CHOOSING A TEXTBOOK

CHOOSING A TEXTBOOK AND OTHER PRINTED MATERIALS
by Curtain, H & Pesola, CA (1994)

As teachers of English as a foreign language, choosing a textbook becomes a prime mission at any level we teach. The following reflection, based on Curtain and Pesola´s article and my own insights, intends to cover the relevant aspects in this choice.

Selecting the textbook is a very important duty that us teachers of English as a foreign language have as our responsibility. The situation varies in the diverse levels of teaching, mainly due to the changing needs of the students in the diverse levels. Most of the material we have comes from abroad, and has been made for learners of English as a second language who live in an English speaking environment, which is certainly, not our situation. In our Costa Rican schools, we teach English as a foreign language in a Spanish speaking environment, and only in some areas of the country, English is a second language spoken on the streets, heard on radio stations,written on local newspapers, church bulletins, and varied information for tourists.


At present, primary schools may have a syllabus that can be easily followed at the first levels, but there is a need of support in the higher levels. Therefore, materials developed for elementary schools that have been prepared by professionals are required. Some publishers offer such professionally developed text series that may be adapted to the teacher´s needs when they are age-appropriate and contemporary. Thus, books that include hands-on, integrated learning that fulfill students´needs and interests and the syllabus, shall be the best choice.

In the next level, the secondary, there are particular characteristics and learning needs. We have to clarify that in U.S.A., middle schools run from grades five to eight, and high schools include levels nine to twelve. Conversely, in Costa Rica, the secondary includes levels from seven to eleven and in the technical schools there is level twelve. The situation is that students in the lower secondary levels will enjoy hands-on, integrated learning, while the higher levels need books developed for their age and interests, along with supplementary materials and activities.

CRITERIA FOR EVALUATING TEXTBOOKS AND OTHER PRINTED MATERIAL

When we look for books for our students, there are some recommended criteria we must consider.

Goals

Goals should be clearly stated, compatible with local programs, with carefully developed scope and sequence for the level. Thus, materials must reflect authentic use of the target language and culture so students can really express themselves.

Communication

Among the organizing principles, communication rather than grammar must prevail. Work with grammar must focus on function, not on analysis. That is why the use of English in student´s materials and experiences must be encouraged in the activities, reflecting an understanding of the use of physical response strategies and immersion methodology.Books must provide opportunities for meaningful, purposeful language use that helps develop a base to build reading and writing skills.

Culture

Culture must be integrated to the materials giving emphasis on experiencing rather than learning about it. The situations and language presented must be culturally authentic, promoting appreciation to the value and richness of cultural diversity.

Subject Content and Thinking Skills

Subject content must be appropriate for the level. There must also be suggestions for interdisciplinary content and activities. All materials must be conductive to develop higher order thinking skills.

Bias

All illustrations and texts must be free of racial, gender, and cultural bias. At this point, I may add that us teachers of English within the Caribbean culture, find this aspect of much relevance, but difficult, because we belong geographically to America and our access is mostly to books published in U.S.A. Naturally, we find cultural and sometimes, even political bias in some of the available printed materials. Although we have access to European textbooks, and materials of other continents, too, this is not so commonly incorporated into our classrooms.

Flexibility

Materials must be easily adapted to the program models and designated class time providing options for students with diverse learning styles.

Physical Characteristics

All the materials must be durable, being able to withstand handling over a period of time. We have had awful experiences when in the second month of the school year, textbooks come apart as if they were loose-leaf paper in need of a ring binder! Then, too, the presentation has to be colorful, visually attractive, with proper illustrations and photographs, and well organized use of space and font size, to make it easily readable.

Support Materials

Look for a valuable teacher´s manual, with abundant relevant activities,suggestions, plans, clear instructions. Other materials such as charts, flash cards, maps, pictures, filmstrips, videos and CD´s with voices of native speakers in songs, conversations or stories must be relevant and effective.

