Evaluation of Specialized English Textbook for the Iranian Students of Chemical Engineering

Abstract

The present study on English for Specific Purposes (ESP) textbook evaluation was an attempt to investigate the students and teachers' perceptions of the textbook <em>English for Students of Chemical Engineering, </em>first published in 2000 and lately reprinted in 2017 by the Iranian Organization for Researching and Composing University Textbooks in the Humanities (named SAMT in Iran). A modified version of Baleghizadeh and Rahimi's (2011) textbook evaluation questionnaire, which was itself based on Sheldon's (1988) model of evaluation and adapted by Karimi (2006), was distributed among 110 students of chemical engineering and 11 ESP teachers who had taught the book under question; however, 98 student questionnaires were returned. The obtained data revealed that the surveyed students had positive attitudes towards compatibility of book objectives with course objectives, subject matter, skills and strategies, exercises and activities, appropriateness of content, while they negatively evaluated the book's practical concerns, linguistic issues, and layout. Teachers, on the other hand, held positive perspectives towards practical concerns, objectives compatibility, subject matter, exercises and activities, and appropriateness of content, while they had negative attitudes towards the book's linguistic issues, skills and strategies, and layout. Care, thus, should be exercised while choosing and teaching this book since, despite its enjoying several good features, it might be found demotivating due to its layout and linguistic issues.