The presentation of different types of tasks in ELT textbooks

Abstract

It is mostly observed that textbooks are a key component in most language programs especially in the process of teaching and learning a second/foreign language. As a result, a number of studies have been carried out to evaluate English language teaching (ELT) materials. Trying to contribute to this growing body of literature, the present study was conducted to evaluate the eight most popular global textbooks which are taught in Iranian ELT institutes in terms of their task types according to Nunan's (1999) classification of the tasks. To this end, all the tasks of each textbook were categorized in their major and minor associated groups. The results revealed that linguistic tasks were the most frequent type of tasks in almost all of the textbooks. Moreover, there was a significant difference among the frequency of task types in these course books. Finally <em>Total English</em>, <em>English Result</em> and <em>Interchange</em> proved to be the most balanced textbooks respectively in comparison to others with regard to each task types. It was concluded that unlike the common belief, being recently published does not guarantee the appropriateness of textbooks for language teaching program. The results of this study could be helpful for teachers to realize the types of the tasks and exercises in the available ELT textbooks and consequently help their students develop their English proficiency by adapting and mixing different types of tasks from different textbooks.