An Evaluation of Two Business English Course Books, Business Partner B1+ and Business Partner B2: Students’ and Teachers’ Perspectives

Abstract

When discussing formal education, one may instantly think about teachers, classrooms, and teaching materials. Teaching materials such as textbooks are crucial for learning and teaching because knowledge is displayed in them, and the classroom teacher or a peer can explain it. Nevertheless, careless textbook selection can impact this learning and teaching process negatively. Therefore, this study investigated teachers’ and learners’ perceptions of the textbooks they use in their major. A five-point Likert scale questionnaire was administered to 15 EFL teachers and 122 business students to obtain their perceptions of the books using seven criteria: practicality, layout, activities, language, skills, topics, and content. The results show that they are generally satisfied with the textbooks. However, the teachers disagreed with one criterion, the “topics” of the books, which are inappropriate. The study also used semi-structured focus group interviews to obtain more specific participant information. Both groups agreed that the books are practical and have videos to practice listening. However, many criteria, such as language skills, activities, and content, should be improved. Several suggestions are made for improving the use of the textbooks.