Faculty of Classical and Modern Philology

Department of Methodology

Materials selection and

Textbook Evaluation

Nadezhda Stephanova Geshanova,

English Philology,
4th year, group I, Fac. N 24 230

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 Part I: Examination Questions

1. The salient features of the Communicative Approach are:

a) It develops the communicative as opposed to the purely linguistic
competence.
b) Systematic attention is paid both to structural and functional aspects
of language. Focus is not only on form but also on use and the
appropriacy of language. Fluency is emphasized over accuracy.
c) Linguistic variation is a central concept in materials’ design and
classroom methodology. We recognize that there is not only one
English, but also many Englishes.
d) Emphasis is put on students’ initiative and involvement.
e) Activities favour integration of skills and aim at genuine
communication with a real purpose.
f) Mistakes are viewed as a natural part of the learning process.
g) In pronunciation, the goal is not near native pronunciation but
minimum general intelligibility.
h) The use of the native language in translation is accepted where
feasible.
i) There is a paradigm shift in teacher-learner relations. The teacher is
no longer a sage on the stage. He has a less spectacular role but a role
very demanding and extremely important psychologically.
j) In communicative approach the teacher needs not only training but
also education.
The salient features of the Communicative Approach which have relation
to textbook selection and evaluation are: a) – a textbook can help students
develop communicative competence by offering interesting and
motivating subject matter which will give rise to many discussions and
involve students in many communicative activities; b), c), d), e), g).

2. The textbook has various roles – didactic and psychological. It is the

only non-human factor in the teaching-learning process. It is the most
visible, tangible and concrete thing in the process. It provides the
springboard for pedagogic action. It also provides psychological support
for teachers and learners. It has a very important organizing function
because it can be said to be a kind of norm and guide and organizes the
knowledge the teacher has to teach. It gives a measure of progress and
achievement, a sense of direction and order. A very important
psychological role it plays is that it gives a sense of security to both
teachers and learners. It is a kind of staple in the classroom. It puts flesh
on the bones of objective specification.

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A textbook, however, can have an adverse effect on teaching if it is not
carefully selected by the teacher so as to be relevant to students’ needs, to
correspond to the level of the students and to be appropriate to their
interests. A textbook that is dull and boring in terms of subject matter,
uses language which does not correspond to the students’ knowledge and
doesn’t provide a variety of activities and a balance between them will
definitely make the task of the teacher difficult, because it will fail to
organize in a systematic way the knowledge he has to convey to the
students and may appear to be a demotivating factor in the language
learning process.

3.

Teacher Learner

Textbook

The relationship between a learner and a textbook can be an imposed

relationship or a relation of choice. The learners can like the textbook,
ignore it or hate it. A textbook is a learner friendly when it gives
additional, interesting information and helps the learner to enrich their
general knowledge in the process of language learning. It is learner
friendly when it provides strategies for the students how to learn the
language, when it teaches the language skills and not only provide
opportunities for their practice. There are two important principles as far
as the relationship between teachers and learners are concerned: I as
important as you, you as important as I. The textbook can suggest some
exercises and activities which can help structure the relationship between
teachers and learners. A textbook is a teacher-friendly one when it saves
time and organizes well the work of the teacher, when it helps the teacher
by providing a realistic, memorable and motivating context which makes
the presentation of language material meaningful.

4. A triple A course is a course that follows the three important principles

for materials development and design according to the European
dimension. A stands for:
1) Autonomy of the learner. The learner learns a lot of things and also
learns how to learn. The textbook provides the learners with some
techniques, procedures of independent learning.
2) Authenticity. This principle has three aspects:
a) Authenticity of texts

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 b) Authenticity of students’ language behaviour. Students are
given reason for their language behaviour. There is a focus
not only on what to say, but on why. Language behaviour is
authentic when it is motivated and purposeful.
c) Authenticity of students’ attitude towards the target language
and culture – avoidance of any cultural stereotypes.
3) Awareness of cultural issues. The learners should be aware of their
own culture and also of the foreign culture and language.

5. Text simplification is a very important feature in today’s textbooks.

It has nothing to do with simplifying the texts themselves but with the
achievement of harmony between the difficulty level of the study texts
and the learners’ current proficient level. It has to do with simplifying
the tasks to the texts, not the texts. In communication- oriented course
books, the text simplification can play an important role. If the reading
texts are very difficult, the tasks to them can be simplified by using,
for example, only the issue or the problem the texts deal with, to raise
a discussion in which the students will have the freedom to express
their own viewpoints on the particular subject and the opportunity to
put into practice their grammar and vocabulary load while speaking.

