Evaluation of English Textbook “Prospect 2” based on Students’ Needs and Teachers’ Perceptions

This study aimed to evaluate the English textbook “Prospect 2”, which is taught to the eighth-grade junior high school students in Iran in recent years, from teachers’ perspectives and needs analysis of students. To this end, 30 teachers and 60 eighth-grade students from the girls’ and boys’ high schools in Tabriz, Iran were randomly selected. A textbook evaluation checklist and a needs analysis questionnaire were distributed among the participated teachers and students, respectively. The results indicated that most parts of the content of the book matches with most of the students’ needs and can be used as a suitable textbook for the students. The teachers had also a positive view toward this textbook in general but they reported some problems. For example, they believed that there is not a balance of the four language skills, the language is not authentic, grammatical points are completely excluded, and the activities are not interesting and cannot be modified or supplemented by the teachers. Suggestions and pedagogical implications are presented.