Material evaluation and material design young learners

 

Material evaluation and material design young learners

    Recent years have seen a dramatic increase in the use of commercially produced foreign language coursebooks as core teaching materials in young learner classrooms. In many cases, the approaches taken and the methods advocated in these materials are accepted uncritically by the teachers using them regardless of their teaching context. Teachers in some contexts also do not have a choice and are forced to ‘teach the book’ and implement methodologies that they may not agree with. However, in both cases, there is a huge risk of not doing what is best to promote learning. To avoid this possibility a more critical stance towards language learning materials is needed. 

    Materials will be considered anything which is used to help language learning (Tomlinson, 1998). Examples include but are not limited to: course books, workbooks, CDs, flashcards, and CD-ROMs. Materials evaluation will be considered a procedure that involves examining learning materials to establish their value (Tomlinson, 2003). Evaluations can be carried out pre-use, in-use or post-use. The main aim of evaluating materials pre-use, according to Ruby (2003: 42), is to measure the potential of what teachers and learners can do with them in the classroom. In-use and post-use evaluations are important in establishing how successful learning materials are.

Materials evaluation: in practice, A number of practical studies have utilized different approaches to materials evaluation. Alamri (2008) employed a survey questionnaire of teachers and administrators to evaluate the English textbook used with a group of young Saudi learners. Both Murdoch (2000) and Atkins (2001) used McDonough and Shaw’s (2003) coursebook evaluation model to evaluate textbooks used in Korean and Japanese secondary school contexts respectively. Litz (2005) employed student and teacher evaluation survey questionnaires to evaluate a coursebook used in a Korean university. In all cases, a checklist-based system was used, with some modifications required to make the evaluation more suitable for each researcher’s aims and context.

Evaluation Scheme 

The materials evaluation scheme used (Appendix 1) was checklist-based, requiring responses indicating levels of agreement or disagreement with statements about the materials. The evaluation assessed the materials in relation to the following areas: 

• General Appearance 
• Layout and Design 
• Methodology 
• Activities 
• Language Skills 
• Language Content 
• Topic Content 
• Teachability and Flexibility 
• Assessment  

 The evaluation scheme was designed with the aim of evaluating the ability of the materials to promote learning in a particular context. This aim is reflected in the selected criteria. While some existing evaluation checklists provided some relevant and useful examples, many criteria were irrelevant to my purposes and context. For example, criteria regarding the affordability of the materials are irrelevant to my context as the materials have already been chosen and students must purchase them regardless of the cost. 

Materials 

    The materials evaluated were the coursebook and additional materials of Let’s Go 1 from the Let’s Go series, an internationally available seven-level English language course for young learners. The available materials for each level of Let’s Go include a student book (with CD-ROM), workbook, skills book (with self-study CD), teacher’s book, audio CDs, and student and teacher flashcards. Supplementary materials include eight graded readers for each level as well as a three-level phonics course and picture dictionary. For the purposes of this paper, the evaluation was limited to the components directly related to classroom use, namely: the Let’s Go 1 student book, workbook, teacher’s book, audio CDs, and teacher and student flashcards.  

Learning Context 

    The learning context is a private language school in a regional Japanese city. Young learners attend only one fifty-minute lesson per week meaning that classroom time is very limited. The syllabus is closely linked to the coursebook with student progress reports being issued twice a year indicating whether learners can satisfactorily use the language from each of the coursebook units that they have studied. The group of young learners being considered in this paper is a class of seven learners aged between six and seven years of age. The learners have all been learning English for a minimum of two years and have slightly differing proficiency levels. All learners are familiar with the Let’s Go series having used it throughout their studies at the school.