An Evaluation of the Vocabulary Learning Components of the Fourth Year Middle School English Textbook «My Book of English Four»

Abstract

The present study attempted to evaluate the vocabulary learning component in the Algerian fourth year middle school English textbook ―My Book of English Four ―, which was introduced in 2020 by the Ministry of Education following the principles of the competency- based approach. To achieve this aim, an evaluation checklist and a teachers‘questionnaire were self-designed and implemented.The teachers‘questionnaire was submitted to a convenience-based sample of 25 fourth year middle school teachers of English language at 11 different middle schools in the province of Jijel. The findings generated by the checklist-based evaluation and supported by the analysis of the teachers‘responses indicate that the textbook in question has some positive aspects like alloting a great importance to vocabulary teaching/ learning,using authentic texts, and presenting the vocabulary teaching items following an increasing order of difficulty.However, the vocabulary learning component has been found not to be suitable for teaching vocabulary at this level because it contains far more vocabulary items than what the pupils can really learn and the teachers can really cover within the time limits of the course. Regarding vocabulary teaching methodology, the findings suggest that the largely implicit method of teaching vocabulary adopted in the textbook,and which relies on inferring meaning from the context should be replaced by an explicit method based on the use of both target and the mother tongues