Evaluation of the “Traveler” English Textbook Series in Saudi High Schools: English Teachers’ Perspectives

Abstract

The current study is an evaluation of the “Traveler”, the English Language curriculum that is taught in the high schools in Saudi Arabia and adopted by the Saudi Ministry of Education (MOE). Through this study, the researcher focused on whether this curriculum fulfils students’ needs. In order to achieve this goal, an 18-statement, five-pointed Likert questionnaire, developed by Leitz (2005), was used. The questionnaire was based on three dimensions: subject matter and content, activity and tasks, and skills. The participants of this study were (104) female teachers who were randomly selected from different Saudi high schools. The results showed that (59.6%) of the teacher stated that the subject and content of the book are not relevant to the students’ level as English language educators, (46.2%) of teachers stated that the textbook does not give activities balance, and (49.2%) stated that the materials provide suitable balance of the four language skills. The study conducted some recommendations for the EFL teachers, textbooks evaluators, and the Saudi MOE to investigate the educational textbooks considering the results of evaluation.