EFL course book evaluation in Greek primary schools: Views from teachers and authors

In foreign language contexts, course books assume a considerable amount of responsibility for the structuring of class time, classroom interaction, and language learning. In this paper, we evaluate EFL course book materials by considering their structure and effectiveness through survey questionnaires administered to teachers working in Greek state primary schools (4th and 5th grades) and via in-depth interviews with the book authors. Our research has shown that materials production can be a predominantly top–down process, in which policy makers, materials authors and teachers can draw independent pathways to developing and implementing the final product, i.e. the course book. The findings of the study have implications for teaching, teacher training, materials design and policy making in contexts where learners use course books for foreign language learning.