analysis and evaluation of english 6th grade textbook used in greek public schools-libre

Upload: honghuydangho

Post on 02-Jun-2018

220 views

Category:

Documents


0 download

TRANSCRIPT

  • 8/10/2019 Analysis and Evaluation of English 6th Grade Textbook Used in Greek Public Schools-libre

    1/39

    1

    Analysis and Evaluation of English 6th Grade

    textbook used in Greek public Schools

    Keywords: textbook evaluation, textbook analysis, pre-use evaluation, first-glance evaluation, close

    evaluation, impressionistic method, checklist method

    1. Introduction

    The use of EFL published materials is more widespread than ever before since textbooks provide

    EFL teachers with guidelines concerning syllabi, teaching methodologies and the materials to be taught.

    They are considered an essential component of any EFL course and thus the selection of the best suitable

    book for a particular context demands careful investigation. This paper focuses on the analysis and

    evaluation of a recently developed textbook addressed to native speakers of Greek learning English as a

    Foreign Language at the 6th grade of primary school. It is important to note that the book was published

    by the Greek Ministry of Education and its use was compulsory to all state primary schools.

    The textbook was written by three co-authors Eleni Efremidou, Eleni Zoe-Reppa and Filitsa

    Frouzaki and it was published in 2009. It consisted of a students book, a workbook, teachers book and

    an audio CD. According to the authors, it addressed 6th Class pupils of the Greek Primary School (11-12

    Abstract

    Although textbooks maintain an important role in the EFL context, their sovereignty on

    teaching has been challenged and the belief that teachers can blindly rely on them has

    been questioned. Textbook evaluation has become a necessary practice in the field of

    teaching, seeking to assist in the choice of the best suitable book for a specific context,

    promote teachers awareness on the actual contents of a book and facilitate them to

    make necessary adaptations. The present study investigated the suitability of the

    textbook used for 6th Grade primary EFL learners of Greek state schools. The results of

    the study suggested that the strengths of the book could be identified in areas of

    organisation, thematic content and inclusion of all the language skills. However, the

    problematic areas related to authentic language, integration of skills, nature of tasks

    and materials for assessment. The findings accentuate the need for adaptation by

    teachers and revisit of the material by the authors

  • 8/10/2019 Analysis and Evaluation of English 6th Grade Textbook Used in Greek Public Schools-libre

    2/39

    2

    years old), it was intended for learners at Pre-Intermediate level, corresponding to Level A2 of the

    Common European Framework. The authors claimed that the pupils age, needs, interests and prior

    knowledge had been taken into consideration in the design and planning of the course. The authors also

    stated that the activities inside the textbook were of communicative nature and encouraged learners

    autonomy and critical thinking.

    The necessity to analyse and evaluate the textbook was imposed by the fact that it was used on a

    large national scale, it was recently developed and its strengths or weaknesses would have a high impact

    on Greek students learning of English. The analysis of the textbook would yield insights as to its

    suitability; whether it actually did what it claimed to be doing and whether it accomplished its set goals. It

    was therefore important to examine whether it corresponded to the learners needs of the particular

    situation, whether it promoted communicative language, learner autonomy, made use of problem solving

    approaches and whether it allowed for differentiated instructions.

    2. Literature Review

    2.1. Textbook based teaching

    According to McGrath (2002: 9) there has been vigorous debate concerning the desirability of

    basing teaching on coursebooks. Opponents of textbook based teaching claim that even the best textbooks

    take away initiative from teachers. As Hutchinson and Torres (1994:315) state the danger with ready-

    made texts is that they can seem to absolve teachers of responsibility they make it easy to sit back and

    operate the system, secure in the belief that the wise and virtuous people who produced the textbook knew

    what was good for us. Unfortunately this is rarely the case. Some of the dangers of textbook use listed

    by Graves (2000) include the irrelevance or inappropriacy of content with the students, exclusion of

    important items, imbalanced variety of task-types, unmotivating or outdated activities and unrealistic

    proposed timetables.

  • 8/10/2019 Analysis and Evaluation of English 6th Grade Textbook Used in Greek Public Schools-libre

    3/39

    3

    As Tomlinson (2001:67) states proponents of the coursebook argue that it is the most convenient

    form of presenting materials, it helps to achieve consistency and continuation, it gives learners a sense of

    system, cohesion and progress and it helps teachers prepare and learners revise. Garinger (2001)

    commenting on the usefulness of textbooks emphasises that using a textbook is one of the most effective

    and readily available ways to relieve some of the pressures put on teachers, lessens preparation time,

    provides ready-made activities and finally provides concrete samples of classroom progress through

    which external stakeholders can be satisfied. McGrath (2002) asserts that textbooks can set the direction,

    content and they can propose ways in which the lesson is to be taught.

    2.2. Reasons for Textbook Evaluation

    The list of advantages and disadvantages displayed above serves as an indicator why evaluation of

    textbooks should be made. It would seek to identify any weaknesses and strengths of textbooks and help

    in the selection process of a textbook with the scope to minimise the negative effects and maximise the

    positive ones. Textbook evaluation, according to Cunningsworth (1995), would involve the careful

    selection of materials examining whether they reflect the needs of the learners, the aims, methods and

    values of a specific teaching program. Textbook evaluation helps the teachers move beyond

    impressionistic assessments and it further facilitates them to acquire useful, accurate, systematic and

    contextual insights into the overall nature of textbook materials (Cunningsworth, 1995; Ellis, 1997).

    Through the evaluation of a textbook, teachers know the content of the book, its strengths and weaknesses

    which will facilitate them to adapt it to suit the course aims, learners needs and teachers beliefs. As

    Littlejohn (1998) observes, textbook evaluation serves the purpose of examining whether the

    methodology and content of the materials are appropriate for a particular language teaching context. The

    evaluation would test out the claims materials make for themselves: whether they truly develop

    autonomy, whether they truly involve problem solving and if they indeed are learner centred.

  • 8/10/2019 Analysis and Evaluation of English 6th Grade Textbook Used in Greek Public Schools-libre

    4/39

    4

    2.3. Types of Textbook Analysis

    Prior to the analysis of textbooks, it is necessary to conduct a preliminary analysis of the context

    in which the material is going to be used and a survey of the learners needs. This need originates from

    the realisation that there is a distinctive line between the analysis of the textbook and its evaluation.

    According to McGrath (2002:22) analysis is a process which leads to an objective, verifiable description

    whereas evaluation involves the making of judgements. Evaluation is feasible when a comparison is made

    between the description of a context with the description of the textbook. Therefore, the analysis of

    textbooks should be made by looking at specific required elements or set of criteria.

    Evaluation of teaching materials can be divided in three types according to the literature in the

    field of English Language Teaching. These are pre-use or predictive evaluation (Ellis, 1997; McGrath,

    2002; Tomlinson, 2003), in-use or whilst-use evaluation (McGrath, 2002; Tomlinson, 2003) and post use

    evaluation (McGrath, 2002; Tomlinson, 2003). Retrospective evaluation proposed by Ellis (1997) can

    serve either as in-use or post-use evaluation. Ellis (1997) distinguishes two types of analysis. Predictive

    evaluation of materials helps in defining which materials are best suited to the teaching purposes and

    learners needs prior to implementation whereas retrospective evaluation occurs once materials have been

    used in order to determine which activities worked and which did not and find ways to make them more

    effective for future use. Retrospective evaluation can be performed either impressionistically or

    empirically by systematic collection of information. Pre-use evaluation proposed by McGrath (2002) and

    Tomlinson (2003) involves making decisions about the potential value of materials for their users. In-use

    (McGrath, 2002) or Whilst-use evaluation (Tomlinson, 2003) involves measuring the value of materials

    while using them or observing them as being used. Finally post-use evaluation (McGrath, 2002;

    Tomlinson, 2003) measures the actual effect of the materials on the users. As Tomlinson (2003:25) states

    post use evaluation can measure the actual outcome of the use of the materials and thus provide the data

    on which reliable decisions about the use, adaptation or replacement of materials can be made.

