Abstract:
EFL teachers in the English language unit, Language Centre, in the public Authority for Applied Education and Training always seek to improve EFL curricula to keep up with the latest textbooks needed to be taught in their classrooms. The currently utilized textbook for the remedial course 099 is Headway which was introduced several years ago. As an attempt to replace it, a new textbook was proposed in the fall semester 2018 by the Curriculum Committee (Empower B1). Before assigning the new textbook Headway B1, EFL teachers in the Language Unit were asked to teach it for one semester as a pilot teaching, then after their experience, they were enquired about their evaluation. Hence, the purpose of the present study is to explore and investigate Kuwaiti EFL teachers' views and opinions towards teaching the new textbook (Empower B1) for the remedial course 099. 25 EFL teachers have participated in a semi- structured questionnaire and 6 of them were interviewed. The questionnaire consisted of 12 questions that covered 2 main branches of textbook evaluation: (Physical Appearance & Format) and (Contents, Units, Activities & Exercises Skills). The findings of this study showed that there was a great inclination toward teaching the new textbook Empower B1 but there were few EFL who were against introducing the new textbook claiming it did not suit their EFL students' language level.
Keywords: English language teaching, curriculum, TESOL, textbook evaluation