Junior High First Grade English Textbook and Four Corners 1 in the Spotlight: A Comparison Study with Some Reference to Curriculum Development and Critical Discourse Analysis

As an analytical and contemporary type of approach to the study of language, Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) is concerned with the emphasis on the social practice, identity, power, ideology and knowledge built through text and speech in historical, socio-political and educational contexts. Since a theoretical framework was proposed for analyzing discourse and power by followers of CDA, it uncovered all discrepant ways through which power and societal practices are produced in written and spoken texts in communities, schools and classrooms. Moreover, in order to mingle text and talk, textbooks play a pivotal role in determining a standard curriculum. To this end, using a five-Likert type scale, the present study aimed to randomly elicit and compare the perceptions of 103 Iranian English teachers of Yasouj, Dehdasht, and Gachsaran institutes and junior high schools towards the Junior High First Grade English Textbook and Four Corners 1 comparatively. The results showed that the former fails to consistently take the needs of language learners into account; and that it fails to consider the research evidence gleaned so far about effective curriculum development. However, with a difference, teachers were more satisfied with the latter than the other one in the criteria such as ‘layout and design, activities and tasks, language type, subject, content and skills and whole aspect’. This study might be of beneficial to textbook designers, curriculum developers, and language teachers and learners.