  • 8/10/2019 Analysis and Evaluation of English 6th Grade Textbook Used in Greek Public Schools-libre

    5/39

    5

    2.4. Levels of Textbook Analysis

    There are various approaches in the literature concerning the levels that ELT textbooks can be

    analysed. Littlejohn (1998) proposes a three level analysis. At the first level of analysis the focus is on the

    physical aspects of materials and how they appear as a complete set or book, at the second level the focus

    of analysis is on the actual role of learners in the classroom activities, whether language form or meaning

    is focused, forms of activities and classroom participation and finally the contents of the tasks. The third

    level examines the implications derived by evaluating the overall aims of the materials, content, task

    selection and sequencing, teachers and learners roles, demands of learner knowledge, effects, skills and

    abilities and the role of materials as a whole.

    McDonough and Shaw (2003) and McGrath (2002) provide a two-level model for the

    comprehensive evaluation of textbooks. The first level proposed by McDonough and Shaw involves a

    brief external evaluation which includes criteria concerning the organizational foundation of the textbook,

    as stated explicitly by the author/publisher through the cover, introduction and table of contents

    statements. The same procedure is also proposed by McGrath and it is labeled First Glance Evaluation

    which involves a consideration of relevant contextual factors and the gathering of information analysis of

    the material.

    The second level proposed by McDonough and Shaw (2003) involves an in-depth internal

    investigation of the textbook, to seehow far the materials in question match up to what the author claims

    as well as to the aims and objectives of a given teaching program. McDonough and Shaw propose a close

    investigation of at least two units of a textbook in order for effective internal inspection to take place. The

    second level of analysis by McGrath is close evaluation which involves a more detailed examination of the

    materials either using the checklist or in-depth analysis or a combination of the twowhich should require

    careful tailoring to the needs of the learners and the teaching context and the need for periodic updating

    recognized. The checklist method would look closely to the whole book by looking at general categories

    and investigating specific criteria. McGrath (2002) suggests that in-depth analysis proposed by

  • 8/10/2019 Analysis and Evaluation of English 6th Grade Textbook Used in Greek Public Schools-libre

    6/39

    6

    Cunningsworth (1995) could complement the checklist method and vice-versa. In depth analysis,

    similarly to internal evaluation by McDonough and Shaw (2003) involves a detailed analysis of one or

    two units and close analysis of the treatment of specific features.

    2.5. Previous Research on textbook evaluation

    It is crucial to note that although there is extended amount of literature on the evaluation of ELT

    materials, there is not a substantial body of published action research in analysing EFL textbooks. One

    study conducted by Azizifar, Koosha and Lotfi (2009) attempted to make an analytical evaluation of

    locally produced Iranian high school ELT Textbooks from 1970 to the present. The study sought to

    investigate how pronunciation points, content, and grammar were dealt with the second books in Graded

    English (GE) series published by the Iranian Ministry of Education in 1984 and in Right Path to

    English (RPE)by Birjandi, Nowrozi, and Mahmodi in 2002. The researchers followed Tuckers (1975)

    evaluating model and used the ideas and suggestions of different experienced persons in the field of

    textbook evaluation both in Iran and abroad, including Brian Tomlinson (1998), and provided a modified

    version of Tuckers (1975) evaluating model for the study.The results of this study revealed that the new

    textbook (RPE) did not correct most of the inadequacies and deficiencies of the previous one (GE). It

    failed to incorporate the recent findings in syllabus design and text construction. The two textbook series

    were found to have overemphasized the practice of the linguistic forms, and not many of their language

    learning activities actually included activities which stimulated or led to authentic communication and

    language use. They concluded that these textbooks could not meet the learners and the teachers needs

    within the Iranian educational system and they still emphasized structural methods and ignored the

    communicative role of the language.

    Another study conducted in the Saudi Arabian context by Alamri (2008) attempted to evaluate the

    quality of the sixth grade English language textbook for Saudi boys' schools which was introduced at the

    elementary stage by the Ministry of Education in 2004. A survey questionnaire was used in this study to

    elicit the perspectives of 93 English language teachers and 11 supervisors in Riyadh Educational Zone

  • 8/10/2019 Analysis and Evaluation of English 6th Grade Textbook Used in Greek Public Schools-libre

    7/39

    7

    about the textbook in question. The questionnaire consisted of 64 grouped under 12 main categories: the

    general appearance, design and illustration, accompanying materials, objectives, topic appropriateness,

    learning components, socio-cultural contexts, skills development, teachability, flexibility, teaching

    methods, and practice and testing. The data was subjected to analysis through descriptive statistics.

    The results of the study showed that there was a general satisfaction of teachers and supervisors

    concerning the books general appearance, design and illustrations, accompanying materials, set

    objectives, topic appropriateness, language components, teachability, practice and testing. The results also

    suggested that there was lack of varied and attractive illustrations that would stimulate creativity, lack of

    topics which would stimulate critical thinking. The textbook seemed to fail to express positive views of

    differing sociocultural contexts. Furthermore, it did not seem to cater for different learning styles and did

    not satisfy teachers and supervisors expectation regarding its teaching methods which were reported as

    not up-to-date, not student-centered and lacking variety in classroom activities.

    A third study conducted in the Turkish primary educational context by Kirkgoz (2009) aimed to

    evaluate the three English textbooks which have been prescribed for use in grade 4 classes by the Turkish

    Ministry of National Education in state primary schools. The method of the study included using

    questionnaires and oral interviews. A textbook evaluation scheme comprising 37 items was developed in

    light of the curriculum objectives, and taking into account guidelines suggested by Cunningsworth

    (1984). A parallel questionnaire was developed for the teachers comprising the same set of 37 statements.

    The Questionnaire was based on five major components: layout and design, language, subject and

    content, language skills, methodology and overall view of the textbooks. The findings of the study

    suggested that the three books were carefully designed to meet the curriculum goals and objectives, to

    serve as potential agents for curriculum change and to meet young learners needs and interests.

  • 8/10/2019 Analysis and Evaluation of English 6th Grade Textbook Used in Greek Public Schools-libre

    8/39

    8

    3. Analysis

    3.1. Design of textbook evaluation

    Although the textbook under scope in the present study was being used by Greek state schools, pre-

    use analysis was used due to limitations of the researcher to obtain information of the actual use of the

    book and the way it was received by teachers and students. The pre-use analysis would serve to examine

    the textbook as it is, with the content and ways of working which they propose and not with what may

    actually happen in classrooms. Apart from being a limitation, this could also be seen as a positive aspect

    since as Littlejohn (1998:191) notes what happens in classrooms and what outcomes occur when

    materials are brought into use will depend upon numerous further factors, thus exclusion of other

    variables can be achieved through pre-use evaluation. The levels of analysis used in the evaluation of the

    textbook include two levels:

    Level 1: First-Glance evaluation which involves an overall presentation and analysis of the

    textbook related to its design, table of contents, distribution of units, lessons and sections in the

    book

    Level 2: Close-evaluation which examines separately and more analytically the treatment of the

    different skills, reading, listening, writing and speaking and the ways of assessment practices

    provided through the book.

