Critical Evaluation of Iranian Junior High School Textbooks (Prospect 1, 2, 3): Teachers’ View in Focus

Abstract

Textbook evaluation is an applied linguistic activity through which teachers, supervisors, administrators, and materials developers can make judgments about the effect of the materials on the people using them. The current study aimed at investigating Iranian English teachers’ attitudes towards Prospect 1, Prospect 2, and Prospect 3 books and to figure out if there were any significant differences among their attitudes towards them. To this end, 80 Iranian English teachers participated in this study. The participants were selected from the teachers who taught English in the schools of Shahinshahr and one district in Isfahan. Three questionnaires, one for each book separately, were designed by the researcher and administered to the participants to elicit their attitudes towards the books. The questionnaires were designed based on Murdoch’s Model. The results indicated that the participants had positive attitudes towards the books. It was also revealed that there were not significant differences about the participants’ attitudes towards Prospect 1 and Prospect 3, and Prospect 1 and Prospect 2. However, there was a significant difference between their attitudes towards Prospect 2 and Prospect 3. The findings of the present study may contain some implications for EFL teaching and material development.