Evaluation of the English language coursebooks used at the Turkish public elementary schools

Abstract

This study sought to evaluate the English language coursebooks used at the Turkish public elementary schools. In so doing, a series of coursebooks used in English courses of the curriculum prepared by the Turkish Ministry of National Education were evaluated, using Tomlinson and Masuhara's (2013) set of coursebook evaluation universal criteria. Results indicated that the layout, listening skill, illustrations in use, and affective engagement are the positive traits of the coursebooks, while the negative features outnumber the positive traits. The evaluation indicated that the Turkish public elementary English coursebooks are void of a number of important aspects of language acquisition, including communication-based activities, continuation of using English outside of the classroom, discovery enhancing input and most importantly extensive exposure to English. The central focus of the coursebooks is on the accuracy and repetition rather than effective outcomes, meaningful communication and long term language acquisition. Most activities in all coursebooks contain practice activities, with no place for productivity and autonomy on the part of the students. Additionally, there is no sufficient personalization and the coursebooks fail to make use of what students bring to classroom. Nor are the learners required to think critically, creatively or analytically in most of the activities. The coursebooks do not encourage learners to continue learning English by themselves, thus lacks encouragement for autonomy as well. The activities are designed to practice language items within the classroom environments. Hence, learning does not go beyond the classroom environment with the help of the coursebooks. Nor do the coursebooks guide or encourage learners to make discoveries by themselves. The bombardment of repetitive practice activities that only assess accuracy does not seem to be able to lead to long-term acquisition of English.

Keywords

• coursebooks
• coursebooks evaluation
• public schools; English deficit

References

1. Abdelwahab, M. M. (2013). Developing an English language textbook evaluative checklist. IOSR Journal of Research & Method in Education, 1(3), 55-70.
2. Akkaya, S. (2019). An evaluation of 2nd graders’ English course book “English 2” from teachers’ perspective (Unpublished master dissertation). Institute of Social Sciences, Istanbul: Istanbul Sabahattin Zaim University.
3. Allwright, D. (1981). What do we want teaching materials for? ELT Journal, 1, 5-18.
4. Arıkan, G. (2008). Textbook evaluation in foreign language teaching: Time for English, grade 4: Teachers’ and students’ views (Unpublished master dissertation). Institute of Social Sciences, Adana: Cukurova University.
5. Aytuğ, S. (2007). An EFL textbook evaluation study in aAnatolian high schools: New bridge to success for 9th grade new beginners (Unpublished master dissertation). The Graduate School of Education, Ankara: Bilkent University.
6. Bahman, M., & Rahimi, A. (2010). Gender representation in EFL materials: An analysis of English textbooks of Iranian high schools. Procedia Social and Behavioral Sciences, 9, 273–277.
7. Brown, J. B. (1997). Textbook evaluation form, The Language Teacher, 21(10), 15-21.
8. Byrd, P. (2001). Textbooks: Evaluation for selection and analysis for implementation. In Celce-Murcia, M. (Eds.), Teaching English as a second or foreign language (pp. 415-427). Heinle & Heinle.

