ENGLISH 7_Q4_LESSON 2_ Employing a Variety of Strategies for Effective Interp...
coursebook
1. UNIVERSIDAD CATÓLICA DE LA SANTÍSIMA CONCEPCIÓN
FACULTAD DE EDUCACIÓN
PEDAGOGÍA EN EDUCACIÓN MEDIA EN INGLÉS
“COURSEBOOK EVALUATION”
Course: English Methodology II
Teacher: Astrid Guerra
Student name: Ana María Luna
Claudia Parra H.
Concepción, Noviembre 4th, 2014
2. Factual details
Title: Texto para el Estudiante. Global English.
Author (s): Jolanta Polk Reyes
Publisher: Ediciones Calycanto/ Ministerio de Educación Price:
ISBN: 978-956-8623-97-5 No. of pages: 151 pages
Components: Student’s Book/Teacher’s Book/ Audio CDs Other:
Level: High School Physical size:
Length: 1 year Units: 6 units Lesson/section:
4 Lessons. Hours:
Target skills: Reading, listening, speaking & writing.
Target Teacher: High School.
Target Learners: High School.
Assessment: (* Poor ** Fair ***Good ****Excellent)
Rationale: The book intended to fill in first place pre-communicative activities: mostly
structural activities. The objectives are clear at the beginning of each unit. It cover the
principal need of the class which are related with the communicative tasks.
Availability: It is provided by the Chilean Ministry of Education, It is easy to obtain simple
copies, so teachers can support their classes with the material, nevertheless it seems more
3. difficult to contact with the representatives in case of doubts or comments, or for more
details about the book.
User Definition: There is a clear cultural specification which is related with our country, i t
has plenty of activities related with our context. It also has units which are more difficult than
others in terms of vocabulary but it is increasing. The book assumes some vocabulary and
grammar knowledge.
Layout/ graphics:Each unit starts with specific vocabulary items, and then moves to
grammar, communication activities, listening activities, reading and writing exercises. The
course book has attractive images, and each activity has an example to follow.
Accesibility: The material is well organized students can go to the beginning of the book
and they can look for the units. If they have needs to cover they can check the vocabulary
and the activities of the book. Learners are aware of the book organizations. The book has
self evaluation at the end of each unit, so students can see if they know or if they have
learnt.
Linkage: The units presented are not very connected with each other, but some activities
are linked so students can understand and do the exercises.
4. Selection/grading: The course book starts with a basic level of English, and it goes up to a
higher and challenging level of proficiency.
Physical Characteristics: The book does not have lot of spaces to write, so students have
to use their copybooks. The book is not to heavy, it is easy to move from one place to
another. Students can use it at least two times, because the book gets marked when
students write on it.
Appropiacy: Some of the units are not very interesting to hold hold the attention learnes,
nevertheless it will depends on the teacher how he present these new contents. The units
are good for the level of students maturity. The language is appropriate for the level.
Authenticity: The material is realistic to the students context. It could be presentend only
by using the text and its activitiess.
Sufficiency: The class could be developed using only the book for certain activities. Other
activities will need the use of Cd's, power point presentation or worksheets. There are some
units with activities that will not need the use of aids.
Cultural bias: British & American oriented.
Educational Validity: The book has not many aspects are related with the education
concerns. It has different contents, so it does not promote knowledge about education, or
what is happening, is more focused on the use of the skills in different situations.
5. Stimulus: It is mostly focused on pre-communicative activities when the importance
nowadays is to get the students to produce English. There are not enough speaking and
writing activities for students to practice spelling, pronunciation or language usage.
At the end of the book there are “self-evaluation” and “test your knowledge” exercises,
which help students to identify their strengths and weaknesses in certain activities/units.
Moreover, there is a list of answers for each activity, so students can constantly checking if
what they are doing is correct or wrong. It also includes useful web pages for students, in
which they can find activities and exercises which are similar to the ones in the course book.
Flexibility: It would not be possible to move from one unit to the other since the structure of
the book is designed to be done sequentially. One activity requires the previous knowledge
provided by the previous exercises and activities.
