Criteria for coursebook assesment

Criteria of course book assessment

My refection about it.

I was checking a student book from the MINEDUC, with the criteria of course book assessment, it has a plenty of statements which are given for checking.

All of them are really important to check a book because with them we know when any book is good and can be used with the students effectively. The name of the book is “Global English”, written by Jolanta Polk Reyes, and it's  used in 3ºmedio.

The book seems to be good, but in my opinion, the syllabus does not match the level of English that the students have, because it is in a very high level of English. This year we have been doing our internship, and there in the high school where I am, the level of English of the students in not even, all the different classes are in a different level so knowing that the book does not match with the syllabus in the part “approach educationally and socially acceptable to target community” because there in the “Maritime Institute” some of the students do not even know how to introduce themselves in English and they are in 3º medio  and the book is made for student who, should at least know how to use the auxiliary verbs and things, but not all them know it.

At the maritime institute I have to observe different classes one is from “Chemical lab" and the other is “Gastronomy”. the chemical students are known as the best ones and obviously they are because in English classes they are better than the others, I note this because they know how to ask for permission in English, they get better grades in the quizzes, they do their homework on time, but on the other hand I have students from “Gastronomy” they are less smarter than the others, because they do not do their homework on time, they do not use the English language when they ask for permission and things, and they should use it because they will need more English than the others in their future jobs as future chefs or waiters/waitress.

I think if this book were more adequate for the real level of English of the students, they will learn more because most of the students do not have a base of English. They need to know English from the very beginning to use this textbook.

Box 13.2:        Criteria for course book assessment

importance	Criterion
7	Objectives explicitly laid out in an introduction, and implement I the material.
3	Approach educationally and socially acceptable to target community.
7	Clear attractive layout; print easy to read.
7	Appropriate visual material available.
6	Interesting topics and task.
5	Varied topics and tasks, so as to provide for different learners level, learning styles, interests, etc.
7	Clear construction.
7	Systematic coverage of syllabus.
7	Content clearly, organized and graded (sequenced by difficulty).
7	Periodic review and test sections.
5	Plenty of authentic language.
7	Good pronunciation explanation and practice.
7	Good vocabulary explanation and practice.
7	Good grammar presentation and practice.
7	Fluency practice in all four skills.
4	Encourages learners to develop own learning strategies and to become independent in their learning.
7	Adequate guidance for the teacher; not too heavy preparation load.
7	Audio cassettes/ CD.
7	Readily available locally.

* Cambridge university press 1996


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SYLLABUS

A syllabus is a public document which serves as a general outline of a particular course. It's basically a list that is ordered by date and general topic. Some basic components and characteristics of the syllabus are:

1. Time Schedule: It can be based on the content to be reviewed from class to class or a specific test date.

2. Materials: here it refers to the materials that will be used in the course, such as required or optional books.

3. Evaluation Breakdown: We can see what the grading system is composed of, for example the number of tests and the amount of weight each one has to come up with the final grade.

4. Objectives: It should specify what the student should be able to do during the semester and at the end of it.

5. Policies: Rules that are explained in case of an absence or any other situation that the student could face during the semester.

6. Basic Information: In this category we can include information about the institution and teacher contact information.

testing techniques

Techniques for testing

Well we were reading some pages of the book “A course in language teaching” and the teacher asked to us look for two techniques the first one which should be the best technique and the second one the last one for testing.

I think that the best one for testing is:

Questions and answers: Simple questions, very often following reading, or as part of an interview; may require short or long answers.

For me this is the best because if we really want testing somebody in a right way we need to evaluate important things and they are including in this, because the student who is being tested must think and answer with his/her own words in English, so it is better for his/her learning and is reliable for the teacher who is evaluating to the students through questioning and answering. Here we note easily where the students are failing and we can help them to understand the subject.

The last one testing technique for me is:

Translation: The text is asked to translate expressions, sentences or entire passages to or from the target language.

