Evaluating Textbooks: the role of genre analysis

Abstract

One criterion in a teacher's choice between textbooks for classroom use is the manner of presentation of the material and the implied relationship between the author and the reader. This aspect of a textbook could be summed up as its individual ‘genre’. It follows that differences in the genre of textbooks represent differences in the fundamental character of those textbooks. We contend that these differences relate to the accessibility of the textbooks concerned and the ease with which pupils can use them. Teachers may make choices between textbooks on the grounds of differences in genre subjectively. This paper explores the potential of a method of systematic analysis of differences in textbook genre through a technique called Swales' genre analysis. The technique is a method of objectively dividing sections of a textbook into ‘moves’ separated by shifts in emphasis. The moves have different characteristics and functions. A description of the genre analysis of an exemplar textbook demonstrates how the technique might be useful in the evaluation of textbooks for classroom use.