The importance of textbook evaluation :

Designing and developing appropriate textbooks and learning materials is

one of the most important steps of successful language teaching.In EFL
situations, learners and teachers mainly do the task of learning and teaching
according to a textbook as a main means of instructing. Needless to say
majority of class time is devoted to use of this source. So it is important that
the coursebook they use fulfills their needs, attract their attentions, motivates
their interests and leads them to acquire the language.And it is argued that
textbooks cannot meet various needs of learners around the world. There is no
perfect textbook that meets the needs of all students, teachers,schools and
curricula. Each textbook has its own strengths and weaknesses (Allwright ,
1981, p. 8).Also, no course book will be totally suited to a particular teaching
situation. The teacher will have to find his own way of using it and adapting it if
necessary. So we should not be looking for the perfect course book which
meets all our requirements, but rather for the best possible fit between what
the course book offers and what we as teachers and our students need
(Cunningsworth, 1984, p. 6).Therefore, teachers should not rely only on the
textbook ;instead, they have to vary teaching materials in their classrooms to
facilitate the attainment of the course objectives ,with the need to some sort of
textbook evaluation.
First of all it seems essential to know what the term “evaluation” means.
Evaluation is a process of inquiry in which data are gathered through different
instruments and from different sources. This information is interpreted to
make important decisions based on the research results. These decisions might
require a change and effect a drastic alteration in the outline and process of a
language program instruction. All these efforts are made to the betterment of a
course of study and bringing about satisfactory results.In other words,
evaluation is the identification of particular strengths and weaknesses in
textbooks already in use (Cunningsworth,1995).
It is suggested that textbook evaluation helps teachers move beyond
impressionistic assessments and it helps them to acquire useful, accurate,
systematic, and contextual insights into the overall nature of textbook material
(Cunningsworth ,1995 and Ellis ,1997). Textbook evaluation,therefore,can be
used as worthwhile means of conducting action research as well as a form of
professional empowerment and improvement (Litz, 2005). Cunningsworth
(1995) and Ellis (1997) have suggested that there are three different types of
material evaluation.They argue that the most common form is probably the
'predictive' or 'pre-use' evaluation that is designed to examine the future or
potential performance of a textbook. The other types of textbook evaluation
are the 'in-use' evaluation designed to examine material that is currently being
used and the 'retrospective' or 'post-use' (reflective) evaluation of a textbook
that has been used in any respective institution.
Finally,particular attention must be paid to evaluate such materials based on
valid and reliable instruments. One of the common methods to evaluate
English Language Teaching (ELT) materials is the checklist. An evaluation
checklist is an instrument that provides the evaluator with a list of features of
successful learningteaching materials. According to these criteria, evaluators
like teachers, researchers as well as students can rate the quality of the
material. (Soori, Kafipour, & SouryM, 2011). Various scholars have offered
checklists based on supposedly generalizable criteria, such as (Daoud & Celce-
Murcia, 1979; Williams, 1983; Hutchinson and Waters, 1987; Sheldon, 1988;
Skierso, 1991; Littlejohn, 1996;Ur, 1996).