Here in my opinion we have the biggest problem in the school, because in most of them, they try or think to teach through translation and I think it does not work for teaching. One of the points which makes me think it, is personal experience. When I was in high school there were many English teachers who gave us homework and the majority of it was translation and I never understood English until other teachers taught us the grammar structures verb tenses etc. and some teachers gave bad grades and they did not even told us why, different the other teacher, for me good teachers which could tell us when we were wrong easily than the bad ones.  

survey of student opinion

Results of the student’s opinion

Graphic of the most popular choices and the lower rank

Here I have the results of the survey of student’s opinion of 9 of my classmates, and the most popular how you can see in the box above, and the lower point was for two of the choosing part; it was undecided and disagree.

I think everyone who did the survey agreed on the most of the question because the majority of the stamens were focused in a good teacher, there were a few of stamens which was about a bad teacher.

For the undecided and disagree part, I could write that was for the negative things that a teacher could do, but in some cases the teacher will do It for example if we are in a “crummy school” I think the teacher should do something if a student wants to beat  to him / her, the teacher must do something because if he/she do not do something in this case the teacher will be beaten and it would not be good for him, it was only an example so is not important to consider at all…

Box 19.1 Aspects of learner motivation.

Here I wrote the two questions that the teacher told us we have to do....


How important do you think motivation is for success in language learning, compared to, for example, language aptitude?

Well I think motivation is not the same that language aptitude. Motivation is when a person wants to learn something for example English as a second language. And I think that language aptitude is when a person has ease to learn something, for example the learner here has for aptitude, skills which make easier the understanding of second language. Whit those thinking in the paper we should know that motivation is more important than language aptitude, because we could have a person who has everything for learning in a easy way,  but if he/she doesn't want to learn I think we will never get his/her attention and learning.

What characteristics and behaviors you associate with the image of a motivated learner?

Well I think that a motivated person is that one, who wants to get goals, always is interested in interesting things that can be a help for he/she. They look happy because they want to learn something new anyway, also they help people and motivate to others, I don’t know what else I could write about it.


I added it here because my lap top does not let me put like a post....it does not even work :)

An important part of the last class was about of motivation. We were studying it because we need it to know when motivation is present in any person teaching would be easier for both, student and teacher.

Positive task orientation: The learner is willing to tackle tasks and challenges,
and has confidence n his or her success. ("A course in language teaching, practice and theory, page 289)

Any person who is confident in itself will have a good performance in what is proposed to do or learn. We can see the motivation in them, through the effort they put in carrying out its tasks and challenges that the teacher offered.

Ego-involvement: Students considered important for success in learning in order to maintain and promote their own (positive) self-image. ("A course in language teaching, practice and theory, page 289)

The student knows that if he/she thinks in a confidence way his/her propose could be get, in this case a learning goal, he/she probably can do it, it is important that we as future teachers we also have goals to get in them.

Need for achievement: The student has the need to achieve, to overcome the difficulties and succeed in what he or she intends to do.

Here you need to have a clear goal that we want to achieve in order to get success.

High aspirations: The apprentice is ambitious, go for the demanding challenges,
high fitness and the highest scores. ("A course in language teaching, practice and theory, page 289)

If we do not have big goals we could be bad teacher and we will not achieve the happiness in our work as teachers. Through the proposed goals we continue to grow as people and teachers of the second language.

Goal orientation: The student is well aware of the learning objectives, or specific learning activities, and directs its efforts towards achieving
them. ("A course in language teaching, practice and theory, page 289)

We must be focused on goals to have a clear vision of what we want.

Perseverance: The student constantly invests a high level of effort learning, and not discouraged by setbacks or apparent lack of progress. ("A course in language teaching, practice and theory, page 289)

As stated in the above lines, we must persevere to make progress in our development as learners.

Tolerance of ambiguity: The student is not disturbed or frustrated by situations involving a temporary lack of understanding or confusion, he or she can live with these patients in the confidence that understanding come later. ("A course in language teaching, practice and theory, page 289)

Knowing how to wait because the results can be good or bad, we must be convinced that we will achieve what we want, but this is not at that time.