6. Backwash effect is the influence of the requirements of particular

examination on the organization of material. Here the students share a
common and clearly defined if rather artificial goal: to pass a
particular examination. Passing the examination sometimes becomes
an overriding objective of the course, whether or not that really
involves learning English as an authentic communicative system. In
this respect it can turn out to be harmful to the communicative
classroom organization, because the learner becomes more an
examination taker than communicator. The backwash effect puts a
very heavy responsibility on examiners to ensure that what their
examinations require the students to do is truly and fully
representative of genuine language use. The point is that where a
formal examination is the goal, both teachers and course books will
prepare students for the examination whether or not what is examined
is representative of language as a communicative process. In my
opinion, the backwash effect can also be beneficial to classroom
organization in so far as it can serve as a motivating factor in the
learning process although the goal of the students to pass a particular
exam is said to be an artificial one.

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 7. Communicative Approach is a whole learner approach because it
accounts not only for the learners’ intellectual abilities, but also for
their emotions. In his book “Way and ways” Stevick has
developed six criteria for evaluation of textbooks as whole-learner
teaching materials:
1) The language of the materials should be authentic and
should resemble the language used by native speakers.
2) There should be authentic and truthful representation of
reality not only an idealized picture.
3) Appeal to the learners’ affects/ emotions. The topics of the
tasks of the textbook should involve learners not only
intellectually, but also emotionally.
4) The textbook should contain tasks which provide scope for
choice and disagreement, because different learners make
different choices. The materials should cultivate this ability
of disagreement, not avoid it.
5) The textbook should take into consideration the quality of
students’ interaction and should structure classroom
interaction in a positive way. The more motivated the
students, the better. The more meaningful and
communicatively purposeful interaction is, the better. The
textbook should not include activities which involve just
mechanical repetition of forms. The textbook should provide
safety in the learning and teaching environment. The design
of the material should contribute to the learners’
psychological comfort and emotional security.

Part II: Examination Paper

I. Introduction
In today’s classrooms, textbooks serve as tool and tutor, guide
book and gauge. Teachers throughout the world use textbooks
to guide their instruction, so textbooks greatly influence how
content is delivered. Textbooks are identified as playing an
important role in making the leap from intentions and plans to
classroom activities, by making content available, organizing it,
and setting out learning tasks in a form designed to be appealing
to students.
To make the most effective use of a textbook, however, teachers
must decide which textbooks are appropriate for their needs.
The teacher needs to determine the extent to which a textbook

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 focuses on and is aligned with a coherent set of significant, age
appropriate student learning goals. They must also assess how
well a textbook’s instructional design effectively supports the
attainment of those specified learning goals. The only way to
gain this information is through the process of careful
evaluation of textbooks.

II. A Review of the three checklists

1) The checklist of Jeremy Harmer – In his checklist J. Harmer has

identified and presented clearly seven major areas of consideration
for textbook evaluation: Practical Considerations, Layout and
Design, Activities, Skills, Language type, Subject and Content,
Guidance. A strong point in this checklist is that emphasis is laid
upon three areas which I think come to the fore and should be
carefully considered in the process of selection and evaluation of
teaching materials: Activities, Language type, Subject matter and
Content. As far as activities are concerned, several important points
are made: 1) the balance of activities - the different types of
activities should be carefully balanced so as to facilitate the
development of all linguistic skills simultaneously 2) the amount of
communicative output – Harmer stresses the significance of
activities which encourage communication between the students 3)
obviously, Harmer is in favour of activities which provide roughly-
tuned input –it has to do with language-acquisition, not with learning
as opposed to those which have finely-tuned input, i.e. are
grammatically-sequenced. 4) motivating are realistic contents – new,
unfamiliar grammatical and lexical aspects should be presented not
in isolation but in memorable contexts which stimulate students’
interest thus facilitating the assimilation of new material.
The type of language which a textbook employs is also a crucial
point in Harmer’s checklist. A highly-stylized and difficult language
according to Harmer will hinder the learning process and may lead
to negative consequences in students’ motivation. He insists on the
use of authentic language, language used by native speakers and
language which corresponds to the level of students’ knowledge.
As far as subject mater and content are concerned, Harmer
emphasizes the importance of variety in the topics, of their being
interesting and appealing to the students, on the truthful
representation of reality. Another interesting point he makes is the
avoidance of harmful stereotypes of different races, cultures and also
gender stereotypes. Still another point worth considering in textbook
evaluation which he only mentions in relation to subject matter is the

