Analyzing Listening and Speaking Activities of Iranian EFL Textbook Prospect 3 Through Bloom's Revised Taxonomy

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Cipher

Textbooks play a decisive role in EFL instruction, since they supply ready-made materials for both teachers and learners, yet misuse can weaken learning outcomes. This study analyzes the listening and speaking activities of Prospect 3 for Junior High School third graders to determine whether they align with lower or higher levels of learning objectives within Bloom’s (2001) Revised Taxonomy of the Cognitive Domain. Findings show all listening and speaking activities fall within low cognitive complexity levels, insufficient for higher-order thinking.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages6

Reading Time15 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

Language skills in EFL

Listening and speaking as core skills

Textbooks as curriculum tools

Thinking skills and Bloom’s cognitive taxonomy

Advances in Language and Literary Studies ISSN: 2203-4714 Vol. 8 No. 3; June 2017 Australian International Academic Centre, Australia | | | | | --- | --- | --- | | | | | | | Flourishing Creativity & Literacy | | | | | | Analyzing Listening and Speaking Activities of Iranian EFL Textbook Prospect 3 Through Bloom's Revised Taxonomy Maryam Mizbani Department of English, Islamic Azad University, Isfahan (Khorasgan) Branch, Isfahan, Iran [E-mail: maryam.mizbani@yahoo.com](E-mail: maryam.mizbani@yahoo.com) Azizeh Chalak (Corresponding author) Department of English, Islamic Azad University, Isfahan (Khorasgan) Branch, Isfahan, Iran E-mail: [azichalak@gmail.com](azichalak@gmail.com) Doi:10.7575/aiac.alls.v.8n.3p.38 URL: [http://dx.doi.org/10.7575/aiac.alls.v.8n.3p.38](http://dx.doi.org/10.7575/aiac.alls.v.8n.3p.38) Received: 13/03/2017 Accepted: 24/05/2017 Abstract Some significant components are essential in teaching a language. Among these, textbooks are the most significant ones and must be considered seriously. Textbooks play an important role in EFL teaching and learning because they can provide ready-made materials to both teachers and students. Besides, if textbooks aren’t used appropriately, they may spoil the process of teaching. This study aimed at analyzing listening and speaking activities of the textbook Prospect 3 which is used for Junior High School third graders in order to investigate in which level of lower or higher of the learning objectives related to Bloom’s (2001) Revised Taxonomy of Cognitive Domain they would be classified. The findings revealed that all of the activities of listening and speaking skills were classified as the low level of cognitive complexity and could not train the students of this grade for high levels of learning objectives. Hence the teachers should employ extra activities to make the students perform in higher levels of thinking skills and book designers should improve the content of the textbook to cover the higher levels of the cognitive domain. Keywords: Bloom’s Cognitive Domain, listening, speaking, textbook analysis, thinking skills 1. Introduction English as an international language and a means of communication among different nations in the world helps the countries in the process of modernization. The purpose of teaching English is to improve four language skills; listening, speaking, reading, and writing. These four language skills enable students to take part in an information exchange and establish a relationship among themselves and to obtain the recent knowledge of sciences in different fields. The teachers must develop the learners’ four language skills so that they can use language for communication and to express their mind, their feelings, and their ideas. All of these four skills are important and shouldn’t be ignored. Between these four skills, reading and listening are receptive skills and speaking and writing are productive ones. Listening can be described as receiving the sounds of speech via words and sentences. While listening, we use our ears to receive individual sounds among which are letters, stress, rhythm, and pauses and we use our brain to convert these sounds into messages that are meaningful. In any language focus and attention are two important elements for listening. People who are not able to concentrate are typically poor listeners. Listening in a second language demands even greater focus. On the other hand, the ability to speak skillfully is essential because it provides the main and distinct advantages for the speaker. So putting words together in a meaningful way to reflect ideas, opinions, and feelings is very advantageous. The primary means with which the students interact the materials outside the class is a textbook. So choosing a textbook is a critical decision to make when planning a course. Cunningsworth (1995) stated that textbooks have several additional roles in the curriculum. Hutchi

FAQs

What is the main aim of this study?

To analyze the listening and speaking activities of the Prospect 3 textbook and identify which levels of Bloom’s (2001) Revised Taxonomy they correspond to.

How are the listening and speaking activities classified according to the findings?

All listening and speaking activities are classified as low levels of cognitive complexity.

What recommendations does the study make based on the results?

Teachers should add extra activities to support higher thinking levels, and textbook designers should improve content to cover higher cognitive-domain levels.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Cipher