Evaluation of Pre-Intermediate Three (Pre-۳) English Textbook of Iran Language Institute

As the most basic means of instruction and learning, textbooks play a pivotal role in teaching any language since they provide a dependable source of language input for learners. However, with the wide array of textbooks available in the market, opting for the textbooks suiting the peculiar educational parameters of different settings, seems to be a cumbersome task; therefore, to gain greater educational outcomes, to save time, and to incur less costs on learning, logical selection of textbooks through scientifically sound principles seems to be a sensible strategy. The present study utilized an a priori evaluation of the widely-used Pre-intermediate Three (Pre۳) textbook of Iran Language Institute (ILI) by using two textbook evaluation schemes by Grant and Demir and Ertas. The results indicated that, despite the numerous merits of the mentioned textbook, including the active role of the learners in completing the tasks, it has got a rather traditional view of the learners’ roles, and one-way teacher-student interaction predominates at the expense of invaluable group and team interaction. Moreover, the written mode of input outweighs the oral one and with its over-emphasis on forms instruction, it prescribes structures for use by learners. Some revisions, are, finally, proposed to make the book more suitable for the Digi-minded learners today.