well!

We have not enough time to practice all what text textbook contains.

It doesn’t cater for the needs of pupils and their learning needs.

4.2.2.3 Section Three: The Four Skills in the Textbook ‘New Prospects’

Q16. The textbook can develop pupils’ reading skills (fast, fluently, confidently) and strategies.

Scale options Frequency Percentage Mean S.D

4- Strongly Agree 5 25 %

3- Agree 3 15 % 2.65 0.84

2-Disagree 10 50 %

1-Strongly Disagree 2 10 %

Total 20 100 %

Table 33. Teachers’ Evaluation of the Reading Skills and Strategies

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25%
10%

Strongly Agree
15%

Agree

Disagree

Strongly Disagree

50%

Figure 17. Teachers’ Evaluation of the Reading Skills and Strategies

The results above display that (50%) of the teachers disagreed that pupils’ reading skills and

strategies have developed, it may be due to the length of the reading comprehension texts, which

cannot be read by the teacher then the pupils since the lesson time is limited and (10%) strongly

disagreed. Whereas nearly half of the teachers were in favour of the textbook’s reading

outcomes, which is stated at the beginning of each unit, wherein (25%) of them are showed

strong agreement and (15%) others agreed. The statistical mean is (2.65) and the SD is (0.84)

Q17. By the end of each unit, you have seen an improvement in pupils’ speaking skill.

Scale Options Frequency Percentage Mean S.D

4- Strongly Agree 2 10 %

3- Agree 5 25 % 2.37 0.59

2- Disagree 6 30 %

1- Strongly Disagree 3 15 %

No Answer 4 20 %

Total 20 100 %

Table 34. Teachers’ Appreciation of Pupils’ Speaking Skill

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The results of table (34) show that the majority of the surveyed teachers (30%) believe that

pupils’ speaking skill has not improved. Thus, we think, form our analysis of the textbook, that

the cause is the emphasis on teaching English for exams wherein teachers focus on pronunciation

tasks without encouraging pupils’ interaction and communication in the target language. Still

(25%) of teachers appreciate the speaking tasks and dialogues of the textbook in improving

pupils’ speaking proficiency. However, two teachers (10%) of the overall population were very

stratified whereas (15%) were very dissatisfied. The mean is (2.37) and the SD is (0.59).

Q18. You are satisfied with the listening exercises, and you find them useful.

Scale Options Frequency Percentage Mean S.D

4- Strongly Agree 3 15 %

3- Agree 6 30 % 2.40 0.62

2- Disagree 7 35 %

1- Strongly Disagree 4 20 %

Total 20 100 %

Table 35. Teachers’ Appreciation of the Listening Exercises

As we have seen in the previous chapter the listening tasks aims to equip learners with many

skills such as listening for gist and for detail, however, the exercises are long for the available

time on the class. Therefore, the teachers (55%) who think that the exercises are not useful

confirmed that the activities are not suitable to the size of the class. However, (45%) of the

surveyed teachers express their consent of the listening tasks as useful activities in the classroom.
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Q19. The textbook contains adequate exercises to develop writing skill.

Scale Options Frequency Percentage Mean S.D

4-Strongly Agree 4 20 %

3-Agree 3 15 %
2.43 0.56
2-Disagree 5 25 %

1-Strongly Disagree 4 20 %

No answer 4 20 %

Total 16 100 %

Table 36. Teachers’ Evaluation of the Adequacy of Exercises in Developing Writing Skill

Writing exercises as we have shown in the previous chapter are long tasks, but useful ones in

preparing pupils to develop their writing skill. In fact, (20%) of the surveyed teachers view the

exercises as adequate activities in developing pupils’ writing skill and (20%) strongly agreed. On

the other hand, (25%) disagreed and consider inadequate to develop this vital skill while (20%)

strongly disagreed. Yet, (20%) of the teachers were reluctant and left the question unanswered.

The statistical mean for this statement is (2.43) and the SD is (0.56).

Q20. At which stage of writing do you think your pupils face difficulties?

a- Pre-writing stage 3 15 %

b- Writing stage 15 75 %

c- Re-writing stage 2 10 %

Table 37. Teachers’ Evaluation of the Pupils’ Difficulties in the Writing Process Stages
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10%
15%
Pre-writing stage

Writing stage

Re-writing stage

75%

Figure 18. Teachers’ Evaluation of the Pupils’ Difficulties in the Writing Process Stages

In the figure (17), the large majority of teachers (75%) think that the pupils encounter most

of the difficulties in the writing stage when jotting down their ideas in a cohesive and coherent

essay which needs more attention from the teachers. Other teachers (15%) point out that pupils

face difficulties in the pre-writing stage during generating ideas and the outline of the essay.

Some other teachers (10%) state that pupils find difficulties in the re-writing or revising stage.

Q21. What type of errors that you encounter in pupils’ writing composition?

a- Grammar 6 30 %

b- Organisation 4 20 %

c- Vocabulary 5 25 %

d- Mechanics (spelling punctuation) 3 15 %

d- Content (quality of ideas) 2 10 %

Table 38. Teachers’ Evaluation of the Pupils’ Errors in Writing Composition

As it is clearly remarked, the majority of teachers when they correct the essays of pupils

analytically they found that pupils’ errors in their composition products were those of grammar

(30%). While vocabulary constitutes (25%) of the errors like wrong inflection and word
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formation. Then organisation of ideas makes (20%) of the whole errors. After that, the

mechanics (15%) errors like indentation, punctuation, capitalisation, and spelling. At last, the

content of ideas (10%) such as relevance of the ideas. In fact, the correction of pupils’ errors is

not enough; teachers should indicate treat them through providing an oral/written feedback.

4.2.2.4 Section Four: Textbook Alignment with Syllabus Requirements

Q22. The textbook can achieve its objectives as indicated in syllabus.

Scale Options Frequency Percentage Mean S.D

4-Strongly Agree 3 15%
3-Agree 9 45%
2-Disagree 4 20% 2.63 0.84
1-Strongly Disagree 3 15%
No answer 1 5%
Total 20 100 %

Table 39. The Matching between the Textbook and the Objectives Outlined

More than half of the teachers (45%) agree that the content of the textbook matches with.

objectives outlined in the syllabus and (15%) others strongly agree, though the minority (20%)

disagrees that the content and the objectives match and (15%) others strongly disagree. In

another regard, despite the fact that syllabus designers’ claim that the syllabus is learner-centred,

encouraging interaction, and collaboration, however, the pupils’ immersion is not satisfactory.

If not, what are the main reasons?

The teachers who found that the textbook does not fulfill the objectives set out by the

syllabus provided the following reasons for its failure:

- Very long, high level.

- I think that the quality of the activities found in the book is not suitable for the students' level.
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- The teachers need further guidance especially when the activities are not clear enough.

- Pupils need a lot of support because the book cannot lead them to reach fluency and teamwork.

- Time issue and size of the class are the main obstacles to apply the syllabus successfully.

Q23. You would like to change the existing syllabus in terms of design, content, and order.

Scale Options Frequency Percentage Mean S.D

4-Strongly Agree 3 15 %

3-Agree 8 40 % 2.78 0.91

2-Disagree 8 40 %

1-Strongly Disagree 1 5%

No answer 1 5%
Total 20 100 %

Table 40. Teachers’ Adaptation of the Existing Syllabus

Eight teachers out of twenty (40%) agree to change the current sequence of syllabus content,

which is not flexible for teaching the subject efficiently and three teachers strongly agree.

Nevertheless, the same number of teachers (40%) disagrees to modify the syllabus arrangement,

which is suitable for their needs, and only one teacher strongly disagrees and another one let the

question unanswered. The mean of this question is average (2.78) and the SD is (0.91).

Q24. According to your experience, can you achieve the objectives of the syllabus?

Scale Options Frequency Percentage Mean S.D

4-Strongly Agree 3 15 %
3-Agree 6 30 %
2.45 0.57
2-Disagree 8 40 %
1-Strongly Disagree 3 15 %
Total 20 100 %

Table 41. Teachers’ Achievement of the Syllabus Objectives

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From the table (41) above, we observe that (55%) of teachers could not achieve the objectives

laid out by syllabus designers, which were mentioned in the third chapter, this failure goes back

to many factors such as the length of the content, the insufficient time allocated for teaching

English, and the low level of pupils and so on. On the other hand, (45%) of teachers managed to

achieve the objectives mentioned largely. We should point out that the statistical mean of this

question is (2.45) and the SD is (0.57).

If you did not achieve the objectives outlined, what are the main difficulties encountered?

The teachers’ answers gave us many ideas about the problems of textbook application in the

class, the response are provided in the following table:

Teacher 1 I think the content and the order are right but the main difficulty is the time offered.

Teacher 2 The pupils cannot cover it

Teacher 3 The syllabus expects students to understand and use English fluently whereas in our

quizzes and tests, we judge them according to their accuracy.

Teacher 4 Providing authentic listening materials. I think that the CBA is not fully adapted.

Teacher 5 Difficulties in trying to explain the reading passages.

4.2.2.5 Section Five: Teachers’ Evaluation of the Teacher’s Guide

Q25. You are satisfied with the teacher’s guide and its content.

Scale Options Frequency Percentage Mean S.D

4-Strongly Agree 2 10 %
3-Agree 8 40 %
2.40 0.50
2-Disagree 6 30 %
1-Strongly Disagree 4 20 %
Total 20 100 %

Table 42. Teachers’ Satisfaction about the Teacher’s Guide and its Content
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Following teachers’ answers, (40%) of them are satisfied with the TG and its content on how

to use the textbook in each sequence of the lesson. (30%) of teachers are dissatisfied and (20%)

others are very dissatisfied because of its lack of detailed advice and extra activities on the four

skills in addition to total absence of tests. (10%) of teachers expressed a strong agreement to the

guidance provided by the TG. For this statement, the mean is (2.40) and the SD is (0.50).

Q26. The teacher’s guide gives enough guidance for teaching the four skills.

Scale Options Frequency Percentage Mean S.D

4-Strongly Agree 2 10 %
3-Agree 5 25 %
2-Disagree 3 15 %
1.85 0.68
1-Strongly Disagree 8 40 %
Total 20 100 %

Table 43. Teachers’ Evaluation of the Guidance Provided by the Teacher’s Guide

As for the guidance provided by the TG in developing the four skills, (35%) of the

respondents evaluate the suggestions as of an excellent or good help. While the majority (55%)

of teachers perceive the guidance as fair or poor, which means an insufficient assistance for

novice teachers. The statistical mean scored very low at (1.85) and the SD is (0.68).

Q27. The teacher’s guide provides a clear and systematic guidance for the use of the textbook.

Scale Options Frequency Percentage Mean S.D

4-Strongly Agree 4 20 %
3-Agree 6 30 %
2-Disagree 7 35 %
2.55 0.51
1-Strongly Disagree 3 15 %
Total 20 100 %

Table 44. Teacher’s Guide Providence with a Clear and Systematic Guidance
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Apparently, due to the fact that no additional exercises were proposed in the TG and the

absence of tests for developing the four skills. The percentage of teachers (50%) who responded

negatively towards the assistance offered by the TG which is equal to the proportion (50%) of

the teachers who replied positively in favour of the guidance provided as clear and systematic

guidelines. Moreover, the statistical mean is (2.55) and the SD is (0.51).

4.2.2.6 Section Six: Further Suggestions

Q28: As a teacher, would you suggest some ideas for improving the future textbooks’ quality?

Almost all the teachers give comments on the textbook. The following table gives a summary

of the suggestions and the comments written by the teachers at the end of the questionnaire:

- I suggest for the educationalists to review the textbook for further improvements relating to the

kind of exercises; they must be simpler to fit the pupils’ level. Adding more tasks of writing.

- I suggest involving teachers, students and partners in designing textbooks.

- Future textbooks must be simplified.

- Good, in my opinion there isn't any problem in the content but the problem in the time; because

the textbook's content needs a long time to end.

- Improvement needs constant check and change which is not the case in our educational system!

- Minimize units and simplify its language.

- Should be supplemented with audio CDs and Workbook.

- Some exercises are out of students’ level and even teachers need the teacher’s guide to know
them, like the use of cohesive devices.
- I’m trying to follow the programme but I’m lost, I used to do this with 1st and 2nd year it was

easy but with 3rd year to be frank honestly I’m really lost.
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- First, don’t be a book slave. Besides lengthy reading comprehension texts should be presented

in terms of paragraph & topic sentences. Don’t expect your kids to understand every single word.

- Limit yourself to your aim. Last but not least.... Be innovative.

- Try to ask pupils to read paragraphs separately and to give the general idea of each paragraph.

- I try to print extra activities which may bring some fun to pupils

- Our classes are overcrowded with 40 pupils it is impossible to listen to everyone. In addition, it

is difficult to deal with group-work activities in the textbook.

- It is my first time I am teaching this level, so I find it too long and very intense especially

grammar, it requires a good level of learners and that is the big problem how would you face

the low level of our students?

- They cannot distinguish between nouns and verbs they do not know syllables stress how could

they understand the strong and weak forms?

- Changing the content of textbook to suit learners’ level.

- Concerning the teachers’ guide, I found a contradiction between my answers and the teachers’

guide such as true or false (exploring the past) read and consider.

- Once the English exam arrives pupils realize they need more practice on the four skills to get

better results.

- Follow the syllabus and don't follow the textbook page by page. The official programme is

embracing all the objectives planned which the pupils are supposed to learn in the year.

- Learners like American movies and games that are mainly in English, so teachers need to figure

out a way to exploit their interests when teaching.

- Texts of reading should be shorter and more real-life situations, and followed by glossary of the

difficult words. Concerning the activities of writing, the guided essay is the best solution for the
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low-level pupils. In listening, there must be native language records. And for reading, it should

be aloud rather silent to be corrected by teachers.

- Our learners are not exposed to English. They only use English in classrooms; once they are

out, they forget it and don’t use it. This is the cause of the failure.

4.2.3 Summary of the Teachers’ Questionnaire

The teachers’ questionnaire allowed us to be more acquainted with the teachers’ satisfaction

with the textbook and to gain more information about their needs that could help us in the

findings of our study. We can, therefore, construe the following interpretations from the results:

- The participants surveyed by the researcher hold a university diploma, in which out of the total

number of teachers (60%) hold the ancient degree of license, and only (10%) of the teachers hold

the newly introduced Master degree in the LMD system, whereas the rest of teachers (30%) have

PES certificate. The arithmetic mean of teachers’ experience in teaching the English language is:

Sum of the values (ΣX) 10 × (5) + 20 × (12) + 25× (3)

(M) = = = 18.25
Number of subjects (N) 20

- As far as teachers’ evaluation of the textbook ‘New Prospects’ is concerned, more than half.

of teachers showed satisfaction towards the physical appearance of the textbook. However, the

same proportion pointed out that the units’ design and organisation is inadequate. Teachers’

evaluation of the four skills in the textbook revealed that most of teachers are not satisfied with

the tasks and exercises provided for practising those skills. Moreover, the cultural content of the

textbook is seen by (80%) of the teachers as not useful for learning about the cultures of English

speaking countries efficiently. Henceforth, most of the teachers adapt and supplement the

textbook to be more effective for pupils and resourceful for teachers alike. Concerning the usage

of audio-visual aids in the classroom, it is striking results that (45%) of teachers never used them.
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The time allocated for the syllabus coverage is not suitable as stated by (80%) of the teachers,

this is why we propose more time, in which (80%) of the teachers suggested 5 hours per week.

Finally, in this section we asked teachers about the main drawbacks of the textbook, which were

mostly about the lack of enough practice (75%) and the units’ content is too long (25%).

- Regarding teachers’ evaluation of the realisation of syllabus objectives, (60%) of the teachers

said that the textbook matches the syllabus requirements whereas (35%) disapproves that.

In other respect, about (55%) of the teachers tend to change the current sequence of the syllabus.

In this section, teachers point out that the syllabus is long and beyond most of the pupils’ level.

