APPLIED LINGUISTICS for BA Students in English
COURSE-BOOK EVALUATION
Main criteria for selecting course-books
Cunningsworth enumerates a number of factors that might influence the degree of dependence or autonomy in choosing and using course-books. These are the following:
- “The type of the educational system in which learning/teaching takes place.
- The syllabus and/or materials constraints imposed upon teachers by education authorities.
- Learners’ culture and their expectations concerning the target language course.
- The nature and amount of training for language teachers.
- Teachers’ experience and their confidence. - Teachers’ command of English (if they are non-native speakers).
- The availability of alternative course-books and resources for materials production” (Cunningsworth 1995:11).
The application of Cunningsworth’s guidelines (1995) can also contribute to a more precise evaluation of the materials one uses or intends to choose. Guideline One conveys the message that a course-book should correspond to its users’ - that is the learners’ - needs, which means that they should match the aims and objectives of the language-learning program. Guideline Two emphasizes the importance of engaging students’ interest and challenging their intellect, which “will motivate them to become more independent in their learning and in their use of English. This can be done by including interesting, stimulating topics and by encouraging learners to think for themselves around these topics and discuss them with others” (Cunningsworth 1995:15). Guideline Three directs one’s attention to course-books that are interesting for our learners and contain lively and well-presented topics and activities aiming at the strengthening of learners’ motivation. ”Helping students to realize how much progress they have made and encouraging them to review their achievement will also add to motivation and enhance learning” (Cunningsworth 1995:15). Guideline Four suggests that the course-book should not support learning but it should also provide a methodology.
Bearing these guidelines in mind, it is worth examining Grant’s questionnaires (1987) designed to help teachers choose the best course-book available.
"Questionnaire - Part 1: Does the book suit to your students?
1. Is it attractive? Given the average age of your students, would they enjoy using it?
2. Is it culturally acceptable?
3. Does it reflect what you know about your students' needs and interests?
4. Is it about the right level of difficulty?
5. Is it about the right length?
6. Are the course's physical characteristics appropriate?
7. Are there enough authentic materials, so that the students can see that the book is relevant to real life?
8. Does it achieve an acceptable balance between knowledge about the language, and practice in using the language?
9. Does it achieve an acceptable balance between the relevant language skills, and integrate them so that work in one skill area helps the others?
10. Does the book contain enough communicative activities to enable the students to use the language independently?” (Grant 1987:122-127).
“Questionnaire - Part 3: Does the textbook suit the syllabus and examination?
1. Has the book been recommended or approved by the authorities?
2. Does the book follow the official syllabus in a creative manner?
3. Is the course well-graded, so that it gives well-structured and systematic coverage of the language?
4. If it does more than the syllabus requires, is the result an improvement?
5. Are the activities, contents and methods used in the course well-planned and executed?
6. Has it been prepared specifically for the target examination?
7. Do the course's methods help the students prepare for the exam?
8. Is there a good balance between what the examination requires, and what the students need?
9. Is there enough examination practice?
10. Does the course contain useful hints on examination technique?” (Grant 1987:122-127).
Hutchinson and Waters (1987) set up their own checklist for objective and subjective analyses as well. Objective analysis, as it has already been pointed out, refers to the analysis of the course material. Let us have a look at the objective criteria which are grouped into the following categories:
➣ ”Audience:
• Who is the material intended for? (Learners’ ages, gender, nationality, study or work specialism, status/role with respect to specialism, knowledge of English, knowledge of specialism, knowledge of the world, educational backgrounds, interests.)
➣Aims:
• What are the aims of the materials?
➣ Content:
• What type(s) of linguistic description is/are used in the materials?
• What language points do the materials cover? (What particular structures, functions, vocabulary areas?)
• What is the proportion of work on each skill? Is there skills integrated work?
• What micro-skills are covered in the material?
• What kinds of texts are there in the materials? (For example, manuals, letters, dialogues, reports, visual texts, listening texts.)
• What is/are the subject-matter area(s), assumed level of knowledge, and types of topics in the materials? What treatment are the topics given? (For example, medicine, biology; secondary school, first year college, post-graduate level of knowledge; hospital organization, medical technology as types of topics; straightforward topic treatment, factual.)
• How is the content organized throughout the materials? (Around language points, by subject-matter, by study skills, by a combination of means.)
• How is the content organized within the units? (By a set pattern of components, by a variety of patterns.)
• How is the content sequenced throughout the book? (From easier to more difficult, to create variety, to provide recycling, for example.)
• How is the content sequenced within a unit? (From guided to free, from comprehension to production.)
➣ Methodology:
• What theory/ies of learning are the materials based on?
• What attitudes to/expectations about learning English are the materials based on?
