Linguistic Contents in Grades 5-8 English Textbooks: Analysis of Grammar Contents in the English Curriculum of Oromia Regional State

The organization of the textbooks shows that attention is predominantly given to language skills and functions, with little consideration of grammar and vocabulary. The grammar rules are presented in a deductive approach that gives some explanations of the rules followed by few examples and exercises. The strengths observed in the textbooks are inclusion of topics related to culture, environment, social life, education and other things that are relevant to students' lives. However, lack of specification and separation of skills and grammar items, lack of useful extensive grammar references, glossaries and other communicative activities as appendices, and lack of summaries in all the units are considered as weaknesses of the textbooks. The textbooks have problems in presenting grammar rules repeatedly in a progressive way in consecutive grades, resulting in problems of rehearsal. Moreover, contexts are not provided for many of the contents of the textbooks: there are no dialogues and/or conversation, language drills, and language games that could make students learn the grammar items with interest.