Key Issues and Challenges of Lesson Materials: An Analysis of the G.C.E. Ordinary Level English Textbook

Abstract

When examining the English Language Teaching (ELT) materials available in Sri Lanka, it could be said that most of them are alien and takes center-stage. As a result, in the process of language acquisition, students’ own experience, contexts and life styles are devalued through under emphasis and trivialization; hence the sense of linguistic and cultural insecurity that the average student faces when confronted with English being reinforced. The objective of this study is to look at the appropriateness or mismatch of the teaching materials to the classroom context. This study employs the qualitative data analysis method and a textual analysis of the Grade 11 English textbook of both old and new syllabis done to examine the core language issues found in teaching material in a classroom context where English is taught/ learnt as a second language. Moreover, the G.C.E. Ordinary Level examination is deemed one of the key examinations that a Sri Lankan student has to face to fulfill the requirement of obtaining the minimal academic qualification. Hence, the study proposes that the English textbook designed for the Ordinary Level students should be designed in a way that would facilitate their second language learning process, and it looks at the extent to which that objective/ requirement is fulfilled through the selected textbooks.