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2006 12

29 6

CELEA Journal Bimonthly

Dec2006

Vol29 No6

AN EVALUATION PLAN FOR A SET OF

GENERAL ENGLISH COURSE BOOKS

Yang Hong

Changsha University

Abstract

Theevaluation of an English course book is very im portant for a language teacherto gauge w hether the

book is effectiveor notin developing the learners

language skillsin listeningspeakingreadingand writing

There are a widevarietyof Englishcourse books for non-English majors at presentin ChinaInadditionthere

are various evaluations of English language teaching materials in foreign countriesThere is also some

evaluation of English course books available in ChinaHowever the evaluation in China see m to be book

reviewsw hich focus on the design of the course booksthe content of the book and so onThis article

proposes an evaluation plan based on Ellis 19971998w hich involves the approachto be adoptedcontent

methods to collect data and data analysishoping to raise awareness of evaluation of teaching materialsin China

and to provide some rationale for theevaluation of acourse bookThecourse book used as an exam ple for the

evaluation isthe New College English students

bookedited by the English Language Department of Zhejiang

University and published by the Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press in BeijingChinaThe

evaluation focuses on the gram m atical itemsvocabularyreading practice listening practice and functional

speaking in the book

Key w ords

evaluationdata collection

1Introduction

A students

course book is vitally im portant in languag e teaching and learning for both students andteachers in thatthe effectiveness ofit can m akec ontributionsto facilitating teaching and learning through

sufficient inform ation aboutthe languageCunningsw orth 1984This is because the detailed resources

andinstructions w hich the course book provides are crucial to the successful use of itIt istherefore

essential for a teacher to understand how a course book is evaluatedto gauge w hether or notitis effective

and productiveThis paper presents an outline for the evaluation of theset of c ourse books w hich aims

to develop the learners

languag e skills in listeningspeakingreading and writingThe outline covers

Firstthe approach to be adoptedSecondcontentThirdm ethod to collect data and data analysis based upon suggestions raised by Ellis 1997 1998for evaluating a languag e progra m m e or teaching

m aterialsThe evaluation approach refers to the type the purpose timingthe evaluators and the

audienceThe m ethod to collect data involves test scores self-report and observation of the classroo mSelf-report includes journalquestionnaire interview and docu m entary inform ationThis paper begins

with the contextthe evaluation approachm ethod to collect data and data analysis

2Context

A wide range ofg eneral English course booksare presented to both university students and teachers

in China at presentThe course books include Practical English published by Higher Education Press

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34 Evaluator

The e valuators are three teachers using the set of course books and five other teachers who use

different sets of general Englishc ourse booksThisis because theevaluatorislikely to be the teacher who

is teachingthe courseIn addition it is reasonable and helpful for the teacher and evaluator to invite

other fellow teachers to observe theteaching of the course and to participate in data collection and data

analysis Ellis 1997

35 Audience

The audience of the evaluation is the fresh m a n students who use New College English Book One

because they benefit fro m the bookThey are directly related to the effectiveness and usefulness of the

book to be assessed Lynch 1996

4Content

The evaluation is to be learning-based because the teachers and evaluators intend to determine

w hether the book has resulted in effectivenessin learning either in theform of new linguistic knowledge

such as vocabulary and gra m m ar or in terms of specific language skills such as listeningspeaking and

readingEllis 1997Moreover it is required for the evaluators to obtain inform ation about w hat a

learner knows or can do after co m pleting a courseAs a resultIplan to investigate w hether there has

been any effectiveness w hile the students are using the book by e xamining the learners

explicit knowledge

of gra m m ar vocabulary and readingBefore e m ploying the bo ok I designed a pre-test on so m e

gra m m aticalitems vocabulary reading and listeningfor the learnersThenthe test scoresof the pre-test

and post-tests are to be co m pared to gauge if there is any evidence of increased accuracy in the above

itemsThe e valuationfurtherm oreis to be conducted by co m paring with the other classes offresh m e n

using differentc ourse books with five other fellow teachers

5Method

The following three m ethods are to be em ployed to e valuate the bookAm ong the three test score isquantitative and the other tw o are qualitative w hich involve self-report and observation of the actual

classroo mSelf-report includes journalquestionnaire and interview

51 Test Scores

Test scores are to be used for the evaluation because they are the prim ary m eans to assess

achieve m entAnd an achieve m ent testis closely related to an evaluationinthatitplays a significant role

in teaching and learning a progra m m eThis is because the test helps to m a ke decisions about needed

changes to a progra m orim prove m ents for a c ourse booksuch as w hich objectives need m ore attention or

revisionWeir 1995The testsinvolve pre-test and post-testsPost-testsare a chieve m ent tests w hich are

relatedto the c ontent of the c ourse book Rea-Dickins 1992iethe ten unitsof the bookThe aim istw o-fold

ato get a generalidea of the levels of a chieve m entat the end ofe ach unit and near the end of the

se m esterand

bto explore so m e relationships between the learner perform ances and theteaching processes

