Date of Graduation

2016

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Type

MA

College

Eberly College of Arts and Sciences

Department

English

Committee Chair

Ahmed Fakhri

Committee Co-Chair

Susan Braidi

Committee Member

Cynthia Chalupa

Committee Member

Ahmed Fakhri

Abstract

Textbooks are the main tools used by teachers and students in English as a Second Language/ English as a Foreign Language (ESL/EFL) teaching settings; Therefore, it is important to select the most appropriate textbook that meets both teachers' and students' needs. This study examines three textbooks commonly used in Brazilian private schools: New Interchange (Richards, 2000), American Headway 1 (Soars & Soars, 2001), and Top Notch 1 (Saslow & Ascher, 2006), all of which are published by non-Brazilian companies, to see how well they address the urgent need for communication-based EFL textbooks in Brazil. The current study seeks to help teachers in that country become aware of the merits and weaknesses of a variety of different textbooks and choose the most appropriate one for their curricula.;The evaluation checklist, which was designed to assess the efficacy of the textbooks in this study, was organized around two research questions: 1) Do the selected textbooks provide culturally authentic and meaningful content and promote the development of communication skills through a variety of activities? and 2) What type of technology can be adopted to address weaknesses in the textbooks with regard to communicative activities? The three ESL textbooks chosen for this study were analyzed unit by unit, in a systematic fashion, using the evaluative checklist selected.;The analysis of textbooks revealed that all had some shortcomings, such as a limited number of pre-reading, pre-listening, and topic preview activities and the lack of communicative tasks whereby students must negotiate for meaning. Suggestions for improving these weaknesses through the use of three technologies (Powtoon, WhatsApp, and WikiSpaces) are presented and evaluated.

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