Abstract: The principal intent of this study was to assess EFL teachers’ practice of adapting textbook materials in the newly revised ninth grade and tenth grade English textbooks with particular reference to English language teachers at Mettu, Gore, Hurumu, Darimu and Yayo high schools.
To conduct the study, qualitative research design was employed and the data were analyzed qualitatively.
The data were collected from twelve grade nine English language teachers and ten grade ten English language teachers through observation and interview. In addition, data were also gathered through document analysis from randomly selected fifty students’ exercise books from both grade levels and the teachers’ daily lesson plans.
The findings of the study revealed that the subjects of this study are not aware of textbook adaptation though they adapt some textbook materials unconsciously, without considering the principles and theories of textbook adaptation. In addition, the results of the study showed that teachers usually evaluate textbook materials before beginning the actual class for the sake of their own understanding not for the sake of making the textbook materials suitable to the students. In other words, although teachers assume that they are doing their best, they still need more orientation concerning the way they use, evaluate and adapt textbook materials to make the contents suitable to their students’ interest, age and level before they begin teaching.
Besides, teachers often use too much deletion on skill based contents and too much addition on grammar oriented topics. What is more, the major factors that restrain teachers from adapting textbook materials were found to be teachers’ lack of awareness, expertise and confidence in implementing textbook adaptation properly and purposefully.
On the basis of the major findings and conclusions reached, recommendations were put forward so as to enable teachers to implement textbook adaptation based on the principles that have been established by scholars.
Keywords: Textbook: A school book of information for use in studying a subject or a book which is mostly designed by government authorities to be utilized by both students and teachers as a teaching resource to facilitate the teaching learning process.
Course book: It is possible to make distinction between course book and textbook, but in this paper course book and textbook will be used interchangeably to refer to books intended by their producers to be used as core teaching materials.
Textbook adaptation: is the altering of textbook materials to improve or make them more suitable for a particular type of learner or group of learners.
Textbook materials: are any things which are included in the textbook which are designed to facilitate the teaching learning process as a whole such as, tasks, activities, short notes, passages, pictures, graphs, etc.
Title: EFL Teachers’ Practice of Adapting Textbook Materials: The Case of Five Selected High Schools in ILU ABA BOR Zone
Author: Melisew Tibebu
International Journal of Social Science and Humanities Research
ISSN 2348-3156 (Print), ISSN 2348-3164 (online)
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