    The analysis of the textbooks was based on impressionistic reflections on the material and the use of

    checklists developed according to criteria based on the context being used and learners needs and

    following the guidelines suggested by McGrath (2002). The criteria taken into account when designing

    the checklists for the analysis and evaluation of the textbook included authenticity, levels of difficulty,

    lexical and grammatical complexity, variety of task types, variety of topics, relevance of topics to

    learners interests, relevance of the materials to learners language needs.

  • 8/10/2019 Analysis and Evaluation of English 6th Grade Textbook Used in Greek Public Schools-libre

    9/39

    9

    Checklists were selected as the main instrument of the study because it offered the most economical

    and reliable means of reaching a decision concerning the relative suitability of the textbook under scope.

    Furthermore as McGrath (2002) states checklists are considered to be the most effective way of gathering

    comparable data systematically. Although checklists are convenient, they can encourage rather superficial

    judgements since not everything can be contained and examined in the checklists. Hence, checklists need

    to be carefully constructed according to the needs of learners and the teaching context. Ready-made

    checklists would fail to be used in different contexts and it is necessary to be modified and adapted for the

    purposes of their use. They should be able to utilize rating and weighting scales which would provide an

    adequate indicator as to the relative suitability of the materials and serve to highlight any particular

    defects or deficiencies.

    3.2. Findings from Analysis Level 1

    3.2.1. General organisation of the book

    After a first glance on the contents of the book it could be noticed that the book was divided into

    10 twelve page units, each consisting of 3 lessons followed by a self-evaluation test and can do

    statements. There was a workbook and audio CD accompanying the students book and a teachers book

    which provided guidance to the teacher. The teachers book contained three revision tests which the

    teachers could use to assess their students. The authors of the book seemed to have attempted to separate

    the units of the book thematically since each unit focused on a specific topic which was exhausted in all

    three lessons of the units. It also seemed to be following a pattern in its organization of the lessons. The

    first page of every unit presented the aims of the unit to the students, the first lesson started with a reading

    section and then moved on to a grammar section, the final section of lesson 1 presented practice materials.

    The second lesson began with a listening section followed by grammar and practice sections. The third

    lesson was spread over one page and it referred to a project related to the topic and language taught in the

    unit. The above features showed the effort of the authors to present a well-organised textbook in which

    the students would easily become accustomed to since they would know what to expect from each unit. A

  • 8/10/2019 Analysis and Evaluation of English 6th Grade Textbook Used in Greek Public Schools-libre

    10/39

    10

    preliminary assumption based on the division of the units would suggest that more emphasis was given on

    reading, listening and grammar.

    3.2.2. Distribution of skills section

    After examining the overall weighting of the sections devoted to skills in the textbook it was

    evident that there was an imbalance between writing and the other skills (graph 1). Writing seemed to be

    given more importance throughout the book with 20 sections of the book focusing on writing.

    Furthermore, by comparing the number of speaking sections to the number of listening sections and the

    number of writing sections to reading sections, it could be inferred that productive skills received greater

    attention than receptive skills.

    Graph 1: Sections of skills throughout the textbook

    3.2.3. Other sections in the textbook

    Apart from sections dedicated to skills, the textbook also contained sections for grammar,

    vocabulary, projects and portfolios. It also included appendices at the end of the book which provided

    extra material for the units. Table 1 illustrates the number of sections throughout the book. As it can be

    seen from table 1 there was unequal distribution of language focus in the sections contained in the units

  • 8/10/2019 Analysis and Evaluation of English 6th Grade Textbook Used in Greek Public Schools-libre

    11/39

  • 8/10/2019 Analysis and Evaluation of English 6th Grade Textbook Used in Greek Public Schools-libre

    12/39

    12

    utilization. More specifically, the topics of each unit or lesson borrowed ideas either from other subjects

    taught in school such as Geography, Science, History, Music, Art etc, or from other crosscurricular

    themes such as other cultures, the internet, traditions, personal development etc.

    Table 2: Crosscurricular Learning in the textbook

    Crosscurricular Themes Crosscurricular Learning:

    Other related subjects

    Crosscurricular projects

    11 23 8

    3.3. Findings from Analysis Level 2

    3.3.1. Overall presentation of stages in skills tasks

    Prior to the analysis for each skill individually it was considered useful to examine and compare

    the findings regarding the stages of tasks for each of the skills presented in the textbook. As it can be

    noticed from table 3, the two receptive skills, reading and listening contained the biggest amount of

    preparation stages which gave opportunities for students to warm-up for the while tasks.

    Table 3: Stages of skills tasks in all units

    Number of

    sections

    Pre While Post

    Reading 12 12 12 8

    Listening 10 10 10 3

    Speaking 14 2 14

    Writing 20 14 20

    According to the authors of the textbook, warm-up activities before reading served the purpose of

    smoothly introducing a topic, present new vocabulary and structures or functions of the lesson.

    Furthermore, the warm up activities intended to motivate learners and give them a purpose to read, thus

    trying to promote meaningful tasks. As it can be observed in table 3, all reading sections contained pre-

    reading stages. Pre-Listening stages were also contained in all listening sections. These involved mostly

  • 8/10/2019 Analysis and Evaluation of English 6th Grade Textbook Used in Greek Public Schools-libre

    13/39

    13

    visual and verbal clues in order to stimulate the pupils background knowledge and prepare them for what

    they were about to hear or the tasks they had to do.

    There was a substantial amount of pre-writing stages in the writing sections which mostly

    involved providing a model of the text to be produced or information about what was expected of the

    learners to write. Pre-speaking stages were very rarely encountered in the speaking sections; a possible

    reason for this is the fact that each unit was thematic and speaking was encountered in the practice

    sections most of the time, after reading, grammar and listening. Thus, the students were already given

    enough background in terms of textual, structural, visual and audio input since these were provided in the

    sections presented previously. Post stage tasks were present only for the receptive skills and according to

    the writers these tasks served either as consolidation of more vocabulary or extension of the tasks to more

    productive skills such as writing or speaking on the topic they either listened to or read about.

    3.3.2. Analysis of reading sections

    3.3.2.1. Characteristics of Reading texts

    As mentioned previously, reading sections appeared at the first lesson of each unit. Usually, there

    was only one section of reading per unit. The reading texts were rather lengthy in their majority with an

    average of 217 words per text. The texts chosen were mostly pedagogic although the authors claimed that

    the majority of their texts were authentic or adapted/simplified. A close analysis on the texts revealed that

    the texts were tailor-made for the purpose of the language under investigation in the following grammar

    sections. Furthermore, they also contained the targeted vocabulary.

    Another aspect which was interesting was that the reading sections followed the thematic

    approach of the whole book and texts focused on the topic of the unit and the reading texts were

    contextualized to the topic of the unit. It could be argued here that the textbook followed to some extend

    the first principle of language acquisition proposed by Tomlinson (2010) according to which the learners

    should be exposed to a rich meaningful and comprehensible input of language use. Although most

  • 8/10/2019 Analysis and Evaluation of English 6th Grade Textbook Used in Greek Public Schools-libre

    14/39

    14

    material in reading was not so authentic, there were plentiful written texts and the language use was

    contextualized, making it meaningful to students. Features of the reading texts are summarized in table 4.