- As for teachers’ guide, (40%) of the teachers are satisfied with its content and its guidance. But

concerning the four skills development we have (55%) of the teachers see it insufficient content.

On the other hand, (50%) of the teachers said that the TG do not provide a clear and systematic

guidelines for the textbook use.

- Regarding the four skills, (60%) of the teachers think that the textbook cannot develop pupils’

reading skills (fast, fluently, and confidently) and strategies. As for the speaking skill, (45%)

have not seen any improvement in pupils’ level in this skill. Furthermore, (55%) of the surveyed

teachers view the textbook’s task and exercises as inadequate to develop listening skill. In

addition, (45%) of the teachers are not satisfied with the quality of the writing tasks and project

works in the textbook. Moreover, in the three stages of the writing process, (75%) of the teachers

revealed that the pupils face most of the difficulties in the writing stage. In this regard, the errors

found in the essays of pupils are mainly of grammar (30%), vocabulary (25%), then organisation

(20%) and mechanics (15%).

In the sixth section, the teachers proposed many insightful suggestions summed up in:

- Reviewing the textbook for further improvements in terms of exercises kinds and writing tasks.
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- Involving teachers, pupils and partners in designing textbooks.

- Offering more teaching hours to cover the whole syllabus adequately.

The statistical mean and standard deviation of the previous sections are summed up as follows:

Main sections Likert-scale Questions Statistical Mean Standard Deviation

Section two Results per-section 2 2.29 0.61
Question 5 2.45 0.47
Question 6 2.50 0.78
Question 7 2.00 0.71
Question 8 2.25 0.51
Question 9 3.00 0.66
Question 10 2.75 0.79
Question 11 1.65 0.42
Question 12 2.05 0.44
Question 13 1.87 0.72
Question 14 2.40 0.61
Section three Results per-section 3 2.46 0.65
Question 16 2.65 0.84
Question 17 2.37 0.59
Question 18 2.40 0.62
Question 19 2.43 0.56
Section four Results per-section 4 2.62 0.77
Question 22 2.63 0.84
Question 23 2.78 0.91
Question 24 2.45 0.57
Section five Results per-section 5 2.26 0.56
Question 25 2.40 0.50
Question 26 1.85 0.68
Question 27 2.55 0.51

Table 45. Summary of Teachers’ Questionnaire Results per section and per question
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4.3 Pupils’ Questionnaire

The goal of the pupils’ questionnaire is to survey the pupils’ viewpoints as active agents in

the success of the textbook application. In this questionnaire we wanted to the strengths and the

weaknesses of “New Prospects” from pupils’ perspective. Furthermore, this section complements

the teachers’ questionnaire to get a fuller image of the pupils and teachers views on the textbook.

In fact, by the end of this questionnaire we will be able to answer our second research question,

which is “Does the textbook meet teachers’ expectations and pupils’ wants?”.

4.3.1 Questionnaire Description

Before distributing the questionnaire, the researcher explained to the participants the purpose

and the importance of the survey. The questionnaire is constructed with 22 questions; they vary

between mostly Likert five-point scale, close-ended questions and an open-ended question. Our

aim from this questionnaire is explore the pupils’ views towards their textbook in order to know

their needs and wants. The questionnaire is made up of five sections as follows:

- In section one, which includes two pertinent questions about age and gender of the pupils

surveyed. In fact, these questions are asked to get “general information” about the participants.

- In section two, which is concerned with “pupils’ viewpoints on learning English”. This section

contains three questions about the motivation of learning English and whether they enjoy

learning English or not in the classroom. The second question is related to group work or

individual learning. The third question tackles the issue of culture in learning English.

- In section three, which is about “pupils’ perceptions on the textbook New Prospects”. This

section represents the core of our investigation, in which the number of questions is larger than

the other sections with 7 questions. It ranges from the physical appearance of the textbook

(Q6, Q7) to the practice and language used (Q8, Q9) and the appeal of topics (Q11).
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In addition, the items (Q12, Q13) focus on the appropriateness of the level of the exercises

and activities for improving the four language skills.

- In section four, which is comprised of eight items (Q14, Q15, Q16, Q17, Q18, Q19, Q20, Q21)

about the four skills and the suitability of its content in the textbook in relation to their variety

and interest to the pupils. The questions (Q14, Q15, Q16) were about the speaking skill, and the

pupils’ evaluation of the reading texts in the textbook, then the listening skill respectively.

Besides, we asked pupils about practical issues concerning the writing skill like proofreading,

revising and feedback. We added two items (Q20, Q21) about the writing skill in the classroom.

- In section five, we have asked only one open-ended question (Q22) for pupils, in which they

are encouraged to propose further suggestions and any comments on the textbook whether it be a

criticism or an appreciation. Furthermore, any comments, on the teaching methods used by the

teacher or about the difficulties faced in learning English language, are welcome.

In fact, we have administered 124 papers, as final drafts, to 124 participants who were asked

to answer a four-page bilingual questionnaire in Arabic and English on the same sheet. The

questionnaire includes 22 items, which deals with the informants’ views concerning their

textbook in-use in general and the four skills in particular. The pupils’ questionnaires were

distributed in four schools during last quarter of the class-hours of teaching English; it took them

around 20 to 15 minutes for completion. The participants who participated in the survey were

pupils chosen through a random sampling from four secondary schools, in the region of Biskra,

studying Foreign Languages Stream, and the number of the papers rendered back is 118

questionnaires, that is, (95.16%) of the total number of the handed papers.
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4.3.2 Pupils’ Questionnaire Analysis

The purpose of this section is to analyse the pupils’ questionnaire in order to discover the

pupils’ opinions on the current textbook and to reveal their preferences or their disapproval on

the different areas investigated. The result of this questionnaire serves as a principal basis of our

data together with teacher’s questionnaire and the analysis of the textbook in the former chapter.

4.3.2.1 Section One: Personal Information

Q1. How old are you: ........... years-old.

Age Frequency Percentage

17 years-old 12 10.17 %

18 years-old 55 46.61 %

19 years-old 40 33.90 %

20 years-old 11 9.32 %

Total 118 100 %

Table646. Pupils’ Age

9.32% 10.17%

17 years-old

18 years-old

19 years-old

20 years-old

33.90% 46.61%

Figure 19. Pupils’ Age

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We notice that the majority of pupils (46.61%) are aged 18 years-old on the date of the

survey, that is, on February. The second percentage represented in the sample is the pupils who

are 19 years-old (46.61%) followed by 17 years- old pupils (10.17%) then 20 years-old (9.32%).

Q2. What is your gender?

Gender Frequency Percentage

a. Male 39 33.05 %

b. Female 79 66.95 %

Total 118 100 %

Table 47. Pupils’ Gender

From the table above, it seem that the distribution of the females is double of the number of

males. The males are one third of the sample (33.05%) whereas the girls are two-thirds (66.95%).

33.05%

66.95%

a. Male b. Female

Figure 20. Pupils’ Gender

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4.3.2.2 Section Two:!Pupils’ Viewpoints on Learning English

Q3. Do you enjoy your English class?

Options Frequency Percentage

Yes 66 55.93 %

No 52 44.07 %

Total 118 100 %

Table 48. Pupils’ Enjoyment of the English Classes

The prevailing percentage of the pupils, which is about (55%), stated that they enjoy their

English class, that is, they are interested and motivated to learn English language, but a lesser

percentage (44%) disagree their enjoyment of their English class because they are not motivated

or they have negative attitude towards learning English language.

Q4. How do you learn English better?

Options Frequency Percentage

a. Alone 61 51.69 %

b. In-group. 57 48.31 %

Total 118 100 %

Table 49. Pupils’ Preferences in Learning English

Most of the pupils (51.69%) prefer individual learning and revising who see it more

beneficial and efficient for learning English better. The pupils who opted for cooperative

learning and studying in groups (48.31%) represent a slight percentage below the previous ratio.
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Q5. Which skill in English you find yourself good at?

Options Frequency Percentage

a- Listening 20 16.94 %

b- Speaking 16 13.56 %

c- Reading 44 37.28 %

d-Writing 38 32.21 %

Total 118 100 %

Table 50. Pupils’ Estimation of their Level in the Four Skills

Form the table above demonstrates that the majority of the pupils find themselves good at

reading (37.28%) then the writing skill (32.21 %). However, listening skill is considered as a

difficult skill for pupils (16.94%) while the most difficult for them (16.94%) is speaking skill.

4.3.2.3 Section Three: Pupils’ Evaluation of the Textbook ‘New Prospects’

Q6. You find the physical appearance of the textbook attractive.

Scale Options Frequency Percentage Mean S.D

4- Strongly Agree 19 16.10 % ! !

3- Agree 46 38.98 %
!!!!! 2.51 0.58!
2- Disagree 30 25.42 %
!!!!!!
1- Strongly Disagree 23 19.49 %

Total 118 100 %

Table 51. Pupils’ Evaluation of the Textbook’s Physical Appearance

The highest percentage in the table above shows that most pupils (38.98%) agree that the

physical appearance of the textbook is attractive. Furthermore, (16.10%) of the pupils strongly

agree that the pictures and drawings of the textbook as a good and attractive for them. However,
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(25.42%) of the respondents expressed disagreement, and another (19.49%) say that the

textbook’s pictures and the drawings is very poor. The mean is (2.51) and the SD is (0.58).

Q7. The textbook is well-organised and designed.

Scale Options Frequency Percentage Mean S.D

4- Strongly Agree 16 13.55 %

3- Agree 44 37.28 % 0.51

2.49
2- Disagree 40 33.89 %

1- Strongly Disagree 18 15.25 %

Total 118 100 %

Table 52. Pupils’ Evaluation of the Textbook’s Organisation and Design

Most of the pupils (37.28%) have selected the second option as a well-designed and

organised textbook. Besides, nearly one third of the pupils (13.55%) see it very good.

Nevertheless, (33.89%) state that it is poorly designed and organised and (15.25%) manifest

reticence towards its organisation and design. The mean is (2.49) and the SD is (0.51).

Q8. You can understand the language used in the textbook.

Scale Options Frequency Percentage Mean S.D

4- Strongly agree 39 33.05 %

3- Agree 57 48.30 % 3.08 0.79

2- Disagree 15 12.71 %

1- Strongly disagree 07 5.93 %

Total 118 100 %

Table 53. Pupils’ Understanding of the Language Used in the Textbook

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According to the results, (48.30%) of the pupils reveal that they mostly understand the

language of the textbook, by this we mean the tasks and activities not the authentic texts for

reading comprehension, and (33.05%) strongly agree that it is understandable. However,

(12.71%) of the pupils disagree, that is, they face some difficulties in getting the meaning of the

language used, then (5.93%) of them strongly disagree. The mean is (3.08) and the SD is (0.79).

Q9. You like the activities and tasks of the textbook.

Options Scale Frequency Percentage Mean S.D

4- Strongly agree 10 8.47 %
3- Agree 48 40.67 %
2.44 0.53
2- Disagree 45 38.13 %
1- Strongly disagree 15 12.71 %
Total 118 100 %

Table 54. Pupils’ Appreciation of the Activities of the Textbook

Most of the pupils (40.67 %) see the activities as normal tasks. In addition, about (8.47%) of

the pupils showed their strong agreement to preferring the activities and enjoying them because

their variety which cover grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation and the four skills through group

work, individual tasks and role-play activities. But the pupils who disagree represent (38.13%)

followed by (12.71%) of the pupils strongly disagree and see tasks difficult and uninteresting.

Q10. You always solve your project work and homework alone.

Scale Options Frequency Percentage Mean S.D

4- Strongly Agree 60 50.85 %
3- Agree 28 23.73 %
3.04 0.87
2- Disagree 13 11.02 %
1- Strongly Disagree 9 7.63 %
Total 118 100 %

Table 55. Pupils’ Achievement of the Project Work and Homework

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About half of the respondents (50.85%) strongly agree that they always solve their project

work and homework alone without any help from parents or colleagues, and (23.73%) of them

say that they mostly do their work individually with just some help. However, (11.02%) of the

pupils often perform their task on their own and (7.63%) carry out their assignments with more

help. Only (6.78%) of them pupils do not rely on their selves at all in solving their tasks.

Q11. The topics in the textbook are attractive.

Scale Options Frequency Percentage Mean S.D

4- Strongly Agree 16 13.55 %
3- Agree 45 38.13 %
2.47 0.72
2- Disagree 36 30.50 %
1- Strongly Disagree 21 17.79 %
Total 118 100 %

Table 56. Pupils’ Evaluation of the Quality of the Topics in the Textbook

The largest percentage (38.13%) shows that the pupils agree on the topics of the textbook as

attractive, which means that they are thought-provoking as well as (13.55%) strongly agree.

Nevertheless, (30.50%) do not see it attractive for them because they are not up to date topics

and are not preferred topics by adolescents who like sports, life-styles, and technological topics.

About (17.79%) of the pupils regard the topics poor to learn about English language.

If you liked it, which topics of the following are interesting to you?

a- Ancient Civilizations; 11 9.32 %

b- Ethics in Business; 25 21.18 %
c- Education in the world; 16 13.55 %
d- Advertising consumers and food safety; 21 17.79 %
e- Astronomy and the solar system; 22 18.64 %
f- Feelings, emotions and humour. 23 19.49 %

Table 57. Pupils’ Appraisal of the Quality of the Topics in the Textbook
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As indicated in the table above, the topics received slightly an equal interest, but the most

preferred one is that of ‘Ethics in Business’ which suits (21.18%) followed by (19.49%) who

showed their interest in ‘Feelings, emotions and humour’. The topic of ‘Astronomy and the solar

system’ grabs the attention of (18.64%) whereas the topic of ‘Advertising consumers and food

safety’ appealed (17.79%) of the pupils. The least liked topics are ‘Education in the world’ with

a percentage of (13.55%) and then ‘Ancient Civilizations’ with a proportion of (9.32%).

Q12. The textbook contains a useful content about the cultures of English-speaking countries.

Scale Options Frequency Percentage Mean S.D

4- Strongly agree 22 18.64 %
3- Agree 30 25.42 %
2- Disagree 37 31.35 % 2.81 0.58
1- Strongly disagree 29 24.57 %
Total 118 100 %

Table 58. Pupils’ Appraisal of the Cultural Content of the Textbook

From the table above, most of the pupils (31.35%).disagree and many others (24.57%)

strongly disagree with this statement that the intercultural components of the textbook are useful

at enhancing their awareness of the English-speaking countries. About one fourth

(25.42%) agree, while a small percentage strongly agree (18.64%) that the cultural components

of the textbook offer a useful content. The mean is (2.81) and the SD scored (0.58).

Q13. The textbook raises your interest in further study of English language.

Scale Options Frequency Percentage Mean S.D

4- Strongly Agree 18 30.51 %
3- Agree 47 37.29 %
2.50 0.63
2- Disagree 30 16.10 %
1- Strongly Disagree 23 10.17 %
Total 118 100 %

Table 59. The Textbook’s Role in Motivating Pupils

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The table above indicates that most of the pupils (37.29%) express their agreement on the

textbook as an encouraging material for them to learn English more. The pupils who strongly

agree on our statement represents (30.51%) of the population surveyed. However, a percentage

of (16.10%) of the informants disagreed and (10.17%) strongly disagreed on the textbook’s

utility to study English more. The mean of this statement is (2.50) and the SD is (0.63).

4.3.2.4 Section Four: The Four Skills in the Textbook ‘New Prospects’

Q14. The textbook helps you to develop your speaking skill.

Scale Options Frequency Percentage Mean S.D

4- Strongly agree 14 11.86 %
3- Agree 38 32.20 %
2.35 0.78
2- Disagree 42 35.59 %
1- Strongly disagree 24 20.33 %
Total 118 100 %

Table 60. Pupils’ Evaluation of the Speaking Skill in the Textbook

As shown above, according to (11.86%) of the pupils, the textbook offers an excellent help to

develop their speaking skill. About (32.20%) of the pupils revealed that the textbook is useful for

helping them in developing their speaking skill, whereas (35.59%) of the pupils see it impractical

and useless and (20.33%) strongly disagree. This statement scored (2.35) and the SD is (0.78).

