An Evaluation of American English File Series

Research in English Language Pedagogy

مقاله 6، دوره 1، شماره 2، خرداد 2014، صفحه 49-57   

نوع مقاله: Original Article

نویسندگان

Behnam Ghasemi^* ؛ Hamid Reza Haghverdi

Islamic Azad University, Isfahan (Khorasgan) branch, Isfahan, Iran

چکیده

Textbooks play a pivotal role in language learning classrooms. The problem is that among a wide range of textbooks in market which is appropriate for a specific
classroom and a group of learners. In order to evaluate ELT textbooks theorists and writers have offered different kinds of evaluative frameworks based on a
number of principles and criteria. This study evaluates a series of ELT textbook, namely, American English File by the use of Littlejohn’s (1998) evaluative
framework to see what explicit features of the book are, what pedagogic values it has, whether it is in line with its claimed objectives, and what its merits and
demerits are. Littlejohn believes that we should evaluate a textbook based on its own pedagogic values and we should see what is in it not what teacher and
evaluators think must exist in it. Consequently his framework is claimed to be devoid of any impressionistic ideas and it is in-depth and objective rather than
being subjective. Nine ELT experts and ten ELT teachers helped the researcher rate the evaluative checklists. The results of the study show that although a
number of shortcomings and drawbacks were found in American English File, it stood up reasonably well to a detailed and in-depth analysis and that its pedagogic
values and positive attributes far out-weighed its shortcomings. The internal consistency between ratings was computed via the statistical tool of Cronbach’s
alpha that indicated a desirable inter-rater reliability.

کلیدواژه‌ها

ELT textbook؛ Littlejohn’sframework؛ American English File series

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