The Pedagogical Value of Prospect 1 from Teachers’ Point of View: A Critical Analysis of an English Textbook for Iranian Students at Seventh Grade

Textbooks, as one of the most important realia, play a crucial role in language learning process all over the world. Moreover, the importance of evaluation of every newly published ELT textbook has been overly emphasized. To this end, the current study aimed at evaluating an ELT textbook, titled Prospect 1, recently published and currently taught at Iranian high schools at seventh grade. In this respect, a sample of 150 Iranian EFL teachers were recruited based on their accessibility, willingness to take part in the study, and having the experience of teaching Prospect 1. In order to gather teachers’ perspective, the researcher developed a questionnaire based on some criteria proposed by Cunningsworth (1995) and Tomlinson (2001). The results of teachers’ answers to the questions discovered that Prospect 1 contains four language skills which can foster students’ language learning. The activities also can promote students’ engagement in classroom communication. In line with previous findings, it can promote student-student and student- teacher interaction, promote pair and group work. One the other hand, conversations lacked authenticity and the new vocabularies needed to be reviewed during the coming activities. Teachers also judged that the topics are not in harmony with students’ cultural background. Results of this study can have implications for teachers and material development.