The early ideas of developing a book on coursebook evaluation occurred during the 11th International TELLSI Conference held in Mashhad, Iran in 2013. After participating lectures, presentation sessions and panel discussions, we got into a hot debate on university courses, needs of EFL students, materials and recourses, etc. which finally led us to the decision we made on developing a book series on Issues in TEFL with volumes focusing on topics such as materials development and evaluation, SLA theories, syllabus designing and curriculum development to investigate contemporary aspects of teaching and learning English applicable in second/foreign language contexts.
Issues in Coursebook Evaluation takes a theory to practice approach with emphasis on theoretical underpinnings that lead into practical aspects of the process of textbook evaluation. The book covers the fundamental concepts in coursebook evaluation in reader-friendly chapters that make it easier for readers in the field to follow the main aspects of materials and textbook evaluation. Moreover, these review chapters reflect the voice and style of contributors in covering the issues and presenting scholarly ideas which turn this work to a valuable resource book in applied linguistics. This book not only serves as a potential basis for post-graduate courses on textbook evaluation or for research work, but also provides a practical guide for those interested in materials evaluation such as language teachers, academics, practitioners, and researchers. The outstanding point about this book is that there seems to be very few publications specifically devoted to coursebook evaluation. This has probably been due to the close relationship between materials development and evaluation and sometimes viewing them as the two sides of the same coin which has led to covering related issues mainly in books on materials development.
Coursebooks are indispensable parts of language learning programs and their careful selection in meeting the requirements of the courses along with the interaction of various other elements can lead to the success of the programs. This will not be possible unless a systematic and objective evaluation of textbooks is conducted based on informed principles of language learning and teaching, needs of the learners, goals of the course, learning outcomes, and several other interrelated factors. In an EFL context in which the coursebooks may be the only source of language learning, the evaluation of textbooks to adopt or adapt them seem to gain prominence. That is why this book specifically focuses of coursebook evaluation in EFL and ESL contexts to pull together the theory and practice of materials evaluation and to illustrate some viewpoints and insights which can inform language teachers, practitioners, textbook and materials evaluators on issues of current concern. The central themes in evaluating coursebooks, in this book, are presented as outlined below.
In the first chapter, Nimehchisalem expresses that among English language teaching materials, books are of particular significance and have been used as an inseparable component of most language classes for ages. This is particularly true for EFL contexts in which learners are less likely to be exposed to authentic examples of the English language. This underlines the significance of books in EFL settings, and in turn accentuates their evaluation. Accordingly, Nimehchisalem addresses some fundamental questions that have engaged experts in the area of ELT learning-teaching materials evaluation for years. Specifically, he focuses on these four questions: (1) Why should anyone bother about book evaluation? (2) How is it possible to evaluate books? (3) When should books be evaluated? And (4) Who should be in charge of book evaluation?
In Chapter 2, Al-Busaidi emphasizes on the significance of needs analysis by stating that it is a forgotten aspect of materials evaluation. He defines needs and explains the needs analysis process. He also discusses the main concerns in needs analysis, the procedure of identifying needs, different types of tools to collect information, and how to interpret and analyze the data. In the third chapter on evaluating language and content in coursebooks, Banegas considers Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) in EFL contexts. He first specifies why teachers should evaluate textbooks. Then he offers a brief outline of CLIL and how it may appear in coursebooks. Finally, he suggests how teachers can decide about adopting a coursebook under a CLIL framework. This chapter is followed by Thom Kiddle’s exploration of approaches to evaluation of physical teaching aids, designed primarily for language teaching and learning in Chapter 4. He also considers the evaluation of digital tools which are not explicitly designed for educational purposes but may be used in classroom teaching, or in teacher-supported individual or collaborative learning.
Considering the purpose of language learning which is communication, in Chapter 5, Troncoso reflects on the significance of the new trends of the communicative approach for language teaching, specifically the importance of the intercultural approach for language education and how it can be assessed in communicative activities. He provides some key elements to take into account when evaluating, adapting or developing activities for Intercultural Communicative Competence (ICC). He also provides examples of some communicative activities proposed in an adapted Spanish Unit. Closely related to this topic, Chapter 6 deals with socio-cultural perspectives in evaluating coursebooks. In this comprehensive chapter, Cortazzi and Jin discuss socio-cultural issues and basic evaluation criteria to be considered when evaluating TEFL coursebooks. They indicate a range of complexities that make this evaluation difficult when both global and local pedagogic considerations are not taken into account. They also emphasize on reflexivity which is a kind of meta-reflection about one’s socio-cultural orientation and expectations within TEFL which provides teachers and learners with global and local social and cultural awareness. They end this chapter with evaluating socio-cultural aspects of some TEFL coursebooks of students in China.
While the first six chapters deal with coursebook evaluation in general, in Chapter 7, Savova focuses only on a specific aspect that is ESL textbook conversations and investigates the criteria used to evaluate their authenticity. As she states, language learners find textbook conversations different from real-life conversations since they lack authenticity and regardless of attempts made to change this situation still some artificiality in ESL textbook and classroom conversations can be observed. To deal with this issue, she first analyzes sample textbook conversations, then demonstrates that both linguistic analysis and conversation analysis (CA) can provide conversational criteria to evaluate the authenticity of textbook conversations. She introduces CA as a tool to analyze real-life conversations and applies it in a sample ESL textbook conversation. At the end, she offers some criteria for evaluating the authenticity of textbook conversations.
Considering the fact that language learners have different purposes in studying English, in Chapter 8, Azarnoosh, Khosrojerdi, and Zeraatpishe review the main issues in ESP textbook evaluation. After mentioning the importance of textbook evaluation and conducting needs analysis in evaluating ESP materials, they discuss some proposed language learning and teaching principles in developing coursebooks which underlie ESP textbook evaluation. In addition, the specificity of ESP context and its features are discussed. Taking these aspects into consideration, the authors elaborate on ESP evaluation criteria and methods of conducting it.
Chapter 9 deals with e-textbook evaluation. In this chapter, Kargozari, Peyvandi, and Faravani point to the fact that the textbook market is revolutionized by the digital age which means availability of e-textbooks, and consequently the need to evaluate such materials. To select the most appropriate e-textbooks, they recommend evaluation of e-textbooks to find their potential strengths and weaknesses. So they elaborate on definitions of e-books, their advantages, and review the criteria required for evaluating e-textbooks.
The book ends with Chapter 10 on insightful gains from research on ELT materials evaluation. In this chapter, Mukundan, Rezvani Kalajahi and Zarifi discuss the advantages of research on materials evaluation considering the following two aspects: (1) the main areas of research in ELT materials evaluation, and (2) the benefit and impact of ELT materials research on teachers and teaching-learning. Concerning the first aspect, they point to the development of evaluation instruments, evaluation of teaching materials, and emergence of the composite framework. The second issue deals with benefits of materials research on textbooks, learner needs, and teacher professional development. The concluding remark is that still more work and research needs to be done in the area of textbook evaluation.
We hope that this book will be considered as a valuable contribution to the applied linguistics and English language teaching field. We also hope you enjoy reading this book and find it applicable when evaluating language learning coursebooks. At the end, we express our sincere appreciation to all the authors of this volume without whom this book would have never come to life, Atefeh Quds who set the format of the chapters, and the reviewers and editors at Brill | Sense.