Teaching Materials and the Roles of EFL/ESL Teachers: Practice and Theory

About the Book

Teaching Materials and the Roles of EFL/ESL Teachers is published amidst a decade long increase in academic publications and training courses concerned with the evaluation and design of English language teaching materials. It is timely to consider what effect the advice on offer has had on teachers’ practice. Are teachers evaluating materials carefully, using textbooks in the ways expected by textbook writers, developing their own materials, and mediating between materials and learners in the ways advised in the professional literature?

The book explores these issues from a variety of perspectives. The views of publishers/textbook writers, those contributing to the professional literature, and teacher educators are synthesised to establish a ‘theory’ of how teachers can best fulfil their roles vis-à-vis materials and learners. This is then compared with ‘practice’, as represented by published accounts of teachers’ actual practices and learners’ perspectives. The conclusion reached is that teacher education in materials evaluation and design is essential and suggestions are offered as to the form this might take.

The book is intended particularly for MA students and teacher educators concerned with materials evaluation and design, but is of interest to all those concerned with the publication and use of English language teaching materials.

Table of Contents:

Acknowledgements
Preface
1. Introduction: Materials, the roles of teachers and learners, and teacher education
Part I: External perspectives: ‘Theory’
2. Publisher and coursebook writer perspectives
3. The professional literature
4. Teacher educator perspectives
Part II: Teacher and learner perspectives: ‘Practice’
5. How teachers evaluate coursebooks
6. How teachers adapt and supplement coursebooks
7. Learner perspectives
8. Contextual influences and individual factors
Part III: Implications
9. Implications for teachers, managers, ministries, publishers and coursebook writers, and research
10. Implications for teacher educators: a practice-based proposal
References
Index

About the Author :
Ian McGrath has been an Associate Professor at universities in the UK, Hong Kong and, most recently, at the National Institute of Education, Singapore. He is the author of Materials Evaluation and Design for Language Teaching (Edinburgh University Press, 2002).

Review :
Teaching Materials and the Roles of EFL/ESL Teachers: Practice and Theory is aimed at postgraduate students and would be an ideal core text for a module on materials development. [A] valuable resource for postgraduate students, researchers, and teacher educators in the area of TESOL. What it reveals about how coursebooks are actually used will also make it salutary reading for publishers and coursebook writers. With his measured tone and a balanced approach which takes into consideration all sectors of the language teaching community, McGrath gives us a very readable, thought-provoking, and welcome addition to the steadily growing body of literature on materials development. McGrath’s book ... provides a safety harness for the inexperienced teacher while offering the more seasoned teacher an opportunity to rethink and refresh perspectives held towards materials development and design ... A useful resource for all teachers and teacher educators. A strength is that the author brings together perspectives of materials, teachers, learners, contexts, and teacher education that other similar texts often deal with in a less than adequate way. The book succeeds as a primer for those seeking to explore different elements of materials evaluation and design. I would even suggest that the current text is a must-read resource for pre-service teachers and in-service teachers as well as those interested in language materials evaluation and development. [An] excellent review of past and current research in textbook use. In itself, this is an extremely practical set of suggestions for teachers to consider ... My own (long) experience in working with teachers from many backgrounds supports McGrath’s contention that many lack a clear understanding of how to systematically evaluate the materials they use, and often are obliged to use. His book is well-organised, clearly written and thought provoking, and McGrath provides a clear rationale and framework for the professional development of teachers in the area of materials selection, evaluation and adaptation. I highly recommend it to future and practising teachers and especially to those responsible for advising and teaching them. This book is a must-read for EFL/ESL teachers and those who educate them. McGrath, as one of the leading scholars in the field … addresses an area of materials development which seems to have been under-represented in the literature … by giving more voice to teachers. Ian McGrath’s book … examines the roles and types of agency that teachers may exercise by drawing on a remarkable body of research ... Teachers are invited to become critical users of course books and active agents of change … I highly recommend the book.