Nafiseh Salehi - Assistant Professor, Department of English, Farhangian University, Tehran, Iran

Material evaluation is a vital part of any curriculum to ensure the objectives are achieved. Ministry of Education has newly introduced CLT-based English textbooks to the high school education system in Iran. However, CLT has proved a bit of a challenge as it comes to EFL contexts. 17 high school English teachers from semnan Province, Iran participated in this study. They were selected using convenient sampling and were interviewed on the strengths and weaknesses of the books as well as the difficulties they faced trying to implement CLT. Teachers pinpointed some positive points, including good vocabulary section, oral skill attendance and the implementation of an inductive approach to present the structures. There were also some negative aspects and shortcomings including delaying writing, excessive number of structures and new words, and presentation of mechanical exercises. The findings also highlighted time and exposure limitations, teacher fronted classes, equipment shortages students‘ low proficiency, crowded classes, students' demotivation, grammar- based exams, and teachers' resistance to change as the challenges to properly apply CLT. This study has implications for EFL teachers, teacher educators and material developers.

EFL context, evaluation, ninth grade, prospect three, textbook