9. Chambers, F. (1997). Seeking consensus in coursebook evaluation. ELT Journal, 51(1), 30-35.
10. Crewe, J. (2011). How far do ‘global’ ELT coursebooks realize key principles of Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) and enable effective teaching-learning? (Unpublished master dissertation). The School of Humanities, Birmingham: University of Birmingham
11. Cunningsworth, A. (1995). Choosing your coursebook. Oxford: Macmillan Heineman.
12. Çakıt, I. (2006). Evaluation of the the EFL textbook “New Bridge to Success 3” from the perspectives of students and teachers (Unpublished master dissertation). School of Social Sciences, Ankara: The Middle East Technical University.
13. Çelik, S., & Kasapoğlu, H. (2014). Implementing the recent curricular changes to English language instruction in Turkey: Opinions and concerns of elementary school administrators. South African Journal of Education, 34(2), 1-14.
14. Davcheva, L., & Sercu, L. (2005). Culture in Foreign Language Teaching Materials. In Sercu et al. (Eds), Foreign Language Teachers and Intercultural Competence (pp. 90-109). Multilingual Matters LTD.
15. Dodgson, D. (2019). 6 reasons for using coursebooks (from a teacher who doesn’t usually like them). . Retrieved on February 15, 2020 from https://www.modernenglishteacher.com/2019/6-reasons-for-using coursebooks-from-a-teacher-who-doesn-t-usually-like-them
16. Dubin, F., & Olshtai, E. (1986). Course design: Developing programmes and materials for language learning. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
17. Dülger, O. (2016). Evaluation of EFL coursebooks taught in Turkey based on teachers’ views. Journal of Advances in English Language Teaching, 4(1), 1-11.
18. Gearing, K. (1999). Helping less experienced teachers of English to evaluate teacher’s guides, ELT Journal, 53(2), 122-127.
19. Gray, J. (2006). A Study of cultural content in the British ELT global coursebook: A cultural studies approach (Unpublished doctorate dissertation). Institute of Education. London: University of London.
20. Hutchinson, T., & Torres, E. (1994). The textbook as agent of change. ELT Journal, 48(4), 315-327.
21. Haycroft, J. (1998). An introduction to English language teaching. The UK: Longman.
22. Kayapınar, U. (2009). Coursebook evaluation by English teachers. Inonu University Journal of the Faculty of Education, 10(1), 69-78.
23. Kramsch, C. (1988). The cultural discourse of foreign language textbooks. In A. J. Singerman (Eds.), Toward a new integration of language and culture (pp. 63-88). Middlebury, VT: Northeast Conference on the Teaching of Foreign Languages.
24. Littlejohn, A. (1998). The analysis of language teaching materials: Inside the Trojan horse. In B. Tomlinson (eds.), Materials development in language teaching (pp. 190–216). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
25. McDonough, J., & Shaw, C. (1993), Materials and methods in ELT: A teacher’s guide. London: Blackwell.
26. McKay, S. L. (2003). Toward an appropriate EIL pedagogy: Re-examining common ELT assumptions. International Journal of Applied Linguistics, 13(1), 1-22.
27. Mukundan, J., & Ahour, T. (2010). A review of textbook evaluation checklists across four decades (1970–2008). In B. Tomlinson and H. Masuhara (Eds.), Research for materials development in language learning: Evidence for best practice (pp. 336-52). London: Continuum.
28. Öz, Ö. (2019). A post-use evaluation of an EFL coursebook from the perspectives of preparatory school students and instructors: A mixed methods study (Unpublished master dissertation). The Graduate School of Social Sciences, Ankara: Middle East Technical University.
29. Özdemir, F. E. (2007). An evaluation of Time for English 4, the 4th grade English coursebook for public schools (Unpublished master dissertation). School of Social Sciences, Ankara: Middle East Technical University.
30. Sercu, L. (2005). The future of intercultural competence in foreign language education: Recommendations for professional development, educational policy and research. In Sercu et al. (Eds), Foreign language teachers and intercultural competence (pp. 160-185). Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.
31. Sheldon, L. E. (1988). Evaluating ELT textbooks and materials. ELT Journal, 42(4), 237-246.
32. Skierso, A. (1991), Textbook selection and evaluation. In M. Celce-Murcia and L. McIntosh (Eds.), Teaching English as a second or foreign language (pp. 432-53). Boston: Heinle and Heinle.
33. Tilfarlıoğlu, F. Y. & Öztürk, A. R. (2007). An Analysis of ELT teachers’ perceptions of some problems concerning the implementation of English language teaching curricula in elementary schools. Journal of Language and Linguistic Studies, 3(1), 202-217.
34. Tomlinson, B. (1999). Developing criteria for materials evaluation, IATEFL Issues, 147, 10-13.
35. Tomlinson, B. (2013). Introduction: Are materials developing? In B. Tomlinson (Eds.), Developing materials for language teaching (pp. 1-17). Bloomsbury Publishing Plc.
36. Tomlinson, B., & Masuhara, H. (2013). Adult coursebooks. ELT Journal, 67(2), 233-249.
37. Tsiplakides, I. (2011). Selecting an English coursebook: theory and practice. Theory and Practice in Language Studies, 1(7), 758-764.
38. Ur, P. (1996). A course in language teaching: Practice and theory. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
39. Vale, D., Özen. E. N., Alpaslan, I. B., Çağlı, A., Özdoğan, I., Sancak, M., Dizman, A. O., & Sökmen, A. (2013). Turkey national needs assessment of state school English language teaching. Ankara: