Evaluation of Book
Adapted from Cunningsworth’s ‘Quick-reference checklist for evaluation and selection’ (1995)
Aims and Approaches
 Do the aims of the coursebook correspond closely with the objectives of the programme, syllabus and
level?
o Yes. The coursebook has a strong focus on learning strategies which is the focus of the
programme curriculum objectives for the level. For example, each unit asks students to look at
vocabulary in context, look for main ideas (synthesizing and summarizing), skim and scan for
details, make inferences from the reading, and think critically about what they have read. They
are also asked to analyze writing as well as consider writing formats, essay parts, and essay
language.
 Do the activities in the coursebook clearly assist in test and exam preparation?
o Tests are created by instructors for their individual classes, and often not shared amongst the
level teachers. However, the teacher pack does include ExamView software with preloaded test
questions, and this makes it easier for teachers to quickly created tests that are related to both
the topics of the book and test the skills that the book practices. Exams are created by level
teams each semester, and are usually created to fit the material covered in class.
 Do the aims of the coursebook correspond with the future needs of the learners?
o In theory, yes. The book is written for ‘academically bound’ students which is the right
audience. As mentioned above, the book asks students to practice general language and
learning skills that they can than transfer to their diploma studies. However, the book is too
difficult so students are often confused by the scaffolding provided and unable to move from
objective activities (gathering facts from the reading) to more subjective activities (predicting,
making inferences, critical thinking). There is also a major flaw in the choice of vocabulary focus
as it looks at rarely used words instead of helping students build a larger bank of vocabulary that
is likely to reappear and be useful. Finally, the book falls short in offering authentic texts of the
kind that will prove useful in the future. Though the texts are interesting and contain
challenging vocabulary, they are much shorter than the readings that are required at the college
level and do not provide enough practice with the language of academic writing.
 Is the coursebook suited to the learning situation?
o The coursebook is slightly too long to be covered in the term, but because of the repetition of
coverage of learning skills, it is not necessary for each teacher to cover all units or indeed even
the same units. This allows for some flexibility where teachers can asks students to have some
input into the readings covered in class. Because the readings are formatted according to the
types of writing that are to be covered in the level, it suits the overall level very well.
 Is the coursebook suited to the teaching situation (i.e. does it adhere to prescribed methods)?
o I believe it falls short with the teaching situation as higher level cognitive skills are being
addressed but with little guidance to the instructor (more information in ‘Teachers’ Book’
section.) This can be problematic as the education level, teaching experience, and knowledge of
learning strategies of teachers varies greatly. This shortcoming is especially detrimental as the
programme offers little, if any, prescribed methods, meaning that student experiences in
different sections of the same level and skill class vary widely. More guidance on the instruction
for activities in the book might help overcome this.
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Does the coursebook cover most or all of what is needed?
o Pre-reading and predicting is needed and is included but is often too short or vague to be of
interest/use. Each reading begins with a picture and three questions, some of which are
impossible for students to answer based on limited knowledge of the topic, and thus creating
frustration before the reading begins.
o Vocabulary and vocabulary in context must be taught explicitly (according to syllabus). This is
included but covers vocabulary that is unlikely to be useful to learners and little advice is given
on guessing meaning from context. Some vocabulary building and vocabulary in new context
offer useful information about word forms, etc. but many ask learners to create collocations,
etc. with words beyond their level.
o Reading comprehension is needed addressed in a number of activities. First, main ideas are well
covered through multiple choice and allow students to summarize sections of the reading.
Inferencing is covered but with little guidance which is difficult for students with little
experience of learner autonomy or ‘guessing’. The activities relating to discussion and critical
thinking is useful for expanding ideas gathered from the reading.
o The writing includes a section on organization which is brief and may benefit from the use of
visuals to demonstrate organization. Useful language is addressed, and students are asked to
analyze a sample piece of writing. However, the book lacks sufficient scaffolding for the actual
writing process.
Is it a good resource for students? (for teacher’s resource, see Teachers’ Book section)
o The coursebook does provide some useful writing resources for students. These can be found in
each unit’s writing section which provides a concise explanation of an essay type which can be
used by students in the future to direct their writing. It also includes a writing resource section
which provides students with guidance for pre-writing, revising and editing, quoting,
paraphrasing, and summarizing. It falls short in providing resources related to reading and
reading strategies as students do not have access to answer keys, and are not offered
explanations of different learning strategies and how to employ them.
Is the coursebook flexible?
o As mentioned above, the coursebook is flexible in length, allowing teachers to give students
some choice over the readings covered in class. This is due largely to the fact that each unit
covers the same learning skills. Though teachers are required to cover some of the units to align
the reading and writing classes, students may ‘vote’ on the others to be used. With some
imagination by the teacher, the coursebook activities can be made more flexible, though they
are fairly traditional and basic. (multiple choice, short answer, etc.) However, the coursebook is
not organized with increasingly difficult readings, so units may be taken in any order.
