Negotiating Grade 12 English Textbook Implementation in Nepal: Lived Experiences of Teachers and Students

Background and Aim: The textbook plays an important role in institutional curriculum policies, in providing a systematic sequence of topics and a logical progression from simpler to more complex concepts. Listening activities, speaking tasks, reading passages, and vocabulary development activities correspond to learning objectives and cultural representation in contemporary English language education. This study explored secondary-level English teachers’ and students’ perceptions of the Grade 12 Compulsory English textbook, centred on the Curriculum Development Centre (CDC) in Nepal. The research focuses on empirical insights, students’ experiences, the textbook’s strengths, limitations, and future policy decisions concerning English language education. Materials and Methods: This study adopted an Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) design to explore participants' lived experiences of using the Grade 12 Compulsory English textbook and their interactions with it to understand challenges, relevance, influence, and usefulness. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews with five secondary-level English teachers and three Grade 12 graduates. We obtained detailed accounts of participants’ experiences, interpretations, and perceptions to acquire meaningful information about the use of the Grade 12 Compulsory English textbook. Results: Researchers identified major themes, including textbook-centered instruction and content relevance, learner engagement and motivation, pedagogical challenges, and examination washback. The results also indicated that positive features were isolated grammar instruction and integration of language skills. Language learning is interpretive and dialogic, and supplemental materials offer variation in presentation; scaffolding and supplemental materials offer variation across learning dimensions. The results leave room for improvement in the consistency of textbook design and teacher preparation, and in the degree of over-examination orientation to promote professional development and to meet the pragmatic needs of the assessment system. Students pointed out some difficulties in using the Grade 12 Compulsory English textbook and preparing for the NEB (National Examination Board) due to grammar, comprehension, unfamiliar vocabulary, complex sentence structures, and higher-order thinking questions. It manifests as difficulty in reading and writing and requires substantial examination time. Conclusion: The study foregrounds the effectiveness of the Grade 12 Compulsory English textbook’s quality coverage of the contents, and the textbook should provide sufficient learning activities for students to develop their language proficiency, learning pace, creative skills, and critical thinking to produce sustainable outcomes. The board examination passages are like “chewing iron,” a metaphor that captures textual complexity and the cognitive burden associated with examination.