    Table 4: Reading texts Characteristics

    Discourse Type

    Descriptive Narrative Expository Instructive Argumentative

    11% 78 % 11% 0% 0 %

    Text Source

    Newspaper

    reports Leaflets Reference books

    Computer screen

    texts

    22 % 16 % 22 % 11%

    DomainPersonal Public Occupational Educational

    11% 44% 6% 40 %

    Topic Content

    Places Free time Education Shopping Daily life,

    16% 16% 50% 11% 7 %

    As it can be observed in table 4, there was limited variety on the types of discourse in the reading

    texts. Most of the texts were narrative and a small percentage of texts was either descriptive or expository.

    Learners were not exposed to instructive or argumentative texts and thus they could not become

    acquainted with all types of discourse in the target language and the language they would probably

    encounter in real-life situations.

    The main sources of reading texts included newspaper reports, reference books, leaflets and

    computer screen texts. Other sources used by the authors included journal articles, diaries and a theatrical

    play. It could be suggested that there was variety of sources used in the development of reading materials

    exposing learners to different types of genres. It is questionable though whether the majority of these

    sources would appeal to the learners of this age. Reference books and newspapers reports comprised the

    majority of sources. Although these sources were content related with other disciplines the learners were

    acquainted with, they could be boring for children aged 11-12 containing mostly facts which would

  • 8/10/2019 Analysis and Evaluation of English 6th Grade Textbook Used in Greek Public Schools-libre

    15/39

    15

    probably fail to intrigue their personal interests. This was further supported from the findings concerning

    the topic and domain of the texts. Again the majority of the texts focused on the educational (40%) or

    public domain (44%) and the majority of topics dealt with education issues(50%). The personal domain

    was neglected and there was very little topic relevance to students personal interests. It could be implied

    here that the textbook failed to provide motivation to students and the topics chosen did not cater for the

    learners interests.

    The nature of content of reading texts was mainly concrete which could imply that the texts would

    be more easily comprehended by learners. Vocabulary and grammar did not seem to pose great demands

    on the learners since most vocabulary used in the text was frequent containing only the few newly

    introduced words to be learnt and grammatical structures were mostly simple and again contained certain

    features under investigation in the following sections and served as examples.

    3.3.2.2. Types of Reading tasks

    Reading tasks were overall at a suitable level for the learners with the average of the tasks at level

    A2 of the Common European Framework which is the corresponding level for EFL learners of the 6th

    grade of Greek primary schools. The native language of the learners was not used in any occasion

    throughout the tasks; English was used as the language of instruction of tasks and comprehension

    questions. This was probably due to the effort of the authors to maximise the exposure to the target

    language and minimise the presence of L1. It is worth noting that the teachers book did not make any

    explicit suggestion to teachers to use L1 in order to explain the reading tasks. Graph 2 demonstrates the

    types of tasks used in reading sections throughout the book. As it can be observed most tasks used in the

    reading section required students to provide a selected response and did not involve them in producing

    long answers. Authors justified their choice of these types of tasks as a way of enabling learners to

    understand, build up and retrieve vocabulary. Hence, once more it was evident that building of

    vocabulary was embedded in the reading sections. This is further reinforced by the presence of tasks

    (19%) in which students are asked to provide synonyms.

  • 8/10/2019 Analysis and Evaluation of English 6th Grade Textbook Used in Greek Public Schools-libre

    16/39

    16

    Graph 2: Types of reading tasks

    The absence of longer productive tasks such as answering comprehension questions on the reading

    texts might on the one hand focus solely on the development of reading abilities without placing further

    demands on learners and the teachers would be more easily able to assess the learners reading abilities

    without any other skills intervening. On the other hand though, this absence deprived students from

    developing autonomy since their choices were very limited and also failed to integrate other more

    productive skills such as writing or speaking.

    Reading sections were also present in the appendices for 6 units of the textbook. Some of the

    reading sections functioned as complementary reading texts on the topics of the units and others offered

    extra practice. There was also one text which was a simplified version of the text in a unit probably

    addressing students with difficulties allowing opportunity for differentiated instruction. The readings

    were mostly presented in English; however, there were also texts in Greek which were used in order to

    provide information to students and use them to exchange information in English orally, or present the

    information in written form. The tasks included in the appendices were multiple choice activities and

    writing reports to summarise key points of the texts. The activities included in the appendices show an

    effort of the writers to integrate skills. Nevertheless, these activities were very limited and not present in

  • 8/10/2019 Analysis and Evaluation of English 6th Grade Textbook Used in Greek Public Schools-libre

    17/39

    17

    the main body of the textbook posing the question as to whether teachers would actually use them in their

    teaching context.

    3.3.3. Analysis of Listening Sections

    3.3.3.1. Characteristics of Listening texts

    Listening sections appeared in every unit of the textbooks and seemed to serve as starting points

    of the following sections which were either speaking or grammar and the targeted items in vocabulary

    and grammar made up the contents of the listening texts. Most of the recordings were short, with an

    average duration of two minutes. There were only two occasions with longer texts lasting approximately

    5 minutes. Although the authors of the textbook claimed to be using authentic listening material a close

    investigation indicated that these recordings were artificially constructed for the pedagogic purposes of

    the units. The pace of the text was mostly slow allowing the students to easily follow the speakers on

    the one hand but on the other hand not giving them the opportunity of exposure to language they would

    encounter in real-life situations.

    Another important feature of the recordings is the fact that the participants in the recordings were

    mostly native speakers of Greek and it was evident by their accent on the audio CD. There was only one

    occasion in which the speech resembled the accent of an English native speaker. The recordings did not

    seem to be carefully conducted; it rather resembled a rough and hasty work by the developers of the book.

    This is exemplified by the fact that they did not look to obtain real authentic texts or attempt to produce

    near-authentic texts. It is further reinforced by the fact that one recording containing a very famous

    English song did not match the song contained in the textbooks and thus the activity in the book could not

    be performed. It could be inferred that the authors did not trial the CD before its actual use.

    As it can be observed in table 5 the listening texts were mostly derived from dialogues and the

    entertainment sector with topics relating mostly to leisure activities deriving from the personal domain in

    their majority. It could be suggested that the domains, topics and sources of the texts related to the

  • 8/10/2019 Analysis and Evaluation of English 6th Grade Textbook Used in Greek Public Schools-libre

    18/39

    18

    learners interests. The learners were also exposed to a variety of discourse types provided with language

    used to establish communication, provide information, narrate stories and present documentaries. The

    selected discourse types showed the intension of the authors to provide students with language the

    students would most probably encounter in out-of the school settings, in their social and cultural

    environment.

    Table 5: Listening texts Characteristics 1

    Text Source

    Dialogues and

    Conversations

    Presentation

    Talks

    Entertainment

    (drama, shows,

    songs)

    Recorded tourist

    information

    38% 23% 31% 8%Discourse Type

    Phatic Narrative Expository Instructive

    31% 23 % 31% 15 %

    Domain

    Personal Public Occupational Educational

    46% 31% 8% 15%

    Topic Content

    Places Free time Education Daily life

    15% 46 % 15 % 23 %

    The language level used in the listening texts corresponded to A1/A2 level of CEFR which was in

    accordance with the level of the learners. Students could understand phrases and expressions related to

    areas of most immediate priority such as basic personal information, shopping, local geography,

    employment and the speech provided was clearly and slowly articulated. The nature of content of

    listening tasks was mostly concrete, with frequent vocabulary and mainly simple grammatical structures.

    Thus, listening texts did not place great demands on the learners as regards comprehension.