Does it allow different teaching styles?
o As mentioned above, teachers can be quite flexible in how they use the activities in the book,
and the readings themselves are good starting points for any number of teacher created
activities, projects, writings, and discussions. The teachers’ manual does give some suggestions
for discussion questions which can help prompt teachers, but teachers can easily make the
activities more oral, visual, etc. as suits them.
Does it allow different learning styles?
o The book is not written to cater to different learning styles. It follows a very basic set of
traditionally slanted activities, which are repeated exactly in each unit. With this book, it will be
the teacher’s responsibility to adapt activities to different learning styles.
Design and Organization
 What components make up the total course package (eg students’ books, teachers’ books, workbooks,
cassettes, etc)?
o students’ book with audio CD of readings
o teachers’ book with audio CD of readings, Exam View testing software, and teachers’ manual
 How is the content organized (eg according to structures, functions, topics, skills, etc)?
o The content is organized by topic and writing structure (compare/contrast essay, process essay,
etc.). There are two readings (which both exhibit the same writing structure) per unit with one
writing section.
 Is the organization right for learners and teachers?
o As mentioned above, the organization does allow for some flexibility and student choice of topic
after certain writing structures are covered. One flaw is that, according to the syllabus, each
unit, and therefore each writing structure, is only covered for two weeks. Students may need
longer to practice these structures and therefore there is either some delay in the reading class
or some rushing in the writing class. It is difficult to keep the two in line with each other.
 Is there adequate recycling and revision?
o There is adequate recycling and revision of learning strategies as students are asked to practice
the same learning strategies with each reading. However, vocabulary is not taught extensively,
and words that are taught are not recycled at all. The writing sections move from structure to
structure with each unit and therefore there is little revision of writing and little scaffolding for
students.
 Is some of the material suitable for individual study?
o Students could listen to the readings individually. The activities are unlikely to be of much use
for individual study as students do not have access to the answers. Each unit also includes a
‘Connecting to the Internet’ activity which students could work on independently to practice
researching for essays. However, it is likely that even on these, students would want teacher
feedback on their work.
 Is it easy to find your way around the coursebook?
o The layout is very clear. Pages are well displayed without being overcrowded. The book offers a
table of contents outlining the topic, readings, writing skills, and writing practice covered in each
unit. This is followed by a description of the text organization which outlines each type of
activity in the book. Reading lines are clearly numbered, and each new activity is clearly
marked.
Language Content
 Is material for vocabulary teaching adequate in terms of quantity and range of vocabulary, emphasis
placed on vocabulary development, strategies for individual learning?
o The vocabulary section is not particularly useful for the level of student. Students are asked to
guess meanings of ten words from each reading using the context. The number of words is
sufficient, but students are offered no guidance on how to use the context to guess meaning.
The words chosen are rarely used words, and most are not found on any of the frequent
vocabulary lists (1-2000 most frequent words, or Academic Word List). Each unit does offer a
vocabulary building section, but again, students are asked to created collocations, group nouns
and adjectives, or create compound words, often with little or no guidance. For many students,
this will be beyond their grasp of vocabulary. Vocabulary is not recycled at any point, so
students are likely to forget words that have been covered, or fail to see the rationale for
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Skills
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learning words in the first place. There is little/no guidance for vocabulary acquisition, practice,
discovery, etc.
Does the coursebook deal with the structuring and conventions of language use above sentence level,
eg how to take part in conversations, how to structure a piece of extended writing, how to identify the
main points in a reading passage? (More relevant at intermediate and advanced levels)
o The coursebook does not cover how to take part in a conversation as this is covered in the
Listening and Speaking class. However, there are discussion sections which do allow students to
converse on prompts, and this provides fluency practice without pressuring students with issues
of accuracy.
o The book does explicitly cover the structuring of extended writing as each unit covers a different
essay structure. The book offers a description of the essay type, a section on organizing the
essay, useful vocabulary unique to specific essay types, exercises using the reading passages
which combine the writing guidance with previously covered readings, a model essay and
questions, and writing practice. However, writing practice is not well scaffolded, and this is
needed for longer pieces of writing.
o The book does ask students to answer questions around the main ideas of the readings, but
offers no guidance on how to spot main ideas. Teachers may find it useful to cover the reading
in sections with discussion to help students find main ideas. It may also be useful to ask
students to clearly explain HOW they found the main ideas.
Is there material for integrated skills work?
o As the title suggests, the book integrates reading and writing. Students read certain essay types
around at topic, and are then introduced to that essay type. They use the readings to explore
examples of the writing they will be asked to do. There is an audio CD with the book which can
be used to integrate listening into the class, or for students to practice listening on their own at
home. There is also a discussion section in each unit which allows students the chance to
practice speaking in a discussion situation in groups or as a class. Thus the listening and
speaking skills are connected only as much as the teacher wishes, and would not be necessary.
