1 Unit 13 Evaluating and Adapting Textbooks Welcome

2 Teaching Objectives 1.Why & what do teachers evaluate and adapt? 2.How do teachers evaluate textbooks? 3.How do teachers select textbooks? 4.How do teachers adapt textbooks?

3 I. Why & what do teachers evaluate and adapt? With the rapid ELT development in China, more and more textbooks have made their way to the market. Choosing the right textbook is becoming more and more important at all levels of ELT in schools.

4 With the effort from textbook writers, ELT researchers and classroom teachers, textbook evaluation and selection have evolved from ad hoc ( 即兴的 )to systematic action. Although most classroom teachers will not be involved in the production of textbooks, all teachers have the responsibility for textbook evaluation, selection and adaptation.

5 So far we have been using the term “ textbook ”. However, the focus of this unit is far more than just textbooks. Nowadays, textbooks in traditional pedagogy have evolved into a great variety of resources used in language classroom such as audio cassettes, videos, CD-ROMs, dictionaries, grammar book, readers, workbook, teacher ’ s books, photocopied materials, flashcards, and other authentic materials, such as newspapers, photographs, advertisements, radio/TV programmes, etc.

6 In many cases the term “ materials ” is used in place of “ textbooks ”, which refers to anything that is used by teachers or students to facilitate the learning of a language. The term “ textbooks ” is still widely used, but its reference has expanded from books to all the materials used around or independent of the books.

7 II. Evaluating textbooks Good textbooks should have the following features. 1. Good textbooks should attract the students ’ curiosity, interest and attention. In order to do this, textbooks should have novelty, variety, attractive layout, appealing content, etc. Of course they should also make sure that learning really takes place when the students use the textbooks. It is not necessarily enough that stu ­ dents enjoy the textbooks.

8 2. Textbooks should help students to feel at ease. The layout of presentation, tasks and activities, and texts and illustrations should all look friendly to the students so that they feel relaxed when seeing them.

9 3.Textbooks should help students to develop confidence. Good textbooks help to build up students ’ confidence by providing tasks or activities that students can cope with. 4.Textbooks should meet students ’ needs. What is covered in the textbooks should be relevant and useful to what the students need to learn and what they want to learn.

10 5.Textbooks should expose the students to language in authentic use. Generally speaking, textbooks written in authentic language are more motivating and challenging. 6.Textbooks should provide the students with opportunities to use the target language to achieve communicative purposes.

11 7.Textbooks should take into account that the positive effects of language teaching are usually delayed. Research into SLA shows that it is a gradual rather than an instan ­ taneous process and that this is equally true for instructed learning (formal learning). So it is important for textbooks to recycle instruction and to provide frequent and ample exposure to the instructed language features in communicative use.

12 8.Textbooks should take into account that students differ in learning styles. Tasks and activities should be variable and should cater for a range of learning styles so all students can benefit. 9.Textbooks should take into account that students differ in affective factors. Good textbooks should accommodate different attitudinal and motivational background as much as possible.

Textbooks should maximise learning potential by encouraging intellectual, aes ­ thetic and emotional involvement which stimulates both right and left brain activi ­ ties. Good textbooks enable the stud5 ’ nts to receive, process and retain information through “ multiple intelligences ”.

14 III. Selecting textbooks --we select after we evaluate. However, evaluating textbooks is one thing, selecting textbooks is quite another. --When we evaluate a textbook with an intention of adoption, we try to match what is offered by the book with the needs of our language programme. --Go over the 3 questionnaires.

15 IV. Adapting textbooks Maley (1998:281) suggested the following options to adapt materials: 1.omission: the teacher leaves out things deemed inappropriate, offensive, unpro ­ ductive, etc., for the particular group. 2.addition: where there seems to be inadequate coverage, teachers may decide to add to textbooks, either in the form of texts or exercise material..

16 3.reduction: where the teacher shortens an activity to give it less weight or emphasis. 4.extension: where an activity is lengthened in order to give it an additional dimen ­ sion. (For example, a vocabulary activity is extended to draw attention to some syntactic patterning.)

17 5.rewriting/modification: teacher may occasionally decide to rewrite material, espe ­ cially exercise material, to make it more appropriate, more “ communicative ”, more demanding, more accessible to their students, etc. 6.replacement: text or exercise material which is considered inadequate, for what ­ ever reason, may be replaced by more suitable material. This is often culled from other resource materials.

18 7.reordering: teachers may decide that the order in which the textbooks are pre ­ sented is not suitable for their students. They can then decide to plot a different course through the textbooks from the one the writer has laid down. 8.branching: teachers may decide to add options to the existing activity or to suggest alternative pathways through the activities. (For example, an experiential route or an analytical route.)

19 V. Conclusion Firstly, teachers need to have the authority to evaluate, select and adapt textbooks. In many cases, teachers are simply told to use a certain textbook. In worse circumstances, teachers are told how to use a book. Some teachers are even criticized for intentionally leaving out activities that they do not consider appropriate or necessary.

20 Secondly, teachers have to have the initiative to evaluate, select and adapt textbooks. Very often, with a heavy workload, teachers simply do not have the time or energy to do anything beyond lesson planning and marking students ’ homework. Without ex ­ plicit encouragement from authorities, many teachers do not make an effort to evalu ­ ate and adapt textbooks.

21 Thirdly, teachers need to know how to evaluate, select and adapt textbooks. At the time when this book is being written, very few ELT teacher education programmes in China offer specific training in materials evaluation and design, and publications on ELT materials are hard to find. If textbook evaluation is ever done, it is mostly ad hoc impressionistic judgement based on experience or intuition. It is the concern for this deplorable situation that made the authors incorporate this last unit into a methodology book, which, in normal cases, would not touch the “ material ” world.

22 VI. Assignments 1. Review the unit & do all the exercises. 2. Write a teaching plan of reading class based on the Reference Book of TLEBC.

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