Pictorial and Visual Characteristics of Newly Published English Textbook for Iranian High Schools: Vision

Pictures, drawings and colors play significant role in our understanding of the world around. The Spatial Visual intelligence is one of the recognized instruments in mental perception andsocialization. The current study investigates the use of visual elements within the newly published English textbook for schools: Vision 1 which is going to be taught at Iranian senior high school s tenth grade. The office for research and planning in the ministry of education after introduction of the series of Prospect for junior high school is now responsible for determining the content and publication of Vision textbooks for senior high school. In order toanalyze and evaluate the book quantitatively descriptive statistics were run. The data revealed that throughout the textbook, 88.66 percent of all visuals were photos and 23.93 percent were drawings. The gender difference and discrimination in the textbook were also evaluated; thepresence of male characters overweighed (88.77) against female characters (33.77). Thisdiscrimination is much significant superficially and content-related throughout the textbook. The study also examines the functions of visuals in terms of seven categories of EmphasisTechniques, Focus on Learning point, Picture Alignment & Composition, Printing Quality & Clarity, National Values & Culture, Motivation & Liveliness and Relation to content. Totally in most categories the pictures of the book have functioned acceptably and fulfilled the required criteria. In addition, the pictures are applied as hints for ponder and meaning guessing not merely for presentation of new ideas. The high quality of digital print and relevant photos andrealistic colors adds to the motivation rate and ease of comprehension and links the English language learning experience of students to the outside real world environment. In comparison with former textbooks in high schools which were not printed in colors and consisted of more out dated and unrelated drawings than real pictures, the new textbook has stepped forward greatly.

Keywords:

New Textbook , Visuals , Pictures , Drawings , Vision 1