The Authenticity of some Moroccan Textbooks

One of the things I scrutinize whenever I open Moroccan English-language textbooks is the authenticity of the language used. 'Gateway to English', among other books, is an example here. While reading this textbook, I did not concern myself with typing mistakes, grammar mistakes, and punctuation mistakes, for I find this normal in all textbooks no matter what the subject is. The only thing I can not forgive is when I see students internalizing fossilized mistakes. The latter have emanated from misunderstanding of some vocabulary items on the part of the book writer. The matter in question is unforgivable mainly because it is an error, not a mistake. Worse is the fact that so few high school teachers of English pay attention to it while teaching. Some of them, like the book writer, consider it correct. All this boils down to the example sentence in which ' short-sighted' as a newly-taught lexical item is used. It runs thus: 'I can not read the newspaper because I am short-sighted'. At first sight, I dare say that most of you will say that the sentence makes sense. The fact that it is grammatically correct is the reason why our attention is not drawn instantly to the grave mistake. Let us analyze the real meaning of it. By definition, a short-sighted person, like me, is someone who is unable to see distant objects, but who is able to see objects that are so near. A newspaper is paper we can read with our eyes close to it. This means that one can read any newspaper even though he or she is short-sighted. Some might say that there is no use making a fuss about this common problem in our textbooks. In response, I will simply say that we will soon have to make great efforts so as to efface all students' minds of the fossilized meaning of 'short-sighted'. I am certain it will be too late, then.