Q15. The reading comprehension texts are appropriate to your level.

Scale Options Frequency Percentage Mean S.D

4- Strongly agree 11 9.32 %
3- Agree 36 30.50 %
2.29 0.67
2- Disagree 48 40.67 %
1- Strongly disagree 23 19.49 %
Total 118 100 %
Table 61. Pupils’ Evaluation of the Reading Texts in the Textbook
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As displayed above, the majority of pupils disagree (40.67%) or strongly disagree (19.49%)

with the statement that the reading texts are appropriate for their level. However, many pupils

agree with the statement (30.50%) and some others strongly agree (9.32%). The statistical mean

is (2.29) and the standard deviation is (0.67) towards this issue.

Q16. You feel that your listening comprehension has developed.

Scale Options Frequency Percentage Mean S.D

4-Strongly agree 8 6.77 %
3-Agree 42 35.59 %
2.43 0.83
2- Disagree 61 51.69 %
1- Strongly disagree 7 5.93 %
Total 118 100 %
Table 62. Pupils’ Evaluation of the Listening Skill in the Textbook

Most of the pupils (51.69%) selected the third option which means that their listening skill

has not progressed. About (35.59%) of the pupils agree and (6.77%) strongly agree that their

listening comprehension has developed, whereas only (5.93%) of them strongly disagree and feel

that their listening did not progress at all. The mean is (2.43) and the SD is (0.83).

Q17. You like writing tasks in the textbook and find it interesting.

Scale Options Frequency Percentage Mean S.D

4- Strongly agree 50 42.37 %
3- Agree 38 32.20 %
3.15 0.92
2- Disagree 20 16.94 %
1- Strongly disagree 6 5.08 %
No answer 4 3.38 %
Total 118 100 %
Table 63. Pupils’ Enjoyment of the Writing Tasks in the Textbook

From the table above, we can notice the wide majority of pupils (42.37%) are fond of the

writing tasks in the textbook and find it interesting and many others (32.20%) like it as well.
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Some pupils (16.94%) strongly disagree on this statement because, we think, they are not

motivated enough to exploit their background knowledge in the writing lesson. On the other

hand, only very few pupils (5.08%) strongly disagree expressed their demotivation towards

writing class, because of their lack of vocabulary and writing techniques. We have four pupils

(3.38%) left the question unanswered. The mean is (3.15) and the SD is (0.92).

Q18. Your writing ability has improved after using the textbook.

Scale Options Frequency Percentage Mean S.D

4-Strongly agree 5 4.23 %
3-Agree 62 52.54 %
2.54 0.62
2- Disagree 43 36.44 %
1-Strongly disagree 8 6.77 %
Total 118 100 %

Table 64. Pupils’ Evaluation of the Writing Skill in the Textbook

Concerning the writing skill, (52.54 %) of the pupils pointed out that their writing skill has

improved after using the textbook and (4.23%) strongly agree on this point. Furthermore, a

considerable percentage of pupils (36.44%) disagreed to this statement. On the other hand, only a

small rate (6.77%) strongly disagreed that they did not show any improvement or progress.

If not, please state the reasons:

- Because I’m not really that good in writing like I am in speaking.

- I love that language, but I can’t find all the words I need in English in order that I can show to

the others my ideas and my feelings.

- The writing tasks are interesting according to my comprehension of the topic.

- The textbook does not have some models of how to write an essay.
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Q19. You repeatedly proofread your writing before giving it to the teacher?

Scale Options Frequency Percentage

4- Always 38 32.20 %
3- Mostly 29 24.57 %
2- Often 34 28.81 %
1- Never 17 14.40 %
No answer 4 3.38 %

Total 118 100 %

Table 65. Pupils’ Proofreading of their Written Essays

From the table above, we notice that more than half of the pupils (32.20%) are inclined to

read their essays again before handing it to the teacher and (24.57%) are mostly accustomed to

that. However, only (28.81%) who often proofread their essays but those who never do

proofreading represent (14.40%). The unanswered questions make (3.38%) of the population.

Q20. When revising your essay, indicate on which area you focus on mostly.

Scale Options Frequency Percentage

a- Mechanics (spelling punctuation); 48 40.67 %
b- Grammar; 24 20.33 %
c- Vocabulary; 21 17.79 %
d- Organization (flow of ideas); 14 11.86 %
e- Content (quality of ideas). 7 5.93 %
No answer 4 3.38 %
Total 118 100 %
Table 66. The Areas that the Pupils’ Focus on when Revising Essays

The most important area that pupils focus on when they engage in writing is the mechanics

(40.67 %) then the grammar of the essay takes (20.33 %) of the population. The vocabulary

comes third with a percentage of (17.79%) then the organisation of the ideas seizes (11.86%).
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The least important area is the content of the essay’s ideas (5.93%). Four pupils unanswered this

question who represent a percentage of (3.38%).

Q21. You find teacher’s written feedback useful.

Scale Options Frequency Percentage

4- Very Useful 58 42.48 %
3- Useful 44 39.87 %
2- Useless 7 8.26 %
1- Very Useless 5 5.90 %
No answer 4 4.72 %
Total 118 100 %
Table 67. Pupils’ Satisfaction about the Written Feedback Provided by the Teacher

The wide majority of pupils consider the teachers’ written feedback as useful (59%) and very

useful (42.48 %) respectively. On the other hand, the pupils who consider it useless represent

(8.26 %) of the participants and just a (5.90 %) see it very useless because they are not motivated

enough to learn from their mistakes. Four pupils (4.72 %) let this question unanswered.

Q22. You prefer adding a glossary to explain difficult words in the texts.

Options Frequency Percentage

a. Yes 78 66.11 %
b. No 40 33.89 %
Total 118 100 %

Table 68. Pupils’ Preference of Adding a Glossary to the Texts in the Textbook

During our evaluation of the content of the textbook we have noticed many difficult words in

the texts this is why we added this question. From the table above, many of the pupils (66.11%).

perceive that the textbook will be easier if the authors add a glossary to explain the unfamiliar

words. However, some others (33.89%) disagree to this statement who can deduce words

meaning from the context in each comprehension text.

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4.3.2.5. Section Five: Further Suggestions

The reason behind this question is to give the pupils an opportunity to express themselves

freely about the textbook. The suggestions are listed as follows:

- I suggest for the teachers to review the textbook for further improvements relating to the kind

of exercises; they must be simpler to fit the level of the learners.

- I suggest involving teachers, pupils in making our textbooks.

- Future textbooks must be simplified.

- There isn't any problem in the content of the textbook but the problem is in the time; because

the textbook content needs a long time.

- Improvement needs constant check and change which is not the case!

- Minimize units and simplify its language.

- Change the book.

- The textbook has difficult texts.

- Project work is very difficult.

- Include more beautiful pictures in the textbook.

- Add another types of exercises.

4.3.3 Summary of the Pupils’ Questionnaire

The main results of the pupils’ questionnaire can be summarised in the following points:

In section one, most of the pupils are aged 18 years-old and (66) of them are females. For

section two, which is about pupils’ viewpoints on learning English as a subject matter, we found

that nearly (56%) of the pupils enjoy their English classes. On another regard, (52%) tend to

learn English individually and (48%) prefer group-work and cooperative learning. Moreover,

most of the learners see themselves good at reading and writing than listening and speaking.
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Concerning section three,! pupils’ perceptions on the textbook, we found that the physical

appearance scored high at (2.51) as a mean but the organisation and design scored low at (2.49)

mean. The language used in the textbook is understood by (81%) and the activities of the

textbook suit (49%). In addition, about (84%) pupils rely on themselves to solve the project

works. As for the quality of the topics around (41%) of the pupils see them attractive. The last

statement was about textbook’s role in raising pupils’ interest in English scored (2.50) as a mean.

For section four, which is about the four skills, we found that most of the pupils evaluate the

speaking and listening skills in the textbook as impractical for developing level. Whereas reading

and writing scored better than the latter skills with a mean of (2.43) and (2.54) respectively. At

last, most of the pupils (66%) prefer to add a glossary to the textbook for difficult words.

Regarding section five, most of the suggestions provided by the pupils were about

simplifying the future textbook and adding more kind of exercises besides to reducing the units.

The statistical mean and standard deviation of the previous sections are summed up as follows:

Main sections Likert-scale Questions Statistical Mean Standard Deviation

Section three Results per-section 3 2.66 0.65

Question 6 2.51 0.58
Question 7 2.49 0.51
Question 8 3.08 0.79
Question 9 2.44 0.53
Question 10 3.04 0.87
Question 11 2.47 0.72
Question 12 2.81 0.58
Question 13 2.50 0.63
Section four Results per-section 4 2.55 0.76
Question 14 2.35 0.78
Question 15 2.29 0.67
Question 16 2.43 0.83
Question 17 3.15 0.92
Question 18 2.54 0.62
Table 69. Summary of the Results of Pupils’ Questionnaire per section and per question
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4.4 Classroom Observation

The researcher have conducted an observation of some lessons of the second unit in the class in

order to observe the process of presenting the textbook to the pupils in the class and to what extent

it copes with pupils’ needs for their real-life situations and for the exams in particular.

(Brown, 2000, p. 430) says “Teachers are coming to understand that seeing one’s actions

through another’s eyes is an indispensable tool for classroom research as well as a potentially

enlightening experience for both observer and observee”.

In fact, many aspects in the classroom may not be observable and visible to the observer, this is

why we tended to choose predefined features of to be observed, and to this end we have chosen a

list of 10 points from (ibid, p. 432-434) teacher observation form as follows:

Steps Criteria

1. Preparation 1-The teacher is well-prepared and well-organised in the class.

2- The prepared goals/ objectives were apparent.

2. Presentation 3- Does the teacher introduce topic, state goals, present material, and

summarise. Give assignment or suggest ideas to consider for next class?

4- Does the instructor offer “real world” applications?

5- Instructional aids or resource materials were used effectively.

6- The material was presented at the pupils’ level of comprehension.

3. Execution/ 7- There were a balance and a variety in the activities used during the lesson.

Methods 8- Examples and illustration were used effectively.

4. Teacher/Pupils 9- The teacher encouraged and assured full pupils participation in the class.

Interaction 10- The class felt free to ask questions, disagree, or to express their own ideas.

Table 70. Teacher Observation Benchmark

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4.4.1 Description of the Process

As we pointed out earlier in chapter three, all the units are sequenced similarly. We have

chosen unit two in the textbook which is taught to all the branches. We take a seat at the rear of

the classroom, trying to be as discreet as possible without interaction with the teacher or the

pupils and we were just taking notes and describing the teaching/learning process in the

classroom. The teacher is a young man. We have taken a look at the teaching aids of the teacher

and then lent a copybook of one of the pupils to see what he has written down. The pupils

observed are from the secondary school of Larbi Ben M’hidi in the region of Biskra. There are

32 pupils in the class who sit in orderly rows in pairs. Since, English is a compulsory subject for

them. They are required to take four-hour English class per week. The teacher was observed for

an entire instructional unit. The next table shows the schedule of the observed lesson:

Unit progression time Months Weeks

Unit Progression rate
Unit 2: Ill-Gotten Gains Never Prosper November Week 3
Topic: Ethics in Business
Week 4
Sequence 1: Listen and Consider
Sequence 2: Read and Consider December Week 1
Week 2
Sequence 3: Listening and Speaking January Week 1
Sequence 4: Reading and Writing Week 2

Presenting the project work

Table 71. The Schedule of the Lessons Observed in the Classroom

We should point out that our observation is mainly concerned with the application of the

textbook and to what extent it satisfies pupils’ and teachers’ needs. We will not portray each step

of the lesson, which are depicted in the lesson plan sheets used by the teacher. (See appendix III).

To this end, we will stick to the abovementioned benchmarks of classroom observation.

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4.4.2 Remarks on the Lessons Observed

We have consulted the administration of the secondary school and thanks to the teacher who

agreed to conduct the research study provided that it does not affect pupils’ learning in the

classroom. We sat at the rear of the class taking notes, which are summarised in the following

statements:

- The class is large somehow, in which there are three rows of tables each one for sitting in pairs.

- During the lessons, teacher’s voice was clear for the pupils even those who sit in the rear seats.

- The teacher’s talking time surpasses the pupils’ talking time though he encourages them to

participate, interact, and share their suggestions and ideas in the classroom. He familiarises the

topic of the lesson using a picture, a statement or a question then he gives some examples.

The criteria that we put forward in our classroom observation form was adopted embodied in:

4.4.2.1 Preparation

Because of the mixed ability of the pupils, which is not a homogenous classroom, some of

them are very good in English and they participate in each task. The teacher gives them the

opportunity but sometimes he shifts the attention to the other pupils who know the answer but

still timid and hesitant to raise their hands to reply. The teacher also corrects the wrong answers

without rejecting or criticising pupils but reformulates them to be true and praises the pupils who

participate even if he/she is wrong.

1-The teacher is well-prepared and well-organised in the class.

The teacher accompanied the pupils to the classroom, who seems well-prepared for the new

unit wherein he uses the textbook as the main source for the class teaching together with

teacher’s guide. He starts “All right, good morning everybody. What do you know about ethics

in business?” to stimulate learners’ background knowledge about the topic.

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2- The prepared goals/ objectives were apparent.

The objectives of each sequence are mentioned at the beginning of each lesson plan, and the

final objectives of each unit are set by syllabus designers, which help pupils to be able to:

- Design materials related to exports / imports rates and currency exchange rates.

- Draw a graphic organiser of exports and imports.

- Write a charter of ethics in business.

- Have a class debate on the importance of ethics in business.

- Identify and define the concept of ethics in business.

- Be made conscious of the negative effects of fraud.

- Be aware that honesty in business is a sign of active/good citizenship.

- Identify and define the concept of ethics in other professional contexts (teaching, medicine, etc)

- Draw conclusions/use logic.

- Be involved in critical thinking/evaluate/judge.

- Address an audience and get feedback from them.

- Understand and seize the importance of fighting fraud, money laundering and corruption at

national and international levels.

- Be made aware of international cooperation against fraud.

From what has been observed, the teacher did not read the objectives of each sequence to the

pupils. However, the pupils can review the objectives which are mentioned at onset of each unit

in the textbook ‘New Prospects’ and on the lesson plans written by the teacher.

4.4.2.2 Presentation

The teacher asked the pupils to open their textbook on page 45 and then questioned them

what they notice in the picture, the wide majority of the pupils understood the meaning of the
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picture and that it conveys unethical behaviour in business. The teacher helped them to find the

appropriate words for this context such as (bribe, corruption, fraud, and counterfeit). The teacher

introduced to pupils the theme of ethics in business and some vocabulary items related to it in

about 10 minutes. He also embarked upon the topic of the project outcome by talking about the

terminal objective of the unit and how the project will look like. Then, he motivated pupils to

discuss the topic of the unit, and its relation with the project work.

3- Does the teacher introduce topic, state goals, present material, and summarise. Give

assignment or suggest ideas to consider for next class?

- The lesson was well-paced, and sequenced logically. However, many pupils difficulties in

digesting it in some steps of the lesson which require a lot of repetition and explanation.

- The material was presented in a manner that copes with pupils’ level of comprehension. To

facilitate learning for the pupils, the teacher skipped many difficult tasks and used pupils’ own

examples in the writing exercises solutions.

- The teacher asks the pupils in each step if they have a trouble in understanding, then he reviews

the main points of the lesson, later on in the next lesson he recalls what was the last lesson about.

In some lessons, the teacher gives some assignments to the pupils to do at home.

4- Does the instructor offer “real world” applications?

The teacher gave many real-life examples about the topic of fighting fraud and corruption in

the world, such as the missions of Accountability Council in Algeria, the Right-to-Know

Association, and Transparency International which are both concerned with fighting corruption.

