American English File Series Evaluation Based on Littlejohn’s Evaluative Framework

Abstract

Textbooks play a pivotal role in language learning classrooms. The problem is, among a wide range of textbooks available, which one is more appropriate for a specific classroom and a group of learners. In order to evaluate ELT textbooks, theorists and writers have offered different kinds of evaluative frameworks based on a number of principles and criteria. This study evaluates one example of such a series of ELT textbooks, namely, “American English File" using Littlejohn's (1998) evaluative framework to see what explicit features of the book are, and what pedagogic values it has. Littlejohn believes that we should evaluate a textbook based on its own pedagogic values and we should see what is in it not what the teacher and evaluators think must exist in it. Consequently his framework is claimed to be devoid of any impressionistic ideas and it is in-depth and objective rather than being subjective. Nine ELT experts and ten ELT teachers helped the researcher rate the evaluative checklists. The results of the study show that although a number of shortcomings and drawbacks were found in American English File, it stood up reasonably well to a detailed and in-depth analysis and that its pedagogic values and positive attributes far out-weighed its shortcomings. The internal consistency between ratings was computed via the statistical tool of Cronbach's alpha that indicated a desirable inter-rater reliability