    3.3.3.2. Types of Listening tasks

    Listening tasks were also at a suitable level for the learners with the average of the tasks at level

    A2 of the Common European Framework. Again, the native language of the learners was not present in

    any of the tasks; the target language was used in the questions and instructions of the task, showing the

  • 8/10/2019 Analysis and Evaluation of English 6th Grade Textbook Used in Greek Public Schools-libre

    19/39

    19

    consistency of the authors to avoid L1 interference. The listening texts could be heard more than once

    giving students the opportunity to familiarise themselves with the texts. It is important to note that the

    success of learners in listening tasks involves awareness raising and strategy training tasks as suggested

    by Goh (2010). The authors did make an effort to raise students awareness by including pre-listening

    tasks in all listening sections providing visual and verbal clues to stimulate their background knowledge,

    thus assisting the learners cognitive processes. However, there were not any pre-listening activities in

    which building up of strategies take place. There was variety of tasks involved in the listening sections as

    can be seen from graph 3 below.

    Graph 3: Types of listening tasks

    Similarly to reading tasks, listening tasks included mostly selected response items and the tasks

    involving production by the students were only of limited response. According to the authors of the

    textbook, learners would need to justify any of their answers orally, thus giving opportunity for a more

    productive and extended response. This could also help learners develop their strategies through

    justification of their choices and the teachers in understanding the cognitive processes involved in their

    students responses.

  • 8/10/2019 Analysis and Evaluation of English 6th Grade Textbook Used in Greek Public Schools-libre

    20/39

    20

    3.3.4. Analysis of Writing Sections

    3.3.4.1. Types of produced text in Writing

    Writing sections were mostly found towards the end of each unit which could suggest that the

    writers intended to provide oral and written input to students with tasks on reading and listening which

    opened the first two lessons of the units prior to the undertaking of writing texts. The most frequent texts

    students were asked to produce were personal letters or emails as it can be seen in Graph 4.

    Graph 4: Produced text types in writing

    It was also evident that the texts students were asked to produce included variety of genres such as

    poems, articles, posters and leaflets, note taking, reference book entries and even a biography. According

    to Tribble (2010:162), students need to gain experience of genres that are relevant to their needs and to

    ensure that they are able to draw on the linguistic resources that are relevant to complete a task. Thus, it

    was necessary to examine whether these variety of genres asked by students to use in writing actually

    accorded to topics of their interest and their needs as learners.

    Personal

    letters/emails

    32%

    articles9%

    notes

    9%

    reference books

    9%

    regulations

    4%

    posters

    9%

    descriptions

    9%

    biography

    5%

    leaflets

    5% poem

    9%

  • 8/10/2019 Analysis and Evaluation of English 6th Grade Textbook Used in Greek Public Schools-libre

    21/39

    21

    3.3.4.2. Characteristics of produced written texts

    Table 6 exemplifies the domains, topics, types and purposes of the produced written texts. As is

    can be observed, texts were related mostly to the personal domain including topics such as their free time,

    personal identification and home environment and the educational domain with topics derived from other

    disciplinary subjects.

    Table 6 : Produced written texts characteristics

    Domain of produced text

    Personal Public Occupational Educational

    53% 6% 6% 35 %

    Topic /Theme of produced text

    Places Free time Education

    Personal

    identification

    House / Home

    12% 29% 35 % 12 % 12 %

    Register of produced text

    Formal Informal Neutral

    0% 60% 40%

    Purpose of produced text

    Referential Emotive Conative Phatic Poetic

    64 % 12% 12 % 6% 6%

    Input provided for the production of textsTextual Iconic Pictorial

    59% 27% 14 %

    Furthermore, the writing texts the students were required to produce were related to the topic of

    the lesson and the language needed to accomplish the task was the vocabulary and grammar they had

    been exposed in the previous sections of the units conforming in this way to learners needs indicated by

    Tribble (2010:162) to have knowledge of the concepts involved in the subject area and knowledge of

    those aspects of the language system that are necessary to complete the task. It could be suggested that

    these topics reflected the reality of the learners; they were not asked to write about issues they had no

    previous knowledge and the topics corresponded to their age.

    The register of the produced texts was either neutral (40%) or informal (60%); students were not

    asked to write in formal language and were not exposed to this type of writing which again corresponded

  • 8/10/2019 Analysis and Evaluation of English 6th Grade Textbook Used in Greek Public Schools-libre

    22/39

    22

    to their age, interests and needs. They would rarely be required to write in formal writing at this age and

    level, most of their encounters either at school or in the real world would involve informal situations or

    neutral ones. The purpose of the texts was mostly referential where learners had to give objective

    descriptions, narrations or instructions. There were occasions in which learners had to express their

    feelings or persuade their readers but these were infrequent depriving students the opportunity to

    experience writing in an emotional or persuasive way, which would not be unrealistic for their age and

    interests.

    3.3.4.3. Characteristics of tasks in writing

    Tribble (2010:163) emphasises the importance of the materials used as input for writing. These

    materials need to stimulate writing and enabled learners to develop contextually their language system

    and writing process knowledge and this input could be textual, iconic or pictorial. They should present a

    stimulus for new thought, discussion and writing, opportunities for information processing, opportunities

    to use and build on prior knowledge, useful language items, context and purpose for writing, models and

    exemplar texts, reasons to start using writing process skills such as prewriting, drafting, editing. The close

    analysis of the writing sections revealed that input was provided to every writing section of the book and

    these included textual input (59%) in its majority supplemented with iconic and pictorial input as it can be

    seen in table 7.

    Table 7: Task characteristics for writing

    Task control over students writing

    Very controlled Partially controlled No control

    18 % 53% 29%

    Task participants

    Individual work Pair work Group work

    65 % 12% 23%

    Produced output language type

    Simple words Simple Phrases Isolated sentences Longer text

    6% 6% 18 % 70%

  • 8/10/2019 Analysis and Evaluation of English 6th Grade Textbook Used in Greek Public Schools-libre

    23/39

    23

    Textual input provided learners with models or exemplar texts, useful language for the completion

    of the task, explanations for the purpose and context of writing and in some occasions the writing sections

    were divided in activities in which the students created a plan, or took notes and then they had to write the

    final text. Therefore it could be suggested that the textbook provided sufficient input to the students to

    develop their writing skills. The input provided for the writing tasks suggests that writing sections were

    mostly integrated with the students reading skills.

    The level in which the students were required to write their texts was higher than the learners

    level. According to CEFR specifications learners at the A2 level should be required to write short, simple

    formulaic notes and a series of simple phrases and sentences linked with simple connectors like and,

    but and because and write very simple personal letters. However, students were expected to write

    longer texts as it can be seen in table 7, conveying information of immediate relevance, getting across the

    point they felt to be important, connecting texts on a range of familiar subjects within their field of

    interest, linking a series of shorter discrete elements into a linear sequence and describing experiences and

    impressions. All these conformed to B1 level and placed higher demands on the learners than their level

    would indicate.

    The instructions provided to students were in the target language and they guided students

    production of the text leaving them a degree of freedom on the content. As it can be seen from Table 7 the

    tasks did not completely control the learners writing and there were occasions in which the task did not

    have control over the students writing. This aspect could promote learners autonomy and assist them in

    developing their own writing style. As it can be observed in table 7, writing tasks were mostly performed

    on individual basis (65%) not giving learners the opportunity to collaborate with their peers in building up

    the content, negotiating it, justifying it, making alterations, corrections. This would be beneficial to

    learners of mixed ability classes where stronger students would help the weak ones develop their writing.

  • 8/10/2019 Analysis and Evaluation of English 6th Grade Textbook Used in Greek Public Schools-libre

    24/39

    24

    It is important to note that writing sections comprised the majority of the contents in the appendix.