Nevertheless, the pupils’ background knowledge about the topic in English is scarce, since they

are not familiar with it because of their young age and experience in life; this is why they do not

express themselves easily in speaking and in writing tasks unless the tasks are guided.
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5- Instructional aids or resource materials were used effectively.

The textbook is used as the main teaching material in the classroom in most of the observed

lessons, the teacher frequently supplement the textbook with an extra exercises and a substitute

reading comprehension texts. Those texts each time introduce new language functions and

notions and meanwhile to familiarise pupils with grammar and pronunciation rules.

At the beginning of each lesson, the teacher tries to activate the background knowledge by

encouraging the pupils reflect on and discuss what they already know about the topic during pre-

listening and pre-reading comprehension tasks. Often the teacher uses an image or a proverb.

Throughout all the lessons observed, we have seen no laptop was used nor a slideshow

projector to make the lessons more attractive and motivating for the pupils instead of the routine

whiteboard and textbook except for some picture extracted from magazines or from the internet.

6- The material was presented at the pupils’ level of comprehension.

The textbook contains many difficult words in the reading comprehension texts, which are

accompanied by phonetic transcription for a correct pronunciation. However, there is no glossary

for unfamiliar words throughout the whole textbook, which may cause difficulties in

comprehension for pupils. We noticed many cognitive problems in the rubric ‘pronunciation and

spelling’ like stress shifting suffixes to penultimate syllables and sentence stress.

After the teacher is satisfied that the class has learnt the text, he leads the class into a number

of listening comprehension questions and answers.

For the rubric of ‘think, pair, share’ on (p.52), the pupils are asked to produce a piece of

writing which will be presented orally on the class. The topic of the presentation will be about a

speech of a candidate for elections to be chosen in order to fight fraud and corruption. The pupils

work in pairs then exchange their writing to end up with a final version to be presented.
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4.4.2.3 Execution/Methods

7- There were a balance and a variety in the activities used during the lesson.

The textbook prescribes the type of the activities and tasks used in the lesson. There are

question/answer activities, teacher question – pupil answer, and the questions that a teacher asks

and the pupil replies. The teacher allows multiple responses for some questions.

Following CLT and CBA normally the lessons are learner-centred and in an interactive way.

However, we have noticed that almost all the pupils discuss the studied topics in Arabic. In most

discussions, the teacher encourages the pupils to use their background knowledge in reading and

writing, like brainstorming, listing, skimming, and outlining, to talk about each topic in different

perspectives. In addition, the time allotted for the activities is not sufficient compared to the

different steps of the lesson. The teacher urges pupils to initiate discussions on different topics in

English in a well-designed manner. In practice, some pupils respond to the teacher in Arabic

while others manage to build some sentences but in incoherent way. Most of the pupils are

passive (they do not take notes, ask question, and participate).

8- Examples and illustration were used effectively.

In the rubric ‘research and report’, which about the ethical issues in business, the pupils

were dispatched into pair work and worked on their essays collaboratively. The teacher showed

his full perseverance by walking through the class and talking with each pairs about their topics.

He helps the pupils in finding the appropriate words for each context and sentence. They elicit

their own opinions about the topic either agreement or disagreement. However, the entire

discussion task took much more time than he expected because the pupils are not familiar to

topic and finally the teacher chooses a good essay from pupils’ products to write on the board.

Despite all that, we noticed many difficulties when it comes the working individually.
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4.4.2.4 Teacher/Pupils Interaction

9- The teacher encouraged and assured full pupils participation in the class.

As to classroom interaction, time management is crucial in order to make balance between

receptive skills (listening and reading) and productive ones (writing and speaking). We remarked

that teacher-talking time (TTT) surpasses pupils talking time (PTT) despite the endeavour to

urge pupil’s to be involved more in classroom decision-making. For example, showing pupils a

picture or an object to initiate discussion about it, one of the pupils raised his hand and said ‘it’s

a picture of a famous‫"ﺔ‬#‫( ﻟ‬in Arabic)’ and the teacher corrected him ‘it’s a painting’ and he said

‘who else’ then another one said ‘a man shows a photo’ the other pupils were silent looking for

the expression of ‘paintings counterfeiting’. The teacher call for many pupil s to answer

questions but some pupils pretend they are writing or reading to avoid participating because

shyness; hence, he is obliged to work with some pupils only. Most of the pupils are not

motivated to talk because of lack of vocabulary load and fear of making mistakes. When the

pupils work in groups, they speak more but in Arabic and using isolated words in English.

10- The class felt free to ask questions, disagree, or to express their own ideas.

The teacher presents each sequence in the textbook then asks the pupils if they have

understood the lesson. In fact, the most frequently asked questions are about difficult words

meaning such as ‘ethical, transparency, and embezzling’, grammar rules usage like ‘expressing

wishes, condition with provided that/providing that and as long as’, and the pronunciation of

some words like ‘corruption, bribe, economic, and counterfeiting’. On other regard, there is a

little room for pupils to express their own ideas except for free writing tasks and when they

present their project works. They can express their disagreement on several topics in the rubric

‘think, pair, share’ and some tasks can admit many answers and some tentative interpretations.
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4.5 Discussion of the Hypotheses

According to what has been surveyed and observed in the current chapter we can confirm our

second hypothesis ‘the textbook does not meet teachers’ expectations and pupils’ wants. Besides,

the objectives outlined in the syllabus were not successfully implemented when it comes to

classroom application and it outcomes.’ The results confirmed the fact that throughout the

teachers’ questionnaire there is a compromise about the difficulty of the textbook in terms of

texts and its being beyond pupils’ level in several tasks and exercises like ‘think, pair, share’ and

‘project work’. Many teachers and pupils pointed out that they rather prefer shorter reading

comprehension texts and there is a lack of enough practice in communicative tasks. Concerning

the application of the textbook in the classroom, as to the results of the questionnaires and from

what has been observed, it is admitted therefore, the third hypothesis ‘the textbook does not offer

enough tasks to practise the four skills adequately’ in which there is an overuse of reading and

writing on the extent of listening and speaking. In addition, the main results of the research study

indicated that a large number of pupils focus on the exams in which they revise English rules and

vocabulary building only ‘to pass the exams’ namely the Baccalaureate exam.

Conclusion

We have introduced this chapter with the methodology of the current study, wherein we

described the procedure of data collection, analysis and its interpretation. We have utilised both

quantitative and qualitative methods, which are represented in the questionnaires and classroom

observation respectively. All in all, this chapter answered many crucial questions asked at the

beginning of the current study such as ‘does the textbook meet teachers’ expectations and pupils’

wants?’ and ‘is there a balance between the receptive skills and the productive skills?’.
CHAPTER FIVE
FINDINGS!AND PEDAGOGICAL

IMPLICATIONS
CHAPTER FIVE: FINDINGS!AND PEDAGOGICAL IMPLICATIONS

Introduction .................................................................................................................................. 174

5.1 Triangulation of Research Findings ......................................................................................!174

5.2 Some Facts about the Textbook ............................................................................................. 176

5.2.1 Advantages of the Textbook ........................................................................................ 176

5.2.2 Drawbacks of the Textbook ......................................................................................... 177

5.3 Suggestions for Textbook Stakeholders ............................................................................... 178

5.3.1 Suggestions for Teachers ............................................................................................ 179

5.3.1.1 On How to Present the Textbook to Pupils ..................................................... 182

5.3.2 Suggestions for Pupils ................................................................................................. 183

5.3.3 Suggestions for Textbook Writers ............................................................................... 184

5.4 The Future Directions of English Textbooks in Algeria ........................................................ 188

5.5 Suggestions for Further Studies ............................................................................................. 189

Conclusion ................................................................................................................................... 189

General Conclusion ...................................................................................................................... 190

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Introduction!

!!!!!!This chapter provides a summary of the research findings in which we endeavoured to

triangulate. The former results were obtained from textbook evaluation conducted in chapter

three, questionnaires, and classroom observation in chapter four in order to come up with

consistent and pertinent results. Besides, we correlated the findings of the research in accordance

with the hypotheses of the dissertation. Moreover, we have proposed several pedagogical

recommendations and suggestions for teachers, pupils, and textbook writers on how to supplement

the textbook. Furthermore, we have shown the advantages and the weaknesses of the textbook

‘New Prospects’. Finally, the present research study was concluded with a set of proposals and

solutions to textbook drawbacks that would ultimately help pupils and teachers to overcome most

of the identified difficulties in the classroom successfully. !

5.1 Triangulation of Research Findings

In this chapter, we are not going to duplicate the results obtained in the previous two chapters.

Still, we will triangulate the findings collected from a variety of methods in order to provide a

confirmation and validity to our findings through comparing our results. Triangulation can

combine qualitative and quantitative data (e.g. surveys, observation, questionnaires, tests,

interviews… etc.). The triangulation of textbook evaluation, questionnaires, and classroom

observation is represented in the following graph:

Te
on

xtb
ati
erv

oo
kE
s
Ob

va
om

lu a
sro

tio
as

n
Cl

The Questionnaires
Graph 2. Triangulation of the Means of Data Collection Used
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Using triangulation, we have correlated three various means of data gathering in order to a

detailed account for the global results attained from the conducted field of investigation:

Items to be checked Questionnaires Textbook Classroom

Pupils/ teachers Evaluation Observation
Pupils’ performance in the classroom. poor moderate poor

Teachers offer real-world usages of English moderate moderate moderate

language.
Pupils’ perception of the textbook. poor poor poor

Teachers’ perception of the textbook. moderate moderate moderate

Textbooks promote better classroom interaction. poor moderate

poor

The tasks and the activities relevance to pupils poor moderate

moderate
level.

Textbook has an interesting topics, design and poor poor poor

appearance.

Pupils’ level development through using the moderate moderate poor

textbook.

Four language skills and strategies outcomes. moderate moderate poor

Examples and illustrations were used poor moderate moderate

effectively.

Textbook is at the pupils’ level of poor moderate moderate

comprehension.

The goals/objectives were apparent and realistic. moderate high moderate

Table 72. Triangulation of Textbook Evaluation, Questionnaires and Classroom Observation

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5.2 Some Facts about the Textbook

Our field investigation allowed us to examine the textbook ‘New Prospects’ from different

aspects using several research methods. Meanwhile, through using the textbook, the teachers

harmonise the content of the lessons imparted to the pupils nationwide. It enables pupils to enrich

their knowledge of the linguistic and communicative components of the English language. Thus,

to achieve the outlined objectives, all the agent of the educational cycle must work together to

exploit of the textbook effectively. We have come to the following facts about the textbook:

5.2.1 Advantages of the Textbook

The textbook ‘New Prospects’ has several notable and worthwhile characteristics such as:

- ‘New prospects’ provides a large number of effective learning tasks through which pupils are

invited to reflect on how English is used in some real-life situations. The tasks devised provide

sufficient opportunities for pupils to interact in the classroom and negotiate meaning. Most of

these tasks involve the use of ‘discovery learning’ (inductive learning), and are intended to

enhance individual learning as well as learning with peers. It also regards the mastery of grammar

as the cornerstone of a good command of English.

- The texts selected present language in different types and styles: radio interviews, dialogues,

news reports, encyclopedia entries, newspaper and magazine articles, excerpts from works of

fiction, poems, etc.

- ‘New Prospects’ progressively develops in the pupils the competencies of interaction,

interpretation and production that cover all areas of language (syntax, morphology, vocabulary,

pronunciation, and spelling) through six graded units.

- The reading texts were meaningful and somehow authentic. However, some words were difficult

for most of the pupils as expressed in the questionnaire. Pupils are required to write long
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paragraphs, essays, or letters; but they do not have a large vocabulary load in many themes such

as history, emotions, and ethics.

- In the Algerian context, grammar and vocabulary teaching can be prioritised over

communication this is why most of the textbooks focus more on reading and writing.

- The textbook is organised within a topic-based syllabus which is designed to facilitate

communicative competence in a carefully chosen themes and topics.

Concerning the positive points, we can assert that the implementation of ‘Resource Portfolio’

in the textbook can efficiently increase learners’ autonomy. More importantly, learning strategies

can enable pupils to monitor their learning and (self-assessment) can serve as an aspect of the

learner-centred approach, which is based on the constructivist learning theory.

!!!!!‘New Prospects’ shows all kinds of integration. Accordingly, the functions and structures

interconnect each other in every part of the unit. Thematic integration is found and the four skills

are integrated such as speaking is combined with listening and reading with writing functionally

and thematically integrated with the other in activities.

There are several authentic reading passages taken from different literary works, newspaper,

and magazines from both of the USA and the UK. However, it does not mean that there is no

room for enhancement and supplementation since the overall results indicated a lack of perfection

in the making of the textbook in catering for the different levels of pupils and the large classes.

5.2.2 Drawbacks of the Textbook

The quality of Algerian textbooks has improved noticeably in the recent years after the

application of several reforms in the educational system. The level of the pupils did not develop to

a noticeable degree. In this regard, we have noticed the following drawbacks:

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- Lack of an activity book or a workbook, which can be used to do more practice. It might contain

extra practice activities for pupils and to be used as self-study booklet.

- The textbook seems to be unable to implement the intended objectives and to choose the suitable

approaches to achieve them. As a result, neither teachers nor pupils seem to feel that the textbook

satisfies their needs and wants to a great extent.

The English teaching package came with a textbook, teacher’s guide and syllabus document;

but it is not sufficient. As Tomlinson (2008) states:

Coursebooks often come with a Student Book, a Teacher's Book and a Workbook.
Many offer additional materials such as cassette tapes, a CD Rom, tests, extra
resources and photocopiable materials. Some may offer videos, web resources, a
mini-dictionary, a mini-reference book and/or an extensive reader booklet (p. 17).

Furthermore, the weakness points of the textbook ‘New Prospects’ can be represented in:

- Lack of any type of supplementary teaching aids for the implementation of this textbook.

- Some texts and writing tasks are beyond pupils' linguistic level.

- Shortage of communicative tasks and speaking exercises.

- The texts can generally be listened on a CD or an audiotape. However, in the Algerian context,

until now, ICT aids are widely neglected and rarely embedded in teaching languages.

5.3 Suggestions for Textbook Stakeholders

Based on the major findings and the conclusions that have been drawn through the data

collection process and analysis, we are going to present several recommendations and suggestions

for decision makers, teachers, and pupils. The pedagogical implications are presented in:

- Suggestions for teachers.

- Suggestions for pupils.

- Recommendations for syllabus designers and textbook writers.

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It provides textbook writers and teachers with information regarding the strengths and

weaknesses of the textbook ‘New Prospects’. Many teachers of English rely heavily on textbooks

in their teaching without adapting or supplementing its units. We recommend teachers to reorder

the unit sequences according to the level their pupils from the very beginning of the school year.

Teachers also can adapt the texts of the textbook through modifying, substituting or summarising

them to cope with most of the pupils’ level of comprehension. Teachers who do not stick to

textbook’s subjects and supplement their reading texts with similar ones on the same topic seem to

be experienced and they can deliver attractive and effective lessons to the pupils.

Pupils can be provided with general recommendations on how to use language textbooks in

general and to make them aware of the importance of English in this important phase of their

studies. Meanwhile, textbook writers need feedback about their textbooks, which is one of the

main motives of this dissertation. The current research study can serve as an investigation of the

weakness and strengths of the textbook ‘New Prospects’ after six years of its application.

5.3.1 Suggestions for Teachers

Firstly, teachers are invited to urge their pupils to think autonomously and to foster their

ability of self-study outside the classroom. Autonomous learning will make them overcome the

inadequacy of the time allotted for teaching English using the textbook in the school year.

Secondly, teachers are advised to provide pupils with additional writing texts so that they can

express themselves through writing freely about their desires, needs, feelings... etc. Add to this,

writing skills and strategies should be introduced with more practice especially guided writing.

