An Evaluation of Teachers’ Use of Class 9-10 English for Today Book and Supplementary Guidebooks

Abstract

This qualitative study aims to evaluate the textbook English for Today (Classes 9-10) prescribed by the National Curriculum and Textbook Board (NCTB) and the locally produced selected guidebooks used as an alternative of EfT to see their effectiveness for English language practice. The National Curriculum (NC) (2012) has adopted Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) approach to develop learners’ English language proficiency and the (NCTB) has reformed the textbook according to the criteria of NC (2012). The study intends to look at how the use of guidebooks besides EFT (Classes 9-10) is helping to fulfill the purpose of learning the language. The study has selected McDonough, Shaw, and Masuhara’s (2013) material evaluation model criteria to evaluate the prescribed textbook and selected guidebooks and also conducted a short interview of five experienced English language teachers from five different Bangla medium schools in Dhaka to fulfill the purpose of the study. The findings of the study based on textbook and guidebook evaluation and interviews reveal that the materials are not adequate in terms of content, teaching context, and not effective for language learning instead of passing the exam. There is an inconsistency between the goals of NC (2012), the adopted methodology for the textbook and the classroom teaching and the existing testing system. Therefore, the study concludes by stating the necessity of establishing interconnection among the teaching-learning materials of classes 9-10, the board testing system, and the teaching methodology used in the classroom for an effective outcome of language learning.