SURVEY ON ENGLISH TEACHERS’ POSSIBLECHANGING OF ATTITUDES TOWARD THEAUTHENTICITY OF THE TEXTBOOK ‘PROSPECT 1’TAUGHT AT JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOLS IN IRAN WITHINA TWO YEAR PERIOD

Employing authentic materials is a fantastic way to expose the students to the targetlanguage in foreign language situations like Iran. English teachers play a crucial role indevelopment of English language in students, therefore, their attitudes toward the authenticity ofthe textbooks taught in schools is of high significance. Mahdavi (2015) conducted a study on theauthenticity of the textbooks ‘Prospect 1’ and ‘Right Path to English 1’, to know that a majorityof 62.63% of the participants believed ‘Prospect 1’ is more authentic than its previouscounterpart.Since each newly published textbook shows its weaknesses and strengths after beingpracticed for some time, it came interesting to us to know after 3 years of teaching ‘Prospect 1’,teachers still support the books’ authenticity or not. Present study is a survey on English teachers’attitudes toward the authenticity of ‘Prospect 1’ and comparing it with the findings of the studiesconducted 2 years ago to know how and how much their attitudes have changed toward thementioned issue. To achieve this, a questionnaire was adapted from Almagro and Cañado (2007)and administered to ninety five Iranian teachers who were teaching English as a foreign languagein Mazandaran province, Iran. The results of this study indicated that teachers advocated thetextbook more than before. Based on the results, 65.73% of the participants declared their ideasin favor of the authenticity of ‘Prospect 1’, 3.1% more than the study Mahdavi conducted in 2014.This difference, however slight, shows that teachers trust the textbook in terms ofauthenticity more than before which could be a sign that the right path is being taken in Iran’sMinistry of Education as the name ‘Prospect’ suggests.

Keywords:

Authenticity , Attitude , Material Evaluation , Prospect 1