Evaluating and Adapting Textbook (article) 2 types of textbook evaluation 1.

Ad hoc evaluation/ impressionistic evaluation evaluation based on intuitions, experience of classroom use of just first impression 2. Systematic evaluation evaluation based on specification of objectives, principles and procedures Ideal systematic evaluation Longitudinal evaluation which includes pre-use evaluation, whilst use evaluation and post-use evaluation Good textbooks should: (Brian Tomlinsons 1998) Attract students curiousity, interest and attention. (novelty, variety, attractive layout, appealing content) Help students to feel at ease (layout, presentation, task, activities, text, illustrations) Help students to develop confidence (provide tasks, activities that students can cope with) Meet students needs (relevant, useful) Expose students to language in authentic use (authentic lg more motivating and challenging) Provide students with opportunities to use the target language to achieve communication purposes Take into account that effects of lg teaching are usually delayed. (recycle instruction, frequent and ample exposure to lg features) Take into account that students differ in learning styles Take into account that students differ in affective factors Maximise learning potential by encouraging intellectual, aesthetic and emotional involvement which stimulates both right and left brain acitivities. Check out the checklist for textbook selection. 1. Attractive? 2. Culturally acceptable? 3. Right level of difficulty? 4. Authentic material?

5. balance knowledge of lg, practice and use? Etc Are there New ways of Evaluating ELT Textbooks? Jayakaran Mukundan pg 170 Textbook evaluation 1. impressionistic 2. explicit (checklist) Impressionistic For: o experienced teacher are normally good at it o the mind of the teacher is more complex than sometimes hastily written checklist Against: o archaic, unscientific Check list Against: inefficient ineffective produced at a large scale, checklist developed in a hasty manner textbook evaluation is complex, not merely an exercise to what is. It takes into consideration the how and what is involved many sections and items, high possibility of human error fall into marketing traps (preface, introduction and blurb) textbook is a vital ingredient in classroom. The complexities of learning and teaching situation make it quite impossible to be evaluated using a simplistic checkliast. The Composite Framework of ESL Textbook Evaluation 1. checklist 2. concordance software 3. reflective journal textbook tangible state can be analysed using a checklist and concordance but the dynamics of use of materials can only be evaluated in actual practice and reflection.

Unit 4: Evaluating materials Selecting materials: making planned and informed decisions. 3 types of evaluation: 1. pre-use evaluation 2. in-use evaluation (monitoring process or feedback purpose) 3. post-use evaluation (feedback on strengths and weakness of the text in use, whether it can be used again) Why evaluate? To meet learners needs and teaching learning context. How to Evaluate textbooks/materials match needs to available solution depends on what u consider is important Reasons for adapting Inadequate grammar coverage Grammar activities not graded according to level of difficulty Not enough practice of grammar points Reading passage too many new vocabulary Comprehension questions too easy Photographs of illustrations not culturally acceptable, etc Modification to: Aspects of language use Skills Classroom organisation Supplementary material Need to personalise, individualise or localise the content according to our own teachinglearning environment Adaptation Personalising To make content more relevant to the learners interest or their academic/ educational needs

Issues of Adaptation Localise textbook. Why does it work, why does it not work? Adaptation: a process whereby certain parts of a whole textbook or a set of materials need to be modified to meet the needs of a specific teaching learning situation. Adaptation is recommended than developing or producing new materials because it consumes less time and is more effective Learners are dynamic and the classroom is ever changing. Adaptation is an exercise which can help us develop insights into different views of language and learning and into the principles of material designs How to adapt? Make a list of areas or aspects which need to be adapted and why External and internal factors: o External: learner characteristics, physical environment, resources, class size, cultural appropriateness o Internal: choice of topics, skills covered, proficiency level

Individualising To take into consideration the learning styles and individual differences of individuals and other others in class Personalising To make a text culturally appropriate and to ensure that some words or vocabulary used are relevant to the local situation. Texts written for students in the USA may not be suitable for students in Msia. Techniques: 1. Adding 2. Deleting/ Omiting 3. Modifying 4. Simplifying 5. Reordering

(Refer to Unit 5: Materials Adaptation for examples) Localising the Global: Matching Materials to the Context of Learning Brian Tomlinson (Readings on ELT Materials pg 1) Most materials aim to satisfy the needs and wants of an idealised group of target learners who share similar needs and levels of proficiency. No matter how good the materials are, they will not manage to cater to the different needs, wants, learning styles, aptitudes, cultural norms and experiences of each individual learner. An appeal to curriculum developers, material writers, teachers, students to realise the need to match materials to different needs and wants of user group. Learning materials need to be localised by: Designing global materials that can be easily localised by teachers and learners Ensure that global materials is used as resource to achieve localisation Develop local materials for specific group of learners We need to localise material so that learners are able to: Connect what they experience in the materials to their prior experience and knowledge of the world Connect their own experience to facilitate the deep processing needed for long term learning Reduce the distance between themselves and the language they are learning Learning language in ways which suit their personal and environmental characteristics We need to achieve localisation where different learners are given the possibility of learning successfully in different ways

Six aspects of globalisation which may be used by material writers, teachers and learners to localise material: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Localising global themes Localising global characteristics Localising global issues Localising global facilitators of language Localising global methodology Localising global coursebooks

1. Localising global themes Themes are often chosen because they are considered to have universal relevance and appeal, vital interest and importance in all societies. In order to use global materials locally, we need to replace the texts, photos, or add equivalent local ones for comparison or help learners relocate them in their own mind. Examples: The happiest person in UK. o Visualise something that make them happy o Imagine a happy person in their country 2. Localising global characteristics Example: Add local features to basic story Teacher telling stories about herself ultimate localisation, useful to be equivalent to some texts in the coursebook which are locationally remote. 3. Localising global issues If learners dont perceive issues as relevant and meaningful, the material will not have impact and engagement for education and acquisition. Start with local context first before broadening out to the world. (pollution in Malaysia pollution in the world) Local newspaper and web can help learners localise global issue through pre-reading/ post reading. 4. Localising global facilitators of language acquisition

Most SLA researches assume that principles of successful language acquisition are universal. But it might vary between cultures.