Budget

All materials must be affordable. There is no sense in selecting materials that in the end are not affordable to our community, being them students, parents and administrators of the institution.

Our mission is significant when choosing a textbook. I invite the readers to consider these criteria next time we have to select one.

Six Degrees Of Kevin Bacon

69. CHAINS

In 1929, there was a Hungarian writer who published a volume of short stories, being one of them "Chains" or "Chain-Links." The story dealt with the problems for future generations within the field of network. It described a theory about people on Earth being closer. According to Karinthy´s theory, there was a random interconnection, and highly caotic, because technological advances in communication and increased and expanded density of humans resulted in an increased and expanded network of friends or acquaintances, making the current social distance smaller.Thus, anyone, anywhere, using the network of acquaintances, could contact any selected person using no more than five individuals.

After Karinthy´s short story became popular, his theory served as inspiration for other productions. One of them was John Guare, who wrote a play, and later a film, in which the phrase "six degrees of separation" became popular. Moreover, varieties of films and TV series like J.J.Abrams´,"Six Degrees," the TV series that describes the life of six New Yorkers who are not aware about how their decisions affect each one until they meet one another. Let me admit that this TV series was how I knew about this theory for the first time.

In addition to the productions mentioned above, two scientists from the Microsoft Company, Eric Horvitz and Jure Leskovec, developed a study where any two people are connected for not more than 6,6 degrees of separation.

Furthermore, in the early nineties, college students in the U.S.A. developed a game called, "Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon," where the challenge was to link celebrities to Kevin Bacon, and later, to link themselves to him through an acquaintance of the actor or someone who had worked with him. In fact, in the year 2007, Kevin Bacon himself, launched a web site, "sixdegrees,org," to inspire people to give charity online, connecting people to accomplish something good.

I would like to highlight the concept of all being connected to accomplish something good, hoping that we learn from this theory and from Kevin Bacon. That is why I invite you to watch the video, "Six degrees of Kevin Bacon, CBS."

68. PRIORITY AREA

Presentation is a relevant aspect in any instructional material that we review. Nevertheless, as we review instructional materials, we must be alert not to believe presentation stands as the priority, over content, as some publishers might erroneously believe. Thus, we must focus on presentations that align instructional components, organization, readability, and ease of use, in the student resources as well as in the teacher resources.

STUDENT RESOURCES

Students who find material that is not well integrated, or the items are very simple, consider it dull, even when it contains colorfull illustrations and it is easy to read.

Attractive features may be misleading.

Some features are used to highlight certain information that may be confused with main ideas, when they are not, or they emphasize questions that help to remember, and not to think or apply the subject. That is why they may be misleading the students.

Effective Instructional Materials Integrating Reference Aids

These materials include glossaries, maps, graphic organizers, pictures, index, bibliography. If they have clear instructions and are well integrated to the student materials and the teacher´s guide, they may be effective.

Teacher Resources

Usually, teacher resources include a teacher guide with much information where the publishers take almost all the decisions in tegards to planning, evaluating, testing, activities, and others. Due to this is the relevance of evaluating the quality and significance of those decisions.

The following is a list of the most important aspects we have to evaluate.

-Easy to use components and materials

-Materials to support lesson planning

-Guidance on teaching procedures

-Enough relevant content related to each topic

-Suggested individualized study for diverse learning abilities/disabilities and learning styles

-Resources to build effective relationships with parents and members of the community, reinforcing values and ethical items

-Cultural highlights

Alignment

The instructional materials must be aligned with the syllabus as well as one to the other. Teachers must evaluate the following.

-Alignment within instructional components in general

-Alignment within student materials

-Alignment within teachers materials

Organization of Instructional Materials

Order and clarity are significantly important throughout the format and structure of the instructional materials. Any teacher must be able to use the instructional materials easily as long as the contents are placed in a way that they are well organized and easy to read, through the use of visuals and typographical design. Clearly organized materials support the following.

