An Evaluation of the Sixth Grade English Language Textbook for Saudi Boys' Schools

The study evaluates the quality of the sixth grade English language textbook for Saudi boys' schools which was introduced at the elementary stage by the Ministry of Education in 2004. This research project evaluates a new textbook that is considered to be the foundation stone in the English language program in Saudi Arabia. A survey questionnaire was used in this study to elicit the perspectives of 93 English language teachers and 11 supervisors in Riyadh Educational Zone about the textbook in question. The questionnaire consisted of 64 grouped under 12 main categories: the general appearance, design and illustration, accompanying materials, objectives, topic appropriateness, learning components, socio-cultural contexts, skills development, teachability, flexibility, teaching methods, and practice and testing. The data was subjected to analysis through descriptive statistics. Three different types of computations were done: a per-item analysis, a per-category analysis, and an independent samples t-test to clarify the equality and variance of the responses the two groups of the population (teachers and supervisors). The findings were generally in favour of the textbook except the for the teaching methods and some other sub-items. Out of 64 items in the questionnaire, only 13 items had arithmetic means less than 2.50. The category that had the highest mean was the one on learning components, while the category that had the lowest mean was the one on teaching methods. The findings also revealed that there were no significant differences between the means of the two populations of the study (teachers and supervisors) except on the flexibility of the textbook and the different natures of their jobs might be the reason behind this difference. The study concluded with recommendations and suggestions for the improvement of the textbook