Unit18EvaluatingandAdaptingTextbooks 1 1.docx

1、Unit18EvaluatingandAdaptingTextbooks 1 1Unit 18 Evaluating and Adapting TextbooksAims of the unit： 1. What are textbooks for?2. Why and what do teachers evaluate and adapt? 3. How should teachers evaluate textbooks? 4. How should teachers select textbooks? 5. How should teachers adapt textbooks?I. W

2、hat are textbooks for? In all modern school systems the textbook has long served not only to support instruction but to symbolize that instruction, in other words, the textbook defines the curriculum.1. Textbooks or teaching materials Nowadays, textbooks in traditional pedagogy have evolved into a g

3、reat variety of resources used in language classroom such as audio cassettes, videos, CD-ROMs, dictionaries, grammar book, readers, workbook, teachers books, photocopied materials, flashcards, and other authentic materials, such as newspapers, photographs, advertisements, radio/TV programmes, etc. I

4、n many cases the term “ma-terials” is used in place of “textbooks”, which refers to anything that is used by teach-ers 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 indepe

5、ndent of the books.Task 1 Think about your English learning experience and make a list of the materials you used. Try to be as specific as possible. Then based on the list, answer the following questions: Did you particularly like or dislike any of them? Why? Were the materials on your list widely u

6、sed? Are they still used now? When you are ready, go into groups and share your lists. 2. Textbooks and language resources II. Evaluating textbookswe often hear teachers say “Oh, this is a good textbook” or “Well, I dont think my students will like this book”. These comments are usually based on ad

7、hoc evaluation, that is, impressionistic evaluation based on intuitions, experience of classroom use or just first impression”. Contrary to ad hoc evaluation, systematic evaluation of textbooks is based on specification of objectives, principles and procedures. An ideal systematic textbook evaluatio

8、n would be a longitudinal one, which includes pre-use evaluation, whilst-use evaluation and post-use evaluation.1. On-the-page evaluation; evaluate the textbook itself irrespective of its users.2. In-the-page evaluation: evaluation is done based on the users opinions (teachers as well as learners)3.

9、 External evaluation: l Look at the claims made by the authors of the textbook.l Look through the table of contents and other details in the textbook.4. Internal evaluation: l The grading and sequencing of the materials, natural and appropriate?l The language input selected, interest and level.l Pra

10、ctice of skills and strategies.l Activities and tasks. Suitable or not.l Student- centeredThe core of systematic textbook evaluation is to examine how well a given textbook matches the needs of a language programme and how effectively and efficiently it can realise the objectives of the programme. T

11、herefore needs analysis has to be done prior to textbook evaluation. 5. Features of good textbooksBased on Tomlinsons (1998) conception of what constitutes effective language teach-ing materials, we believe good textbooks should have the following features. Good textbooks should: ? Attract the stude

12、nts curiosity, interest and attention. ? Help students to feel at ease. ? Help students to develop confidence by providing tasks or activities that students can cope with. ? Meet students needs. ? Expose the students to language in authentic use. ? Provide the students with opportunities to use the

13、target lan-guage to achieve communicative purposes. ? Take into account that the positive effects of language teaching are usually delayed. ? Take into account that students differ in learning styles. ? Maximise learning potential by encouraging intellectual, aes-thetic and emotional involvement whi

14、ch stimulates both right and left brain activi-ties. Task 2 Take a textbook that you have used or you are familiar with. Look through the book and see to what extent the book has reflected the features of good textbooks outlined above. When you are ready, go into groups and share your findings. (pro

15、vide textbooks for primary students or junior student) III. Selecting textbooks 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. However, this is no easy job for teachers. For one thing, teachers may be o

16、verwhelmed by the rich contents of the textbook, which usually has several volumes. For another, teachers do not al-ways have a clear awareness of what their students need. In order to make the job of textbook selection easier, materials researchers have developed several practical and operational c

17、hecklists for classroom teachers (See Grant, 1987). Look at the questionnaires on page 171Choosing a textbook: questionnaire (part 1) Choosing a textbook: questionnaire (part 2)Choosing a textbook: questionnaire (part 3) Task 3 Choose two similar textbooks which are used in the middle schools or col

18、leges in the place where you are studying. Use Grants questionnaire and make a detailed evaluation of the two textbooks. Then compare the two textbooks based on the evaluation results. (picture) IV. Adapting textbooks Despite the great effort that textbook writers make to meet the needs of the inten

19、ded users, textbooks are subject to adaptation when they are actually used in the class-room. After all, most commercial textbooks are not written for any particular class. Maley (1998:281) suggested the following options to adapt materials: ? omission: the teacher leaves out things deemed inappropr

20、iate, offensive, unpro-ductive, etc., for the particular group. ? addition: where there seems to be inadequate coverage, teachers may decide to add to textbooks, either in the form of texts or exercise material. ? reduction: where the teacher shortens an activity to give it less weight or emphasis.

21、? 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.) ? rewriting/modification: teacher may occasionally decide to rewrite material, espe-cially exercise material, to

22、 make it more appropriate, more “communicative”, more demanding, more accessible to their students, etc. ? 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. ? re-

23、ordering: 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 differentcourse through the textbooks from the one the writer has laid down. ? branching: teachers may decide to add options to the existing activity

24、or to suggest alternative pathways through the activities. (For example, an experiential route or an analytical route.) Textbook adaptation can be done at three levels. The first level is macro adaptation, which is ideally done before the language programme begins. After comparing what is covered in

25、 a textbook and what is required by the syllabus or examination, the teacher may find that certain areas or even whole units of the book can be omitted, and certain contents need to be supplemented. The second level of adaptation is adapting a unit. This could be reordering the activi-ties, combinin

26、g activities, omitting activities, rewriting or supplementing exercise ma-terial, etc. The third level is adaptation of specific activities in a unit. Occasionally an activity is regarded as valuable, but it is not well-designed or it is not feasible in a particular class. If the teacher does not wa

27、nt to give up the activity, he or she needs to adapt it. Very often, adaptation involves supplementation, that is, teachers add materials from other resources to the textbook they are using. It is believed that authentic materials are better than non-authentic materials for supplementation. So teach

28、ers who make a point of collecting authentic materials find it much easier to adapt textbooks. This is especially true in ELT contexts where authentic English materials are not always readily to hand. Task 4 Choose a textbook that you are familiar with. Imagine you are going to use the book with a c

29、lass in your locality. Find a unit that you think needs adaptation and adapt it.V. Conclusion In this unit we have briefly talked about textbook evaluation, selection and adaptation. The value of these actions is so obvious that no one would argue against it. However, these actions can be done only

30、when three conditions are met. 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 lea

31、ving out activities that they do not consider appropriate or necessary. 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

32、 homework. Without ex-plicit encouragement from authorities, many teachers do not make an effort to evalu-ate and adapt textbooks. 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 i