The Content Analysis of General English Textbooks Used in Islamic Azad University of Torbat-e Heydarieh in Iran between 2006 and 2009

Textbooks are an integral part of language learning, especially in foreign language contexts where they provide learning opportunities for the learners. The purpose of this study was to evaluate General English Textbooks used in Islamic Azad University of Torbat-e Heydarieh in Iran between 2006 and 2009. Two of these textbooks were written by Iranian non-native speaker authors and one by a native speaker author. The instrument employed in the study was a researcher prepared and validated checklist on four language skills, vocabulary, grammar, exercises, pictures, and teacher’s manual. The results identified some shortcoming in all of the textbooks in terms of the under-study elements (i.e., four language skills, vocabulary, grammar, etc.), so the textbooks require some improvements by providing more language skills (listening, speaking, and writing), more pictures, a workbook for more exercises, and a teacher’s manual. It was also found that the textbooks have some specific strengths if be combined and included in one textbook, can bring about better results. Finally, it was revealed that the textbooks written by local authors are better than the one developed by a native speaker writer since the formers are more familiar with the Iranian students’ needs and problems in language learning.

content analysis, General English, teacher’s manual, textbook evaluation checklist