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reflection of multi-cultural nature of modern society which is
important for raising students’ cultural awareness.
A weak point in his checklist is that in the area of skills as a
criterion, only the practice of certain skills is taken into
consideration. He could have put greater emphasis on the
development and teaching of skills rather than on the mere practice
of skills. What I don’t like either is that the checklist doesn’t say
anything about the motivation of the learners which certainly has a
deep influence on the effectiveness of learning. More weight should
be put on activities which, in my opinion, help strengthening the
students’ socio-cultural awareness. Although it contains some
important points, the checklist of Jeremy Harmer fails to encompass
and to elaborate on more crucial criteria for textbook selection.
Instead, it gives priority to practical considerations, layout and
design, guidance which, in my view, are minor in significance and
consideration in the process of evaluating a certain textbook.

2) The checklist of Absel-Messih Daoud and Marianne Celce-

Murcia – Surely, this checklist has fewer strong points than
Harmer’s. It distinguishes five major areas to be considered in
textbook evaluation: subject matter, vocabulary and structures,
exercises, illustrations, physical make-up. What I like about this
checklist is that it takes account of the variety of subject matter
appropriate to the interests of the learners, the arrangement of topics
in a logical fashion, and the accuracy of the material. It also takes
into consideration students’ needs as far as the gradation of content
is concerned. What I don’t particularly like about this checklist,
however, is that it highlights the structural aspects of language – too
much attention is paid to the number of grammatical points and
sequence, repetition of vocabulary, the gradual increase in the
complexity of structures, the sentence length, etc.
The authors of this checklist, similarly to Jeremy Harmer, touch
upon the use of current everyday language in textbooks and also
upon activities which promote meaningful communication by
recreating real-life situations. In comparison to Harmer’s checklist,
however, the authors of this checklist do not accentuate these
important points but only mention them in relation to other criteria
they find more significant – Vocabulary and Structures/ Exercises.
Unlike them, Harmer has identified the Type of language as a
separate criterion, thus laying more emphasis on it. Another
similarity with Harmer’s checklist is that this checklist also takes
into consideration the importance of meaningful situations which
provide memorable context for the introduction of linguistic items,

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thus facilitating understanding and ensuring assimilation and
consolidation. However, the checklist seems to neglect important
issues like learners’ motivation/ involvement, appeal to learners’
emotions, balance and variety of activities. Nor is there any mention
of cultural issues, which has recently become an integral part of the
language learning process.
My overall impression is that the checklist only touches upon
the points I find outstanding in connection to other issues that are
given priority and therefore these points are not singled out as
separate criteria.
Although the checklist offers some good points that have to be
considered in textbook selection and evaluation, they remain
somehow hidden, not made distinct and highlighted.

3) The checklist of A. Cunningsworth – All the items that this

checklist encompasses seem to be carefully considered and selected
as criteria for textbook evaluation. In my opinion, all the points
made in this checklist are of equal significance, since they in a way
can be said to reflect the salient features of Communicative
Approach in relation to textbook selection.
In the first item “ Language Content”, Cunningsworth stresses
the importance of teaching both language form and language
function because meaning and function are expressed through form
and without form there could be no verbal communication. What
needs to be looked at is not so much whether the material is wholly
structural or wholly functional, but how the relationship between
form and function are handled and put over to the learner.
A further consideration is whether patterns of communicative
interaction are taught. When we use language, we do not use
sentences in isolation from each other. In any piece of natural
language, whether it is a conversation or a written text, sentences
relate to each other in their meanings and functions; they do not
simply occur as isolated bits of language.
Under the heading of Language Content, Cunningsworth
accentuates another point which is very important – stylistic
appropriateness, because when we use language, we need to be able
to perceive the social situation in which we are operating and to be
able to match the language we use to the situation. It’s a very strong
point that Cunningsworth focuses upon the extent and how
competently and systematically a language teaching course book
teaches these important rules of use.

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 Furthermore, he underlines the importance of teaching all
language skills, because most communicative interactions involve
the use of more than one skill.
Great emphasis is laid upon the development of communicative
abilities, on the free production of spoken English in an uncontrolled
situation. What Cunningsworth claims is that a textbook should
ultimately bring students to a point where they can use English on
their own appropriately and confidently and for their purposes, thus
preparing them for the real world.
The checklist also stresses the importance of learners’
motivation and the different ways to stimulate it, by suggesting some
points that we should look for in the teaching materials: variety and
pace, activities leading to personal involvement and self-investment
in the learning process, interesting subject matter.
Still another strong point is that language learning is seen as a
vehicle for cultural understanding and the materials should include
aspects of different cultures.
The lack of practical considerations such as layout, price,
availability, etc. in the checklist I do not consider a weak point,
because they are not of great importance in comparison to the issues
that the checklist elaborates on.

