A basic presentation on adapting textbooks.

1. UNIVERSITY OF CALDAS
MASTER IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING
Yamith José Fandiño
teacheryamith@gmail.com
October, 2015

2. TEXTBOOK ADAPTATION AND
EVALUATION (Dalby, 2009)
ADVANTAGES DISADVANTAGES
• Provide guidance
• Save time
• A starting point
• Structure
• Learners’ expectation
• Straightjacket
• Poor design
• Boring/irrelevant topics
• Culturally removed
• Unauthentic language
The MATERIALS test (Tanner & Green, 1998)
Method
Appearance
Teacher-friendly
Extras
Realistic
Interesting
Affordable
Learner’s level
Skills being taught

3. TEXTBOOK ADAPTATION AND
EVALUATION (Dalby, 2009)
FOUR BASIC METHODS
• Edit
Make it more
relevant, interesting,
or practical.
• Add
Include extra
activities.
• Replace
Change for more suitable
materials or activities.
• Delete
Materials or activities
are not covered.
Written texts Listening activities Pictures
Role play or mime characters
Create a prequel
Continue the story
Discuss or debate the issue
Making predictions, skimming,
scanning, semantic mapping, and
summaries
Research assignment
Predict the answers
Make the questions easier
Topic prediction, gist listening,
and summaries
Vocabulary grab.
Descriptions
Comparisons and
contrasts
Speculations
Oral production

4. ADAPTING MATERIALS (McDonough
& Shaw, 2003)

5. ADAPTING MATERIALS
McDonough & Shaw
(2003)
Expanding Supply more of the same (quantitative
nature); the model is not changed.
Congruence
Reasons: personalization,
individualization,
localization, and
modernization.
Techniques
• Adding
(expanding/extending)
• Deleting
(Subtracting/abridging)
• Modifying (Re-
writing/Re-structuring)
• Simplifying
• Re-ordering
Extending Supply more by moving outside the
methodology and developing in new direction
(qualitative nature).
Subtracting Reducing the length of material (quantitative
nature).
Abridging Taking out material for pedagogical reasons
(qualitative nature).
Rewriting Some of the linguistic content is modified.
Re-
structuring
Some of the lesson procedures need
modification.
Simplifying Changing style, content, presentation.
Re-ordering Putting parts of a course book in a different
order.

6. ADAPTING MATERIALS
McDonough & Shaw
(2003)
Islam & Mares (2003)
Congruence
Reasons: personalization,
individualization,
localization, and
modernization.
Techniques
• Adding
(expanding/extending)
• Deleting
(Subtracting/abridging)
• Modifying (Re-
writing/Re-structuring)
• Re-ordering
Reasons
- McDonough & Shaw
(1993): Congruence.
- Cunningsworth (1995):
learner styles and the
learner as a whole.
- Candling & Breen (1980):
opportunities for real
communication.
Objectives:
Real choice, learner
autonomy, higher-level
cognitive skills, engaging
language input.
Techniques
• Adding
(expanding/extending)
• Deleting
(Subtracting/abridging)
• Simplifying
• Reordering
• Replacing material

7. ADAPTING MATERIALS
APPLICATION
Molinsky, S., & Bliss, B. (2001). Side by side Book 1 (3rd edition). USA: Longman.
Have a look at unit 1 from Side by Side Book 1.
Note down all the adaptations you would make to the published materials. Use
McDonough & Shaw (2003) and/or Islam & Mares (2003) to specify the techniques you
would use.
Fill out the following table using your ideas.
WHAT WHY HOW
* Exercise/Section/Activity * Pedagogical reasons * Technique / Author

8. MATERIALS EVALUATION
(Tomlinson, 2003)
Types of materials evaluation
Pre-use evaluation
It involves making predictions
about the potential value of
materials for their users.
It can be context-free.
It is impressionistic since Ts
flick through a book to gain a
quick impression.
Using criterion-referenced
evaluation to reduce
subjectivity and favor
principled, rigorous,
systematic, and reliable
approach.
While-use evaluation
It is based on observation
and short-term results.
More objective and reliable
than pre-use evaluation.
Uses measurement instead
of prediction of:
• Instructions
• Layout
• Comprehensibility
• Achievability
• Practicality
• Teachability
Post-use evaluation
It measures the actual
effects of the materials on
short-term and long term
effects on the users.
It provides data to make
reliable decisions about the
use, adaptation or
replacement of the
materials.

9. MATERIALS EVALUATION
(Tomlinson, 2003)
Developing criteria for materials evaluation
- Brainstorm a list of universal criteria for any learning materials anywhere for any learners.
- Subdivide some of the criteria to point specific aspects.
- Monitor and revise the list of universal criteria:
• Does each question an evaluation question?
• Does each question only ask one question?
• Is each question answerable?
• Is each question free of dogma?
• Is each question reliable as for different evaluators to interpret it similarly?
- Categorize the list: learning principles, cultural perspective, topic content, teaching points, texts,
activities, methodology, instructions, design.
- Develop media-specific criteria for the books, the audio CDs, the videos, etc..
- Develop content-specific criteria (General English, business English, etc.)
- Develop age-specific criteria
- Develop local criteria
- Trial the criteria.
- Conduct the evaluation.

10. MATERIALS EVALUATION
(Tomlinson, 2003)
Developing criteria for materials evaluation
Dalby, T. (2009). Adapting your course book: becoming skilled in the art of manipulation.
TESOL Review 1, 145-166.
Islam, C., & Mares, C. (2003). Adapting Classroom Materials. In B. Tomlinson (ed.),
Developing Materials for Language Teaching (pp. 86-103). Great Britain: Bloomsbury.
McDonough, J. and Shaw, C. (2003). Materials and Methods in ELT: A Teacher’s Guide.
2nd Publishing. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers.
Tomlinson, B. (2003). Materials evaluation. In B. Tomlinson (ed.), Developing Materials
for Language Teaching (pp. 15-36). Great Britain: Bloomsbury.