Textbook evaluation

Cunningsworth divides teachers into two types;
a) Those who use coursebooks to teach and
b) Those who collect published materials from different sources, adapt them according to their purpose and use them for teaching.
A teacher can teach through a coursebook to achieve objectives but cannot allow the objectives of the coursebook to be implemented. Thus a coursebook is a good servant, not a good master.
Books related to a subject available in the market are of two types, general and specific.
A teacher can have different kinds of preferences in the choice of a textbook varying according to price, printing quality etc.
Among the many available to us we have to narrow down the selection of a coursebook for our target students if we want to teach according to the problems and levels of the students. Courses are designed catered according to the needs of the learners.
There are four main perspectives on English language teaching can be identified from the courses available in the market:
a) Communicative (functional)- perceives language as a means of communication
b) Structural – perceives language as a combination of grammar and vocabulary
c) Skill-based – believes in developing all the four skills of the language learner to learn the language, and
d) ESP/ EOP.

Some principles for evaluation
a) Relate the aims and objectives to your needs.
b) Be aware of the purpose for the language is designed and select teaching materials that help arm your students to use language effectively for their own purposes.
c) Keep your students’ learning needs in mind.
d) Consider the relationship between the language, the learning process and the learner.

















Chapter 2: Language and Content
Under this heading Cunningsworth discusses;
a) Form
b) Function
c) Grammar
d) Vocabulary
e) Meaning with relation to appropriateness, and
f) Language skills

a) Form of language
We need to understand the forms in which the language is mostly written in a textbook. The intended tenses and structures of the language need be calculated in number and the element of simplicity and complexity with respect to the structure needs be known.
b) Function
We need to know what function the language in the coursebook is playing. It may be social, political, business, interactive or any other. Cunnigsworth uses patterns of communicative interactions as examples. There are four main aspects of forms of language- phonology, grammar, vocabulary and discourse.
c) Appropriateness
We need to evaluate a material with respect to its social and functional context. Whether linguistic or non-linguistic in its nature, the appropriateness of the language and course materials are to be judged in terms of the necessary skills to be taught.
d) Varieties
What variety of the language is being taught; is a big question to be answered only by the content of the language. It may rhetoric, classical, colloquial or slang in question, in other cases, register, jargon or some vernacular. Another very important aspect according to the author in this regard is the difference between speech and writing. Normally we believe that written language is a bit different from spoken one. Thus we need to take into consideration the language need the content of a coursebook suffices.