An Evaluation of the English Language Textbook for the First Year in the Secondary School in Libya

Abstract

Libya has made many significant changes over the years in its educational goals, policies, and pedagogies. Along with these changes is the strengthening of English language teaching at all levels. However, research has revealed that students are still underachievers in the English language especially in the secondary schools. This paper evaluates the content and design of the First Year Intermediate students’ textbook, “English for Libya” to determine one of the influential factors in the teaching-learning procedure in the classroom. For this purpose, a questionnaire and textual analysis were used to gather the appropriate data. Results revealed significant problems in the design and content of the textbook under study in terms of its appropriateness to students’ and teachers’ needs, interests and to the Libyan context in general. Moreover, the findings also revealed other issues related to the integration of skills, nature of tasks and assessment as well as the insufficiency of the time allotted to fully understand and elaborate each lesson and to the textbook as a whole. These findings highlight the need for textbook designers/authors to give more attention to a) students’ needs; b) cultural needs; and 3) the time available for teaching the textbook.