Considerations for coursebook use leveltopic/contentactivities sequencingwhat to omit? additional material activities extend engagement? adding, replacing, adapting ‘proposals for action’

‘Whether or not you elect to base your course on a coursebook, it is worth thinking about how you recognize a good one when you see it, and on what grounds you might reject or criticize it.’ General criteria – any coursebook (review sections?) Specific criteria – appropriatness for your learners (colourful illustrations?) (Ur, 1991, p.184)

Using a coursebook Coverage – a range of language content and skills CEF? Pronunciation New vocabulary Grammar explanations and practice Recordings Communicative tasks (all skills) Mixed-skills tasks Different length reading texts Dictionary work Review Activities

Texts – appropriate level? Interesting? Varied? Are texts too easy and need supplementing? Are they ‘too difficult’ but can still be used? Are they boring or trivial for those learners? Are they all the same genre, style or register? Tasks Lots of use of target language? Range of Language items and skills? Allow responses at different levels? Balance between accuracy and fluency? Are activities just ‘tests’ or are they frameworks for extended practice?

Administration – how is the book to be used in class? Teacher led, individual or group work? Does the book lead you in any direction, or give any help? Supplementary Materials and Teacher-made worksheets and workcards Books, technology, posters, pictures, games, communication activities, realia Worksheets focused on a language point Workcards, laminated for repeated use

‘Materials include anything which can be used to facilitate the learning of the language. They can be linguistic, visual, auditory, or kinesthetic, and they can be presented in print, through live performance or display, or on a cassette, CD-ROM, DVD or the internet. They can be instructional in that they inform learners about the language, they can be experiential in that they provide exposure to the language in use, they can be elicitative in that they stimulate language use, or they can exploratory in that they seek discoveries in language use.’ (Tomlinson, 2001, p.66.) All of these can be applied to authentic materials.

‘[…] those “instances of spoken language which were not initiated for the purpose of teaching … not intended for non-native learners.”’ (Porter and Roberts, 1987.) ‘[…] reflect a naturalness of form and an appropriateness of cultural and situational context that would be found in the language as used by native speakers.”’ (Rogers and Medley, 1988.) ‘[…] texts produced by native speakers for native speakers.’ (Loschmann and Loschmann, 1985.) ( in Al-Surmi, 2012, p. 672.)

‘[…] an ideal authentic piece of spoken discourse would […] reflect as many features of naturally occurring discourse as there could be.’ (Al-Surmi, 2012, pp ) natural speed, pauses, intonation, reduction, assimilation, elision, vocabulary, accent idioms, colloquialisms, hesitations, false-starts, back-channelling, etc.

Authentic Materials Ranges of ‘real life’ texts, audio, video, internet CML – authentic collaborative space ‘ The potential for interaction inherent in blogs […] resides in the content of the posts, the bloggers’ self-reflection, and other bloggers’ reactions.’ (Trajtenbemberg and Yiakoumetti, 2001, p.438.)

Contrived or authentic? Contrived – aimed at explicit learning of language point BUT they ‘over-protect’ learners Authentic – ‘can provide meaningful exposure to language as it is typically used. ‘ (Tomlinson, 2001, p.68.)

Learning or Acquisition? ‘[..] most language textbooks aim at explicit learning of language plus practice.’ ‘[…] learners can gain confidence and a sense of progress from focussing on a series of discrete features.’ ‘ The experiential advocates argue that learners need to be exposed to the reality of language use.’ ( Tomlinson, 2001, pp.67/8.)

Final thoughts (1) Should materials be censored? Should they be driven by theory or practice? Cater for the learner, or try to change how they learn? Focus on other things other than language?

Final thoughts (2) Dogme Thornbury claims that the teacher is ‘method-bound’ to the coursebook, having to teach pre-ordained chunks of language, or McNuggets. The very notion of the book itself is questioned by Thornbury as propogating western-centric view of the world which learners may not adhere to. ( Thornbury, 2009.)

Final thoughts (3) Focussing on materials development is ‘[…] an effective way of helping teachers to understand and apply theories of language learning – and to achieve personal and professional development […] (Tomlinson, 2001, p. 67.)

Al-surni, M., (2012) Authenticity and TV Shows: a Multi-dimensional Analysis Perspective, Tesol Quarterly, Vol. 46, No. 4, 12/12, pp Harmer, J., (2012) How to Teach English (Harlow: Pearson Longman.) Tomlinson, B., (2001) Materials Development in Carter, R., and Nunan, D. eds. The Cambridge Guide to Teaching English Speakers of Other Languages (Cambridge: C.U.P.) Thornbury S., (2009) Teaching Unplugged: Dogme in English Language Teaching (Delta Publishing) Trajtemberg, C., and Yiakoumetti, A., (2011) Weblogs: a tool for EFL interaction, expression, and self-evaluation, ELT Journal Vol. 65/4, 10/11, pp Ur, P., (1991) A Course in Language Teaching: Practice and Theory (Cambridge: C.U.P.)