07de outubrode 2009 Choosing and analyzing coursebooks | por Cristina G P Cesar

Having worked as an academic consultant for a publishing company for the last ten years, I have felt that many teachers and course coordinators have difficulty in selecting the most appropriate coursebook for each situation.

The reason I decided to write this article is because I think I have seen and heard a bit of everything as far as selecting materials is concerned. The objective of this article is to try to give some guidance for teachers and coordinators who have to choose an appropriate coursebook and very often have to do so in a short time, without having the opportunity of doing an extensive research through various catalogues or even visiting bookshops and showrooms of the main publishers.

One aspect that has been worrying me is that books are not very "transparent" and consequently teachers have difficulty in identifying certain characteristics.

Due to the fact that teachers are very busy and have to teach more hours than they would like to, I decided to go straight to the point and provide some very practical tips about the points that should be taken into consideration whenever one needs to adopt a coursebook.

One of the first questions one should ask is: What exactly am I looking for? What are my students' needs and expectations? Are you looking for materials for a regular school (colégio), for a language institute or for a university?

Other aspects to be taken into consideration are the following:

 What is my students' language level?

One important point to be made here is that the main publishing companies have a standard division of levels that follows this sequence:

1- starter or beginner (sometimes other terms such as intro or opener can be used)
2- elementary - which does not correspond to the word "elementar" as we have in Portuguese
3 -Pre- intermediate / early-intermediate
4 -Intermediate
5 -Upper intermediate - which corresponds to FCE (First Certificate of English) level
6- Advanced

 How many teaching hours do I have in each semester / year?
Am I looking for a coursebook for a whole year or for a semester?
How many hours do I have in my semester / year? 

Experience has shown me that, although not a lot of deep knowledge in math is needed, many teachers have never stopped to think about it. This is vital if you don't want to have students' question you the reasons they haven't finished the book by the end of the term.

Another aspect that I cannot forget to mention is that, despite the fact that the teachers' books have become enhanced and more complete lately, teachers hardly ever use it. I can assure you, teacher, the teacher's manual is of great help for both the experienced and the inexperienced ones. Otherwise they wouldn't exist, right?

 What is the age group?

Different books are designed for different maturity levels. You may have an intermediate student who is 10 years old and an intermediate student who is a 30-year-old executive who needs to improve his English in order to take an MBA course. Despite the fact that both students have an intermediate level, they need different coursebooks.

 What is my students' background?

Apart from the age, there are other aspects that mustn't be ignored. After knowing the language level and the age group, do not forget to analyze your students' cultural / knowledge background. Some students need and want more challenging materials, while and others simply cannot cope with very challenging activities which usually require some cultural knowledge about the culture of other countries, for example.

The profile of the teacher is as important as the profile of the learner.

 Who is the teacher? How much experience does he/she have?

I do not refer to the teacher's level of English language, by experience I mean teaching different levels, using different coursebooks, being familiar with different approaches and methods. One point that I would like to make here is that, experience is not necessarily directly related to many years' teaching experience. Although a teacher may have ten, twenty or even more years' experience, if she has not kept up with the latest trends in ELT one cannot consider that particular teacher an experienced professional.
Teachers must be aware that professional teaching development is a never-ending process.

If a teacher is really interested and motivated in her career, she should take into consideration the following aspects:

 What support materials does this particular coursebook have? Is there a website with on line exercises in the Internet for my students? Is there any teacher's site or any kind of help in the internet? Are there extra photocopiable activities? Is there any video or DVD that follows this particular series? For most of the modern coursebooks, the answer will be yes , you will find a lot of extra help and resource material, which makes teacher's job easier in a way because one will have everything ready-to-use. On the other hand, teachers have to select which of these extra materials she will be using. There will be no time to use every single extra material. What I want to comment is that, differently from when I started teaching in the mid 80 s, nowadays teachers have a different problem to solve: they need to choose and decide what they are not going to use with their students.

 Is the teacher used to teaching this age group / this particular level? In case the answer to the last two questions is no, how can she/he be helped in order to make life easier for her/him?

A more experienced teacher can help and give some hints about the typical and predictable mistakes and difficulties beginners have, or give some tips on teaching upper intermediate students.

Experience has shown that very often teachers come up with a slightly different question. They usually ask "What is "the best" book you have?" I want to show teachers and coordinators that what they have to ask when choosing a coursebook is: "What is the most adequate / appropriate book for my reality"? taking into consideration the points that I mentioned above.

The same happens with dictionaries and grammar books. Be careful when suggesting one of these books to your students. Instead of being a great help, a grammar book or a dictionary which is not the most appropriate can be dangerous to your students. Imagine the following situation: A beginner student with an intermediate or even an advanced learners' dictionary. It will certainly be of little or no use and students' motivation will decrease, learners will think that English is really difficult! I cannot really learn it!

In a nutshell, my aim here is to say that "books are like clothes", I mean, different ones fit different people, who have different needs. Or do you wear the same clothes when it is very hot, cold or on rainy days?