Evaluation of ELT Materials Development: A Critical Review of the English Textbooks at Iranian Highschools

The purpose of the current paper is to evaluate the new English coursebook taught in Iranian highschools. To conduct this study, the paper focused on two main issues: firstly, the paper concentrated on the overall features of the coursebook regarding the four skills and other related issues such as the appearance and critical discourse analysis. Secondly, the contents of the coursebook were evaluated against this claim whether or not the current materials are based on the principles of Communicative Language Teaching (CLT). Hence, the critical analysis was conducted and the findings of the research which was done based on the mixed-method approaches -i.e., questionnaire (with 69 items and 5-Likert Scale) for evaluating the overall features and interview to see to what extent the coursebook is in accordance with the principles of CLT. The results show that the current coursebook was not completely in perfect harmony with the principles of CLT despite its claims, and consequently, it is recommended that the coursebook be revised. Misinterpretation of the method/ approach hinders the sophisticated preparation of the materials for English Language Teaching (ELT).

Keywords:

materials development , Communicative Language Teaching , coursebook , evaluation , English Language Teaching