Dear all.
In any English Department, there are decisions to be constantly made. Some may be more important than others but there is one which is essential: selecting coursebooks for the different courses and your classes profiles. It is true that there are schools and teachers who don't really have to choose this type of materials because these are provided by the school, the district educational authorities or just because they prefer creating their own. To be honest, I really like this option, as you will be able to cater for your students' needs more effectively.
However, there are many situations when teachers have to use a coursebook and they have a hand in the selection process. If this is your case, it's important to take different elements into account in order to make a sensible decision. Of course, there is not a perfect coursebook, as we all know (even if we created our own) and you will need to adapt parts of it, supplement certain skills with extra materials, change the order of the units to make the contents more logical within the learning process and even skip parts which you deem unnecessary.
It is essential to have in mind the central pillar of our teaching practice: students. It'd be more than advisable the type of students you have. I'm not only referring to age here. There are other factors that prove really meaningful such as why they are learning English (is their objective getting a certificate, for example?), their learning styles or common interests. Moreover, assessing their socio-economic context might help you to make a better selection. First, the price of coursebooks vary; second, we should try to have materials which are close to our students' realities in order to engage them, and third, do they have access to new technologies?
Then, the context of your school is also essential when it comes to choosing coursebooks. Is it more traditional or technological? What type of learning culture exists in your school? Is it book driven or do you already use online resources? Do your work students on collaborative projects? And your students... Do they like it or want to have a change? These are some characteristics we need to assess so as to narrow the wide choice of materials available.
Once you have reflected on these aspects (and there are more, I'm sure), it's time to get in touch with ELT publishers ( such as Cambridge or Oxford, just to mention two big names in the market. There are plenty of them and sales representatives will be more than willing to send materials for you to assess. Fortunately, most will send you the real complete materials (samples have nearly disappeared: potential customers need to be happy), so that you will be able to take a look in-depth. What's more, if you plan to use a series, it's good to have all the coursebooks to check if there is a logical progression. And, please, don't forget small publishing companies, as they more than often offer very interesting materials. Lastly, take a look at reviews! They aren't hard to find and they might become a very useful source of information.
What are the goals of the coursebooks? To prepare for an exam? Just to learn English? Or a mixture of both? What about the layout? Is it appealling? Are the different sections clear? Will it be easy for your students to "navigate" the coursebook? Do activities take into account students' different levels of performance? In other words, are there challenging tasks an tasks for students that may come accross with difficulties? Are tasks varied? What about recycling activities? Are they good enough? Does the book offer different accents in Listening tasks? These are just some examples you'd better think about before making any decision, but I'm definitely certain you will have many more.
Once you have the different coursebooks, share them with the rest of teachers to get feedback. They will be working with the coursebooks, so it's necessary to check how they feel about them. You don't want to have dissatisfied teachers when it comes to this aspect. Actually, at this point I would even show students the new materials to get their opinion about them.
At this point, you will probably have narrowed the number of books you are really interestd in. Now it's time to take a look at other aspects that are sometimes "forgotten". Does the publisher offer free teacher training programs? What support will they give you and your school during the academic year? Will they offer specific workshops or events for your students? Is there any real support for students as well with extra materials that can be accessed for free?
Besides, does your school have an online platform or LMS? Do the new coursebooks offer their own LMS? Is it user-friendly? Could it be easily integrated into your own LMS or online platform? How useful is it for teachers and students?
I'm aware there are lots of other aspects to consider, but this article is neither a thorough study on how to make decisions nor a "Complete Guide to...", but will have hopefully provided you with some new ideas to think about. At the end of this page you have some links to several ELT publishers, but if you want to have a complete list, check The Professional Development Exchange
Please, feel free to participate in this blog and enjoy teaching! We are very lucky!
All my best.
David.
Major ELT Publishers Links
Oxford University Press
Cambridge English Language Teaching
Collins ELT
MacMillan Education
DELTA Publishing
Garnet Education
National Geographic Cengage Learning
Richmond ELT
Pearson English
ABAX ELT
Work/Life English
Bacon & Hughes
Benchmark Education
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