Content analysis of junior and senior high school English national textbooks in terms of health literacy

Textbooks are the main educational resources in schools. The present study was conducted to analyze the content of high school English national textbooks in terms of the four dimensions of health literacy, i.e., accessing/obtaining information relevant to health, understanding information relevant to health, processing/appraising information relevant to health, applying/using information relevant to health.

This descriptive research was done using quantitative content analysis method. The unit of analysis was the sentence. The predetermined categories were used. The population consisted of all the English language books of high school. The level of attention of English national textbooks to health literacy were analyzed in the three health domains of health care, disease prevention and health promotion, as well as in the four dimensions of accessing, understanding, appraising, and applying.

The findings showed that attention to the dimensions of accessing, appraising, and applying was neglected or very poor. Regarding the understanding dimension, some parts of the content in grade 8 and 9 was allocated to healthcare domain (7% and 10% respectively) and in grade 8 and 11 some parts (7% and 9%respectively) were allocated to health promotion. In addition, the findings showed that English national textbooks do not equip students with the ability to appraise and apply health information.

The English national textbooks have a unique occasion to provide students with learning opportunities arising from real life. To do so, there is a need to integrate different dimensions of health literacy into the content of these books.