On ELT Textbook Writers

A worldwide review of this role

Abstract

The following review article analyses the main developments regarding the research topic of ELT (English Language Teaching) - textbook writers worldwide: his role in the arena of ELT material production. In the article the book writer is considered as a subject to work on his accounts as a writer, his points of view, and the struggles that arise with the publishing industry, the recognition, his rights, and fees regarding textbook creation. This interest is rooted in my own experience as an English teacher who has designed materials for teaching English as a workplace demand. Employing research profiling and database search, in sixty articles published worldwide (Japan, India, Pakistan, the USA, UK, among others), three main trends related to the issue of ELT textbook writer were found. The first one shows that there is a top-down hegemonic practice in the production of material in which it is subject to the writer. The second one shows international publishing companies’ preferences for expert ELT textbook writers as a model over novice writers. And the third one that shows that the educational publishing industry replicates the model of one culture-one language, ignoring ELT textbook writers' critical cultural views. Out of the analysis it can be concluded that this issue of ELT textbook writing has not been widely problematized within the field of ELT.