Textbooks are an essential component in the classroom, making it extremely crucial to regularly evaluate textbooks used in schools so that their pedagogical contributions towards the teaching and ...learning processes can be guaranteed. The study aimed to identify and analyse the cognitive levels of questions available in Secondary Three All About English textbooks, which have been used in Singapore since 2013. The objective of carrying out the analysis was to determine the overall cognitive rigour of questions, using a matrix superimposing two taxonomies: Revised Bloom’s Taxonomy and Webb’s Domain-of-Knowledge (DOK) model. The sample of this study consisted of questions from the Express and Normal Technical (NT) English language textbooks published by Hodder Education, where 346 questions were analysed in total. The cognitive rigour matrix was used in the classification of the questions. The results revealed that in the Express level textbook, most questions were within the cell 2,3 (35.9%), consisting of Understand and “Strategic Thinking” questions. In contrary, for the Normal Technical level textbook, most questions were within the cell 5,4 (17.6%), consisting of Evaluate and “Extended Thinking” questions. Overall, there was a good mix of Lower-order thinking skill (LOTS) and Higher-order thinking skill (HOTS) questions. However, not all cognitive levels were clearly varied, with an overemphasis on Understand and Evaluate questions, neglecting Remember and Apply questions. In light of the results, it is recommended that coursebook writers should incorporate questions of varied cognitive demands. We recommend that teachers should regularly evaluate the effectiveness of school textbooks so that there is closer alignment between the curriculum and the textbooks that teachers use in the classroom.
Framed by MCDA, our study examines diachronic changes in gender representation in five New Headway Elementary (NHE) editions. Our findings demonstrate that NHE's gender representation is established ...on heteronormative binaries indicating bias against women in recreational, domestic, professional, and educational spaces despite few important attempts by the coursebook writers to address gender bias. Gender representation in recreational spaces is built on stereotypical discourses. At home, women mostly have nurturing roles while men are depicted as relaxing or playing with their children. At work, men's professional representation focuses solely on their professional career, whereas women are represented with reference to their domestic and caregiving roles. At school, men are presented as teaching and learning various subjects and sports, while women are mostly associated with teaching and learning languages and art only. In closing, we offer teachers three activities to develop learners' critical awareness against gender discrimination while using NHE.
Course materials play a vital role in the foreign language classroom. Relatively little attention has been paid, however, to analyzing the activities that foster oral interactional ability in course ...materials for English as a foreign language (EFL). For the purpose of this study, a coding scheme was designed that focuses specifically on the development of interactional ability. This was used to analyse the three most commonly used EFL course books for pre-vocational learners in the Netherlands. The analysis revealed that course books focus more on developing language knowledge than on developing the ability to use this knowledge in interaction, that interactional strategies practice is missing, and that interactional practice is limited to the personal and public context. We conclude that EFL course books lag behind current theories of second language acquisition (SLA) in the practical application of activities focused on developing interactional ability. Recommendations to strengthen the link between theory and practice are made.
Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) seeks mutually comprehensible social interaction in spoken discourse. To serve this purpose, coursebooks undoubtedly play a key role as to how speaking practice ...takes place. In Turkey, local coursebooks are prescribed by the Ministry of National Education (MoNE); however, many practitioners seem to opt for the international alternatives. Considering the debate over qualitative adequacy, the current study compares two coursebooks in terms of the ground given to speaking skills. The method involves two 9th grade English language coursebooks, Teenwise (local) and Talent 1 (international), being analysed via Taxonomy for Identification of Coursebook Speaking Activities (TICSA). Findings indicate that the international coursebook allocates slightly more space to speaking than the local book. TICSAwise, the local coursebook is two times more structural than the international coursebook. Whilst half the local coursebook is classified as quasi-communicative, the international one demonstrates an increase for these activities. Although both books ignore social interaction, the international coursebook has an edge over the local one in functional communication. These findings suggest that the local coursebook falls behind of the international counterpart for the teaching of speaking. Consequently, the adoption of a genuinely communicative mindset is discussed when developing language teaching materials so as to catch up with global publications and meet the pedagogical demands of CLT.
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