Materials Evaluation

Session 5
Prof. Yousif Alshumaimeri
KSU MA TESOL Programme
CI 596

A lecture by Prof. Yousif Alshumaimeri 2013

This session will discuss:
 Different criteria of material evaluation

A lecture by Prof. Yousif Alshumaimeri 2013

View of Purpose of Learning
 Our view of the purpose of learning a
language was to enable people to
communicate with others.
 To be able to do this, learners of any
language need to develop the ability to be:
◦ Accurate – knowledge of and ability to use
the sound, structure, vocabulary rules and
how to combine them into stretches of
formally correct Oral/W text.

A lecture by Prof. Yousif Alshumaimeri 2013

View of Purpose of Learning
◦ Fluent- to be able to use the above
knowledge to comprehend / express spoken
and written meanings accurately in real time
… language skills
◦ Appropriate- to be able to
express/comprehend meanings with sensitivity
to the (+/- formality of ) the context (people-
topic-place-purpose …)

A lecture by Prof. Yousif Alshumaimeri 2013

View of how people learn a
language
 Through exposure to explicitly chosen/structured
or casual/environmental input
 Through output opportunities
A. Repetition/memorization of (+ or – controlled)
examples of language in context.
B. Interaction using language to
communicate/comprehend with others for some
purpose
 Practice in (a) and (b) enabling gradual
development from ‘declarative’ conscious
performance to more ‘procedural’ automization

A lecture by Prof. Yousif Alshumaimeri 2013

Such learning Being helped by
 A supportive learning environment /
classroom
 Positive motivation
 Meaningfulness of input/output opportunities
in terms of them being interesting-relevant-
real world-authentic-personal
 Some effort made to acknowledge the
importance of ‘frequency’ of forms and
vocabulary items and of adequate recycling
of language.

A lecture by Prof. Yousif Alshumaimeri 2013

Definition
 Tomlinson’s (2003) definition:
 Materials evaluation is a procedure that
involves measuring the value (or potential
value) of a set of learning materials.

A lecture by Prof. Yousif Alshumaimeri 2013

Textbook Evaluation

 No textbook or set of materials is likely

to be perfect, and there does not seem as
yet an agreed set of criteria for
evaluation.
 This is inevitable “as the needs, objectives,
backgrounds and preferred styles of the
participants differ from context to
context” Tomlinson, 2003: 15

A lecture by Prof. Yousif Alshumaimeri 2013

Different scenarios
 Two distinct situations:
◦ Open-market materials are chosen by
teachers
◦ Ministry of Education produces materials that
are subsequently passed on to the teacher for
classroom use.

A lecture by Prof. Yousif Alshumaimeri 2013

Textbook Evaluation
 The aim of evaluation in a context in
which we have a free/limited choice:
◦ is to assess which of a number of course
books seems ‘most appropriate’ for our
purposes.
 In a context where we have no choice:
◦ is to see what the strengths /weaknesses of
the book are, and so to identify what might
need adapting and how we might do so.

A lecture by Prof. Yousif Alshumaimeri 2013

Evaluation instrument design
Task 1 see handouts

A lecture by Prof. Yousif Alshumaimeri 2013

Evaluation instrument design
 When designing an evaluation instrument, we
need to think about two aspects:
◦ What do we want to find out about? What are our
most important criteria? The content of the
evaluation instrument). Items here may be
more or less objective.
◦ What form of instrument will be useable in our
context (bearing in mind the time that we are likely
to have/the prior knowledge that we bring to the
process) to identify whether these criteria are
present or not? The design of the evaluation
instrument
◦ (As usual there may be compromises to be made
between (i) and (ii)

A lecture by Prof. Yousif Alshumaimeri 2013

Evaluation instrument design
 McDonough and others (2013) suggests
two stages of evaluation:
◦ An external evaluation that offers a brief
overview of the materials from the outside
(cover, introduction, table of contents).
◦ An internal evaluation that offers a closer and
more detailed look into the materials to
analyse the extent to which there is a match
between what is said in the textbook ‘blurb’
or external factors

A lecture by Prof. Yousif Alshumaimeri 2013

Evaluation instrument design
 Task 2 for next week.

A lecture by Prof. Yousif Alshumaimeri 2013