Analysis of English reading and writing textbooks at a high school in Bangkok

In Thai schools as elsewhere, textbooks play an essential role in English language learning. Most Thai schools adopt textbooks produced on a commercial basis by non-Thai publishers. When the schools’ selection criteria are unclear or obscure, issues may arise. The subject of the case study for this research was the series “Reading Adventures” published by National Geographic Learning, it is widely employed by high school teachers across Bangkok, Thailand, with students in the three years of upper secondary education (Mathayom 4 – 6). The aim of the study was to explore and analyze the attributive components of the textbooks, and to investigate whether the series was qualitatively relevant to the Thai Ministry of Education’s Basic Education Core Curriculum (BECC). The study used descriptive methods, including textual analysis, and a corpus analytical tool for the demonstrated keywords. In the first place, the corpus analysis revealed that the shared features and characteristics of people, places, animals, and natural entities were presented coherently for the most part and in appropriate proportions. Secondly, even though the majority of the contents met the BECC criteria, they failed to serve certain interval indicators, particularly in the language and culture strand. This suggests that greater account of the BECC criteria should be taken prior to selection of English language textbooks for use in Thai schools. The appraisal of criteria and comparisons of data in this study may help English teachers to apply the criteria more completely and effectively when they choose English language textbooks.