Textbook publishing has become a very competitive market where decisions are made mostly with financial concerns rather than producing better materials. This study attempts to map the current state of textbook production industry, what has changed in textbook production, and why textbooks are the way they are.
Material research in the area of TESOL has been ongoing and can be grouped into three main categories of content, consumption, and production (Harwood, 2010). While textbook content has been the most studied area, the need for more research on textbook production and consumption has been underlined (Forman, 2014; Harwood, 2010). The present study duly aims to uncover the accounts of TESOL textbook writers from two different contexts: Global and local.Through interviews with textbook writers and editors working in the global market and a local market, and analysis of writing guidelines and content of textbooks, this study attempts to map the current state of textbook production industry and what has changed in textbook production in the last 20 years,how textbooks are produced in different contexts, and why textbook content is the way it is with a particular focus on culture. Results revealed that textbook publishing has become a much more competitive market where decisions are made mostly with financial concerns rather than producing better materials.Findings also indicate that, due to several constraints such as time and publisher demands, although localization is suggested as the solution for producing culturally-appropriate textbooks, not all sensitivities can be addressed even in a local context.Additionally, textbook writers' experience indicate that a lot has changed in the way textbooks are produced with regard to aspects such as the working conditions for writers and editors, amount of trialling draft materials, textbook content and taboo topics.
