Evaluating Textbooks and Their Potential for EFL Learning and Teaching. A Case Study

Master's Thesis from the year 2020 in the subject Didactics - English - Miscellaneous, grade: 1,0, University of Duisburg-Essen (Department of Anglophone Studies), language: English, abstract: In contrast to the reality outside of school, textbooks, especially in the context of teaching English as a foreign language (TEFL), are still the most important medium for language learning purposes today. However, the academic evaluation of textbooks is surprisingly a rather neglected field of study. Also, the very few studies that evaluate an EFL-textbook mostly only consider the technical dimension of analysis, such as the theoretical perspective of EFL methodology. Yet, to gain a more holistic impression of a textbook, one should also include the practical perspective of EFL teachers. Therefore, the present case study critically evaluates one exemplary textbook combining the theoretical perspective of EFL didactics and the practical perspective of EFL teachers. The TEFL textbook chosen for this case study is titled 'English G21 A5' published by Cornelsen in 2010. It is designed for grade 9 at Gymnasium in Germany. Taking Unit 1 of this textbook as an example, this paper aims at examining the potential of this textbook for EFL learning and teaching. The central question is whether the textbook meets the various requirements posed to a textbook including the numerous principles that are part of contemporary EFL methodology and central educational standards. In the first part of the analysis (chapter 4) the question is in how far the textbook meets the theoretical requirements of TEFL. For the second part of the analysis (chapter 5) a small survey was carried out conducting qualitative interviews with four different teachers. Employing qualitative content analysis, the survey intends to find out about the teachers' opinion on the textbook focusing on the question, how the teachers assess the value of the textbook for their teaching practice. Prior to the analysis it is, however, necessary to elaborate on some theoretical background (chapter 2). This involves describing the main paradigms of contemporary EFL methodology as well as illustrating relevant theoretical context in relation to the term textbook and textbook evaluation revealing central requirements EFL textbooks need to fulfil. The aim of this twofold description is to develop a list of criteria (section 2.2.4) that will be used as the foundation of the textbook evaluation. The selected textbook will be introduced in more detail in chapter 3.