Textbooks: Evaluation for Selection and Analysis for Implementation

By Professor: Misiel Watson



Textbooks are an essential part of a lesson and if teachers do not make the correct decisions in selecting them, they can face many difficulties. Teachers should have different encounters with textbooks as they make decisions about how to implement and suplement materials to make classe more effcetive and as possible for their students and for themselves.

According to the writer textbooks are for students. To meet their needs, the textbook must have not only the English language or communication skill content demanded by the curriculum, but it must also fit needs of students as learners of English. I agree strongly on this statement, because many times teachers use a textbook just to cover a topic or just to have the students doing something related with what they have already taught without taking into consideration if it provides enough things for the teacher to give his or her studentst to work with or if it really fulfill the students needs. 

In conclusion, I would say that prior to implementing a textbook, a teacher needs to read the whole book from start to finish in order to discover some useful features of the textbook. And teachers must always have in mind that they can only implement materials if they know they are there.

PRINCIPLES OF EFFECTIVE MATERIALS DEVELOPMENT

By Professor  Misiel Watson


I consider that for a class to be enjoyable, for students to be motivated and enthusiastic in the english class ,teachers should have all the necessary materials to develop the lesson. Those materials should be  authentic and interesting for the students. 

According to writer Brian Tomlinson, author of principles of effective materials development, the materials need to be written in such a way that the teacher can make use of them as a resource and not have to follow them as a script. He also believes that the teaching should be designed to help learners to achieve language development and not just language acquisition.  This means that students must learn how to use the language in real contexts, be able to use the language outside the classroom to communicate with others and not just learn the rules of the language.

To conclude I would say that, we as teachers can make of the english language something pleasant and enjoyable, all we need to do is develop materials that will encourage  and motivate students to learn.