New EFL textbooks at the Junior High school Level: Have the needs of students been taken into account?

In recent years, the development of the use of a variety of methods for teaching English has greatly improved the value of educational books. However, very few studies have focused on the evaluation of English-language textbooks in primary education in Iran. The purpose of this study was to evaluate English language teaching textbooks in junior high school from the perspective of students and teachers. To achieve this goal, 8 junior high school teachers with an average of 7 years of teaching and 261 students of the seventh, eighth and ninth grades participated as participants in this study. The textbooks were evaluated based on a questionnaire designed and validated in 1979, comprising 25 questions in six contexts: The suitability of topics, the vocabulary and structure of the book, the appropriateness of the exercises, the suitability of the images, and the physical make-up of the book. The results of the interviews were compared with the results of the questionnaires. Finally, the results of this study showed that from the perspective of students the Prospect Book series in many respects does not meet the needs of students and is not efficient. The results of this study can be used by teachers, educational planners, and textbook writers.