Effective coursebook writers can always include both well qualified classroom teachers and academic scholars. Teachers - understand own students - familiar with students level - reflective teachers with rich classroom experience write instructional materials for classroom everyday Scholars - Well informed in field - Many worked with materials - Travelled widely, effective intercultural communicators with rich experience

5. Localising global methodology Each classroom is unique in the way learners and teachers interact with one another in the learning of English Successful EFL teachers teach in ways that suit their belief and personality and at the same time sensitive to the needs and wants of the learners and the norms of the cultures they teach in. Teachers should try out approaches that suit students culture 6. Localising global coursebooks Ensure globalisation before u can achieve localisation. Many coursebooks need to be localised in order to become useful to the learners Developing EFL Materials for Local Market: Issues and Considerations Bao Dat (Focus on Materials pg 52) 6 common drawbacks of many global textbooks: Distorting the world which learners live in and are familiar with Providing topics embarrassing to many learners and expecting free discussion independent from their cultural sensitivity Presenting learners ways of life as backward, while neglecting modern development in their country Treating members of other cultures as if they were bizarre and leaving no room for learners to voice their thought or explain their behaviour Depicting interpersonal communication as an unproblematic process Failing to cater to local learners need for immediate use of target language Who should write the material?

Need to collaborate because some scholars give new ideas to teachers rather than looking at what students really want. Need Analysis: Identify learner needs and context of language use Who am I writing for? Ii is a must t0 investigate learners wants and needs. Collect information from teachers, students and administrators at school location Objective needs: learners speaking proficiency & difficulties, Subjective needs: personality, learning styles, preferences, wants, expectations Culture to include in local textbooks 1. Target culture - English 2. Source culture the countrys culture - Unrealistic if only source culture. Interaction involves inter-culture, the learners world view will be restricted to one way of life 3. Target and source culture - Able to teach learners linguistic, sociocultural and inter-cultural skills to function adequately in the new culture 4. International culture

Prepare students for cross-cultural encounter, to archive intercultural competence

Challenges to material development for the local market 1. The pressure to conform with the administration system 2. The pressure to conform to the objectives of the curriculum 3. The pressure to conform with local teachers heavy workload 4. The pressure to conform to low budget Local writers are in a better position because they can identify the potential users of their course. The more sensitive and responsive the teacher is to students need, the more effective the material. Learners need materials which allow them to being equal beings with other non-native speakers and with native speakers of English in view of intercultural ability.

provides information on gender representation. o Keyness helped readers to guess what the units are all about. It is to find out which words characterise the units. o The book is analysed to determine if there was a bias towards any particular gender by looking at the pronouns (his, her, he, she, him) and the nouns (men, man, woman, women) Why use concordance software? Allows students to explore massive amounts of authentic language in the form of texts Allows students to see how words are used in the field of study Allow students to select all the occurrences of a word of phrase from the text along with the sentence of part of the sentence in which it is found. Allow students to use an inductive method to construct a grammar rule. Inject authenticity into the learning process. Learners assume control of the learning process. Teachers become facilitators of the process of discovery. Can be easily combined with text reconstruction and other exercises. Adapting and simplification 1. Identify difficult words and simplify them 2. Break up the long sentences into simple short sentences 3. Rephrasing and reordering sentences

Concordance. Wordsmith. What is it? What are the Advantages in the process of selection. The use of concordance software is an additional instrument for both predictive and retrospective evaluation of textbooks. Predictive evaluation: to make a decision regarding what material to use Retrospective evaluation: awareness and description of what learners are actually doing while the material is being used. Concordance software allows researchers to analyse how language is used It has the capability to provide almost instantaneous feedback on information regarding vocabulary and sentences. In the textbook evaluation, concordance software indicates keyness of text and

Authenticity What is authentic material? Print, video, and audio materials students encounter in their daily lives Thos which have been produced for purposes other than to teach language Materials not created or edited expressly for language learners

Examples: Print Utility bills, traffic tickets, greeting cards, tv guides, food labels, magazines, newspapers, coupons, order forms, menus, brouchures, train schedule Audio Phone messages, movies, videos, TV programs, radio broadcast, music Advantages of using authentic materials Positive effect on learner motivation Provide authentic cultural information Provide exposure to real language Relate more closely to learners needs Support a more creative approach to teaching How can students benefit? Help students bring gap between the classroom and the outside world 3 elements of authenticity 1. Authenticity of language 2. Authenticity of task 3. Authenticity of situation Authenticity of language: Authenticity of text used as input data for learners Authenticity of the learners own interpretation of text Authenticity of task Authenticity of the tasks conductive to language learning Authenticity of situation Authenticity of the actual social situation of the language classroom Disadvantage of using authentic material Authentic material often contains difficult language, unneeded vocabulary items and complex language structures which causes a burden for the teacher in lower-level classes.