The speaking lessons should not be dedicated only to pronunciation drills but rather to make

pupils express themselves freely. The teacher should ensure full class participation during each

unit sequences.
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On the whole, the chief conclusion that can be drawn from the results of this study is that both

pupils’ and teachers’ perceptions about the textbook ‘New Prospects’ are negative in general.

Thus, both quantitative and qualitative results of this study enabled us to deduce some suggestions

to overcome those difficulties. We propose the following guidelines to teachers:

- To encourage their pupils to use English in the classroom, and to stress fluency over accuracy.

- To urge pupils to write their own diaries of their learning experiences, preferences, and daily life

events in order to practise their knowledge on real-life basis.

- To emphasise the importance of the textbook, and refer to dictionary-use in the class in order to

find out the meanings of the key words.

In addition, teachers should ask pupils about what they want to do and what sort of lessons

they like. This way it is much easier to meet their needs and that always makes them more

motivated. To do this end, teachers enhance their pupils’ level using textbooks as follows:

- Teachers should be motivated pupils to self-study in order to enhance pupils' autonomy.

- Teachers can ask pupils to perform simple projects outside the classroom such as summarising a

movie, a football match, a documentary, a short story instead of assigning a long project works in

which the pupils depend only on the internet.

- Teachers have to urge learners to take charge of their own learning in most situations such as

writing and speaking and to work in group work or in pairs and to avoid individual work.

- Teachers should encourage pupils to self-prepare for the forthcoming lesson in order that pupils

enter class partly equipped with some knowledge to discover new language area.

There are many ways in which teachers can adapt their textbooks and overcome the noticed

limitations such as:

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- Introduce interesting people and their views and opinions from different ethnic groups

(e.g. novels, articles, news reports) as well as from British or American points of view and

comparing them with their local culture and tradition.

- Offer many occasions for language awareness that aids pupils to reflect on their own use of

language.

- Explore the English language speaking cultures in which the ‘British and American English’ are

illustrated in ‘New Prospects’.

- Provide his/her own resources that are up-to-date, varied, affectively and cognitively engaging.

On the same regard, teachers can improve the quality of their textbooks through:

- Making use of pupils’ imagination and prior experience to enable low level pupils to participate

in activities which match their intellectual capacity.

- Reduce the number of language items to be taught and learnt and focus more on increasing

pupils’ exposure to language in use and their exploration of language input.

- Provide more opportunities for extensive reading, listening and speaking.

- Provide more exposure to English through using it effectively as the only means of

communication between pupils in the classroom.

- Include activities demanding pupils to use English in the situations outside the classroom.

In the light of the findings of the study, we present the following recommendations:

- Teachers should apply modern teaching methods to be able to deal with the individual

differences among pupils and encourage pupils’ involvement in the classroom tasks.

- In the classroom, teachers should always make a balance in the lesson among skill-getting

process and skill-using tasks.

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- Teachers are advised to make their pupils used to be autonomous learners by using self-study

activities. This will train them to use the textbook alone, since the time allocated for teaching the

entire textbook units is not adequate.

- Teachers have to use modern technology in the classroom such as laptops, slideshows, and

internet in order to make the lesson interesting and easy to present, and make English teaching and

learning more significant and enjoyable.

- The evaluation of the existing teaching materials, in the workshops and seminars, will helps the

teachers to use the textbook effectively. In addition, to determine whether the tasks/exercises lead

the pupils to practice the language communicatively and learn language structures, which help

them, improve their language abilities and the educational objectives.

- Teachers must adapt the activities to suit most of the learners.

- Topics of the textbook are not attractive to most of the learners. Hence, teachers can extract

interesting texts that suit their pupils, which cope with youth learners interests.

- The textbook should be supplemented with many texts and tasks about the culture of the

language.

5.3.1.1 On How to Present the Textbook to Pupils

The textbook is the companion of each pupil in the classroom or outside it throughout the

whole school year. For that reason, teachers must introduce the textbook to his/her pupils from the

beginning of the year. He/she must explain how to use it. In this respect, Tompson (2007) wrote

an article about the benefits of introducing a textbook to students as follows:

- The first thing you should do to introduce the textbook to the students is to explain why you

chose this textbook for the class. Point out what you like about the textbook.

- Explain How You Will Use the Textbook.

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- Orienting Students to the Organization of the Textbook.

- Getting acquainted with your textbook:

1. How many units are in your textbook?

2. What are the names of each of the units?

3. How many chapters are in each unit?

4. What is the first activity in each unit?

5. How many readings are in each chapter?

6. Does each reading have a title?

7. Does each reading have a picture?

8. What activity comes before each reading?

9. What are two kinds of activities that come after the readings?

She (2007) had mentioned several benefits of introducing the textbook such as:

Explaining to students why you chose the textbook, letting them know how you
plan to use the textbook, and giving them an activity to get acquainted with their
textbook will take a small amount of class time, but the rewards for both you and
the students are great (p. 05).

5.3.2 Suggestions for Pupils

English is very important for pupils and they must master this essential subject for their

academic success and for using it in daily life like in tourism, job seeking, and surfing on the web.

Using the textbook with the help of the teacher pupils can learn a lot about the English language

its usage grammatically and communicatively in different situations and for various purposes.

Henceforth, pupils must:

- Be autonomous in their learning and try to self-study outside the classroom.

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- Practise what they have learnt in their real-life situations such as chatting on the web using

English or in social networking, and by writing essays or short stories in addition to speaking.

- Practise the language communicatively with their peers outside the classroom.

5.3.3 Suggestions for Textbook Writers

From our observing of the textbook ‘New Prospects’, the following difficulties are behind

implementing the CLT objectives in Algeria, then, we recommend textbook writers to consider:

- Teachers’ deficiency in spoken English.

- Teachers’ have many classes to teach and a little time to supplement materials and write tasks.

- Pupils’ low level in English proficiency.

- Pupils’ passive impression on learning English because they focus more on exam marks.

- Pupils do not have chances to perform tasks outside the classroom.

- Lack of ICT materials use.

- Large classes so teachers cannot monitor all the learners’ works.

In reality, the textbook is just a support for language teaching and learning and it is up to the

teachers to make efforts to better use it. This reality allows us to say that the educational reform in

Algeria can be considered as an important leap towards an accurate improvement of the language

teaching and learning materials. As a result textbook writers should take into consideration:

- Under the framework of the CLT, syllabus designers should regard the four skills equally. Still,

Algerian syllabus designers and material writers base their publications on helping pupils prepare

for exams not using the English language in real-life situations.

- Textbook designers should adapt their strategy of writing textbooks by adding more tasks that

are communicative in order to meet teachers’ expectations and to satisfy pupils’ needs.
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In the light of the current field investigation and with reference to the theoretical part in

relation to meeting good textbooks criteria, we recommend the following criteria to be taken into

account when designing an Algerian English textbook:

- The layout of the textbook should be more attractive and motivating.

- The content of the textbook should be ordered from simple to difficult in a developmental way.

- Language skills should be integrated and practiced more in-class and out-of- class.

- Teaching aids that accompany the textbook such as tests and Baccalaureate exam solutions.

- Minimise the number of units to become three, one for each trimester, during the school year

because the time allotted for teaching English is not sufficient to cover the textbook. Since, the

content of the textbook should be prepared by taking into consideration the whole academic year

period especially for the third year pupils who are going to pass their Baccalaureate exams.

- Surveying pupils' needs and interests before choosing textbook topics.

- Add a workbook containing tests for more practice and preparation for Baccalaureate exams.

- The number of units of the Textbook “New Prospects”, which are taught during the school year

should be minimized to enable the teachers to cover the program effectively on time.

- Textbooks should be revised before publishing to confirm they do not contain any spelling and

lexical errors.

- Teachers should be consulted when designing a new textbook, and they ought to take part in

making any revisions or improvements concerning the in-use textbooks. As Bachér (2012) states,

“top-down and bottom-up consultations prior to any school reforms or textbook innovation

necessitate teachers’ direct and meaningful contribution and involvement” (p. 400).

- It is recommended that the textbook be supplied with a variety of reading text genres to foster

their reading for the sake of pleasure. Such as poetry, magazine articles, sports, and biographies.
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- The textbook should encourage metacognitive strategies and learning autonomy to instill in the

pupils the spirit of self-study, rather than a result-orientation in the exams, which implants quality

insurance in their lives.

- Textbooks should be improved with more attractive topics, illustrations and perfect pictures. The

difficult tasks should be adapted or replaced with easier ones.

- To design a website or a link within the website of the Ministry of National Education concerned

with textbooks, on how to use them, updates, and to download then as in Tunisia.

These recommendations are based on our evaluation, analysis, and findings of the textbook in

the light of our composite criteria checklist in accordance with Algerian context, from the

viewpoint of pupils and teachers, and classroom observation on the application of the textbook.

We suggest the following proposals to develop our pupils’ level:

- The textbook units are too long. For example, each unit contains two reading passages one for

reading and the other for listening in a size of two pages for each one. We have noticed

complaints among many teachers. We recommend supplying the textbooks with tapes for listening

to the comprehension texts.

- Syllabus designers must adopt a checklist of criteria obtained from universal checklist and local

criteria coping with Algerian context specifically designed for judging English textbooks.

- The textbook should have a glossary for key words with their meanings under each texts or an

index listing them in page numbers in the index, since the phonetic transcription of some words

are already listed to help the pupils and/or even teachers to pronounce words correctly.

- The textbook lacks audio CDs, visual aids and further supplementary materials; however, it

contains website links for pupils for further research on the topics, which are not enough.

Therefore, we propose digital enhancement for the future textbooks, which can accompany the
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textbook to be used in the classroom or as a self-study by the pupils. Those digital materials could

contain the content of the textbook in PDF and some extra images, videos, recited texts,

presentations, and other multi-media forms. Through digital enhancement of the textbooks, pupils

can better understand and comprehend the lessons and teachers as well can attain the overall

objectives of the syllabus exhaustively and on time.

- Textbooks should be revised periodically to make sure they are free from printing errors and any

kind of mistakes and reprinted if some errors were noticed.

- The textbook units are too long. For example, each unit contains two reading passages one for

reading and the other for listening in a size of two pages for each. We have noticed complains

among teachers. We recommend supplying the textbooks with tapes for listening to the

comprehension texts.

- There is no addition of dictionary definitions alongside comprehension texts to clarify the

unfamiliar words.

- There are no additional tests and examinations or a Workbook.

As a concluding comment, we can quote the words of Bachér (2012) who conducted a

doctorate thesis on the attitudes of teachers towards the adequacy of the CBA and newly produced

materials based on that approach in which he writes:

Our middle school English textbooks have been printed in better quality paper,
according to the latest technology, and included up-to-date content. Nonetheless,
they still have not been supervised by expert native speakers, which might
denigrate the value of our instruction. Our teachers should be our pride and joy,
and therefore, they need to be better consulted, counseled, trained and educated
(p. 401).
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5.4 The Future Directions of English Textbooks in Algeria

The process of textbook usage in the Algerian educational system has developed intensely, in

which the English textbooks were selected from many international materials designed by native

speakers in the 1970s. Since then, hybrid textbooks emerged wherein many textbooks were

designed by native teachers in collaboration with Algerian teachers. In recent years, all the

English textbooks used in Algeria were written and produced locally by Algerian teachers only.

In the future textbooks, we think that there will be a tendency to adopt the magazine format

textbooks in order to make the textbooks more appealing in terms of physical appearance and

powerful in binding. More authentic texts are expected to be included in those textbooks as well

as accompanying them with listening scripts and videos for watching real conversation of native

speakers. Also, embedding more technology aids like slideshows for each unit and website links

for extensive reading about the different topics. In a similar vein, Algerian textbooks in the near

future will be available for downloading in several formats in order to enable the pupils to read the

textbooks on smartphones, laptops, or desktop computers.

This means that forthcoming teaching materials intended for Algerian pupils at all the levels

must provide more exposure to authentic use of English through spoken and written texts and

tasks. If they failed to embed the new technologies such as internet links and web-based

textbooks, they will not have the possibility to motivate the pupils to think critically and learn

effectively. Since technology overwhelmed our lives, we should equip our schools with latest

technologies used in teaching languages to cope with the changing world towards paper-free

information.

The modern theories of SLA and FLL have revealed that the most effective ways to learn

languages rapidly is through creating an ideal atmosphere for learners to practise the language
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learnt in communicative tasks. In our context, we can use textbooks as an agent to provide more

exposure to English language through extensive listening and extensive reading then learners will

be able to produce utterances in a written or spoken form easily.

5.5 Suggestions for Further Studies

We have tried our best to evaluate the textbook ‘New Prospects’ comprehensively from

different aspects; however, this task is beyond one researcher’s ability. Rather, it is better to be

carried out by a group of expert researchers in the field. In the current study, we have analysed the

textbook in general without putting a special emphasis on a particular aspect or skill. Therefore,

we suggest conducting further research on each skill separately in the textbook in-depth. This

would give more findings concerning the efficacy of the textbook ‘New Prospects’.

Conclusion

This chapter hopefully shed light on the findings of the research study in which we highlighted

the advantages and the drawbacks of the textbook ‘New Prospects’ and how to overcome it.

The effectiveness of textbook depends on the level of the teachers’ and the beliefs/motivation

of the pupils about the nature of language and teaching/learning in addition to the available aids in

the schools that help the pupils and teachers to do their tasks successfully.

The current evaluation of the textbook showed that it achieved many objectives of the syllabus

in the light of the observation we conducted. In addition, teachers’ and pupils’ perceptions about

the textbook ‘New Prospects’ served as an exploration of the suitability of the textbook and its

role in developing the pupils’ communicative competence and critical thinking. Likewise, the

weaknesses of the textbook were compensated by its strengths, but it needs some supplementation

to achieve its task applicably. Finally, we suggested several recommendations to help syllabus

designers and textbook writers to develop better textbooks in the future.

CONCLUSION
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General Conclusion

The current research study, in its theoretical part, provided an overview of the basic concepts

and elements related to the scope of textbook evaluation, writing, and syllabus design. In the

former part, we shed the light on the different definitions of textbook evaluation, its types, steps,

and criteria. On another respect, the third chapter sets out the foreground of the research study in

its practical part, thereby we presented a sketch about teaching English in the Algerian educational

system in general and on the secondary education and its objectives in particular.

The collected data was subjected to analysis through descriptive analytical statistics, in which

two types of calculations were done: a statistical mean and a standard deviation per-item and per-

section. Our survey revealed the positive and negative sides of the textbook ‘New Prospects’.

Alongside, another two instruments were used in order to investigate teachers’ and pupils’

viewpoints towards the current textbook and a classroom observation to support our findings.

Based on the results obtained from the retrospective evaluation of the textbook in chapter

three, and the results portrayed in the fourth chapter from the questionnaires per-item and per-

section together with classroom, the following conclusions are drawn:

- The textbook ‘New Prospects’ satisfies teachers’ expectations regarding its general appearance.

Still, the texts should be simplified and accompanying materials and a glossary should be added.

- The topics of the textbook are not up-to-date, not learner-centered, do not allow pupils to talk

more than teachers, and does not allow various classroom communicative activities.

On the basis of the results, the hypotheses we tested came to be confirmed, in that the textbook

does not conform to good textbook criteria, it also does not meet teachers’ wants and expectations

likewise pupils’ needs and interests, and there is a lack of practice in the four skills. Accordingly,

we are obliged to propose some solutions to the drawbacks we noticed as follows:

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- The Algerian English textbooks must cope with the universal criteria of language textbooks.

- The Algeria English textbooks ought to meet teachers’ expectations and pupils’ wants. Besides,

the objectives outlined in the syllabus should be implemented successfully when it comes to

classroom application and its outcomes.

- The tasks in the textbook should be suitable to develop pupils’ linguistic and communicative

competence in order to enhance pupils’ level. In addition, the textbook has to offer enough tasks

to practise the four skills adequately.

We believe that the evaluation of the EFL textbooks currently taught at Algerian high schools

requires a deeper and more exhaustive analysis and investigation by group of experienced teachers

or experts in the field. Moreover, the viewpoints and the ideas of a single researcher might not be

adequately accurate and reliable because whatever he/she firmly tries and works, it is more or less

impossible to be unbiased and impartial in his/her findings and judgments.