    There was extra writing for each lesson of the book which suggested that the appendix gave more

    emphasis on writing than the other skills. These extra writing sections provided simplified versions of the

    writing tasks, different genres of the topics used in the writing and more challenging options in writing.

    These tasks aimed to allow differentiation in instruction, catering for the needs of weaker students for

    extra guidance or of the strong students providing them extra challenge with more open tasks and

    exposing them to different genres such as reports, reviews, riddles and stories.

    3.3.5. Analysis of Speaking Sections

    3.3.5.1. Characteristics of produced spoken text

    After a careful examination of speaking sections it was evident that the productive skills, writing

    and speaking, were left towards the end of the lessons after the students had been exposed tasks of

    receptive skills. The topics of the conversations were related to the topics of the previous sections

    providing input to learners when talking about a topic. Table 8 illustrates the domains, topics, discourse

    modes, rhetorical functions register and provided input of speaking tasks. According to Hughes (2010),

    materials developed for speaking should take under consideration the individual speakers affective needs

    in private and unpredictable discourse contexts, personal encounters or public uses of spoken discourse.

    Table 8 : Characteristics of produced spoken text

    Domain of produced text

    Personal Public Occupational Educational

    39 % 36 % 6 % 22 %

    Topic of produced text

    Places

    Free time

    entertainment Education

    Personal

    identification

    Work

    environment

    7% 50 % 29 % 7% 7 %

    Register of produced text

    Formal Informal Neutral

    0% 83% 17%

    Rhetorical function of produced text

    Description Narration Argumentation Instruction Requesting34% 20% 20% 13% 13%

  • 8/10/2019 Analysis and Evaluation of English 6th Grade Textbook Used in Greek Public Schools-libre

    25/39

    25

    According to the analysis on the characteristics of speaking tasks, the topics and domains of the

    produced spoken texts were relevant to the students language needs, involving language they would have

    to use in day to day encounters, from the personal (39%), public (36%) or educational domain (22%), and

    the majority of topics extracted from learners free time and entertainment activities. The learners used

    informal register most of the time which would be the most expected register when using the target

    language in real life according to their age and interests. Variety of discourse types produced was also

    observable; students were expected to produce texts with different rhetorical functions such as describing

    places or objects (34%), supporting their opinion through argumentation (20%), narrating(20%), giving

    instructions (13%) or making requests(13%).

    3.3.5.2. Characteristics of speaking tasks

    In most cases speaking was very structured and controlled by the task without leaving space for

    original thought (33%) while in some others there was no input given and learners were left completely

    alone to accomplish the task (22%) as it can be seen in table 9. When input was provided, this was mostly

    textual in the form of instructions or with written dialogues as models in which learners substituted words

    to perform the dialogues. Other forms of textual input included tables appended at the end of the book in

    which students had to fill in information while talking with each other. Input was provided through

    pictures as well and students usually had to describe a picture, compare and contrast pictures or give their

    opinions about famous people whose photograph was the input for the speaking task. The absence of oral

    input could be partly because listening activities preceded speaking sections and the topics and language

    involved in speaking were previously encountered in the listening sections.

    The nature of content of speaking tasks was mostly concrete allowing students to express

    themselves in content they would more easily relate to and comprehend. The vocabulary and structures

    students would use to perform the tasks derived from the lexical items and grammatical structures they

    had encountered in the previous sections. Thus, students were not asked to use unfamiliar vocabulary or

    grammar in order to perform the tasks. The language of instructions was again in the target language at

  • 8/10/2019 Analysis and Evaluation of English 6th Grade Textbook Used in Greek Public Schools-libre

    26/39

    26

    the same level as the tasks. Most of the time students were given some minutes to organise their thoughts

    as to what they would have to talk about.

    Table 9 : Characteristics of Speaking tasks

    Task control over students speech

    Very controlled Partially controlled No control

    33 % 45% 22%

    Input provided for the production of texts

    Oral Textual Iconic Pictorial

    0% 69% 4% 27%

    Produced output language type

    Simple words Simple Phrases Isolated sentences Longer text

    0% 55 % 17 % 28 %

    Task participantsPair work Group work Role-play Dialogue with teacher

    61% 17% 11 % 11%

    The level of the task corresponded to the level of the students, A2 of CEFR, where students had to

    communicate in simple and routine tasks requiring a simple and direct exchange of information on

    familiar topics and activities. They mostly produced simple phrases (55%) or isolated sentences (17%)

    and in some occasions longer texts (28%). There was a limited variety of task types, consisting of

    discussions, dialogues, role-plays and mostly pair work. Through pair work and group work effective

    speaking skills could be promoted based on collaboration among language users as Hughes (2010)

    suggests. Overall, the speaking tasks did not seem artificial, learners were engaged in discussion and

    dialogues with their peers on topics they would find interesting.

    3.3.6. Analysis of Self-Assessment Sections

    Self-assessment sections were included at the end of this unit. Although these sections were

    labeled as self-assessment there were no guidelines as to how the learners would be able to assess

    themselves and the teachers book did not provide any answer keys. Thus, it was left entirely on the

    teacher to decide how self-assessment would work in the classroom. As it can be seen from Graph 5

    these sections included tasks on reading, writing, vocabulary and grammar. There were no activities on

  • 8/10/2019 Analysis and Evaluation of English 6th Grade Textbook Used in Greek Public Schools-libre

    27/39

    27

    listening or speaking and the majority of tasks related to vocabulary items (35%) the students encountered

    in the lessons of the units.

    Graph 5: Skills representation through tasks in self-assessment sections

    As mentioned previously, vocabulary was rarely a section in the units but embedded in the context

    of other sections such as reading. This was reflected also in some activities in which vocabulary could not

    be assessed alone but in combination to reading and vice versa. Grammar obtained a lot of attention

    throughout the textbook and this was again reflected in the self-assessment tasks as can be seen in graph

    5. What could be inferred concerning the distribution of skills in the self-assessment sections was that

    listening and speaking were marginalised and the claim for communicative instruction made by the

    authors of the textbook was questioned since the two most basic communicative skills were absent. The

    content of the sections was derived from the topics of the units and ensured content validity for the

    assessment of the students, since unknown language items were not present.

    After the analysis of the types of tasks that were included in the self-assessment sections it was

    observed that there was some variety of task types. Graph 6 exemplifies the types of activities included in

    reading. Matching activities comprised the majority (50%) of tasks and other types of tasks included

    information transfer, sequencing and one word answer. The types of tasks chosen for reading

    Reading

    19%

    Writing

    19%

    Listening

    0%

    Speaking

    0%

    Grammar

    27%

    Vocabulary

    35%

  • 8/10/2019 Analysis and Evaluation of English 6th Grade Textbook Used in Greek Public Schools-libre

    28/39

  • 8/10/2019 Analysis and Evaluation of English 6th Grade Textbook Used in Greek Public Schools-libre

    29/39

    29

    Graph 8 Graph 9

    As it can be observed from graph 9, grammar tasks were of limited variety and in contrast with

    other activities discussed previously, the majority of the tasks were productive activities with only 29 per

    cent of activities with selected response format. These activities involved the production of the correct

    form of either verbs when examining tenses or adjectives and adverbs when examining the comparatives.

    Overall, what could be noticed in the self-assessment sections was the exam-like format of language

    involving learners to perform tasks which did not have a real like purpose but rather used language to test

    particular language features. The assessment sections failed to embed the language features into a

    communicative context.

