Description: Teaching materials play a crucial role in teaching-learning. When these take the form of a textbook it is essential that it is carefully selected to meet both external requirements and the needs of the teachers, as well as allowing teacher to mediate between the textbook and the learners, adapting and supplementing the book as necessary. Providing a systematic approach to the selection and subsequent evaluation of coursebooks, this textbook gives practical advice on adaptation and supplementation, and beyond. Suggestions on systematising the process of materials development and on the use of learner-generated materials are included for teachers who prefer to prepare their own materials.With integrated and wide-ranging coverage of the topic, this is the ideal book for those studying or practising language teaching or applied linguistics. Key Features* Numerous examples * Interleaved tasks which can be utilised by an instructor* Extensive bibliography
Brief description: Ian McGrath has over 30 years' experience as a materials writer and as a teacher and educator in the UK and overseas, most recently as a Visiting Associate Professor at the National Institute of Education in Singapore. He is now an educational consultant based in the UK.
Review Quotes: The most distinctive contribution of this book is Chapter 8, which introduces ways to include learner-produced materials. This is new terrain for many applied linguists and teachers and has not received much attention in most of the literature. McGrath, however, offers interesting, diverse and practical ways in which learners can produce materials for themselves and each other ... This book is a good resource that certainly offers a variety of helpful input, tips, and discussions for applied linguists and teachers. While the text is approached from an applied linguistics perspective, it is the appendix that may prove most valuable for teachers, providing as it does a rich variety of tables, examples and graphs, which serve as useful guidelines, especially for teachers under time pressure. The author is also to be commended for his emphasis on including the learner in materials design and evaluation processes, which for me represents the book's greatest accomplishment.--Mona Syrbe, Coventry University London Campus "Applied Linguistics"