Are reading passages and associate activities suitable for your students’ levels, interests, age, etc?
o The readings do offer interesting topics, and students are likely to be able to identify to some
extent but also challenge their thinking to some extent. Topics are not likely to be culturally
taboo but will offer students a chance to consider a number of other cultures and customs. The
readings are significantly above the level of the students’, but this was chosen in order to bridge
the gap between level two (which students have come from) and their mainstream classes
(which immediately follow this level).
o The activities are likely to appeal to students as they do not require extensive amounts of
writing. However, as each unit repeats the same activities in the same order, students may
become bored. The activities appear to be suitable in level as they are multiple choice and short
answer. However, the difficult nature of the readings may lead to guessing from students.
Is there sufficient reading material?
o There is sufficient reading material. Each unit offers two readings of adequate length, and a
model essay which can also be used for reading practice.
Are writing activities suitable in terms of amount of guidance/control, organization of longer pieces of
writing (eg paragraphing)?
o As mentioned above, the writing section clearly lays out the types of essays, organization of
essays, useful essay language, and provides a model essay. However, writing practice is not
sufficiently scaffolded, so students are asked to move from short answer questions about a
model straight into writing an essay. The book also fails to offer sufficient coverage of quoting,
paraphrasing, and summarizing which are necessary skills at this level and often needed for the
essays the students are writing. These concepts are quickly covered in the resources section at
the back, but could use more extensive coverage.
Topic
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Is there sufficient material of genuine interest to learners?
o The topics are general, but applicable in many contexts so students are likely to be able to
connect with most topics in some way. Some of the topics (nutrition, gender, psychology) are
likely to be of great interest, which others (artists, groups, issues for debate) are less likely to be
interesting as students are less likely to personally connect with the readings in these units.
(See Appendix C for TOC)
Will the topics help expand students’ awareness and enrich their experience?
o The best opportunities to expand awareness will be in the units where students already have
some connection to the topics, and this connection can be stretched to consider new ideas and
cultures. This will be more difficult for students to do with other topics as they are so far
removed from their daily lives. However, the readings to a good job of talking about a number
of historical contexts, cultures, and new ideas. Teachers should proceed with some caution and
let the readings and students guide the direction of topics. This is related to the delicacy of
some topics in the region. (Ex: teachers should be careful about discussions relating to gender
roles and ensure that they are not indicating any personal feelings about gender roles in Kuwait)
Are the topics sophisticated enough in content, yet within the learners’ language level?
o The topics are presented in a sufficiently sophisticated way. The topics themselves are fairly
general, but the approach and level of the reading are appropriate for the age of the students.
As mentioned above, the level may be too difficult, but this is deliberately to push the students.
Will your students be able to relate to the social and cultural contexts presented in the coursebook?
o As mentioned above, they will be able to relate to some of the topics like gender, nutrition,
psychology, etc. Though their culture may not be presented, this allows students the chance to
share their perspective with the teacher on topics with which they are comfortable. A wide
variety of cultural and social contexts are presented, and these are likely to be met with mixed
results of interest, understanding, etc.
Are women portrayed and represented equally with men?
o The book covers a number of topics that remove the need to discuss men or women by
discussing things, ideas, whole societies, animals, and groups of people. It also offers a historic
perspective on many of the topics. However, when gender figures into the equation, men and
women are represented fairly equally. For example, the chapter on gender discusses
differences between men and women and then discusses the view of men and women with
regards to societies. The book even does a good job of mentioning stereotypes but pointing out
that they ARE stereotypes.
Are other groups represented, with reference to ethnic origin, occupation, disability, etc?
o As discussed, many of the topics take a general and historic approach to topics thereby
bypassing the fault of focusing too much on one culture. When discussing human interest
topics, the book does a good job of relating to a number of different cultures, jobs, and ways of
life.
Methodology
 Is the coursebook’s approach/es to language learning appropriate to the learning/teaching situation?
o The coursebook covers reading and writing, and the connection of these two is vital to the
learning/teaching situation as students are in the same group with the same teacher for these
two skills. One of the focuses of the book is on reading strategies which fits perfectly with the
objectives of the course and helps move students beyond the language and into the arena of
learning to learn. The other focus is on higher level writing structures which fits the course
syllabus and is important in preparing students for their mainstream classes.
 Does the level of active learner involvement that can be expected match your students’ learning styles
and expectations?
o As mentioned above, the book does not necessarily cater to various learning styles, and it is
therefore left to the teacher to adapt activities to different learning styles. There is some safety
offered by the repetition of activity types in the book, and this could either cause boredom for
students, or a sense of security. However, the use of so many multiple choice activities does not
promote a high level of learner involvement, and indeed lends itself to guessing. The inclusion
of discussion questions does allow for a different approach and the use of critical thinking skills,
and as discussions can be done in partners/groups/and whole class, teachers can provide
different learning experiences and require different levels of interaction from students.