    3.3.7. Analysis of Revision tests

    The textbook contained three revision tests which could be found in the teachers book and online

    on the downloadable form of the teachers book. The number of the tests suggested that formal

    assessment by teachers would be done three times through the school year. There was no extra

    information in the teachers book regarding the tests except for the answer key provided after each test.

    The tests were summative in nature and aimed primarily to assess the students performance on

    vocabulary and grammar. Graph 10 shows the overall distribution of activities in the three tests and the

    task types for grammar, vocabulary and writing.

  • 8/10/2019 Analysis and Evaluation of English 6th Grade Textbook Used in Greek Public Schools-libre

    30/39

    30

    The tests were divided into two sections, grammar and vocabulary whereas writing appeared once

    as a section and once as part of grammar in which students had to write a summary of a film using the

    passive voice. The contents of the writing sections were derived from the topics in the book and related to

    similar tasks the students had performed in class: writing an email and a film review. Vocabulary sections

    included mostly selected response answers (matching and cross the odd one out) and giving one word

    answers. Tasks on grammar included mostly providing the correct form of a word to show their

    knowledge on tenses or comparatives and selected response items such as matching, multiple-choice and

    filling the gaps with the words provided.

    Graph 10: distribution of activities and task types in tests

    The lack of skills was apparent in these three tests which did not include any activities on reading,

    listening or speaking. Although the format of the whole textbook attempted to take in new methodologies

    and focused on the four language skills the learners needed to develop and claimed to be following the

    guidelines of CEFR, the design of the tests resembled a very traditional and out-dated approach. The

    authors could have based their tests on formats of contemporary validated tests for A2 levels in which

    grammar and vocabulary did not appear as sections but were rather assessed through the use of the four

    2

    7

    1

    2

    7

    3

    4

    2

    0

    2

    4

    6

    8

    10

    12

    14

    16

    vocabulary grammar writing

    short writing - response to

    reading

    fill in the gaps (words given)

    multiple choice

    correct form

    one word answer

    matching

    odd one out

  • 8/10/2019 Analysis and Evaluation of English 6th Grade Textbook Used in Greek Public Schools-libre

    31/39

    31

    language skills in a communicative context. Finally, an issue of content validity of the tests could arise

    here, since learners were not given the opportunity to be assessed on the skills the textbook claimed to

    develop and the tests would fail to examine whether the learners had developed their language skills.

    3.4. Findings from Analysis of Grammar Sections

    Grammar sections appeared in two lessons of every unit and it was considered important to

    examine how grammar was treated in the textbook in terms of contents, presentation and task types

    included in the grammar sections.

    3.4.1. Content of Grammatical areas

    Since the textbook addressed learners at A2 level of CEFR it was necessary to examine whether

    the grammatical areas to be covered really corresponded to that level. Through a first glance evaluation,

    the material to be covered seemed extensive for the learners at this level; however, closer analysis of this

    aspect would substantiate the reality of this impression. The description of the CEFR levels did not make

    any explicit reference to grammar and the areas to be covered; therefore, it was necessary to compare the

    grammatical areas to be covered in the textbook to a validated test at this level which illustrated the

    grammatical areas that EFL learners of A2 levels were required to know. For the purposes of this study,

    the language specifications contained in the handbook for KET, an examination for English speakers of

    other languages of Cambridge University, were used. Table 10 illustrates the grammar areas in which A2

    learners should have acquired suggested by KET handbook in comparison with the areas presented in the

    book. After the close comparison of the textbook grammatical contents and the suggested grammatical

    areas for A2 level in the handbook for KET it was apparent that the authors tried to cover an extensive

    amount of grammatical items. This would probably overload learners with input they would not be able to

    process cognitively yet.

  • 8/10/2019 Analysis and Evaluation of English 6th Grade Textbook Used in Greek Public Schools-libre

    32/39

    32

    Table 10: Comparison of grammatical areas in KET and the textbook grammatical areas

    KET HANDBOOK

    Grammar areas in A2 Level

    Textbook for 6t

    grade for Greek learners of

    English at A2 level

    Tenses:

    Present simple and Present continuous

    Present perfect simple(yet, already, never, ever)unfinished past with for and since

    Past simple and Past continuous

    Future with going to , will and shall

    Tenses:

    Present simple and Present continuous

    Past Simple and Past continuous, used toFuture with will and going to

    Present perfect simple (ever in questions)

    Present perfect continuous (for and since)

    Past perfect simple

    Structures:

    Main clause and subordinate clauses with

    temporal words

    First conditional

    Structures:

    First conditional

    Second conditional

    Clauses of reason and clauses of result

    Simple present passive voice

    The present perfect continuous and past perfect simple tense require the appropriate previous

    knowledge of past simple and present perfect so that learners would be able to compare and contrast

    among those tenses without creating confusion. The tenses however, were provided to students in an

    immediate sequence without allowing time for students to sufficiently consolidate the newly presented

    grammatical item before moving to the next one. Passive voice could also create problems and confusion

    since learners would have to use the past participle of the verbs which is also used for the present perfect

    and past perfect. Finally, it was questionable whether the teachers and learners would be able to cover this

    extensive list of grammatical items in the proposed 75-80 classroom hours.

    3.4.2. Presentations of Grammar

    The analysis of the presentations of grammar in the textbooks would allow the researcher to

    investigate whether the claims the authors made regarding grammatical awareness raising from both

    inductive and deductive approaches were valid. The grammar presentations were based on sentences

    extracted from the reading or listening texts which preceded grammar sections. Thus, learners were first

    provided with a holistic experience in which they could learn implicitly without focusing conscious

    attention on any particular feature of the experience, conforming to the principled approaches for EFL

    learning materials proposed by Tomlinson (2010). The learners would revisit and reflect paying conscious

  • 8/10/2019 Analysis and Evaluation of English 6th Grade Textbook Used in Greek Public Schools-libre

    33/39

    33

    attention to the grammatical features after the grammar presentation. In many occasions the learners were

    asked to derive the rules on their own by noticing features provided in examples, thus including inductive

    methods for grammar learning. The graph below illustrates the activities learners were engaged to during

    the presentation of a new grammatical feature.

    Graph 11 Meta-language activities in grammar awareness activities

    As it was observed, learners were engaged in meta-language activities such as completion of a

    grammatical rule, choosing the correct explanation for the use of a grammatical feature or providing a

    short answer to a meta-language questions demonstrating their understanding of the use of the

    grammatical feature based on the examples provided in the book. The input of these activities included

    tables or timelines which were presented to the learners prior to the activities and contained sentences

    derived from the reading or listening texts. They had to read the sentences carefully and then try to derive

    the rule and complete the meta-language activities.

    3.4.3. Task types in grammar sections

    What was also observable was that the model Presentation-Practice-Production which was a

    traditional approach to teaching grammar was not followed in the book; the rules were not presented to

    59%20%

    21%

    Metalanguage activities

    complete the rule

    tick the correct

    explanation

    short answer

  • 8/10/2019 Analysis and Evaluation of English 6th Grade Textbook Used in Greek Public Schools-libre

    34/39

    34

    the students but rather discovered by the learners and there were very few activities following this

    consciousness raising awareness.

    Most of the times, learners were involved in the productive skills in order to use the new

    grammatical phenomenon. These tasks though, were not communicative in nature, they did not have a

    real purpose and as suggested by Ellis (2010) the data for concsiousness raising tasks should be authentic,

    mostly oral and should involve learners in meaningful communication using grammar as the medium and

    not the goal. The tasks included in the textbook did not focus on meaning but on form and failed to lead

    to real-world processes of language use. Finally, these tasks were very short and limited in the textbook

    and did not provide the time learners needed to internalise the new grammar, it was rather a mere

    exposure to these structures.

