English Language Teaching Course Books - Assignment Example

Criteria for critical evaluation of ELT Books: Teaching material holds a central and the most significant position in designing and criticallyevaluating the English Language Teaching Programs. Teachers use a variety of different learning and teaching materials from verbal to non-verbal to teach effectively. Teachers spend a considerable amount of time on looking for the materials for study and learning purposes. What Teachers Should Choose? Teachers selecting books for teaching English Language to the students should take a lot of time in selecting the right book for them. However, selecting the right ELT course book or material would be hard for teachers to design a critical criteria for the evaluation. Generally, the books aimed to meet the requirements of ELT are commercialized and generic and lacks to target a specific group of learners. According to Altan (1995, p. 59) Our modern course books are full of speech acts and functions based on situations which most foreign language students will never encopunter..."Globally" designed course books have continued to be stubbornly Anglo-centric. Appealing to the world market as they do, they cannot by definition draw on local varieties of English and have not gone very far in recognizing English as an international language, either. For setting the criteria to select the right course books for ELT, teachers need to consider the learners. the selected material should be motivational, creative, interesting, relevant and it should meet the needs of the individuals. Teachers should know the needs of ELT students. The course books should be picked on the basis of needs analysis. Adopting this technique would outline the needs of the student in listening, speaking, reading, writing, vocabulary knowledge and teaching them the grammar rules. It is also important that course books should be selected on the knowledge and experience of the students, besides their needs. The second important thing to remember is the curriculum and context of the course books. The selected course books should meet the needs of the students and it should have all the material which is required by the teachers to make the students understand the basic rules. Curriculum and context of the course books greatly influence the teachers decision about selecting the right teaching material. The curriculum should meet the goals and objectives for the learners as well as the course of study. Curriculum and context should meet the learning requirements of the ELT students (Nunan, 1998, p. 23). Furthermore, the course books can be evaluated on the basis of certain model or framework. However, according to Tomlinson (1991, p.22) there is no perfect framework for the evaluation of materials. There are two stages of evaluation needed to critically analyze the course books for ELT students. - External evaluation - Internal evaluation 1- External Evaluation: The external evaluation of a specific book begins from its author, publisher, the introduction of the book and the table of contents. The external evaluation of a book aimed for ELT teachers and students help in selecting the right book. According to Cunningwort (1984, p.54) the external evaluation of a book helps in understanding the book more appropriately; it helps in the understanding the needs of the ELT students and teachers. The table of contents provides an insight to the understanding of the book and the material it holds. Also, it should be observed that the claims made by the author or the publisher should match what the book holds in it. According to Mcdonough and Shaw, 2003, p.87) that the cover of the book and introduction of the book we can analyze different necessary elements: - The intended audience: this explains the material is targeted for whom? Who are the main audience of the book? - The skill level: the material is suitable for which level? - The context in which material are to be used: it is need to analyze that the material is aimed for the general learners or is it for the learning of students for specific purposes. - How the author has used the language and the material - The use of the book? would it be used as the main course book or would it be used as the supplementary book? - Does the book contains the vocabulary index? -Is the book locally available? - The presentation and outlay of the book also plays an important role. 2- Internal Evaluation: At this stage, it is important to match the external evaluation of the book with the internal material and organization of the book and to verify the claims of the publisher and the author made for the internal material of the book. - How the material in the book is presented? - The level, grading and the sequence of the material. - How it helps the students in developing and enhancing their reading capabilities? - How the material is organized? Is it enough to meet the needs of the learners? -The material present in the book would help the different learning styles. Would the material support the claim of self-study? References: Altan, M.Z. (1995). Culture in EFL Contexts: Classroom and Course books. MET, 4 (2), 58-60 Nunan, D. (1998). Principles for designing language teaching materials. Guidelines, 10 (2), 1-24 Cunningswort, A. (1984). Evaluating and Selecting ELT Materials. Oxford: Heinemann. McDonough, J. and Shaw, C. (2003). Materials and Methods in ELT: A Teachers Guide. Blackwell Publishing. Thomas, W.P and Collier, V.P (1997). School Effectiveness for Language Monitory Students. NCBE Resource Collection Series, 9, December. Washington D.C: National Clearinghouse for Bilingual Education Retrieved 14th April 2013 from http:// www.nclea.gwu.edu/pubs/resources/effectiveness/thomas-collier97.pdf TEXTBOOK EVALUATION: Inside Out. Student’s Book is a book published by Oxford: Macmillan Heinemann in the year 2000. The book is organized by Sue Kay and Vaughan Jones. The book is considered beneficial and productive for ELT students and teachers. The book is aimed to develop the reading, writing, learning and listening ability of the students by making the tasks, tests and exercises easier. It possess all the essential elements required to facilitate the students with grammar, vocabulary, simple speaking tasks, incorporated readings to motivate the students with supporting listening texts. 1- External Evaluation: - the intended audience for this book are the students who want to learn English Language. These include the adult students. - This books is the continued version of the series. But it is aimed to facilitate all the students who are learning English. - The material of the book is aimed to teach the English in its most simplest and general way. - The book consists of 10 units. Each unit has a different theme. Each theme consists of grammar structure, vocabulary, reading and writing as well as the ways to speak and listen. - The book posses the core elements required to learn the basics of English language. - The book is available locally. - The layout of the book is simple and clear. It starts with a clear and bold writing for the students to understand the inner material of the book. - At the end of the book, a complete list of vocabulary is added to make the students understand the requirements. - The material of the book is supported with colorful pictures, images and sentence boxes for the students to learn the language easily. 2- Internal Evaluation: - The book is appropriate for the English language learners. It has the four main skills of listening, reading and writing which are presented in every unit of the book. - Each unit of the book starts with a theme and the phrases written in different languages which are translated into simple English supported with bold colored pictures and writings. - Each unit is further supplemented with different exercises for listening, reading, writing and speaking. - The book is supported with simple tasks such as count the numbers, conversation boxes, vocabulary check, circle the letters, make the sentences and look at the picture and comment into your own words. - The book is aimed to motivate the students to learn a new language in an innovative manner. It is also easier for the teachers to make the students understand the most complicated stuff in the most easier manner. REFERENCE: Kay, S. & V. Jones (2000). Inside Out. Student’s Book. Intermediate. Oxford: Macmillan Heinemann Read More