• What kinds of exercises/tasks are included in the materials? (For example, guided or free, comprehension-orientated or production orientated, ones that require one right answer or can be given many possible right answers, mechanical ones or problem-solving ones, role-plays, simulation, drama games.)
• What teaching-learning techniques can be used with the materials? (Pair-work, small-group work, student presentations, for instance.)
• What aids do the materials require? (Cassette recorders, overhead projectors, realia, wall charts, video.)
• What guidance do the materials provide? (Lists of vocabulary and language-skills points, technical information, suggestions for further work, tests, and methodological hints.)
• In what ways are the materials flexible? (Can they be begun at different points? Can the units be used in different orders? Can they be linked to other materials? Can they be used without some of their components?)
➣ Others:
• What is the price?
• When and how readily can the materials be obtained?” (Hutchinson - Waters 1987:99-104).
Zalánné and Petneki (1997) claim that Hungarian students are rarely interviewed about the course-books they use although they tend to have very distinct opinions and expectations what a good course-book should contain. From students’ points of view two important questions have to be answered, namely the type of course-book that makes language learning effective and whether the course-book is interesting, entertaining enough. Course-books, as Zalánné and Petneki (1997) suggest, have to provide learners of different types with a sense of success, besides, they also have to make it possible for students to speak about themselves. Hutchinson and Waters (1987) point out those good materials should incorporate texts that prove to be interesting enough for students; they should also contain enjoyable activities and create opportunities in which students can express their own knowledge and skills. A well-organized course-book will definitely help learners gain some sense of progress and achievement.
Medgyes (1997) claims that although modern course-books can be regarded as the fruits of professional teamwork, their authors usually imagine their ideal readers as a class of 'international students' whose attitudes towards the world are rather neutral. For the sake of a good selling of their course-books, the authors tend to avoid uneasy topics such as religious, political issues. From this point of view these materials resemble one another very much.
Grant (1987) compares traditional course-books to those published under the influence of the communicative approach in order to get a clearer picture of the differences between the two types of materials. “These days the word communicative is on everyone’s lips. Almost every new textbook claims to be communicative” (Grant 1987:13). Traditional course-books emphasize the grammatical aspect of language and concentrate on accuracy rather than fluency. They contain more reading and writing activities than speaking or listening ones, thus students learning from such materials will probably find it difficult to achieve successful oral communication. ”The main problem with traditional textbooks is this: students work through them, sometimes for years, and often conscientiously. However, despite this, at the end of their studies they are still incapable of using the language: they may 'know' its grammar - the system - but they can't communicate in it” (Grant 1987:13). Traditional course-books often make use of a great deal of learners' mother tongue - to explain rules of grammar, for instance. “They are often attractive to some teachers, because they seem easy to use, and are highly examination-orientated” (Grant 1987:13). This attractiveness, however, involves the danger of depriving teachers of methodological challenges in the classroom.
Communicative course-books emphasize the importance of communicative functions and contain activities centered around skills using. Grant (1987) points out that these types of course-books reflect the authentic language of everyday life and encourage intensive cooperation among students, thus they make heavier demands on teachers’ organizational abilities. Students working with such materials are more likely to produce fluent oral communication than those learning from traditional course-books.
Grant (1987) enumerates some examples of communicative course-book activities and emphasizes the importance of real-life purposes that make all tasks meaningful for students. Listening to some kind of announcement, for instance, at the airport, railway station or football stadium will sound very authentic and interesting as well. Speaking activities that involve information gaps in which some special points are to be found may also seem more practical and purposeful for learners than reading something because they are forced to do so. Communicative writing tasks involve form-filling, writing a postcard or a letter to a friend - activities that students will by all means have to perform in their everyday lives.
“Of course, few teachers believe that all language-learning activities have to be real-life. Some obviously non-communicative class activities have been found to be very useful for language learners. For instance, many students find exercises which require them to imitate the sounds and structure of the language very helpful. Such exercises are drills - they can be useful for learning, but are not in themselves communicative” (Grant 1987:15).
Grant (1987) suggests a quick way of telling how communicative a course-book is by giving a list of four tests. The first test investigates whether or not the language used in our material is unnatural (that is artificial) or taken from real-life. The second test examines the nature of textbook activities and the chance to come across them in real-life situations. With the help of the third test we can find whether our course materials emphasize accuracy rather than fluency. If some of the activities in our course-book accept the risk of students' making mistakes, then they can be regarded as communicative. The fourth test investigates whether the course material emphasizes study or practice. Practice means that students are given enough time to use what they are already familiar with. ”Apply these four tests to a textbook, and you should get some idea as to how communicative it is” (Grant 1987:16).