-Access to content

-Visible structure and format
-Objectives or content outline aid content organization
-Visual cues signal content and organization
-Layout organizes content with sensible groupings and consistent structure

A logical organization of content and activities results in an effective teaching/ learning process. It must be unified and consistent to support the flow of information.

Readability of Instructional Materials

Readability of instructional materials depends on narative and visual elements that make the material attractive to the students, easy to understand, and appropriate to his/her abilities. Thus, it depends on the following.

-Coherent language style

-Typographycal presentation features
-font style forms and emphasizes words and ideas
-Text spacing separates and groups words, sentences, paragraphs, and sections
-Simplicity avoids extraneous and redundant information and focuses attention
-High, but not sharp, contrast supports separation of letters, words, and sections
-Text and visual focus information and concepts

SOME INSIGHTS ON INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS

THE FOLLOWING ARE ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS 66 TO 70 ASKED BY PROF. DR. HERNANDEZ

66. SUGGESTED FEATURES ON THE TEACHER´S MANUAL:

According to the Florida Department of Education, Bureauof Curriculum and Instruction, a Teacher´s Manual can be a strong selling point as long as it is well designed. If it is well organized and it includes the following basic features, it will be easily adapted and used in the classroom.

Practicality:

This feature refers to qualities such as how clearly it is written, if it is easy to use, if it is cheap enough to buy it, and if it will be used on several occasions.

Clearly, a Teacher´s Manual must be a useful tool for the teacher, and it is fundamental that it has a clear layout so we can read it and use it easily. A complicated manual will never be used by the teacher. Its cost is also an issue to be considered, for in many bookstores, what I have seen is that acquiring a Teacher´s Manual is conditioned to the amount of textbooks you buy.


Alignment:

The contents and activities have to align to student materials, for this is the most elemental reason for obtaining the Teacher´s Manual.

Coverage:

The manual should have enough content for teachers to dedicate time for preparing lessons. it should explain procedures in teaching, cultural aspects, answers, a plan for each lesson, enough content for each topic, and information about what may be more difficult for students and how to explain these.

Readability:

It should be easy to understand the manual, and the objectives and instructions should be clear.

Methods:

Methods for students to learn the subject, activities for large and small groups, different learner contexts and learning styles should be includd.

Assessment:

The manual should include ways to evaluate the learning.

Management:

Support to classroom management, such as outlines to plan and organize the courses, units, and lessons, should be included in the manual.

From my own experience, some of the textbooks that we use in Costa Rica are not always published along with the teacher´s manual, or it is difficult to obtain it. In some cases, salespersons visit our schools and offer to give a teacher´s manuals and CDs that come as compliment of the instructional materials if the teacher sells certain amounts of books. Really, they are not giving anything for free, because the teacher has to work selling the books, collecting the money, and delivering it to the salesperson.

67. TECHNOLOGY CHANGES

Visual presentation has become very important, almost as relevant as the contents.Specialization features, such as graphic design, photography, and typefaces. These and titles of materials have become relevant.

The advances in technology have brought many innovations that could be used in the teaching process. Nowadays, many of our students have small gadgets like music reproducers, be these mp3s, iPods, small CD players, or their cell phones, which could be used for exposing our students to standard English songs or conversations. The students operate their cell phones for so many functions like filming short videos, taking pictures, passing images, songs, messages, to each other, just in seconds. Two other changes have been the access to cable TV and the use of DVD players to watch films. They also are members of social communities like chats in the web, Twitter or Facebook, where they can easily communicate with English speaking people all around the world. If we could only convince them to use standard English ! Those students who do, really outstand in our classes, and they recognize it is due to their constant exposure to the target language. They seem to acquire faster mastery of the language and a higher self-esteem.

As an English teacher, having my own blog provides me with a space where I can express my opinions and insights, or simply provide with information for colleagues or students. It makes me use the new technology and practice using it, making mistaskes and corrections, add ing images even from my own pictures, videos, sounds, to a degree I just keep surprising myself because of the diversity of possibilities in these presentations. I still have much to learn, but actually, I am enjoying it. I hope the reader does, too.

