Divergent and Convergent Thinking in the Reading and Writing Sections of the EFL Textbook New Prospects: An Evaluation

Abstract

This research is concerned with the development of divergent and convergent thinking in the reading and writing instructions included in New Prospects (2007). It aims at finding which type of thinking is more developed in the reading and writing sections. To reach this objective we relied on the evaluation of the New Prospects textbook involving forty eight (48) reading and twenty nine (29) writing instructions, which refer to one hundred and fourteen (114) action verbs within reading instructions and fifty nine (59) within writing ones. These action verbs are classified according to Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy (2001). The total of the action verbs are analyzed by adopting a Mixed Method Research. The quantitative data are used through the implementation of a descriptive statistical method to gather numerical data, whereas the qualitative data are obtained through the interpretation of the results by using the taxonomy table and content analysis. The results obtained reveal that reading instructions include more action verbs than writing ones with 65.89% reading and 34.10% writing instruction. Moreover, the findings show that reading instructions are more convergent rather than divergent. In fact, New Prospects’ reading section uses 62% convergent instructions and 38% divergent ones. However, the results reveal that writing instructions involve a percentage of 78% divergent and only 22% convergent ones.