English abstract
Statement of the Problem:
The problem of this study was defined by the following research questions :
1. What are the criteria on the basis of which the content of the Secon
dary school textbooks must be selected ?
2. What are the topics which must be included in these textbooks ac
cording to those criteria ?
3. To what extent do the seacondary school reading textbooks already
contain these topics ?
4. What are the secondary school students' reading interests and the
proposed reading topics for those students based on the opinions of:
a. The curriculum and instruction experts from the ministry of Ed
ucation, faculty members at Sultan Qaboos University and the
colleges of Education in the Sultanate. b. The supervisors of the Arabic Language in the secondary
schools c. Teachers of Arabic in the Secondary schools. d. The Secondary school students e. Parents of the secondary school students.
To answer these questions the researcher administered the instruments of the study to subjects in the sample (230 male and female) students which was selected from a population of 12,240 students enlisted at the secondary schools of Dakhlia region in the 1996/97 academic year. The sample of the study also included (15) specialists, (8) supervisors, and (65) teachers in addition, a member of the reading topics selected from the secondary school reading books were also analysed
The resarch instruments in this study were the following:
1. A list of criteria for selecting the content of the secondary school
reading textbooks . This was developed in order to determine the topics which should be included in the secondary school reading textbooks
2. A questionnaire was used to identify the secondary school students'
reading interests. The questionnaire was administered to the experts the supervisors, the teachers, and the parents.
3. A questionnaire was also administered to the students in order to
discover their reading interests and the topics which they think should be included in the reading textbooks.
4. A list of content analysis categories was also used to analyse some
of the reading texts and the questions which follow them.
Several statistical techniques were used in this study . More specifically, frequencies, percentages, means and standard deviations were manipulated in the statistical analysis of this study.
The following were the most important findings of the study :
1. In the absence of balance between literary and scientific topics, the
literary topics dominated all three secondary school reading textbooks
2. There were more essay type questions ( 86.07%) than the objective
type ones ( 13.93%).
3. The study revealed that some of the reading topics met the approval
of most of the subjects of the study.
4. The researcher, propased some reading topics which were divided
into (11) categories. The researcher also identified the reading topics' categories which interest the students. These were religious, national, educational and social in nature.
The researcher also offered some recom mendations based on the results of the study. These were :
1. Using the proposed list of criteria to guide the selection of content
for the new reading textbooks.
2. Benefiting from the list of suggested topics which were of interest to
the students
3. The reading textbooks should be authored on the basis of the stu
dents' needs and interests.