STUDENT PRODUCED VIDEOS: TWO APPROACHES

The following is a comment about an article published in the FORUM Magazine, which is a recommendation by Prof. Dr. Gilberto Hernández.

Nathaniel Carney and Patrick Foss, Japan, are authors of the article, "Student Produced Videos: Two Approaches," published in the English Teaching Forum, issue Number 2, 2008.

COMMENT:

Videos have become a form of expression and communication, such as videos posted in YouTube, or vlogs (video-based blogs), those sent by SKYPE, and others. Since producing a video by students was thought to be a motivating and self-empowering activity for the L2 learners, two instructors created a learner-centered project-based activity for a short-term intensive English program for college in Japan.

For these activities, time and cost considerations included digital video technology and editing softwares. They required a light, powerful digital video camera (at a lower cost than years before) and free time-efficient video editing software. They found these two softwares as the best found at the time:

-Microsoft´s MovieMaker (included in XP and Vista operation systems);
-Apple´s iMovie (included in the OSX operation system)

Having chosen the latter one, they connected their digital video camera to a Macintosh via a firewire cable. The computer, then, imported the videos automatically. It broke these videos into "clips" - segments of video created every time the user pressed "pause." These clips could be modified, too. After trying the software themselves, the two instructors gave each group instructions on how to use it. All students had access to one digital video camera and one computer.They had to acquire the following skills: writing, directing, acting in and editing a movie.

The general objectives for these video projects were:

1. Each student should use as much English as possible;
2. Students should learn as much about filmmaking as possible.

The specific language objective was:

- Students should learn and practice various debating language.
Added to these objectives were four rules students had to follow.

VIDEO PROJECT N° 1:
The first approach for this activity included eight students that had to work in pairs to make four short films. Through processes of negociation, students proposed the following videos:

-The ethics of cloning (as news report);
-Robot ´s work vs human work (drama);
-electronic surveillance (drama);
- electric cars (drama).

The instructor´s role was to instruct camera operation and use of iMovie software, to be present during most negiciations, to print a shooting, rehearsal, editing schedule, check in regularly with each group, and to help editing the film. In fact, the instructor helped mostly in editing.

All students were filming, acting, rehearsing, and editing at the same time. They were done before due time.

VIDEO PROJECT N°2:
The second approach for this activity included eight students that had to work together in a longer film. On the first day of class, they received some questions on the scientific/ethical theme of the relationship between animals and humans, and for homework, they had to think of one or two specific stories that could be the focus of the drama. On the next class, students negociated the final selection, as well as who had the responsibilities to be directors, writers, costume designers, and set and sound designers, during all the filmmaking process. They used Wiki, which is a free online collaborative website that allows all users with the password to write and edit content on the site, to write the script.

ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES:

FIRST APPROACH:
Avantages seen with students who worked in Project N°1:
-Each student had the opportunity to learn more about each major aspect of filmmaking.
-Each student had the opportunity to work on multiple English skills.

Disadvantages seen in this group were:
-The instructor was unable to work closely with students who were rehearsing. No one practices pronunciation or intonation.
-Students had little time to create sets or costumes
-On the final video, at times, students/actors were difficult to understand.

SECOND APPROACH:
Advantages seen with students who worked in Project N°2:
-Instructor and students consistently spent time together. Students practicedtheir pronunciation and intonation and body movements.
-Instructor´s feedback was immediate and constant. This showed on the final video.
-This approach proved to be an efficient way to produce a film, where all students had an opportunity to be a leader at times.

Disadvantages found in this group were:
-There was an unequal learning due to the division of labor for the video production.
-Some students were not involved at all in certain tasks.
-There was an unequal length of speaking roles where some students practiced more than others, (although all were present during these rehearsals) at memorizing, acquiring more vocabulary, grammatical structures, and paralinguistic skills.

