TASK 5 - EVALUATING

TASK TOPIC AND GOAL

Evaluate the appropriateness of ELT materials for specific context.


DATE

Weekend 2


GRADE

20%


MATERIALS

Criteria for evaluating ELT materials

EVALUATING ELT MATERIALS

No textbook or set of materials is likely to be perfect; therefore ELT practitioners might be required to do a full evaluation for selection purposes. Such a selection needs to be done on two major criteria: external and internal. What follows is a list of these criteria as well as the directions to use them. Feel free to suggest some other criteria. Once the rating is done, write a paragraph about materials strengths and weaknesses and state whether or not you should recommend this material.

1.  EXTERNAL EVALUATION: This is a brief overview of the materials from the outside. Materials evaluators need to examine the claims on the cover and the other sections of the materials such as the introduction, table of contents, indexes, appendixes, etc. Once they have done this, they need to assign an actual score to materials assessed in light of these pre-established criteria.

Criteria	Your rating from 1 to 10
1.   Intended audience
2.   Proficiency level
3.   Clearly stated aims for teachers and Ss
4.   Context: ESP, specialist subject knowledge.
5.   Language organization (units, lessons)
6.   Length
7.   Date of publishing
8.   Core or supplementary use
9.   Teacher´s guide availability
10.        Clear teacher´s guide
11.        Preparation load
12.        Vocabulary index
13.        Self-check units
14.        Interaction appendix
15.        Vocabulary appendix with phonetic spelling
16.        Irregular verbs appendix
17.        Listening appendix
18.        Visuals (photographs, charts, diagrams)
19.        Value of visuals (cosmetic or integrated)
20.        Layout and presentation (clear or dense)
21.        Clear instructions
22.        Potential durability (paper quality and binding)
23.        Balanced picture of a country or society (minorities included and stereotypes avoided)
24.        Sexist
25.        Audio and video components availability and importance
26.        Test sections
27.        Placement and achievement tests
28.        Criteria for grading and sequencing
29.        Price
30.        Other

EVALUATING MATERIALS

2.  INTERNAL EVALUATION This is a closer and more detailed examination of the  

materials from the inside. Once materials evaluators have done an external evaluation, 

they can examine more closely the units in a textbook or set of materials in light of the following criteria.

Criteria	Your Rating from 1 to 10
1.   Objectives implemented
2.   Skills proportion
3.   Skills integration
4.   Interesting reading and listening texts
5.   Varied reading and listening texts
6.   Different learning styles
7.   Different learning strategies
8.   Independent learning activities
9.   Sequencing and grading (lexical, grammatical, no particular order needed)
10.        Relation of tests and exercises
11.        Activities for production of correct language forms (accuracy)
12.        Activities for communicative language use (fluency)
13.        Sufficient amount of communication output
14.        Realistic contexts and activities
15.        Relevant content
16.        Good pronunciation explanation and practice
17.        Good grammar presentation and practice
18.        Dictionary work
19.        Periodic review
20.        Varied groupings
21.        Availability of integral parts (workbook, teacher guide, etc)
22.        Other

Sources:

Harmer, Jeremy. The Practice of English Language Teaching. Longman, 2001.

McDonough, Jo and Shaw, Christopher. Materials and Methods in ELT.  Blackwell, 2003.

Ur, Penny. A Course in Language Teaching. Cambridge University Press, 1996.

DIRECTIONS

• Review criteria for evaluating ELT materials 
• Choose a teaching context (preschool, primary or secondary), a specific grade or level (first, second, eleventh) and school (regular school, ENAE, etc.). 
• Select some ELT material and use the criteria guide to determine its suitability for he context you have chosen.
• In addition to marking ticks or crosses, you must write a paragraph stating your assessment conclusion on the appropriateness of the evaluated materials.