Evaluating “My Book of English 4 vs one the move4 from teachers' perspectives

Abstract

The present study is set out with the aim of investigating teachers’ attitude towards the effectiveness of the new fourth grade middle school English textbook “My Book of English” (MBOE) in comparison to the preceding one “On the Move” (OTM). In more details it seeks to find out from teachers’ perspectives, the weaknesses of the preceding textbook “OTM”, the strengths and weaknesses of the new textbook. In addition, it attempts to investigate to what extent MBOE has covered the shortcomings of the preceding one. This study is based on three hypotheses. First, if the new textbook “MBOE” has taken into account the weaknesses of the preceding one, then the new textbook has succeeded to cover the shortcomings of the preceding one. Second, if the preceding and the new textbooks have the same weaknesses, then the Algerian Ministry of Education needs to review its decisions and keep up with its attempts to design an effective textbook. Third, if the new textbook has taken into consideration the level of learners, then the new textbook is effective for learners. In order to test the hypotheses, data was collected through using two main tools instead of three: an adapted checklist and a questionnaire; the third tool supposed to be used is an interview, but due to the hard situation the world has witnessed, i.e., corona virus, they are integrated into one comprehensive questionnaire to be three in one. This comprehensive questionnaire was emailed and handed to forty (40) teachers from different middle schools in Algeria. The research findings revealed that the new textbook is better than the preceding one in many aspects, and to some extent, it covers the shortcomings of the preceding one. Yet, the new textbook has salient weaknesses in terms of language level. It is to some extent upper the average level of learners. Thus, it is not too much effective for learners’ level, and consequently the Ministry of Education is still in need to make more reforms