This document summarizes interviews with an English teacher and student about their use and views of coursebooks. The teacher finds coursebooks important for their focus on communication and uses them mainly for presentation and practice. She supplements materials when activities are inappropriate or to encourage different skills. She would like varied listening activities and more visual grammar instruction. The student uses the coursebook as required but prefers reading activities about familiar topics. While not very important on its own, she sees it as a useful guide for studying.
2. Eliciting teacher’s views on coursebooks.
Teacher: María Teresa Villagra
1. Do you think coursebooks are important?
Yes, very important, because the coursebooks here are focused on the
communicative approach.
2. What are you criteria for choosing a coursebook?
Different focuses of the coursebooks and the material that they have.
3. Which part (s) of the course book do you frequently use and which part (s) do you
seldom use?
I frequently use the course book for presentation and practice stage in a class, so I
prefer those activities focuses on the content that I am covering at that moment.
Also I try to use parts of coursebooks in which students can feel motivated.
4. When, why and how you supplement the course book?
I supplement the coursebook when this one doesn’t have the variety that I need or
when I need extra activities when students need to develop productive skills,
because sometimes the activities are not appropriate for the level of the student
or because I want to encourage students to do different things.
5. What kind of help would you like to have to from the coursebook in teaching
grammar or any other aspects of the language?
I would like to have different kinds of listening activities depending on the content.
Also I would like to have more visual material when I am teaching grammar,
because this will help students a lot.
Eliciting learners’ views on coursebooks.
Name: Josefa Espinoza, 7th grade in Colegio Concepción San Pedro.
1. How often do you use your coursebook?
I have to bring my course book to the class.
2. Which part (s) of it do you use most frequently and which part (s) do you seldom
use?
I always try to cover all the parts of the book, I mean the teacher tries to do that.
But if I have to highlight one part, that would be reading activities, because I like
them more than the others.
3. Which part of the book do you like best and which part do you like least?
I love when I can find in the book information or activities about my favorite TV
series or something that I really know. I can find this in the reading parts or when I
3. have to put words about something that read before. I really hate listening
because is very hard.
4. Is the coursebook important for you?
Not really. I think that we can just talk every class and everything would be ok, but
when I need to study it is very important for me, coursebooks are like a guide.
5. What kind of coursebook would you like to have?
I would like to have a coursebook where I can identify real things, like sports here
in the country or information about famous people, but famous people for me, not
for the teacher, because they are old.
6. Do you like the coursebook you have now?
Yes, I like it, but sometimes.
Factual details.
Title: Travelers
Author (s): Lina Alvarado Jantus
Publisher: Gobierno de Chile, Ministerio de Educación, Ediciones Calycanto and MC Millan
Price: free
ISBN: 9789568623531
No. of pages: 128
Components: SB/TB/WB/TESTS/CASSESTES/VIDEO/CALL/OTHER: students’ book, tests at
the end of the unit, verbs list and web pages.
Level: elementary level. 8th grade.
Physical size: 150 grs.
Lengths: 26 centimeters x 21 centimeters.
Units: 4, Cultural elements, self-care, different lives and People and places.
Lessons/sections: 5, listening, reading, oral production, written production and language
and vocabulary.
Hours: 4
Target skills: Speaking, listening, reading and writing.
4. Target learners: Speaking, listening, reading and writing.
Target teachers: Speaking, listening, reading and writing.
ASSESSMENT (*POOR **FAIR ***GOOD ****EXCELLENT)
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