From what has been observed and discerned, we can say that the Algerian pupils do not reach

the sought level by the end of secondary education cycle regarding the productive skills. For

example, third year pupils do not reach intermediate level in communicative terms. Such learners

lack control of their writing and speaking skills. They require communicative activities to activate

the language they have learnt while building their competencies.

Last but not least, although our evaluation of the textbook ‘New Prospects’ and its package

revealed many weaknesses when compared to the universal textbooks being used for teaching

English language. We strongly believe that the Algerian educational reforms achieved an

important development in recent years. In this regard, we noticed more emphasis on the

application of the CBA and TBLT frameworks in the newly designed textbooks.
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! 192

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!

APPENDICES
!

APPENDIX I

Teachers’ Questionnaire
Dear teacher,

This questionnaire is a part of a field investigation to prepare a Magister dissertation, about

evaluating your textbook ‘New Prospects’ (3°AS). It aims at surveying your opinions about the

textbook that you are using or you have already used in the classroom.

We would be grateful if you could answer all the questions by ticking (!) the appropriate box,

and by providing a full statement when necessary. Please, feel free to add any suggestions.

This questionnaire is used for the purpose of research only.

Mr. AOUNALI Walid
Doctoral School of English
Badji Mokhtar University_Annaba

Section One: Personal Information and Teaching Experience:

Q1. What is your age: a- Less than 25 years-old b- 26 to 31 years-old

c- 32 to 37 years-old d- 38 to 44 years-old

o e- Over 45 years-old

Q2. What gender are you: a- Male

b- Female

Q3. What is your qualification: a- BA (License degree)

b- MA (Master degree)

c- PES (Diplôme de Professeur de l’Enseignement Secondaire)

Q4. How many years have you been a teacher of English:

a- 1 to 5 years b- 6 to 10 years

c- 11 to 15 years d- 16 to 20 years

e- More than 20 years

!

Section Two: Teachers’ Evaluation of the Textbook ‘New Prospects’

Strongly Disagree
Strongly Agree

Disagree
Agree
4 3 2 1
Q5. The textbook is visually attractive to your pupils in terms of illustrations,
cover, and texts.
If you see it attractive, what is interesting to your pupils in the textbook?
............................................................................................................................................................
Q6. The design and organisation of units is appropriate, clear and effective.
If you disagree, please state why?
............................................................................................................................................................
Q7. You find the textbook useful to learn about the English-speaking cultures.

Q8.The tasks and exercises in the textbook ‘New Prospects’ are relevant to
pupils’ interests.
Q9. The group-work activities of the textbook encourage cooperative learning.

Q10. Tasks and activities should be adapted to suit pupils’ needs.

Q11. The texts in the textbook ‘New Prospects’ are suitable to pupils’ level.

If you agree, what do you use in adapting them?

............................................................................................................................................................

Q12. You often use audio-visual aids in your class to supplement the textbook.

Q13. You can cover the textbook in the time allocated.

If the time is insufficient, how many hours per week do you suggest?
............................................................................................................................................................
Q14. You have books as a supplementary for teaching English in the classroom.

Would you please mention its title and author if possible?

..........................................................................................................................................................
Q15. The vocabulary of the textbook seems to be realistic for the pupils’ level.
!

Section Three: The Four Skills

Strongly Disagree
Strongly Agree

Disagree
Agree
4 3 2 1
Q16. The textbook can develop pupils’ reading skills (fast, fluently, and

confidently) and strategies.

Q17. By the end of each unit, you have seen an improvement in pupils’

speaking skill.

Q18. You are satisfied with the listening exercises, and you find them useful.

Q19. The textbook contains adequate exercises to develop writing skill.

Q20. At which stage of writing do you think your pupils face difficulties:

a- Pre-writing stage;

b- Writing stage;

c- Re-writing stage.

Q21. What type of errors that you encounter in pupils’ writing composition:

a- Grammar

b- Organisation

c- Mechanics (spelling punctuation)

d- Content (quality of ideas)

!

Section Four: Alignment with Syllabus Requirements

Strongly Disagree
Strongly Agree

Disagree
Agree
4 3 2 1
Q22. The textbook can achieve its objectives as indicated in syllabus.

If not, what are the main reasons?

............................................................................................................................................................

Q23. You would like to change the existing syllabus in terms of design,
content, and order.
Q24. According to your experience, can you achieve the objectives of the syllabus?

If you did not achieve the objectives outlined, what are the main difficulties encountered?
............................................................................................................................................................
Q19. The textbook contains adequate exercises to develop writing skill.

Section Five: The Teacher’s Guide

Strongly Disagree
Strongly Agree

Disagree
Agree
4 3 2 1
Q25. You are satisfied with the teacher’s guide and its content.

Q26. The teacher’s guide gives enough guidance for teaching the four skills.

Q27. The teacher’s guide provides a clear and systematic guidance for the use
of the textbook.

Section Six: Further Suggestions.

Q28. As a teacher, would like to suggest anything for improving the future textbooks quality?
................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………
Thanks very much for your collaboration.
‫!‬

‫‪APPENDIX II‬‬

‫‪-‬ﺳـﺘﺒـ‪#‬ــﺎ) ﻟﻠـﺘـﻼﻣـ‪#‬ــــــﺬ ‪Pupils’ Questionnaire‬‬

‫‪Dear pupil,‬‬ ‫ﻋـﺰ‪,‬ـــﺰ* )ﻟﺘﻠﻤـ‪$‬ــــﺬ!‬

‫‪This questionnaire is a part of a field investigation‬‬ ‫‪$‬ﻤﺜـﻞ ‪5‬ـﺬ‪% %‬ﻹﺳﺘﺒ‪#‬ـﺎ‪ /‬ﺟـﺰء ﻣـﻦ *)‪%‬ﺳـﺔ ﻣ‪#‬ـﺪ‪%‬ﻧ‪#‬ــﺔ‬

‫‪to prepare a Magister dissertation, about evaluating‬‬ ‫ﻟﺘﺤﻀ‪%‬ــــﺮ ﺷـ"ــــــﺎ)( ﻣـﺎﺟـﺴـﺘـ"ــــــﺮ ﺣـــﻮ& ﺗــﻘـ‪#‬ـ‪#‬ــــﻢ‬

‫‪your textbook ‘New Prospects’ (3°AS). It aims at‬‬ ‫ﻛﺘﺎﺑـﻚ &ﻟﻤﺪ"ﺳـﻲ ﻟﻠﻐـﺔ &ﻹﻧﺠﻠ!ـﺰ"ﺔ‪ .‬ﺗ‪,‬ﺪ‪* +‬ﺬ( ‪%‬ﻟﺪ&‪%‬ﺳﺔ "ﻟـــﻰ‬

‫‪surveying your opinions about the textbook that you‬‬ ‫ﺳﺒــــــﺮ ‪+45‬ﺋـــﻚ ﺣـــﻮ‪+ /‬ﻟـﻜـﺘـــﺎ‪+ ,‬ﻟـــﺬ( ﺗـﺴـﺘﻌـﻤـﻠــــــ!‬

‫‪are using or you have already used it in the classroom.‬‬ ‫&‪$ %‬ـﻤـﻜـــــﻦ ‪6‬ﻧـــﻚ ‪3‬ﺳـﺘﻌﻤﻠـﺘــ‪ -‬ﻣـــﻦ ﻗـﺒــﻞ ﻓـﻲ ‪%‬ﻟـﻘـﺴــــﻢ‪.‬‬

‫‪We would be grateful if you could answer all‬‬ ‫ﺳﻨﻜﻮ; ﺟﺪ ﻣﻤﺘﻨ‪6‬ﻦ ﻟﻚ ‪1 +21‬ﺳﺘﻄﻌﺖ ‪+‬ﻹﺟﺎﺑﺔ ﻋﻠﻰ ﻛﻞ‬

‫‪the questions by ticking (!) the appropriate box,‬‬ ‫&ﻷﺳﺌﻠــــــﺔ ﺑﺎﺧﺘـ(ــــﺎ' &ﻟﺨــﺎﻧــــــﺔ (ﻟﻤﻨـﺎﺳﺒــــــﺔ ' ﻛﺘﺎﺑـــﺔ‬

‫‪and by providing a full statement when necessary.‬‬ ‫ﺟﻤﻞ ﻛﺎﻣﻠﺔ ‪ %&%‬ﺗﻄﻠﺐ ‪$‬ﻟﺴـــــﺆ‪# $%‬ﻟـــــــﻚ‪.‬‬

‫‪Please, feel free to add any suggestions.‬‬ ‫ﻧﺮﺟــــﻮ‪ #‬ﻣﻨـــﻚ "ﺿـﺎﻓــــﺔ ‪" #$‬ﻗـﺘـﺮ"ﺣــــﺎ!‪.‬‬

‫‪This questionnaire is used for the purpose of research only.‬‬ ‫‪.‬ﺬ‪, ,‬ﻹﺳﺘﺒ(ﺎ& ﻣﺴﺘﻌﻤـﻞ ﻟﻐﺎ!ـﺔ ‪$‬ﻟﺒﺤـﺚ ‪%‬ﻟﻌﻠﻤـﻲ ﻓﻘﻂ‪.‬‬
‫‪Mr. AOUNALI Walid‬‬ ‫‪,‬ﻟﺴ‪#‬ﺪ‪ :‬ﻋـــــﻮﻧﺎﻟـــــﻲ ‪%‬ﻟ‪#‬ــــــــﺪ‬
‫‪Doctoral School of English‬‬ ‫ﻣﺪ‪.‬ﺳــــﺔ *ﻟﺪﻛﺘـــﻮ‪ -*.‬ﻟﻠﻐـــــﺔ *ﻹﻧﺠﻠ‪%‬ـــــــﺰ"ﺔ‬
‫‪Badji Mokhtar University_Annaba‬‬ ‫ﺟــــﺎﻣﻌــﺔ ﺑــﺎﺟــــﻲ ﻣﺨﺘــــــﺎ&_ﻋﻨــــــﺎﺑـــــﺔ‬

‫‪Section One: General Information‬‬ ‫"ﻟﻘﺴـــﻢ ‪-‬ﻷ‪ :*+‬ﻣﻌـﻠـﻮﻣﺎ& ﻋﺎﻣـــــﺔ‬

‫‪Q1. How old are you: ........... years-old‬‬ ‫ﻣـــﺎ )ﻮ ﻋﻤﺮ‪ ............ :$‬ﺳﻨﺔ‬
‫‪a- 17 years-old‬‬ ‫! ‪ 17‬ﺳﻨــــــــﺔ‬

‫‪b- 18years-old‬‬ ‫! ‪ 18‬ﺳﻨــــــــﺔ‬

‫‪c- 19 years-old‬‬ ‫! ‪ 19‬ﺳﻨــــــــﺔ‬

‫‪d- 20 years-old‬‬ ‫! ‪ 20‬ﺳﻨــــــــﺔ‬

‫‪Q2. What is your gender:‬‬ ‫ﻣــﺎ ‪#‬ــــﻮ ﺟﻨــــــﺴﻚ؟‬

‫;‪a- Male‬‬ ‫! ‪$‬ﻛــــــــﺮ‬

‫‪b- Female.‬‬ ‫! ‪%‬ﻧﺜـــــــﻰ‬

!

Section Two: Pupils’ Viewpoints on Learning English ‫ﺰ"ﺔ‬$‫ ﺗﻌﻠﻢ )ﻹﻧﺠﻠ‬%‫ﺔ ﻧﻈﺮ 'ﻟﺘﻼﻣ"ﺬ (ﺗﺠﺎ‬%‫ 'ﺟ‬:‫ﻟﺜﺎﻧﻲ‬, ‫"ﻟﻘﺴﻢ‬

Q3. Do you enjoy your English class? ‫ﺰ!ـــﺔ ﻓﻲ 'ﻟﻘﺴــﻢ؟‬#‫ﻟﻠﻐـــﺔ (ﻹﻧﺠﻠ‬$ ‫'ـــﻞ ﺗﺴﺘﻤﺘـــﻊ ﺑﺘﻌﻠـــﻢ‬

a- Yes ‫! ﻧﻌـــــــﻢ‬ b- No ‫! ﻻ‬

Q4. How do you learn English better: : ‫ﺣﺴـــﻦ‬% ‫ﻹﻧﺠﻠ)ﺰ'ــﺔ‬. ‫ﻟﻠﻐﺔ‬% ‫ﻤﻜﻨﻚ ﺗﻌﻠﻢ‬$ ‫ﻛ&ﻒ‬
a- Alone; !‫! ﻟــــﻮﺣـــــــﺪ‬
b- In Group. ‫! ﻓـﻲ ﻣﺠﻤﻮﻋـﺔ‬

Q5. Which skill in English would you find yourself good at? ‫ﺎ؟‬#$‫ *ﻟﺘﻲ ﺗﺠﺪ ﻧﻔﺴﻚ *ﻷﺣﺴﻦ ﻓ‬45‫ﺎ‬#‫ﻲ *ﻟﻤ‬7 ‫ﻣﺎ‬

a- Listening; !‫ﺎ*) (ﻹﺳﺘﻤـﺎ‬+‫! ﻣ‬

b- Speaking; ‫ـﺎ)( 'ﻟـﺘﻜـﻠـﻢ‬+‫! ﻣ‬

c- Reading; !‫ء‬#‫ﻟﻘــﺮ‬# !(‫! ﻣ*ﺎ‬

d- Writing. ‫ـﺎ*) (ﻟﻜـﺘـﺎﺑــﺔ‬+‫! ﻣ‬

Section Three: Pupils’ Perceptions on the Textbook ‫ﺳﻲ‬#‫ 'ﻟﻜﺘﺎ( 'ﻟﻤﺪ‬,‫ﺬ ﺣﻮ‬0‫ 'ﻟﺘﻼﻣ‬3'#‫ ﺗﺼﻮ‬:‫"ﻟﻘﺴﻢ 'ﻟﺜﺎﻟﺚ‬

Q6. You find the physical appearance of the textbook attractive. ‫ﺳﻲ ﺟﺬ"!؟‬#‫ﻟـﻤﻈ(ﺮ &ﻟﺨﺎ"ﺟﻲ ﻟﻠﻜﺘﺎ( 'ﻟﻤﺪ‬# ‫ﻞ ﺗﺠﺪ‬#

Strongly Agree !‫ﻣﺘﻔﻖ ﺟﺪ‬ Agree ‫ﻣﺘﻔﻖ‬ Disagree ‫ﺗﻔﻖ‬$ ‫ﻻ‬ Strongly Disagree !‫ﻼ‬#‫ﻹ‬% ‫ﻻ ﻋﻠﻰ‬

Q7. The textbooks is well-designed and well-organised. ‫ﺔ؟‬#‫ ﻣﻨﻈﻢ ﺑﻄﺮ(ﻘﺔ ﻣﺮﺿ‬. ‫ﺳﻲ ﻣﺼﻤﻢ‬3‫ﻟﻤﺪ‬6 7‫ﻟﻜﺘﺎ‬6 ‫<ﻞ‬

Strongly Agree !‫ﻣﺘﻔﻖ ﺟﺪ‬ Agree ‫ﻣﺘﻔﻖ‬ Disagree ‫ﺗﻔﻖ‬$ ‫ﻻ‬ Strongly Disagree !‫ﻼ‬#‫ﻹ‬% ‫ﻻ ﻋﻠﻰ‬

Q8. You can understand the language used in the textbook. ‫ﻢ 'ﻟﻠﻐﺔ 'ﻟﻤﺴﺘﻌﻤﻠﺔ ﻓﻲ 'ﻟﻜﺘﺎ"؟‬1‫ﻊ ﻓ‬3‫ﻞ ﺗﺴﺘﻄ‬7