III. My own checklist

A. Subject Matter
1. Does the subject matter cover a variety of topics appropriate to
learners’ interests?
2. Is the subject matter relevant to the students’ needs?
3. Is the material accurate and realistic?
4. Does the material represent aspects of different cultures?
B. Language Type
1. Is the language used in the materials authentic – current, everyday,
real-life English?
2. Does the language used in the materials correspond to the students’
current proficiency?
C. Developing Language Skills and Communicative
Abilities
1. Do the materials actually teach skills or do they merely provide
practice of the skills students already have?
2. Do the materials bring the students to a point where they can use
English freely on their own and for their own purposes or do they

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 provide language practice which is tightly controlled and somewhat
mechanical?
D. Activities
1. 1. Do the materials provide a balance of activities that is appropriate
for the students?
2. Do the activities provide for the integration of the four skills –
reading, listening, speaking and writing?
3. Do the activities encourage the personal involvement of the learners?
4. Are the dialogues realistic, lively and communicatively relevant? Do
they avoid the question-answer format? Are they open-ended? Do
they sound natural? Are they likely to stimulate students to produce
their own recreational dialogues?
5. Do the activities encourage the development of higher level thinking
skills?
E. Presentation of new language items
1. Are the language items introduced gradually and in memorable and
motivating contexts?
F. Motivation and the Learner
1. Do the materials take into account learners’ appeals and emotions?
2. Does the organization of knowledge contribute to the learners’ sense
of security in the process of learning?
G. Practical Considerations
1. Is the textbook visually attractive?
2. Is the textbook expensive?
3. Is the layout and design of the materials appropriate to the students?
IV. Reasons for personal preference of evaluation criteria

Four of the evaluation criteria I consider most important and these

are: Subject matter, Learners’ motivation, the development of
communicative abilities and strengthening the socio-cultural
awareness of the learners.
The subject matter or the content of a course textbook is a very
important consideration in textbook selection. If we are to get away
from the limited situation of using language for its own sake, we need
to see that the materials we adopt make use of language in order to
convey information, express opinions, present different viewpoints
which are of genuine intrinsic interest to the learners. If through a
reading passage the learners not only get exposure to English but also
become interested in the subject matter, their motivation will be
increased and they will see more purpose in language learning. In this
way the whole learning process will be enriched.
As far as Motivation of the learner and his emotions are concerned,
textbook that is going to interest a learner should contain something

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that he wants to learn about or involve himself in, quite apart from the
language itself. English should come over as a means of conveying
messages of consequence and relevance and as a means through which
one’s experience is enriched and widened. It could well be presented
as a window on the world. Motivation is a major factor in language
learning success; that’s why a good textbook should contain activities
which appeal to the students and encourage personal involvement
because they tend to increase motivation.
Another important criterion is teaching cultural background with
the language. The advantage of specific cultural setting is that it
provides a range of clearly identifiable situations for the presentation
and subsequent practice of language items thus making the material
meaningful through being contextualized. A good textbook is the one
that not only presents language but also conveys cultural information.
Thus , the students have the opportunity to gain an insight into the
civilization or life and institutions of the English speaking countries,
primarily Britain and the USA. The language learning in this way is
viewed in a broader context and becomes a way for understanding
cross-cultural boundaries.
The last criterion of consideration is the development of
communicative abilities. In order to achieve a degree of
communicative ability, the learner needs practice in order to be able
to cope with communicative situations involving the realistic
integration of language skills and the development of cognitive
strategies – how to deal with a problem of real-time responses and
unpredictability in normal conversation. Communicative activities do
not have to be totally authentic but they must be representative of and
modelled on the processes that take place in real-language use. It is
very important to what extent the practice material in a textbook
represents real language use. Dialogues, for example, are certainly
useful for presenting new items of language and practicing them in a
mechanical fashion but unfortunately they are not fully representative
of real language use, nor do they require the students to engage in the
same cognitive processes that take place in real communicative
situations. Unfortunately, the dialogues that most of the textbooks
contain do not equip the learners to cope with unpredictable situations
because they are locked within the fixed sequence of the dialogue. A
good textbook should include dialogues which are more representative
of real communication.

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