These two approaches to student video production proved thatthis is a motivating and self-empowering activity where students acquire communicative and technical skills for these times.

PRIORITIES FOR EVALUATING INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS

PRIORITIES FOR EVALUATING INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS
by Prof. MSc. Orietta Vélez Dumani

Evaluation for Selection.

Evaluating instructional materials includes several aspects, sucha s the evaluation for selection of these. According to Patricia Byrd, evaluating and selecting textbooks is a process that varies. There are some settings in which the teacher decides on the books he/she wants to use, as is the case of some universities in USA, where teachers select the texts, order them through the bookstore in campus, and then use them in their classes. In other cases, the Ministry of Education decides about the curriculum and the texts that are used all around a country. Also, there are places where there are groups of people, such as members from the boards of education and administrators give a list of recommendations. Although the English teachers seldom participate in such decisions, it is important to know how to influence in the process of deciding which materials will be used.

The Fit Between Curriculum and Texts.

According to Byrd, fundamental considerations for selecting materials must address a fit between the materials, the curriculum, the students and the teachers. These are requirements that publishers ought to consider if they want their material to be bought by powerful buyers. Nevertheless, this fit is hard to achieve for smallergroups. That is why the materials are not completely congruent with the pedagogical goals of the syllabus.

The Fit between Students and Texts.
To be able to obtain a proper adjustment between the students and the texts, Byrd says that the latter ones have to cover the students´s needs in:
- content, being interesting, useful, with explanations that students understand.
- examples that are suitable for the lives and interests of the students.
- enough variety of exercises and tasks.
- well constructed presentation and format.

The Fit Between Teachers and Texts.
Byrd also says that there must be a proper adjustment between the materials and the teachers so they will use them. These aspects ought to be considered:
- contents that teachers find useful to obtain their goals, that fit their knowledge-base, for teachers must have the adequate English to understand the - examples usable for the teacher.
- enough exercises and tasks that cover different learning styles, with instructor´s manual and answer key.
- presentation and format providing teaching opportunities.

Textbook analysis in the implementation process includes the same aspects mentioned above.

Analysis For Implementation.
It is relevant to know the resources in the textbook well before the teaching process begins to utilize it thoroughly. In the initial reading of a textbook, the teacher should consider the following aspects:
- presentation and format to know the way it is organized.
- content or information in each unit.
- practices given, their relation to the content and connections between activities.
- evaluation provided.
- support for the teacher such as instruction manual.

Analysis of the Content of the Textbook.
ESL/EFL textbooks tend to have either of these two contents:
- the linguistic content;
- the thematic content.
In content-based materials, topics are clearly visible, but in other materials, teachers need to look past the linguistic content to encounter the themes that are being included.

Finally, Byrd recommends sites where we can find text reviews such as:
- TESOL journal,
-the TESOL Quarterly,
-newsletters or journals of regionasl affiliates of TESOL.

CHALLENGES IN REVIEWING CONTENT

When we review the content of instructional materials, several challenges emerge.

-There are controversies in regards to what the best approach is because there are many beliefs concerning teaching methods or because of the educational policies that vary from one state to another (in USA). The content may be inaccurate because of the treatment that is given to a topic, there are errors in the facts or disproven concepts in the material.

-Analysis of the content may be misleading. Publishers have to show a correlation between the requirements of the educational curriculum and their material, but some only cross-check particular requirements with finding the vocabulary (key words) in the headings, indexes, titles, texts, or glossaries, and this does not mean that the contents are matching the desired requirements of education.

Hugh Laurie: the British accent vs the American

More Principles of Effective Materials Development

More Principles of Effective Materials Development,
according to Brian Tomlinson

Tomlinson also follows these principles when developing effective materials.

Principle of Language Acquisition N° 3:

Language learners who achieve positive affect are much more likely to achieve communicative competence than those who do not.

Comment:
Learners who are motivated in a positive way are going to feel that what they learn is valuable, and they may develop a positive self-esteem. It is important to have a reaction from them, whether it is laughter or aversion, for in the end, a valuable positive affective involvment will have been accomplished.