Harmer uses the term ‘communication output’ to define the communicativeness of course materials by saying that it ”refers to activities in which students use language as a vehicle of communication, and where the students' main purpose is to complete some kind of communication task” (Harmer 1983:37).
Textbooks, as Harmer (1983) claims, rarely provide a balanced selection of activities and focus on presenting language and controlled practice. ”The lack of roughly-tuned input and communication output means that the teacher will have to look outside the book if he is to provide the balance that is so necessary. The need for balance is a methodological consideration since it is through this balance that students are exposed to a variety of learning experiences that will help them to acquire and learn English” (1983:220).
By ’roughly-tuned input’ he means that “students have to deal with language that is at a higher level than they are capable of producing” (Harmer 1983:35).
Harmer cleverly remarks that a course-book should not be considered as a bible but rather as an aid. ”The teacher will have to work out the best way to use the textbook: he should never let the textbook use him, or dictate the decisions he takes about the activities in which the students are going to be involved” (Harmer 1983:220).
Cunningsworth summarizes the roles of course-books by stating that they ”identify the main role of the teacher as that of a guide or facilitator and a monitor. Essentially, the teacher is seen as guiding learners through the learning process, with support from the course-book, and monitoring student progress, correcting errors when this is useful for the learning process” (Cunningsworth 1995:110).
The average course package should at least be made up of a student’s book and a workbook, however, it is highly advisable to look for materials that consist of much more than that. Teacher's books, for instance, are also very important since they provide teachers with useful information about how to organize the course on the micro level as well as on the macro level. Medgyes (1995) also highlights the importance of teacher's books by saying that they can be considered as abstracts of a given curriculum provided they contain information about the authors' underlying pedagogical principles and their methodological suggestions. The total course package, as Cunningsworth (1995) claims, includes other components as well such as tests, additional reading and listening material, cassettes for listening and pronunciation, materials for video assisted learning, and, of course, materials for Computer-assisted Language Learning (CALL).
Cunningsworth further draws our attention to teacher’s books by saying that they “can give useful advice on the use of correction techniques and can also provide keys to exercises for the benefit of teachers who are not entirely confident of their English” (1995:114). These supplementary materials “can also offer regular tests which can be used to give students feedback on their progress, and also to give teachers information on which areas of language need to be revised and have yet to be consolidated” (Cunningsworth 1995:114).
Cunningsworth’s comprehensive list includes the following main points to look for in a teacher's book:
• ”How comprehensive and flexible is the teacher's book?
• Is it written so as to be comprehensible to less experienced teachers?
• Is it suitable for native and non-native speaker teachers?
• Is the underlying approach of the writers expressed clearly and explicitly, or does it have to be inferred?
• Does the teacher's book provide enough detailed information on the language items to be taught?
• Does the teacher's book give enough guidance on the teaching procedures advocated?
• Is there enough cultural explanation to enable teachers unfamiliar with, for example, British lifestyles to interpret and exploit appropriately the situations portrayed in the course book?
• Are there clear objectives for each unit/lesson?
• Are new language items explained intelligibly in terms of their form and meaning/use?
• Are there outline plans for each unit/lesson?
• Are learning difficulties predicted and appropriate advice given?
• How detailed is the information and advice given?
• Can the contents of the teacher's book be related easily to the relevant sections of the student's book?
• Is advice given on informal monitoring of students and on using correction techniques?
• Are keys to exercises and other activities provided?
• Are there regular progress tests and advice on when and how to use them, and how to follow them up?
• Does the teacher's book make a positive contribution to heightening and sustaining learner motivation?
• Are teachers encouraged to note down their own ideas in the teacher's book?
• Are there any guidelines for evaluating how well lessons went?” (Cunningsworth 1995:115).
The physical qualities of course materials are also important from the point of view of layout, which involves the number, arrangement, quality and size of the photos found in the books. No modern course-book can prove to be successful if it lacks visual presentation, which, is one of the most natural way of exploiting, interpreting and contextualizing the meanings of words in foreign language teaching. Pictures in course materials can first of all direct students’ attention to the books, which is a fundamental element in language learning. They should, however, be strongly connected to the topics and/or language items students happen to work with within each unit. (Poór 2001)
The organization of course-books is another major aspect to consider during the evaluation process. Cunningsworth (1995) enumerates points such as continuity maintained in the materials, techniques used for recycling and reinforcement of learning, the route the learner is expected to take through the material (that is a predetermined one as opposed to optional routes), reference sections, index of language items, lists of new vocabulary, possibility for self-study, and a key to exercises. Recycling, for instance, as Cunningsworth (1995) refers to it, helps students meet the form and the sound of a language item in a number of different contexts, which will lead to their better understanding of meaning and use.
