A Comparison of Text-Driven and Coursebook Materials: Investigating their Potential Learning Effects on EFL Learners’ Perceptions and Communicative Performance Using Multiple Research Methods

Abstract

This study compared the potential effects of Text-Driven (TD) and Coursebook (CB) materials on learners' perceptions and interactions in EFL classrooms. It also explored which teaching materials are more likely to facilitate learners’ communicative competence through theoretical and empirical evaluations. 82 EFL female students at A2 (CEFR) level were selected in this study from the English Language Institute (ELI) at the University of Jeddah in KSA and divided into two comparable intact classes taught by the researcher. The first group was taught the developed Text-Driven materials, whereas the second group was taught the Coursebook materials. The study adopted a multiple-method research design. Data were collected through six methods: questionnaires, individual interviews, classroom interaction analysis, teachers’ observations, virtual forums, and pre-post communicative tests. The data revealed that while both TD and CB materials were viewed positively by the participants, Text-Driven showed a number of advantages over coursebook materials in developing learners’ engagement and classroom interactions. The findings demonstrated that the frequencies of learners' turns using L1 or L2 are higher in the TD group than in CB and that the observed interactional patterns differ considerably among the groups. The TD interactional patterns involved more open than closed responses, and their interaction was meaningful, personally engaging, and focused on both content and forms compared to their counterpart. Similarly, the two ELI instructors who observed the researcher’s TD and CB video-recoded classes commented that TD materials seemed more effective than the CB in developing classroom interaction, resulting in meaningful interactional patterns among TD learners. The pre-post communicative test results supported the previous data and showed that the TD materials are more likely to accelerate the learners’ overall English “communicative competence” than the CB materials. The theoretical content analysis of the coursebook unit provided further evidence that most of the tasks are controlled and aimed at practising language points and thus may not facilitate L2 communicative competence. The findings of this study would benefit TESOL/Applied linguistics stakeholders as a flexible communicative teaching model was proposed. It reflects the findings of language learning studies that explore how second language competence can be developed. Furthermore, these results may assist the ELI and other contexts in considering the significance of L2 materials development and its potential impact on learners’ engagement and communicative performance. In light of these findings, several recommendations are proposed.