Guidance: There is not much guidance in the book. There is lack of information of how to
guide the book or how to present the lesson in different ways.
Overal Value for many: In general terms the book is easy to use, it does not take much
time to prepare a class, it is not expensive if we want to use it and prepare a class.
6. a Do the materials provide a balance of activities that is appropriate for your
students? Yes X No___
Comment: The book provide a wide number of activities, despite of they are not
connected each other, they are appropriate for students. Activities within the book
are meaningful to students because they are related to real context involving topics
such as love, technology , science , films.
b) Is there a sufficient amount of communicative output in the materials under
consideration?
Yes X No_
Comment: According to the text and the activities it provides several communicative
output in certain units, which are very helpful for the students, so they can see hoy to
produce the new language.
c) Do the materials provide enough roughly-tuned input for your students?
Yesx No___
Comment: activities within the book are accurate to the level of English that students
supposed to have. Some activities provide enough roughly-tuned input
7. 3.Answer these questions related to language, skills, topics and methodology.
Answers :
The test book cover the main grammar items according to the students’ needs.
However, we found that the activities are more related to grammar , focusing mainly in
structural activities than help learners to relate the structure they are studying to the use of
language. In addition, the book does not have material for pronunciation. We consider it as
the reason why learners presented different problems, for example in pronunciation and
spelling mistakes. Related to structure and conventions of language , the text book present
poverty in these aspects. It mainly focus in grammar instead of students make use of what
they are learning. style and appropriacy are accurate to students. The text book present a
language style formal and according to the classroom situation.
8. Answers 2 : The four skills are adequately covered, each unit of the book contains activities
for each skill (reading, listening, writing and speaking). However, this course book does not
adequately cover the four skills in a productive way. Most of the activities are pre-communicative.
In addition, the reading material is very complete and it has new vocabulary
in each unit for the learners. Related to listening skill, the recorded material included in the
course book in authentic and easy to follow. It includes activities which are accurate to the
level of English of students. However, he listening activities that can be found in the course
book are very structured and teacher oriented when it is supposed to be completely the
opposite. Regarding the spoken activities, the speaking skill is the least developed in the
entire course book, causing different problems on the learners, for example pronunciation
and spelling mistakes. Finally, writing items within the book are accurate and students can
produce writing in real contexts, such as writing love cards or to their music idols.
Answers 3: The material is really authentic and it catches the attention of students.
The topics of the course book are really updated, they engage students to learn. The
material seems to be carefully selected in order to draw the attention of the students. The
variety of the course book is one of the key elements in order to keep the students busy;
love, films, literature, young art, science. Some of the units present in the course book are
very well structured, but the most important aspect is that they are related to the students’
interest. For instance, exercises which include famous films or singers or activities related to
technology are something very unique and engaging for students, making their attention
9. span grow .This course book does not show any proof or any type of discrimination.
Actually, ethnic groups and even women are shown as equals as any kid or man appearing
in the book. This fact promotes respect among students, which is an important matter in
school nowadays.
Answers four: The course book does not really help students to expand their language
awareness since it only focuses on topics that are mainly related to entertainment. Thus, the
course book focuses on general aspects and it does not create consciousness about the
outside world. However, the course book can be really successful because the topics that it
provides are really connected with what students are interested.
10. 4. Conclusion :
The course book that we analyzed covered the four skills of the language and according to
Oxford (1990), these steps must be included to enhance our own language learning. The
term skill simply means ability, expertness, or proficiency which is what students are
expected to develop with the use of this book.
As a conclusion, the course book has some notorious advantages and
disadvantages. In terms of skills, even though the text book covers the four of them, they
are not appropriately integrated with one another. Moreover, some skills are clearly more
developed than the others, being the listening skills the less developed in students.
Furthermore, the varieties of topics included in the course book are one of the positive
aspects of it. Even though this book is mostly teacher oriented (pre-communicative
activities), it has good and appropriate images and graphics, being attractive to students
and obviously engaging for them.
11. References
Oxford, R. (1990). Language learning strategies: what every teacher should know. Boston:
Heinle&Heinle.
Polk, J. (2008). Global English: texto para el estudiante. Ediciones Cal y Canto Ltda.