QUESTIONS

Do you think
coursebooks are
important?

What are your criteria

for choosing a
coursebook?

Which part of the CB

do you frequently use?

CATEGORIES

PARTICIPANT

Importance of
coursebooks

"Course books are

important, but should not be
the main resource used in
the class. Coursebooks are
an addition and a
complement for a class
prepared by a teacher
because all students are
different"

Criteria for choosing a

coursebook

"The first thing that I look for

in a book is the integration
of the skills. A coursebook
needs to give options and
ideas to the teachers for
them to be able to use all
the skills, not only to
practice grammar and
vocabulary and to choose
books that are fun and with
interesting topics."

Parts of CB most used

"Unfortunately grammar
and vocabulary...
Unfortunately because
parents and the school
prefer quantity over quality.
However, I always try to
practice speaking, reading
and writing during the class.
I also use the workbook to
practice or send
homeworks"

"There is a culture section

that We don't use because
of time, but I think is very
interesting"

Which part of the CB

do you seldom use?

When do you
supplement the CB?
Why?

What kind of help

would you like to
have?

Parts of CB seldom used

Context/Reasons to
supplement

Help in teaching

"That depends on the new

editions that the editorial
has. Most of the times they
change every year because
they add new materials to
improve the quality of the
images
The new coursebook or
editions is previously piloted
in some classes to add it to
the class"
"Clearer explanations and
easy examples for the
students to understand,
because sometimes they
choose examples that are
too complex for them to
understand something that
is difficult. I would also like
more exercises where the
students have to produce
using the grammar."

COMMENT
According to his/her opinion, teachers should be in
charge of knowing their students, because a coursebook
would not be suitable for them in some cases. Teachers
should be able to prepare their own material according
to the units that they have to teach and complement it
with some activities given by the coursebook. On the
other hand, Tsiplakides (2011) argues that the use of the
coursebook is important for less experience teachers and
he recommends the constant use of it.

The teacher meant in his/her opinion that coursebook

should also guide teachers and provide interesting
material for them to develop the 4 skills with their
students. As Baturay-Nurgun(N/D) mentioned, course
books generally cover reinforced activities, but that does
not mean that integrate the four skills. Apart from
choosing books with interesting topics for the students,
there should be those opinions for teachers to engage
the students and to have a successful teaching/learning
process by using a coursebook.

In fact, the teachers argues that lack of time provided for

a English class weekly always tend to be insuficient . Due
to the lack of time that the teacher has it seems that
sending homeworks would be an alternative to make
them practice on their own too, but it is still an
unfortunate for good teachers to feel that they are not
able to practice with students everything they expect.
According to this, he/she just focuses on the practice of 3
skills during the class and skips one.

According what the interviewee said, there are many

sections of a CB that may be interesting to teach, but the
amount of time given in a semester is not sufficient to
cover different aspects more interesting or more helpful.

According to the answer, the idea provided is mainly

about the changes of coursebooks. The interviewee
refers to how supplement when the editions change, but
not what she can do to supplement them. However, it is
mentioned that he or she supplement the coursebook,
even though it is not explicit.

In this case, our interviewee is expecting more help in

the area of grammar, because she/he feels that there is a
lack of examples provided by the book and they do not
clarify in 100% doubts or an effective understanding of
the parts of the unit. According to an article called
"Advantages and Disadvantages of ESL Course Books"
written by Chou (2010), it is also quotes that "The
grammar section in each unit of the course book usually
does not provide enough explanation or practice
questions."

REFERENCES:
Chou,T. (2010). Advantages and Disadvantages of ESL
Course Books. Wenzao Ursuline College of Languages.
Taiwan. The Internet TESL Journal. Vol. XVI

Baturay-Nurgun, M. (n.d). A New Perspective for the

Integration of Skills to Reading. Retrived the 29th of
November, 2014 from
http://dergiler.ankara.edu.tr/dergiler/27/761/9653.pdf
Tsiplakides, I. (2011). Selecting an English Coursebook:
Theory and Practice . Theory and Practice in Language
Studies, Vol. 1, No.7, pp.758 -764