TY - JOUR ID - 54565 TI - The presentation of different types of tasks in ELT textbooks JO - Teaching English Language JA - TEL LA - en SN - 2538-5488 AU - Alemi, Minoo AU - Hesami, Zahra AD - Sharif University of Technology, Iran and Islamic Azad University, Tehran West Branch AD - Sharif University of Technology Y1 - 2014 PY - 2014 VL - 8 IS - 1 SP - 61 EP - 92 KW - textbook evaluation KW - task KW - task types KW - Nunan’s (1999) classification of tasks DO - 10.22132/tel.2014.54565 N2 - It is mostly observed that textbooks are a key component in most language programs especially in the process of teaching and learning a second/foreign language. As a result, a number of studies have been carried out to evaluate English language teaching (ELT) materials. Trying to contribute to this growing body of literature, the present study was conducted to evaluate the eight most popular global textbooks which are taught in Iranian ELT institutes in terms of their task types according to Nunan’s (1999) classification of the tasks. To this end, all the tasks of each textbook were categorized in their major and minor associated groups. The results revealed that linguistic tasks were the most frequent type of tasks in almost all of the textbooks. Moreover, there was a significant difference among the frequency of task types in these course books. Finally Total English, English Result and Interchange proved to be the most balanced textbooks respectively in comparison to others with regard to each task types. It was concluded that unlike the common belief, being recently published does not guarantee the appropriateness of textbooks for language teaching program. The results of this study could be helpful for teachers to realize the types of the tasks and exercises in the available ELT textbooks and consequently help their students develop their English proficiency by adapting and mixing different types of tasks from different textbooks.  UR - http://www.teljournal.org/article_54565.html L1 - http://www.teljournal.org/article_54565_e38b236c722820fd404b4787a203e71d.pdf ER -