A study of textbooks and classroom activities as perceived by teachers and students

Abstract

The purposes of this study were: 1) to investigate the appropriateness of English textbooks from teachers' perspectives, 2) to investigate the appropriateness of English textbooks from students' perspectives, 3) to examine the level of preferences on classroom activities as perceived by EFL teachers, and 4) to examine the level of preferences on classroom activities as perceived by students. The population included 75 EFL teachers and 1800 students. The subjects included 63 EFL teachers and 317 students selected by the simple random sampling technique. The research instruments included two textbook evaluation forms (student's and teacher's forms) developed by Litz (2005), and classroom activity questionnaire developed by Spratt (1999). The Cronbach's alpha reliability coefficients of the textbook evaluation form of teacher and student were .94 and .96 respectively. The Cronbach's alpha reliability coefficients of classroom activities questionnaire of teacher and student were .94 and .95 respectively. Questionnaires were translated into Thai through the back-translation method and were tested validity by three experts. The statistical devices used for data analysis were mean and standard deviation. The major results of this study showed as follows. 1) EFL teachers rated the appropriateness of using English textbooks in their teaching at the high level. 2) Students rated the appropriateness of using English textbooks in their study at the high level. 3) EFL teachers rated their preferences to use classroom activities in their teaching at the high level. Finally, 4) students rated their preferences to use classroom activities in their study at the high level;