Testsin addition include written tests on gra m m arvocabulary and reading and oral tests on

listening andspeakingThetests c onsist of a pre-test and post-tests on vocabularyreading and gra m m ar

such as subject-verb agree m enthypothetical conditionalsand non-finite verbsThe tests are to be

conducted in written form at the end of each unitafterco m pleting afew units and on co m pletion of the

bookThe oral tests will focus on listening and speaking practice that are supplied in the booksuch asdescribing the origin ofSaint Valentine

s Day and other itemsThe purpose is to gauge w hetherthere is

any increase in the m ean score co m pared with that of pre-test of the controlled classes ie the

audienceAn increase in the m ean score m a y provideso m e indication on the effectiveness of the book

In additiona l ittle higher m ean score of the controlled classes at a certain post-test than that of the

co m pared classes m a y provethat the book is m ore effective toso m e extentSim ultaneouslyproblems or

errorsarising fro m the tests can provid e a guide for im prove m ent of the design of the book or for its

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with the develo p m entof their languag e abilities in listening and readingMean w hile w hat they perceive

to bethe m ost difficult willurge theteachers to focus on m ore in future use of the bookIf one-third of

the 114interviewees ie38say reading passages in Unit 4 and listening p ractice in Unit 2 are the m ost

difficult in the first five units it m a yindicate that the evaluators and teachers haveto consider revising

the m to adapt to the learners or spend m ore tim e o n these respects or m erely replace the m with easier

m aterials for future use

524 Documentaryinformation

Available docu m entation for the evaluation is to be collected because progra m docu m ents can supply

the e valuators with basic indications concerning the activities and processes of the progra m Patton

1987The docu m entary inform ation consists of 152 sa m ples of the students

written exercises on

gra m m ar reading and vocabularyw hich can help the evaluators find out w hat is w orking well and w hat

the problems areSupposing one-third ie51or m oreof the audience make the sa m e error in a specific

gra m m ar or usage oftw o or three new w ords and expressionsit m a y b e a n indication that either the

instructions in the book are not clear enough or the teacher did not convey the ideasclearlyAs a result

the ite m should be stressed orrevised for future use

53 Observation of actual classroo m

Observation is to be e m ployed for the evaluation because it is one of the prim ary instru m ents to

evaluate foreign language classrooms in thattest data alo ne w ould not tell w hether other variables had

affected the progra m or notFurtherm oreobservation technique provides valuable data for the

evaluators to interpret onthe process w hich lies behind the teaching and learning of a progra mWeir and

Roberts 1994Usuallythe observation is to bec onducted once a unitThis can becarried outin twenty-minute units orthirty-minute unitscovering the following five categories

aLearner m o d e of involve m enthow the teacher expects learners to be engaged in the teaching

activities

bThe studentsreactions tothe teacher

cThe students

reaction to theteaching m aterials in the bookdStudents

concentration on the learning task

eLanguag e activity the range ie the variety and balanceoflanguage activities planned and

directed by the teacherItems such as students

participation m aterialsclass atm osphere and

students

reactions will be concerned in the observationEach evaluator will be issued an

observation sheet for each unitIf the total score of the observation sheet is 30 or above in three

or m ore e valuators

observation sheetsit m a y prove that the book can really m otivate studentslearning and their involve m ent in the teaching and learning activities and the m aterials provided

are appropriate and effective in facilitatingteaching and learning

6Conclusion

The above discussion is a proposal for the evaluation of a set of general English course books in

ChinaThis proposal prim arily involves the contextthe approachthe content and the m ethod to

evaluate a course book w hile the book is being usedThe proposalindicates thatit could be essential for a

teacher to evaluate w hether a course book is effective and u seful or not because generallyan evaluation

could show to w hat extent a book is effective and beneficial for a particular group of learnersThe

proposal suggests that conducting an evaluation could pro m ote teachers to reveal weaknesses in the course

of using a course book and to attach im portance to course book evaluationin lesson planningHowever

the proposalis only restricted to the evaluation of a course b ook or other teaching m aterialin the process

of using

itThe proposalm oreover re m ains untested so far as

it has not been piloted by any spec

ific

teacher groupThe piloting of the evaluation plan could lead to im prove m ents in a course book or other

teaching m aterials to so m e extentThiscould bring about a detailed and co m prehensive m ethod of

gauging course books and other teaching m aterialsas well as foster teacher-develo p m ent and English

languageteaching in China

Continued o n p68

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