Strongly Agree !‫ﻣﺘﻔﻖ ﺟﺪ‬ Agree ‫ﻣﺘﻔﻖ‬ Disagree ‫ﺗﻔﻖ‬$ ‫ﻻ‬ Strongly Disagree !‫ﻼ‬#‫ﻹ‬% ‫ﻻ ﻋﻠﻰ‬

Q9. You like the activities and tasks of the textbook. ‫ 'ﻟﻤ*ﺎ( 'ﻟﻤﻮﺟﻮ"! ﻓﻲ &ﻟﻜﺘﺎ!؟‬+ ,‫ﺎ‬-‫ﻞ ﺗﻌﺠﺒﻚ 'ﻟﻨﺸﺎ‬#

Strongly Agree !‫ﻣﺘﻔﻖ ﺟﺪ‬ Agree ‫ﻣﺘﻔﻖ‬ Disagree ‫ﺗﻔﻖ‬$ ‫ﻻ‬ Strongly Disagree !‫ﻼ‬#‫ﻹ‬% ‫ﻻ ﻋﻠﻰ‬

Q10. You always solve your project or homework alone? ‫ﺋﻤﺎ؟‬$% !‫ﺟﺒﺎﺗﻚ ﻟﻮﺣﺪ‬+, , ‫ﻋـﻚ‬,‫ ﺑﺤـﻞ ﻣﺸـﺮ‬5‫ﻞ ﺗـﻘـﻮ‬7

Strongly Agree !‫ﻣﺘﻔﻖ ﺟﺪ‬ Agree ‫ﻣﺘﻔﻖ‬ Disagree ‫ﺗﻔﻖ‬$ ‫ﻻ‬ Strongly Disagree !‫ﻼ‬#‫ﻹ‬% ‫ﻻ ﻋﻠﻰ‬

Q11. The topics in the textbook are attractive? ‫ﺑـﺔ؟‬%‫ﻟﻜﺘـﺎ( ﺟﺬ‬% ‫ ﻓﻲ‬/0‫ﻟﻤﻮﺟﻮ‬% ‫ﻊ‬4‫ﺿ‬%‫ﻟﻤﻮ‬% ‫ﻞ ﺗﺠﺪ‬:

Strongly Agree !‫ﻣﺘﻔﻖ ﺟﺪ‬ Agree ‫ﻣﺘﻔﻖ‬ Disagree ‫ﺗﻔﻖ‬$ ‫ﻻ‬ Strongly Disagree !‫ﻼ‬#‫ﻹ‬% ‫ﻻ ﻋﻠﻰ‬
!

If you liked it, which topics are interesting: : ‫ﻤﺔ‬#‫ـﻊ )ﻟﺘﻲ ﺗﺠﺪ"ﺎ ﻣ‬,‫ ﻣﺎ )ﻟﻤﻮ)ﺿ‬,‫ﻊ‬,‫ﻋﺠﺒﺘﻚ )ﻟﻤﻮ)ﺿ‬4 ‫ﺟـﺒـﺖ‬4 )78

a- Ancient Civilizations; ‫ـﻤـــــــــــﺔ‬$‫! (ﻟـﺤـﻀـــــــﺎ*() (ﻟـﻘــﺪ‬

b- Ethics in Business: fraud and corruption; !‫ &ﻟﺘﺰ')ﺮ ' &ﻟﻔﺴﺎ‬:‫ &ﻟﺸﻐـﻞ‬0‫ﺎ‬1‫ﺧﻼﻗ‬5 !

c- Education in the world; ‫ﻟـﻌـﺎﻟـــــــــﻢ‬% ‫ﻟـﺘـﻌـﻠـ)ــــــــﻢ ﻓــــﻲ‬% ‫ﺟـ‬

d- Advertising, consumers and food safety; ‫ﺋﻲ‬#‫ﻟﻐﺬ‬# ‫ﻣﻨ(ﻢ‬+ , -‫ﻟﻤﺴﺘ(ﻠﻜﻮ‬# ,4‫ﻹﺷ(ﺎ‬# !

e- Astronomy and the solar system; ‫ 'ﻟـﻨﻈـﺎ( 'ﻟـﺸﻤﺴــــﻲ‬, ‫"ـ ﻋﻠـــﻢ 'ﻟـﻔﻠــﻚ‬

f- Feelings, emotions, humour. !‫! &ﻟﻤﺸــﺎﻋـﺮ ' &ﻷﺣﺎﺳ)ــﺲ ' &ﻟﻤــﺮ‬

Q12. The textbook contains a useful content about the cultures of English-speaking countries

‫ﺰ"ﺔ‬$‫ )ﻟﻤﺘﺤﺪﺛﺔ ﺑﺎﻟﻠﻐﺔ )ﻹﻧﺠﻠ‬34‫ )ﻟﺪ‬5‫ ﺛﻘﺎﻓﺎ‬3‫ﺪ ﺣﻮ‬$‫ )ﻟﻜﺘﺎ? ﻋﻠﻰ ﻣﺤﺘﻮ< ﻣﻔ‬A‫ﻞ "ﺤﺘﻮ‬C

Strongly Agree !‫ﻣﺘﻔﻖ ﺟﺪ‬ Agree ‫ﻣﺘﻔﻖ‬ Disagree ‫ﺗﻔﻖ‬$ ‫ﻻ‬ Strongly Disagree !‫ﻼ‬#‫ﻹ‬% ‫ﻻ ﻋﻠﻰ‬

Q13. The textbook raises your interest in further study of English language? !‫ﻟﻜﺘــــﺎ‬$ ‫ﻟﻘــــــــــــﺪ ﻧﻤّـــــــﺎ‬
‫ﻛﺜﺮ‬$ ‫ﻹﻧﺠﻠ(ﺰ&ﺔ‬- ‫ﻟﻠﻐﺔ‬- ‫ﺳﺔ‬-12 ‫ﺘﻤﺎﻣﻚ ﻓﻲ‬:; ‫ﺳﻲ ﻣﻦ‬1‫ﻟﻤﺪ‬-

Strongly Agree !‫ﻣﺘﻔﻖ ﺟﺪ‬ Agree ‫ﻣﺘﻔﻖ‬ Disagree ‫ﺗﻔﻖ‬$ ‫ﻻ‬ Strongly Disagree !‫ﻼ‬#‫ﻹ‬% ‫ﻻ ﻋﻠﻰ‬

Section Four: The Four Skills in the Textbook !‫ﺑﻌﺔ ﻓﻲ &ﻟﻜﺘﺎ‬$‫ﺎ!&' &ﻷ‬#‫ "ﻟﻤ‬:‫ﺑﻊ‬#‫ﻟﺮ‬# ‫"ﻟﻘﺴﻢ‬

Q14. The textbook helps you to develop your speaking skill. ‫ﺗﻚ ﻓﻲ 'ﻟﺘﻜﻠﻢ ؟‬,‫ﺎ‬.‫ﺮ ﻣ‬1‫ ﻓﻲ ﺗﻄﻮ‬%‫ *ﻟﻜﺘﺎ‬+‫ﺴﺎﻋﺪ‬/ ‫ﻞ‬1

Strongly Agree !‫ﻣﺘﻔﻖ ﺟﺪ‬ Agree ‫ﻣﺘﻔﻖ‬ Disagree ‫ﺗﻔﻖ‬$ ‫ﻻ‬ Strongly Disagree !‫ﻼ‬#‫ﻹ‬% ‫ﻻ ﻋﻠﻰ‬

Q15. The reading comprehension texts are appropriate to your level. ‫"؟‬#‫ء! ﻣﻨﺎﺳﺒﺔ ﻟﻤﺴﺘﻮ‬#‫ﻟﻘﺮ‬# '‫ ﻧﺼﻮ‬+, ‫"ﻞ ﺗﻌﺘﻘﺪ‬

Strongly Agree !‫ﻣﺘﻔﻖ ﺟﺪ‬ Agree ‫ﻣﺘﻔﻖ‬ Disagree ‫ﺗﻔﻖ‬$ ‫ﻻ‬ Strongly Disagree !‫ﻼ‬#‫ﻹ‬% ‫ﻻ ﻋﻠﻰ‬

Q16. You feel that your listening comprehension has developed !‫ﺗـﻚ ﻓـﻲ (ﻹﺳﺘﻤـﺎ‬-‫ﺎ‬.‫ ﻣ‬0‫ﻞ ﺗـﺸـﻌــﺮ ﺑـﺄ‬7
‫ﻟﺴﻨﺔ ؟‬% &‫ﻟﻜﺘﺎ) ﻟ(ﺬ‬% -‫ﺳﺘﻌﻤﺎ‬1 ‫ ﺑﻌﺪ‬45‫ﻗـﺪ ﺗـﻄـﻮ‬

Strongly Agree !‫ﻣﺘﻔﻖ ﺟﺪ‬ Agree ‫ﻣﺘﻔﻖ‬ Disagree ‫ﺗﻔﻖ‬$ ‫ﻻ‬ Strongly Disagree !‫ﻼ‬#‫ﻹ‬% ‫ﻻ ﻋﻠﻰ‬

Q17. You like writing tasks in the textbook and find it interesting. !‫ﺮ &ﻟﻜﺘﺎﺑﻲ ﻓﻲ &ﻟﻜﺘﺎ‬+‫ &ﻟﺘﻌﺒ‬.‫ﺎ‬/‫ﻞ ﺗﻌﺠﺒﻚ ﻣ‬5

Strongly Agree !‫ﻣﺘﻔﻖ ﺟﺪ‬ Agree ‫ﻣﺘﻔﻖ‬ Disagree ‫ﺗﻔﻖ‬$ ‫ﻻ‬ Strongly Disagree !‫ﻼ‬#‫ﻹ‬% ‫ﻻ ﻋﻠﻰ‬
!

Q18. Your writing ability has improved after using the textbook? ‫*ﺗــﻚ ﻓــﻲ *ﻟـﻜﺘــﺎﺑـﺔ ﺑﻌــﺪ‬/‫ ﻗـﺪ‬1/‫ﻞ ﺗـﻄــﻮ‬5
‫ﺰ"ﺔ‬$‫ﺳﻲ ﻟﻠﻐﺔ )ﻹﻧﺠﻠ‬.‫ )ﻟﻤﺪ‬1‫(ﺳﺘﺨـــﺪ"! )ﻟﻜﺘﺎ‬

Strongly Agree !‫ﻣﺘﻔﻖ ﺟﺪ‬ Agree ‫ﻣﺘﻔﻖ‬ Disagree ‫ﺗﻔﻖ‬$ ‫ﻻ‬ Strongly Disagree !‫ﻼ‬#‫ﻹ‬% ‫ﻻ ﻋﻠﻰ‬

If not, please state the reasons: …. !‫ ﻓﻤﺎ (ﻲ &ﻷﺳﺒﺎ‬,‫ﺗﻚ ﻓﻲ &ﻟﻜﺘﺎﺑﺔ‬%‫"!! ﻟﻢ ﺗﺘﻄﻮ! ﻣ'ﺎ‬
…………………….................................………………………………………………………………………
…………………….................................………………………………………………………………………

Q19. Do you repeatedly proofread your writing before giving it to the teacher? ‫ *ﻟﻜﺘﺎﺑﻲ ﻗﺒﻞ‬+‫ﺮ‬-‫* ﺗﻌﺒ‬0*‫ﻞ ﺗﺮ*ﺟﻊ ﺗﻜﺮ‬3
‫ ﻟﻸﺳﺘﺎ" ؟‬$‫ﺗﺴﻠ&ﻤ‬

Always ‫"!ﺋــــﻤﺎ‬ Mostly !‫ﺎ‬#‫ﻣﻌﻈﻢ &ﻷﺣ‬ Often !‫ﺎ‬#‫ﺑﻌﺾ &ﻷﺣ‬ Never !‫ﻼ‬#‫ﻹ‬% ‫ﻻ ﻋﻠﻰ‬

Q20. When revising your essay, indicate on which area you focus on: ‫ﺣﻲ‬#‫ﻟﻨﻮ‬# ‫ﺷﺮ (ﻟﻰ‬+ ‫ﺟﻌﺘﻚ ﻟﻤﻘﺎﻟﻚ‬#‫ﻋﻨﺪ ﻣﺮ‬
‫"ﺎ‬#‫ﻟﺘﻲ ﺗﺮﻛﺰ ﻋﻠ‬-
a- Mechanics (spelling punctuation); ( ‫ﺻﻞ‬#‫ﻟﻔﻮ‬# ‫ﻟﺘﻠﻔﻆ‬#) ‫ﺐ‬+‫ﻷﺳﺎﻟ‬# !

b- Grammar; ‫ﻋﺪ‬#‫ﻟﻘﻮ‬# !

c- Vocabulary; !‫! &ﻷﻟﻔﺎ‬

d- Organisation (flow of ideas); ‫! 'ﻟﺘﻨﻈ"ﻢ‬

e- Content (quality of ideas). !‫"ـ 'ﻟﻤﺤﺘﻮ‬

Q21. You find teacher’s written feedback useful. !‫ﺪ‬#‫ﻷﺳﺘﺎ& ﻣﻔ‬+ ,‫ﺮ‬. ‫ﻟﻤﻜﺘﻮﺑﺔ ﻣﻦ‬+ 6‫ﻟﻤﻼﺣﻈﺎ‬+ ‫=ﻞ ﺗﺠﺪ‬

Very Useful !‫ﻣﻔ"ﺪ ﺟﺪ‬ Useful ‫ﻣﻔ"ﺪ‬ Useless ‫ﻏ"ﺮ ﻣﻔ"ﺪ‬ Very Useless !‫ﻼ‬#‫ﻹ‬% ‫ﻻ ﻋﻠﻰ‬

Q22. You prefer adding a glossary to explain difficult words in the texts? ‫ﻞ ﺗﻔﻀـﻞ "ﺿـﺎﻓﺔ ﺷـﺮ! ﻟﻠﻜﻠﻤـﺎ' &ﻟﺼﻌﺒﺔ‬%

‫ـﺔ؟‬$‫ﻤ‬$‫ﺣـﺪ) ﺗﻌﻠ‬, ‫ﺔ ﻛـﻞ‬/‫ـﺎ‬1‫ﺳـﻲ ﻓـﻲ ﻧ‬6‫ﻟﻤﺪ‬8 9‫ﻟﻜﺘـﺎ‬8 ‫ﻓـﻲ‬

a- Yes ‫! ﻧﻌـــــــﻢ‬ b- No ‫! ﻻ‬

Section Five: Further Suggestions !‫ﺣــــــــــﺎ‬%‫ﻹﻗﺘـﺮ‬% :‫'ﻟﻘﺴــــــﻢ 'ﻟﺨﺎﻣــــﺲ‬

Q23. Would you like to suggest any ideas? ‫ (ﻟﻜﺘﺐ ﻓﻲ (ﻟﻤﺴﺘﻘﺒﻞ؟‬-.‫ﻦ ﺟﻮ‬2‫ﻓﻜﺎ! ﻟﺘﺤﺴ‬% ‫ﻞ ﺗﻮ! ﺗﻘﺪ"ﻢ‬%
........................................................................................................................................................................
........................................................................................................................................................................
................. .......................................................................................................................................................

Thanks very much for your assistance. .‫ــــﻼ ﻋﻠﻰ ﻣﺴﺎﻋﺪﺗــــﻚ ﻟﻨﺎ‬.‫ ﺟﺰ‬1‫ﺷﻜــــﺮ‬
!

APPENDIX III

Classroom Observation Items

Steps Criteria

1. Preparation
1-The teacher is well-prepared and well-organised in the class.

2- The prepared goals/ objectives were apparent.

2. Presentation
3- Does the teacher introduce topic, state goals, present material, and

summarise. Give assignment or suggest ideas to consider for next class?

4- Does the instructor offer “real world” applications?

5- Instructional aids or resource materials were used effectively.

6- The material was presented at the pupils’ level of comprehension.

3. Execution/ 7- There were a balance and a variety in the activities used during the lesson.

Methods 8- Examples and illustration were used effectively.

