Conversation Textbook Assessment: A Critique of Survival English

Abstract

The development of the oral proficiency of EFL learners is facilitated when conversation textbooks contain two key features: contextualization and realism. The seven critical guidelines for the selection of such textbooks are the students' backgrounds, meaningful activities, cultural aspects, focusing on language forms, extended practice, and, finally, a synthesis of the preceding factors. With these features and guidelines as theoretical underpinnings, this paper presents a critique of the conversation textbook Survival English, the goal of which is to improve EFL students’ interaction skills so that they may thrive in the English-speaking world. While Survival English enjoys a reputation as a good textbook, it certainly could be a better textbook if the authors were to take several improvements into consideration. This paper provides constructive suggestions for textbook writers that could contribute positively to the instruction of English as a foreign language.