Evaluating the Grammar Component of the Algerian Middle School Textbook: “My Book of English Three”

Abstract

This research aims at evaluating the grammatical component of the Algerian third year middle school textbook “My Book of English Three”. It attempts to investigate the effectiveness of this textbook in presenting the grammatical component and if the principles of competency based approach are adequately applied in the textbook. Therefore, to achieve these goals, quantitative and qualitative data were obtained through an adapted checklist and teachers’ questionnaire. A checklist was adapted from Cunnigsworth’s checklist (1995) to suit the aims of the research and the questionnaire was administered to thirty middle school teachers who have taught third year classes in Jijel and Skikda. From the obtained results we conclude that this course book is effective in presenting the grammatical component to third year middle school pupils. The analysis of the textbook and the questionnaire revealed that the textbook is effective in applying the principles of the competency based approach as far as the grammatical component is concerned. However, it is worth mentioning that the findings of the questionnaire revealed that there is a gap between teachers’ theoretical knowledge about the competency based approach and the application of this knowledge in real classroom settings. That is why; the ministry of education should provide an adequate in service training to middle school teachers, to bridge the gap between their theoretical knowledge about the competency based approach and the application of this knowledge in real classroom settings.