MAs in Applied Linguistics and TESOL ENGLISH

ENGL672 Course and Materials Design Session Five: Materials Evaluation FEEDBACK TWO
Criteria Scale for each of the criteria

1 = Definitely true
A: Learners are likely to be emotionally engaged by the materials. 2 = Partially true
B: Learners are exposed to input of language in use 3 = Not really true
C: The activities provide learners with opportunities to use language for communicative 4 = Not at all true
purposes. 5 = Does not apply
D: The activities help learners to make discoveries about how English is typically used
E: The learners are likely to be cognitively engaged by the materials

Activity Criteria Grade Reasons

A B C D E
1 1 3 2 5 3 For A: Ss are very familiar with HK and will likely have feelings about it, or will have heard parents
talking about it, HK music very familiar to them. Ss are less interested in / familiar with Moscow
but may be aware of it due to influence of Soviet Union on Chinese communism – parents,
grandparents etc.
For B: The input here will come from the students themselves, expressing what they know and
don’t know. The materials do not – of their own design – create a purpose for discussing the
question and so the input from the students may not be very rich. To move B from 3 to 2 would
require careful set up, exemplification and demonstration from the teacher.
For C: Demonstrating knowledge and opinion in this way implies a response to some kind of
information gap. But it would score 1 if there were a communicative reason for why students need
to demonstrate their knowledge. Even just this: We are going to find out if your opinions about HK
and Moscow are similar or different to those of Michael and Irina
For D: N/A
For E: The question ‘what do you know’ is not really a ‘higher level’ mental skill (Tomlinson, B. in
Tomlinson, B. (Ed) 2013 p. 12). The question, what is your opinion about …?) would have resulted
in a higher score for E.

2a For A: For B: For C: For D: For E:

2b For A: For B: For C: For D: For E:
3 For A: For B: For C: For D: For E:
Analysis For A: For B: For C: For D: For E:
Prac 1a 3 3 4 4 3 For A: Students may well be engaged by the pictures initially but this cannot really be said to be
emotional. They may be intrigued or mildly entertained
For B: Students are exposed to input, but it is not language in real-life everyday use. Here the input
is being used to demonstrate and exemplify
For C: The purpose of this activity is to demonstrate target language needed and for students to
demonstrate understanding of items. Not communicative.
For D: No discovery focus here for the materials. But this does not mean that Ss are not
‘discovering’ as they engage with the activity
For E: Visual and aural noticing of differences forces cognitive engagement to a limited degree.
Prac 1b 3 3 4 4 3 For A: Students may well be engaged by the pictures initially but this cannot really be said to be
emotional. They may be intrigued or mildly entertained
For B: Students are exposed to input, but it is ‘display input’ of rather limited utterances from a
partner
For C: The purpose of this activity is to display accurate command of target expressions in the
analysis box. Student attention will likely be more focussed on form than meaning
For D: No discovery focus here for the materials. But this does not mean that Ss are not
‘discovering’ as they engage with the activity
For E: Visual and aural noticing of differences forces cognitive engagement to a limited degree.
This would be heightened if pictures were hidden from respective partners in a pair.
2 3 3 4 4 3 For A: There will be emotion associated with one’s town. But the emphasis in the instruction for
the activity forces attention onto the structure
For B: Not much input here but will come from partners in the comparison stage – but unlikely to
be very rich.
For C: There is no communicative purpose for the comparison and the example sentence is
communicatively unconvincing. Typically such sentences would qualitied with a supporting
statement: ‘Restaurants are much better than before. They have different kinds of food. They are
cleaner. They are more relaxing and the staff are more friendly’
For D: No discovery here
For E: Thinking time offers a limited opportunity for cognitive engagement
V&W 1 For A: For B: For C: For D: For E:
V&W2 For A: For B: For C: For D: For E:
V&W3 For A: For B: For C: For D: For E:

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