coursebook materials By Porntip Bodeepongse How to select and use coursebook materials • Coursebook materials are all the materials in a coursebook package that we use in the classroom to present and practise language, and to develop learners’ language skills. A coursebook package usually includes: • A student’s book • Audio and video • A teacher’s book recordings – Tapescript (the • A workbook or words learners activity book (a hear) book with extra – Lesson plans practice material) – Extra or • CD-ROM or extra suggested materials on the activities web • Teachers often base their selection of teaching materials (coursebook or supplementary) on a needs analysis’, i.e. a study of learners’ level, language needs and interests, using questionnaires, interviews or diagnostic tests. • The information from the needs analysis helps to build up a class profile (a description of all the learners in the class) and shows what they have in common and how they differ from each other. So, the teacher’s task is……
• to select the coursebook
or any teaching materials that best matches the class profile What questions should we ask when selecting teaching materials? • Is the material visually attractive? – Is it visually clear (e.g. using different colours, different fonts, headings, etc.? – Does the visual material help learners to understand context and meaning? • Is it well organised? – Can you and your learners follow the logic of the materials and find your way around the page or the unit quickly and easily? • Is it culturally appropriate? – Will the context(s) be familiar to learners? culturally biased? – Is there a mixture of different cultures presented in the coursebook?
• Is it suitable for your learners’ age
and their needs and interests? • Will the topics be motivating to suit the age, gender, experience and personal interests of your learners?
• Is it at the right level?
• Does it provide a clear enough context and/or explanations for learners to understand new language? • Does it give learners enough opportunities to use the language? If the answer to any of these questions is ‘No’ • Replace the coursebook material with materials with the same focus/ aim from another book or resource (website or supplementary materials) • Adapt the coursebook material, i.e. change it in some way to make it suitable for our learners. Ways to adapt materials: • Shortening material • Extending material • Reordering material • Changing the form of the task • Making use of all the resources in the book Key concepts • There may be good reasons for leaving out part of a unit, or even a whole unit, but remember that a coursebook is one of the main sources of Ss’ learning and revision. So they may find it confusing if we do this too often. The coursebook
the main content for a lesson
whereas material that needs to be more personalised for the learners
the teacher/learners themselves
Therefore, … • When planning lessons, teachers should think about what the coursebook gives you and what you need to add. Coursebook provides: Ts can add: • situation / context • warmer • pictures • instructions • dialogues (conversation • role-play
between 2 people) and
texts and exercises • tasks • homework tasks • If we plan to reorder the material in the coursebook, we must make sure that this is possible, i.e. that a task/ exercise does not depend on a previous one. • We can change the order of activities in the coursebook in order to introduce variety in one of the following areas: pace, interaction pattern, sequence of skills practice, level of difficulty, content, mood, etc. • We should think about how to make material more attractive and interesting for learners and how to bring material ‘off the page’, e.g. using mime, pictures, realia (real objects), etc.