Cognitive Load of Assigned EFL Textbooks for Al-Azhar Secondary School Students: An Analytical Study

Textbook is one of the media used in English language learning. A great number of EFL textbook evaluation have been done to find the most suitable textbook for English language teaching. The present study aimed to determine the cognitive load involved in the textbook for Al-Azhar secondary school students. Therefore, a content analysis instrument has been designed to analyze the second-year of secondary English textbook. The instrument has been distributed on the first participants in this study, (100) secondary EFL students selected out of (1143) secondary EFL students of (13) public secondary schools in Juhaina to be the purposeful sample in this study. The second participants in this study are (20) secondary EFL teachers selected out of (52) secondary English language teachers working in (13) public secondary schools in Juhaina to be the purposeful sample in this study. The results showed high levels of cognitive load in the EFL current textbook. In general, most of teachers and students think that the current EFL textbook involves high levels of cognitive load. Implications for foreign language instruction in this regard are provided.