Textbook Evaluation of Family and Friends Series Based on Teachers’ Perspectives

Rahman Sahragard, Salah Addin Rahimi

Abstract


The selected textbook in the present research is Family and Friends series for young- learner students, that is, Family and Friends 5, (Naomi Simmons, Tamzin Thompson and Jenny Quintana, second edition) and Family and Friends 6, (Naomi Simmons, Tamzin Thompson and Jenny Quintana, second edition) were selected. Twenty instructors comprising of 10 males and 10 females were participated. These instructors have been teaching Family and Friends books for several years. Thus, these experienced instructors have enough knowledge and ability to evaluate the books and identify their strengths and weaknesses. An EFL/ESL textbook evaluation checklist consisting of 35 items served the instrument in the present study. The checklist was compartmentalized into four sub-parts as follows: aim and achievement, skill, language type and technical consideration, each directly related to a criterion and likewise, an important aspect of textbook evaluation. The checklist is adapted and modified version of Mc Donough and Shaw (1993) provided an evaluating model for the study. .Frequencies and percentages were calculated for each item to describe the overall picture of how the teachers rated the textbook in terms of four criteria. In addition, chi-square for each criterion was calculated. The study’s finding indicated that the teachers were extremely satisfied with a majority of the textbook’s features. The result of the prepared checklist is added to the related sections. Therefore, Family and Friends series are suitable to be used as it has been used successfully for several years at language institutes in Iran.

Department of Foreign Languages &linguistics, Shiraz University, Iran


Keywords


Family and Friends series, evaluation, EFL, teachers’ perspectives

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