4. Teacher/Pupils 9- The teacher encouraged and assured full pupils participation in the class.

Interaction 10- The class felt free to ask questions, disagree, or to express their own ideas.
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APPENDIX IV

Contents of the English Textbook ‘New Prospects’

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APPENDIX V

Book Map of the English Textbook ‘New Prospects’

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Appendix VI

Personal E-mail Sent to Pr. Brian John Tomlinson

From: Walid Aounali < [email protected] > !
To: Brian Tomlinson < [email protected] >
Date: 7 February 2012 3:05
Subject: Consulting my research outline
Reply | Reply to all | Forward | Print | Delete | Show original

!
!

Dear Pr. Brian Tomlinson,

I am Walid Aounali an MA student from Algeria, conducting an evaluative study on an Algerian textbook
rd
currently used in high school for 3 year secondary pupils, that is, pre-university level. Since I have read
your books, I hoped to get benefit from your experience in the field of Material Development and Evaluation.
Here is the title of my research: .

EVALUATION OF THE THIRD YEAR OF SECONDARY EDUCATION

ENGLISH TEXTBOOK ‘NEW PROSPECTS’

Please, could you advise me and give me some recommendations and/or feedback about my research
outline and my questionnaires for both teachers and pupils?
Yours sincerely,
Mr. Walid Aounali.
Post-graduate student.
University of Annaba_Algeria.

!From: Brian Tomlinson < [email protected] > !

To: walid english < [email protected] >
Date: 12 February 2012 17:48
Reply | Reply to all | Forward | Print | Delete | Show original

! Dear Walid, ,

I've looked at the work you sent and found it very impressive. Your research topic is certainly interesting
and worthwhile and you seem to be very knowledgeable about the field. My general advice would be:
:
1- Reduce your questionnaire.
At the moment there are so many questions that your respondents will inevitably suffer from
questionnaire fatigue and will respond towards the end in reluctant and uninformative ways. Only ask the
questions, which are likely to give you the information you absolutely need. .

2- Change your questions so that they can be answered on a 1-4 scale. .

At the moment they are absolute Yes/No questions and do not allow any responses in between.

Good luck with your research.

Best wishes,!

!
Brian
!

Résumé

Cette dissertation est consacrée à l'évaluation du manuel d’anglais langue étrangère

‘New Prospects’ (3ème Année Secondaire) qui est destiné aux élèves de toutes les branches.

La dissertation est intitulée: Evaluation du Manuel d’Anglais ‘New Prospects’

Le cas des élèves de la troisième année secondaire de la branche des langues étrangères

dans la région de Biskra

La présente étude contient cinq chapitres: la partie théorique comprend les deux premier

chapitres, tandis que les autres chapitres constituent le côté pratique de la dissertation. Cette

dernière vise à explorer les attitudes des enseignant(e)s de la troisième année secondaire à la suite

de l’application des nouvelles réformes. Nous avons évalué le contenu du livre où nous utilisons

certains des critères mentionnés dans le premier chapitre. L'évaluation de ce manuel scolaire est

basée sur les méthodes de recherche mixte. En effet, cette recherche utilise plusieurs méthodes pour

analyser les données disponibles, comme l'analyse qualitative du livre et l'analyse quantitative et

statistique dans le but d'obtenir des résultats compatibles avec les objectifs de l'étude et les

hypothèses de la dissertation. A la suite des résultats, des conseils sont donnés aux utilisateurs des

manuels scolaires, à savoir les élèves et les enseignant(e)s. À propos des enseignant(e)s, nous

offrons plusieurs suggestions pour qu'ils puissent utiliser le livre de manière plus efficace et

complémenter les insuffisances en pratique. Aussi, nous proposons aux élèves comment utiliser le

livre de manière efficace. Finalement, nous recommandons des critères pédagogiques et

scientifiques qui doivent être pris en compte lors de la conception d'un manuel d’anglais, comme la

thématique, le programme indexé sur le niveau réel des élèves, le contenu, les exercices, les tâches

et les activités pour améliorer le socle de base d’apprentissage de la langue via la qualité des futurs

livres d’anglais du secondaire.

 ‫!‬

‫'ﻟـﻤــﻠــﺨــــــــــــــــــﺺ‬

‫"!ـﺪ! ﻋﻤﻠﻨﺎ (ﺬ& ‪%‬ﻟﻰ ﺗﻘـﻮ)ﻢ ‪#‬ﻟﻜﺘﺎ‪# $‬ﻟﻤـﺪ‪#‬ﺳﻲ ﻟﻠﻐﺔ *ﻹﻧﺠـﻠ‪-‬ﺰ‪+‬ﺔ *ﻟﺼـﺎ‪ $%‬ﺳﻨﺔ ‪ 2007‬ﻋﻦ &ﻟﺪ(ﻮ&' &ﻟﻮ‪#‬ﻨﻲ‬

‫ﻟﻠﻤﻄﺒﻮﻋﺎ) (ﻟﻤﺪ‪$‬ﺳ"ﺔ! ' &ﻟﻤﻮﺟ! ﻟﻄﻼ& ‪%‬ﻟﺴﻨﺔ ‪%‬ﻟﺜﺎﻟﺜﺔ ﻣﻦ ‪-‬ﻟﺘﻌﻠ‪8‬ﻢ ‪-‬ﻟﺜﺎﻧﻮ‪- /‬ﻟﺠﺰ‪-‬ﺋﺮ‪- . /‬ﻟﻤﺬﻛـﺮ& ﺗﺤﺖ ﻋﻨـﻮ"!‪:‬‬

‫‪*/9‬ﺳﺔ ﺗﻘﻮ"ﻤ‪$‬ﺔ ﻟﻠﻜﺘﺎ‪* 2‬ﻟﻤـﺪ‪/‬ﺳﻲ ﻟﻠﻐﺔ *ﻹﻧﺠـﻠ‪$‬ﺰ"ﺔ )ﻧ*ﻮ ﺑﺮ&ﺳﺒﻜﺘﺲ( ’‪‘ New Prospects‬‬

‫‪/DE‬ﺳﺔ ﺣﺎﻟﺔ ﺗﻼﻣ‪+‬ﺬ ‪/‬ﻟﺴﻨﺔ ‪/‬ﻟﺜﺎﻟﺜﺔ ﻣﻦ ‪/‬ﻟﺘﻌﻠ‪+‬ﻢ ‪/‬ﻟﺜﺎﻧﻮ‪ 7‬ﻟﺸﻌﺒﺔ ‪/‬ﻟﻠﻐﺎ‪/ 0‬ﻷﺟﻨﺒ‪+‬ﺔ ﺑﻤﻨﻄﻘﺔ ﺑﺴﻜﺮ!‬

‫=ﺤﺘﻮ‪ 6‬ﻋﻤﻠﻨﺎ ‪C‬ﺬ) ﻋﻠﻰ ﺧﻤﺴﺔ ﻓﺼﻮ*‪= :‬ﺘﻀﻤﻦ )ﻟﺠﺎﻧﺐ )ﻟﻨﻈﺮ‪ 6‬ﻓﺼﻠ‪1‬ﻦ ﺑ‪1‬ﻨﻤﺎ )ﻟﻔﺼﻮ* )ﻷﺧﺮ‪ %‬ﺗﺸﻤﻞ‬

‫&ﻟﺠﺎﻧﺐ (ﻟﺘﻄﺒ‪#‬ﻘﻲ! ﻟﻘﺪ ﻗﻤﻨﺎ ﺑﺘﻘ‪--‬ﻢ ﻣﺤﺘﻮ= <ﺣﺪ‪289 :‬ﺳ‪-‬ﺔ ﻛﺎﻣﻠﺔ ﻣﻦ ‪2‬ﻟﻜﺘﺎ‪ /‬ﺣ‪-‬ﺚ ﺗﻢ )ﺳﺘﻌﻤﺎ‪ $‬ﺑﻌﺾ ‪%‬ﻟﻤﻌﺎ‪"#‬ﺮ‬

‫(ﻟﻤﺬﻛﻮ‪ <$‬ﻓﻲ (ﻟﻔﺼﻞ (ﻷ‪(7 47‬ﻟﻤﻌﻤﻮ‪ 4‬ﺑ‪2‬ﺎ ﻓﻲ ﺗﻘ""ﻢ (ﻟﻜﺘﺐ (ﻟﻤﺪ‪$‬ﺳ"ﺔ ﻣﻦ ﺟﺎﻧﺐ "ﻟﻤﺤﺘﻮ!! ﺗﺼﻤ&ﻢ ‪$‬ﻟﻜﺘﺎ!!‬

‫)ﻟﻨﺸﺎ&ﺎ‪# $‬ﻟﺦ ‪ ! ...‬ﻗﻤﻨﺎ ﻛﺬﻟﻚ ﺑﺘﻮ)(ﻊ &ﺳﺘﺒ"ﺎﻧ!ﻦ ﻟﻸﺳﺎﺗﺬ‪+ , -‬ﻟﺘﻼﻣ'ﺬ ﻣﻦ ‪#‬ﺟﻞ ﺳﺒﺮ ‪$34‬ﺋ‪1‬ﻢ ‪/‬ﻗﺪ ﻗﻤﻨﺎ ﻛﺬﻟﻚ ﺑﻤﺮ‪$‬ﻗﺒﺔ‬

‫‪J‬ﺣﺪ‪%9I 8‬ﺳ‪-‬ﺔ ﻛﺎﻣﻠﺔ ‪7‬ﺛﻨﺎء ﺗﻘﺪ?ﻤ>ﺎ ﻓﻲ ‪%‬ﻟﻘﺴﻢ ﻷﺧﺬ ﺻﻮ‪7 89‬ﺷﻤﻞ ﺣﻮ‪ 1‬ﺗﻄﺒ‪-‬ﻖ ‪%‬ﻟﻜﺘﺎ( ﻓﻲ ‪%‬ﻟﻘﺴﻢ‪.‬‬

‫ﺗﻜﻮﻧﺖ ﻋ"ﻨﺔ (ﻟﺪ‪(2‬ﺳﺔ ﻣﻦ ﻋﺸﺮ;@ ?ﺳﺘﺎ>( ; ﻣﺎﺋﺔ ;ﺛﻤﺎﻧ"ﺔ ﻋﺸﺮ ﺗﻠﻤ"ﺬ( ﺷﺎ‪2‬ﻛﻮ( ﻓﻲ (ﻹﺳﺘﺒ"ﺎﻧ"ﻦ (ﻟﻤﻮ‪$‬ﻋ"ﻦ‬

‫ﻟﺴﺒﺮ ‪,IJ‬ﺋ?ﻢ ﺣﻮ‪, F‬ﻟﻜﺘﺎ‪C D‬ﻣﺪ‪: A‬ﻋﺠﺎﺑ?ﻢ ﺑ<‪ .‬ﻟﻘﺪ ‪:‬ﺳﺘﻌﻤﻠﻨﺎ ﻋﺪ( ‪5‬ﺮ‪ 4‬ﻟﺘﺤﻠ‪/‬ﻞ ‪,‬ﻟﻤﻌﻄ‪/‬ﺎ‪, -‬ﻟﻤﺘﻮﻓﺮ( ﺗﺘﻤﺜﻞ ﻓﻲ‬

‫&ﻟﺘﺤﻠ!ﻞ &ﻟﻨﻮﻋﻲ ﻟﻤﺤﺘﻮ‪7‬ﺎ‪& 6‬ﻟﻜﺘﺎ‪&3 4‬ﻟﻤﻨ‪1‬ﺞ &ﻟﻜﻤﻲ ﻓﻲ ﺗﺤﻠ!ﻞ &ﻹﺳﺘﺒ!ﺎﻧ‪8‬ﻦ ‪56‬ﻟﻚ ﻟﻠﺤﺼﻮ‪ 0‬ﻋﻠﻰ ﻧﺘﺎﺋﺞ ﻣﺘﻮ&ﻓﻘﺔ ﻣﻊ‬

‫‪DE‬ﺪ‪# C#‬ﻟﺪ‪#.‬ﺳﺔ ‪ B‬ﻓﺮﺿ‪,‬ﺎﺗ;ﺎ ﻟﺘﻄﺒ‪,‬ﻖ ‪#‬ﻟﻤﻨ;ﺠ‪,‬ﺔ ‪#‬ﻟﻤﺘﺒﻌﺔ ﻓﻲ ﺗﻘ‪,,‬ــﻢ ‪#‬ﻟﻜﺘﺐ ‪#‬ﻟﻤﺪ‪.‬ﺳ‪,‬ﺔ ﻣﻦ ﻛﻞ ‪#‬ﻟﺠﻮ‪#‬ﻧﺐ‪.‬‬

‫‪1‬ﻟﻨﺘﺎﺋﺞ ‪1‬ﻟﻤﺘﺤﺼﻞ ﻋﻠ)(ﺎ ﻛﺎﻧﺖ ﺗﺼﺐ ‪%‬ﺣ‪#‬ﺎﻧﺎ ﻟﺼﺎﻟﺢ &ﻟﻜﺘﺎ! ‪%‬ﻟﻤﺪ‪2‬ﺳﻲ ﻣﻦ ﺣ(ﺚ ‪%‬ﻟﺘﺼﻤ(ﻢ & ‪%‬ﻟﺸﻜﻞ‬

‫*)ﺳﺘﺮ‪%‬ﺗ"ﺠ"ﺎ‪, D‬ﻟﺘﻌﻠﻢ ﻣﻊ <ﻧ‪F‬ﺎ <‪FG‬ﺮ‪ D‬ﻋﺪ‪ A‬ﻧﻘﺎﺋﺺ <ﺛﻨﺎء ﺗﻄﺒ‪4‬ﻖ ‪,‬ﻟﻤﺤﺘﻮ‪ 1‬ﻛﺼﻌﻮﺑﺔ ‪,‬ﻟﻠﻐﺔ ‪,‬ﻟﻤﺴﺘﻌﻤﻠﺔ ‪# $‬ﻮ!‬

‫ﻧﺼﻮ‪- H‬ﻟﻘﺮ‪-‬ء‪8 6‬ﻛﺜﺎﻓﺔ ‪-‬ﻟﻮﺣﺪ‪ D-‬ﺑﺎﻹﺿﺎﻓﺔ @ﻟﻰ >ﻮ= ﻣﺤﺘﻮ; ﻛﻞ ‪8‬ﺣﺪ‪ 6‬ﻣﻘﺎ‪%‬ﻧﺔ ﺑﺎﻟﻮﻗﺖ ‪-‬ﻟﻤﺨﺼﺺ ﻟﺘﺪ‪$%‬ﺴ"ﺎ‪.‬‬

‫ﻧﺮﺟﻮ ‪ *+‬ﺗﺴﺎﻋﺪ ﻧﺘﺎﺋﺞ ‪'/0‬ﺳﺘﻨﺎ ‪',‬ﻟﻨﺼﺎﺋﺢ 'ﻟﻤﻌﻄﺎ! ﻓﻲ ﻣﺴﺎﻋﺪ‪ 0‬ﻣﺼﻤﻤﻲ ‪$‬ﻟﻤﻨﺎ)ﺞ ‪$‬ﻟﺪ‪$%‬ﺳ"ﺔ ﻓﻲ ﺗﺤﺴ"ﻦ ﺟﻮ"!‬
‫*ﻟﻜﺘﺐ *ﻟﻤﺴﺘﻘﺒﻠ"ﺔ ﻟﻠﻐﺔ &ﻹﻧﺠﻠ(ﺰ‪B‬ﺔ ‪A6‬ﻟﻚ ﺑﺈﺷﺮ&; &ﻟﻄﻠﺒﺔ ‪& 6‬ﻷﺳﺎﺗﺬ‪ 1‬ﻓﻲ ‪.‬ﺧﺘ(ﺎ‪ ,‬ﻣﻮ&ﺿ(ﻊ &ﻟﻜﺘﺎ!‪.‬‬

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