    4. Conclusion

    This study focused on the evaluation of the textbook used in 6th

    grade Greek primary state schools

    for EFL learners. It was motivated by the fact that the textbook was used on a large national scale, it was

    recently developed and its strengths or weaknesses would have a high impact on Greek students learning

    of English. After the close evaluation of the components of the book, the findings suggested that the

    overall organisation of the textbook and the themes included were satisfactory; the authorsintention to

  • 8/10/2019 Analysis and Evaluation of English 6th Grade Textbook Used in Greek Public Schools-libre

    35/39

    35

    use real-like situations and explore all four language skills in an integrated way was apparent and

    elements of differentiation of instruction were also found in the textbook. However, many problematic

    areas were detected as to the practicality of the book, its contents, use of authentic language, integration

    of the four skills, the nature of the tasks, autonomy of learning and assessment practices. The findings

    also suggested that the textbook had not been piloted prior to its implementation which was essential in

    order to ensure that the textbook would actually work for its addressed market.

    The textbook followed a thematic approach for the organisation of its units and the four skills

    were promoted through a context based approach which could help students in developing their language

    skills. The topics and themes selected were overall appropriate to the students interests and age

    resembling topics they would encounter in real life either in the social, personal or educational domain.

    Furthermore, the colourful illustrations contained in the textbook made the book more appealing to young

    learners. The overall organisation and layout of the students book showed a well -structured work that

    could work with young learners of this age.

    Another aspect concerning practicality is the layout of the teachers book; although there were

    useful guidelines for the teacher, it was difficult to use two books while teaching. Instead, a students

    book edition with the pages for the teacher interleaved would have been a more practical and useful

    format for the teachersbook.

    The appendix of the book contained extra material for the students in order to allow for

    differentiated instruction. These materials included extra activities for reading and writing or simplified

    versions of writing and listening. There were also more challenging options for stronger students. Thus,

    the textbook catered for the individual learners needs. However, the use of appended sections was not

    provided for each lesson and this differentiation in instruction did not occur systematically. Moreover, the

    fact that this differentiation of instruction was kept outside the main textbook showed that it was optional

    to be used.

  • 8/10/2019 Analysis and Evaluation of English 6th Grade Textbook Used in Greek Public Schools-libre

    36/39

    36

    There was an effort to develop the four language skills in an integrated way in the units, trying to

    include every skill in each unit and the activities for receptive skills were usually used as input for the

    activities of the productive skills. Nevertheless, the tasks which were involved for each skill section did

    not integrate all four skills. Furthermore, throughout the book, grammar sections were overemphasised

    with every unit containing two sections on grammatical features. The findings of the close analysis on the

    textbook sections indicated that instruction of grammar was form focused and language in the tasks was

    rarely used for real communicative purposes involving problem solving approaches. The claim of the

    authors for authenticity in the reading and listening texts was rejected since it was evident that both

    reading and listening texts were mostly adapted or developed specifically for pedagogic purposes, with

    careful attention to the grammatical structures and lexical items in order to correspond to vocabulary and

    grammar goals of each unit. Furthermore, the majority of the tasks in the productive skills seemed to be

    controlling the students as to what they were going to produce and there was not much opportunity given

    for learners autonomy or negotiation on the tasks themselves.

    The analysis on the level of different tasks revealed that speaking, listening and writing activities

    were at same level as the students (A2) whereas writing tasks were above the level of the students at level

    B1 of CEFR. Therefore, writing tasks which comprised the majority of overall tasks in the book were

    difficult and demanding for students at this level. Furthermore, the content to be covered in grammar

    sections was excessive again for learners of this level and it was questionable whether the teachers would

    be able to cover all the material in the course.

    The assessment practices in the book included the self-assessment sections in every unit and 3

    revision tests. These practices revolved mainly around grammar and vocabulary and completely excluded

    listening and speaking assessments. The teachers book was not particularly helpful since there were no

    guidelines as to how the self-assessment would be done and there was no answer key for students to be

    able to assess themselves. On the other hand though, it could be left on the teachers judgement as to how

    self-assessment could be done, thus allowing freedom of choice to teachers. Nevertheless, it would have

  • 8/10/2019 Analysis and Evaluation of English 6th Grade Textbook Used in Greek Public Schools-libre

    37/39

    37

    been useful for inexperienced teachers to have guidelines concerning this section. The number of tests

    was not sufficient for a whole year and suggested a summative evaluation of the students in every 3 units.

    The teachers would need to design and implement their own tests for formative and summative purposes

    and many alterations concerning the tests contents would have to be made to include the four skills which

    were not present most of the time.

    After having identified the strengths and weaknesses of the textbook, it is important to consider

    the way forward. This book has already been implemented and used by teachers in primary education.

    Teachers need to perform a similar task of evaluation of the book before using it in the classroom and find

    ways to combat with its defects. Teachers are the ones who will finally decide how to use the book and in

    these cases, teachers do not have the option to choose any other coursebook. Therefore, they should use

    the textbook as their core material, make adaptations and supplement it with other materials according to

    their learners needs and their teaching situation. Furthermore, the developers of the textbook should

    make a retrospective evaluation of their book and make the necessary changes to improve its contents.

    Finally, regular revised editions of the book should be made in order to constantly update the contents

    according to the learners needs and teaching context.

  • 8/10/2019 Analysis and Evaluation of English 6th Grade Textbook Used in Greek Public Schools-libre

    38/39

    38

    References

    Alamri, A. A. M. (2008). An evaluation of the sixth grade English language textbook for Saudi boys'

    schools. MA thesis, Department of English Language, College of Arts at King Saud University

    Azizifar, A., Koosha, M., & Lotfi, A. R. (2010). An analytical evaluation of Iranian high school ELT

    textbooks from 1970 to the present. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 3, 36-44.

    Cunningsworth, A. (1995). Choosing Your Coursebook, Oxford: Heinemann.

    Ellis, R. (1997). The empirical evaluation of language teaching materials. ELT Journal, 51(1), 36-42.

    Ellis, R. (2010). Second language acquisition research and language-teaching materials, in Harwood, N.

    (Ed.). (2010). English language teaching materials: Theory and practice. New York: Cambridge

    University Press, 33-57.

    Garinger, D. (2002). Textbook Selection for the ESLClassroom, Eric Digest, Retrieved 11/2010:

    http://www.cal.org/resources/Digest/0210garinger.html

    Goh, C. (2010). Listening as process: Learning activities for self-appraisal and self-regulation, in

    Harwood, N. (Ed.). (2010). English language teaching materials: Theory and practice. New York:

    Cambridge University Press, 179-206.

    Graves, K. (2000). Designing Language Courses. Canada: Newbury House

    Hughes, R. (2010). Materials to develop the speaking skill. , in Harwood, N. (Ed.). (2010). English

    language teaching materials: Theory and practice. New York: Cambridge University Press, 207-224.

    Hutchinson, T. and E. Torres (1994). The textbook as agent of change. ELT Journal 48(4):

    315-328.

    http://www.cal.org/resources/Digest/0210garinger.htmlhttp://www.cal.org/resources/Digest/0210garinger.htmlhttp://www.cal.org/resources/Digest/0210garinger.html
  • 8/10/2019 Analysis and Evaluation of English 6th Grade Textbook Used in Greek Public Schools-libre

    39/39