Principles of materials development:
- Materials ought to be attractive, interesting, relevant, pleasant, achievably challenging, to bring forth a positive influence on the learners. Controversial, provocative, and cheerful materials that include readings, songs, art, and others, stimulate emotive responses.


Principle of Language Acquisition N° 4:

L2 language learners can benefit from using those mental resources that they typically utilize when acquiring and using their L1.

Comment:
- All of us use multidimensional mental representations (mental maging, inner speech, predictions, interpretations, connections with our lives, and others) when we learn and use our L1. To promote durable language acquisition of L2, learners ought to develop the ability to use the target language effectively, through multidimensional representations.

- We use the inner voice to control our environment (hear, read, make plans, solve problems, evaluate) and prepare the outer voice utterances before saying or writing them, in L1. It is only advanced students of L2 who use these in the target language. But we should provide material for students to use their inner voice, even when they have not acquired an advanced level in L2.

- We should try to train L2 learners to use visual imaging to improve their language use and acquisition.

Principles of Materials Development:
- Before, during and after the learning activities, learners ought to be encouraged to visualize or use inner speech.
-Activities ought to make students reflect and use mental strategies once in a task and again in a similar task.

Evolution of instructional materials

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Evolution of instructional materials

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Developing Effective Materials

Proposals by Brian Tomlinson:

Tomlinson proposes some principles of language acquisition and principles of materials development that he follows when developing materials. Here are two of them.

• Principle of language acquisition 1:
  

• A prerequisit for language acquisition is that the learners are exposed to a rich, meaningful, and comprehensible input of language in use.

• Principles of materials development:
  

• - provide extensive experience of language that is meaningful to the learner in materials that have much spoken and written texts;
  
• - use authentic language, typically used, so learners may use languagetypically or effectively;
  
• - use language in context to create awareness on how the language is used;
• - provide sufficient samples of language in authentic use:

• Principle of language acquisition 2:
• In order for the learners to maximize their exposure to language in use, they need to be engaged both affectively and cognitively in the language experience.
• Principles of materials development:
• - achieve affective and cognitive engagement;
• - make learners think about the input to respond to it personally;
• - make learners think and feel before, during, and after the activities to use the language for communication.
  

Hilarious Professional Development for Teachers

Principles of Effective Materials Development

Principles of Effective Materials Development

By Prof. MSc. Orietta Vélez Dumani

e-mail: orievelez@gmail.com

When teachers of English talk about materials, we usually refer to both, materials that we can buy at a store, the commercial ones, and those we create or modify, the "home made" ones, which will help us accomplish our objectives in class, on a daily basis. Nevertheless, there seems to be much more into this subject.

Several authors have dedicated time and effort to do research about the materials development and design, as Hardwood, N. (2010) explains, based on teaching and learning principles. As Tomlinson, B. (Ed.)(1998) says, principled frameworks are necessary to help materials writers achieve principled coherence, so that we can provide the best opportunities for our learners to become effective users of the target language, and master it. According to him, there are some principles of language acquisition as well as principles of materials development that may be useful in developing materials to be used effectively, so we can improve our practice.

Amongst the principles of language acquisition which I consider relevant, as the author does, is this one in which learners should be exposed to rich, meaningful, comprehensible input. From my own teaching practice, I have found that constant exposure to extensive reading benefits students in acquiring vocabulary, language patterns, facts and opinions that help them develop the four skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing. That is why, the teachers must assure the materials developed are going to provide input in all areas, by being meaningful and useful the way the language is typically used.

Another language acquisition principle that I also consider relevant deals with the affective and cognitive experiences of the learners. These are aspects that mark a person's life experience in a positive or negative manner. If the materials developed appeal to the learner's emotions in a positive way, they will become engaged in their learning process feeling great satisfaction, gaining high self-esteem, and facing their future with optimism.