 How are communicative abilities developed?
o The book asks students to discuss topics at a number of stages in each lesson. Students discuss
topics prior to reading, and then discuss topics and use critical thinking after reading. This
allows students to use language for fluency purposes to express ideas, but does not burden
them with accuracy. With a number of small adaptations (i.e. breaking the reading into chunks
with discussion after each) the book can be made to promote even more communicative
abilities. Students also develop communicative writing abilities by using the outlines provided
to discuss topics of their choosing. Thus they are asked to use the language in a structured way
to express their own ideas and interests.
 Does the material include any advice/help to students on study skills and learning strategies?
o The material focuses on the development of learning strategies through the types of activities
included. However, little/no guidance is given on how to actually complete these activities.
Thus, a high level of teacher explanation and support is needed initially to aid students in
understanding these learning strategies and feeling comfortable utilizing them. The book does
include a resource section for writing which helps students with pre-writing activities, editing,
quoting, paraphrasing, and summarizing.
 Are students expected to take a degree of responsibility for their own learning (eg by setting their own
individual learning targets)?
o Not particularly. Each unit does begin by asking students a series of questions on the unit topic.
The questions are then repeated at the end of the unit so that students can mark their progress
with the topic. However, students are not asked to set any targets or goals. The resources
section at the back does provide students with a revision and editing checklist which can help
students take responsibility for editing their own writing and can be used for peer editing
activities.
Teachers’ Book
 Is there adequate guidance for the teachers who will be using the coursebook and its supporting
materials?
o
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The teachers’ manual does offer sample lesson plans which show how the book units can be
broken down into three hour lessons. This may be useful for providing general explanations of
the parts of each unit, but the syllabus for this class allows two weeks for each chapter (10
hours), and this is probably more realistic with the amount of time needed for writing practice.
The sample lesson plan can also be supplemented with extensive reading and the reading drills
book provided for the level. The manual also provides a grading rubric for writing, a list of
correction symbols, and example of a corrected essay which can be useful for norming grading
standards across teachers. Finally, it offers a step-by-step outline of each reading which
provides additional warm-up questions, focus questions, extension activities, additional
discussion questions, journal writing prompts, and the answer key. This can help teachers
exploit the readings to their fullest and allow students plenty of time to digest and think about
new topics.
Does the teachers’ book adequately cover teaching techniques, language items such as grammar rules
and culture-specific information?
o The teachers’ manual does not cover grammar or other language items as this is not the focus of
the book. It would be helpful if the manual covered some more information on how to guide
students in the use of the learning strategies that the book asks students to engage in. As it
stands, there is no explanation for teachers or students. There is also no culture specific
information beyond that provided in the actual readings. This is likely because this is an
international book and not specific to any one culture. The manual does provide a brief blurb of
information on the unit topic. These are usually historical or of general interest.
Do the writers set out and justify the basic premises and principles underlying the material?
o Pages vi-viii include a message from the author in which she explains the central premise of the
book, lays out the book’s objectives, and describes the types of activities and their purpose.
Are keys to exercises given?
o Yes.
Practical Considerations
 What does the whole package cost? Does this represent good value for money?
o The whole package costs approximately £40. This is fairly good value, but this particular
consideration is not important in this context as students are given a stipend from the
government in order to purchase their materials.
 Are the books strong and long-lasting?
o The books are paperback and therefore likely to suffer some wear and tear. However, they
appear to be well made overall with thick pages and a heavy cover.
 Are they attractive in appearance?
o The book is attractive overall. The front is colorful but abstract so that it doesn’t come across as
childish. The book does contain some visuals (usually as part of the pre-reading activities) which
make the appearance more engaging. Though the book contains a lot of type, it is clearly laid
out and well divided.
 Are they easy to obtain? Can further supplies be obtained at short notice?
o The books are easy to obtain from the publisher, and are provided to students through the
campus bookstore. Because the school is aware of the number of students entering each level
each semester, sufficient numbers are ordered well in advance. It is unlikely that additional
supplies would be needed at short notice, but they could be obtained from the regional
representative if they were required. However, due to mail systems in the country, it is not
always possible to receive materials quickly.
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Do any parts of the package require particular equipment, such as language laboratory, listening centre,
or video player? If so, do you have the equipment available for use and is it reliable?
o The book includes an audio CD which requires a CD player or laptop computer and speakers.
However, the CD is simply audio of the readings which could alternatively be provided by the
teacher, the students, or indeed not used at all. However ,all teachers are issued a laptop, and
each classroom has speakers installed.