The document analyzes an English textbook called "Happy Street" based on several criteria: 1) It finds an imbalance in developing the four language skills, with less focus on speaking and no writing practice. 2) It finds the textbook has suitable grammatical, lexical and communicative progression for beginner students. 3) It considers the material sufficient for one English class per week at primary school.

1. Practice II – Camila Roldán & Samanta Otamendi Gomez
Practical N° 10
Task: Análisis y diseño/ contextualización de materiales y recursos didácticos.
Work in pairs. Analyze the textbooks provided using the following criteria:
1. Is there a balance in the development of the four macroskills?
There is not a balance in the four macroskills as Happy Street has more reading
and listening exercises than speaking. The latter macroskill consists only in
repeating sentences or pieces or texts already provided by the textbook. As
regards writing, this book does not include any practice about it.
2. Is there grammatical, lexical and communicative progression suitable
for the age of the students?
Yes, there is a coherent progression as regards grammatical structures,
lexical items (vocabulary) and communicative functions that are organized
according the age of the students (beginners). Concerning grammatical
structures the book presents structures such as can /can’t, have got, yes/no
questions, etc. Relating to lexical items, the book introduces vocabulary based
on the topic of each unit for example, Greetings (Welcome to Happy Street),
school supplies (At school), toys (At happy house), food (At the shop), personal
belongings for leisure (At the park), parts of the house and furniture (Greg’s flat),
descriptive adjectives (In the street), clothing (In the playground), parts of the
body and abilities (At the sports centre). Finally, as regards communicative
competence the book provides the grammatical structures and lexical elements
necessary to introduce yourself, to ask for school supplies, to buy food at the
shop and to express whether you like it or not and to express abilities.
3. Is the material enough/excessive for the number of hours you teach
during a school year?

2. Practice II – Camila Roldán & Samanta Otamendi Gomez
Thinking of beginner students at Primary school who have English lessons
once a week, we consider this book is enough for them as it provides them the
general knowledge they need to insert themselves in the world of English. This
class book can be complemented with the Activity book or else the teacher can
prepare her/his own materials to enrich the process of learning.
4. Are the thematic units suitable for the age and social context of our
learners? Do they favour intercultural awareness?
The thematic units are suitable for students who are beginners because the
textbook presents basic topics beginning with greetings which is the first step when
someone is introduced in a new language. At the same time the book deals with
daily elements that children use e.g. toys and school supplies. The book also
provides the learners with comic strips in each unit and most pages have got big
and colourful pictures which make it attractive. Finally, in each unit there are
games or songs.
5. Is there variety in the textual types offered? Is there language learning
which can be linked to the development of other disciplines: Social
sciences, L1, Natural Science, Art, etc? (CLIL)
Most of the book’s texts are dialogues and comic strips but it also has songs,
chants, rhymes and letters.
The book does not present any kind of project but in some units the teacher could
think of activities to link the contents to other subjects.
For example in the unit “At the shop” students could study the food pyramid in the
Natural science class and even bring some food to class and make different
recipes to eat! – or the unit “ At the sports centre” could be linked both to Natural

3. Practice II – Camila Roldán & Samanta Otamendi Gomez
science class (studying parts of the body) and to physical education (making
exercise).
6. What kind of didactic approach is fostered: PPP, CLT, Task Based,
Project work, others?
The didactic approach fostered in this book is CLT as the book
emphasizes the oral practice in order to communicate. In the class book
there is not production from the part of the students; there is only listening,
repetition and reading.
7. Do the activities in the textbook provide integration with prior
knowledge, extensive practice, revision and instances of self-assessment?
The activities of each unit recover little concepts presented in the previous
units, for example in the first units colours and numbers are introduced which are
used in the following units. The biggest connection among all of the units is “Collin
in Computerland”, an adventure comic strip which is at the end of each unit. This
story provides language revision throughout the book.
8. Is the workbook integrated with the book or is it presented separately?
Does it provide meaningful practice?
The workbook is presented separately.
9. Would you recommend the use of this textbook for Primary/ at which
level? Why/not?

4. Practice II – Camila Roldán & Samanta Otamendi Gomez
This book could be used at Primary school, probably in 4th grade. However, it
should not be used alone as it lacks writing practice and production. This is the
reason why it needs to be accompanied with the workbook or extra activities
designed by the teacher to boost learners’ written production.
10. Complete these book features: (page 74, our booklet)
· Price and availability: The Class book’s price is $238 and the Activity
book is $172.
· Add-ons and extras: Happy Street offers the class book, the activity
book, cassettes & CDs, the teacher’s book and the teacher’s resource
pack. The latter contains a poster for use in the classroom, 64 flashcards
and extra photocopiable activities.
· Layout and design: The book’s design is attractive because it contains
colourful drawings from the beginning to the end so as to get the
students’ attention and make it easy to follow.
· Instructions: Although they are simple and clear, learners will need the
teacher to explain them how to use the book, especially the activities
which are games because the instructions are related to the previous
activitiy.
· Syllabus: the syllabus is appropriate because students learn the first
items of vocabulary they need to communicate in this new language. For
example, asking simple questions when buying food or asking about
other’s likes/dislikes.
· Language skills: There is no balance in the macroskills as the textbook
focuses on listening, speaking and reading. Writing is excluded.

5. Practice II – Camila Roldán & Samanta Otamendi Gomez
· Topics: the topics as we said earlier are appropriate for the age and the
level of the young learners.
· Cultural Appropriacy: There is no interference as regards cultural
aspects in the book that might shock students except for page N° 48 in
which there are descriptions of houses which are far away from the
reality of the students and they may not feel identified.
· Teacher’s guide: Happy Street provides a teacher’s book which has
teaching notes with suggestions for further activities and three
photocopiable tests. However, we are not able to analyze it further as we
do not have it.
· Web companion: At the back of the book there is a webpage of Oxford
University Press, if you go there you can search for Happy Street 1 and
there are resources for both students and teachers:
https://elt.oup.com/teachers/happystreet/?
cc=ar&selLanguage=en&mode=hub
https://elt.oup.com/student/happystreet/?
cc=ar&selLanguage=en&mode=hub

6. Practice II – Camila Roldán & Samanta Otamendi Gomez
· Topics: the topics as we said earlier are appropriate for the age and the
level of the young learners.
· Cultural Appropriacy: There is no interference as regards cultural
aspects in the book that might shock students except for page N° 48 in
which there are descriptions of houses which are far away from the
reality of the students and they may not feel identified.
· Teacher’s guide: Happy Street provides a teacher’s book which has
teaching notes with suggestions for further activities and three
photocopiable tests. However, we are not able to analyze it further as we
do not have it.
· Web companion: At the back of the book there is a webpage of Oxford
University Press, if you go there you can search for Happy Street 1 and
there are resources for both students and teachers:
https://elt.oup.com/teachers/happystreet/?
cc=ar&selLanguage=en&mode=hub
https://elt.oup.com/student/happystreet/?
cc=ar&selLanguage=en&mode=hub