Participants

I do think course book are necessary, they are good

guide for teachers, they can help you to get many
ideas to plan your own lesson and to guide your lesson
in the way that you want, course books would be very
Do you think
Importance of good or could very bad depending how you use them,
coursebooks
it can become addict, but that is something else. In a
coursebook
are important?
general views are good for guiding teachers.
Questions

Categories

What are your

Criteria for
criteria for
choosing a
choosing a
coursebook
coursebook?

Which part(s)
of the
Parts of CB
coursebook do
most used
you frequently
use?

Which part(s)
Parts of CB
do you seldom
seldom used
use?

When do you
supplement
the
coursebook?
Why?

Lets see At the university level our criteria has to do

with the goal we need to achieve, is the kind of level
we want from the student, so based on that , we chose
textbook related to the Cambridge tests. In school it
would depends what the stress of English classes in
school, depending on the hours, if I have two hour a
week I will choose a very simple book, if I have six
hours a week I will choose a book that will give me
more activities including maybe a work book to work
with and audios.

I would say almost everything, because books are

divided in the four skills, but the most frequently
would be speaking activities then listening, reading and
writing in that order, and also I find the teachers book
a very good resource as well.

Writing, I do not stress the writing skill that much or

the writing exercises, because its a little bit time
consuming for the class.

When the grammar point or when the structure is a

little bit difficult for the students depending on the
level, I would add extra information and when there is
time, if I have a good balance of time and I can do
Context/Reaso extra activities apart from the course book I usually put
them there, If not, If I find that the topic is interesting
ns to
and that I already have materials or that I have thought
supplement
that lesson or topic before I would use the
supplement. It depends on the topic and it depends on
the time.

How do you
supplement
the
coursebok?

Procedure or
activities to
supplement

I use the grammar as a guide and then I bring more

exercises related to that I would create worksheets or I
would use the laboratory on the students will work on
line the exercises that they already done on the web
mmm and then maybe some in media practice or
practice that the students can do in the moment, yes.

Usually the definition of the grammar point are very

brief, are not very clear if the student should learn only
from that grammar point I dont think it would be
What kind of
enough, so I would say that the grammar point should
help would
be more explanatory a little bit more, it should have a
you like to
Kind of help in little more information for the students, for me its
have from the teaching
okay because we can find information somewhere else
coursebook in grammar
or we can base also we can trust in the teachers book
the teaching
for that, but I would say that the grammar should be
grammar?
extend a little bit, its too short.

When there is a pronunciation or there is a text that it

should been the audio, its important to have the audio
What kind of
and maybe the transcript as well that you can usually
help would
get through the teachers book and that the book
you like to
Kind of help in
brings all the material. The cd-room or the audio that
have from the teaching
come from the book, the coursebook audio or the cd.
coursebook in pronunciation
the teaching
pronunciation?
Usually brings, shows a lot of words It brings at the
end of the book they usually gives you or at the end of
lesson or at the end of the book they usually show a
list of words, usually by alphabet, it sometimes is
divided by unites and the definitions are not very clear,
sometime it only have the words and the
What kind of
pronunciation maybe but not the definition or not the
help would
part of the speech, for example it doesnt say if it a
you like to
Kind of help in noun or a verb or maybe only that, but theres not
have from the
teaching lexis definition, but only for the students they could be
coursebook in
better if it is right there like the main words adding a
the teaching
little bit more, the definition should be there, but if not
lexis?
is not that hard to find it anyway, nowadays the
students can use their cell phone or we can use the
computer to find the definition.

I think with the teaching skills aaah, it depends on the

teaching style, you have all this exercises, you have a
topic, you have a way to teach it and then you adapt it
What kind of
to your own style, so Im okay to have the topic, the
help would
grammar point and the exercises and with that I can
you like to
Kind of help in get my own point of view when teaching the different
have from the teaching skills language skills, I think I can adapt it, I like what I see
coursebook in of the
If I like what I see I can expand it or not, so its okay
the teaching language
how it comes, it helps me with the idea and with the
skills of the
idea I can expand it a little bit more.
language?

COMMENTS
The teacher explained that the use of the coursebook depend mainly on
the use that it receive, if the teacher utilizes it in a good way he/she can
have good results in terms of teaching/learning. Also, the teacher
explained that a teacher can take many activities of it, because most of
these are good and it can be used as a guide in the class. So he/she
allows the use of coursebooks.

The teacher explained that he/she chooses a coursebook depending on

the goal of the course and the level in which it would be used; the
numbers of hours and the activities that it brings it is an important factor
as well.

The teacher elections of the activities are very accurate, because he/she
prefers activities related to the speaking ability and then immediately
activities related to listening, those skills are very connected because
their use reinforce each other and allow a good complementation in the
process of learning a language. The same with reading and writing which
are his/her second option.

For the teacher the writing part implies too much time implementing in
a class and the learning process to apply it would be slow.

The teacher explained that if he/she considers that the coursebook is

too difficult for students, maybe because they do not have the
knowledge for that level of demanding or the activities are not very well
explained mainly in the grammar point, he/she will add extra activities
and information for the class, it is a good idea in terms of facilitate the
process of learning of the students, to make a more interesting class and
also to adjust the time for the class.

This answer is similar and it is a complementation to the previous

answer, because the teacher explained that the grammar point could be
difficult in coursebooks but he/she use it as guide for his/her classes, and
he/she prefers develop hi/her own method of work in class, for example,
create his/her own worksheets or work in media practice, which is very
useful because we can find lots of activities on internet.

The teacher follows his/her posture saying that the grammar in

coursebooks is not good for teaching the students, it is not explanatory,
but for the teacher is not a real problem because he/she is able to find
information somewhere else, this is good because show that the teacher
interviewed have creativity in terms of realize activities in class, also
he/she mention the teachers book saying that is a good resource as well
in this case.

For teaching pronunciation the teacher focuses in the extra resources

that the coursebook should have which is the CD-ROOM, nowadays most
of the course brings with it and it is very useful, because it have the
audios and activities related to the specific level, also the teacher
mention the transcript that the teachers book should bring as a help for
them to teach it to students.

For teaching lexis (vocabulary) the teacher said that the coursebooks are
good, because it brings the words that the students should know by the
end of the lesson, but there is missing something, it could be better if it
brings the definition and the part of the speech in the list of words that it
has. It is really true, because according with the coursebook that we
analized the list of words are normally at the end but there is nothing
else, just the words, and if we do not know the definition we have to use
another resource, but as the teacher said nowadays it is not a problem
because the students can use their cell phone or their computers, it is to
find a solution for grammar.

For the teacher teach the skills of the language depends mainly on the
criteria of every teacher and their style, every teacher adapts the
content of the coursebook and teachs it in the most comfortable way for
them.