Faculty of foreign philology english teaching methodolgy department course paper

2. APPROACHES TO TEXT BOOK SELECTION, EVALUATION AND ADAPTATION
There is a variety of the approaches for textbook selection. One of the most practical methods is considering the general goals and the curriculum of the program at first step and specific details as exercises and activities at the later steps. It means a movement from general to specific or a top –down approach in textbook selection. Prior to selecting a textbook, the curriculum of the program should be examined closely to see whether the goals are clearly defined. After that, it should be evident whether the objective of the textbook matches the objective of the course or not (Garinger, 2002; Nunan, 1991). Celce-Murcia and McIntosh (1979) describe some preliminary information prior to textbook selection about the background information of the students, course syllabus and institutional data by which about five to ten relevant textbook should be selected. The stage of the selection is divided to three steps. At the first step or survey the text-book selector skims ― through introduction ,table of content , the text , the glossary or index in order to get an idea ¹about the purpose , organization , and methods of presentation ,as well as the range and kinds of materials that the book includes.‖ At the second stage or analysis the content of the text book is carefully examined so that the process of selection is narrowed down to two or few books. At the third stage, the judgment is made about the quantitative and qualitative content of these few or two books in order to make the final decision about the appropriate textbook. A detailed analysis of course book is possible through the two-stage model of McDonough and Shaw‘s (1993). In this model, one stage is an external evaluation that gives an overall judgment about the textbook by a cursory evaluation of the table of content, introduction and coverage. Another stage called internal gives comprehensive information about the content of the textbook. Another model of evaluation purposed by Tucker (1975) as quoted in Ansary (2007) introduces a system that has three components: (1). a set of criteria claimed to be "consistent with the basic linguistic, psychological, and pedagogical principles" (p. 355), (2).a rating scheme which provides a method for judging a textbook's merits, and (3).a chart/graph which provides a visual comparison between the evaluator's opinion of the book and a hypothetical ideal model, hence facilitating a quick and easy display of the evaluator‘s judgment. Two types of criteria are introduced in this scheme: internal criteria which are language-related and external criteria which give a broader view of the book. Ansary, (2003) discusses a two-tier approach to ELT textbook evaluation. Two-tier evaluation takes its name from the two purposes of textbook evaluation. These two purposes are; selection and production of a textbook. He states;
To select a textbook, one should define his own preferred criteria in order to evaluate a textbook or make choices. To make choices, one either accepts a particular textbook with some reservations or rejects it as in appropriate (p.45). He also believes that there should be criteria for rejection .The evaluator based on the criteria chose another textbook or generate an appropriate one.
In need of textbook?

Production

Selection

Evaluation

Criteria
Rejection Acceptance

Criteria Production Supplementation Acceptance

Source: Ansary (2003)
Figure 1: The relationship among textbook selection, evaluation and adaptation
Alibakhshi (2007) describes textbook adaptation, reasons for adaptation, objectives of adaptation and techniques for adaptation. He claims that the teacher or instructor is not obliged to cover all the content of the textbook .Sometimes some parts of the textbook are not appropriate for the teaching situation. He adds that now a day, the process of textbook adaptation is left for language teachers. He mentioned some objectives for material adaptation:
1.To eliminate the unnecessary content,
2. To consider individual differences,
3. To provide the content based on learning strategies and cognitive styles of the learners.
4. To justify the content based on the learners‘ culture and values,
5. To establish challenges for the talent learners,
6. To accomplish the learners‘ interests and goals,
7. To maximize the learners‘ involvementin teaching process,
8. To reduce stress and anxiety on the part of the learners, He further explains five useful techniques under the headline of techniques for adaptation. They are:
1. Adding: It means to add necessary materials by expanding or extending to contextualize the pattern.
2. Simplifying: It is rewording or paraphrasing the text with out damaging its authenticity.
3. Deleting: Deleting refers to omission of some exercises quantitatively by answering a proportion of it or qualitatively by omitting a tedious and boring exercise.
4. Reordering:It is the change in the order or sequence of materials, so that they are more tangible and learnable for the learners.
5. Replacing: In this technique, the teacher replace some activities and exercises in textbook with more appropriate ones.
Modifying content, adding or deleting content, reorganizing content, addressing omissions, modifying tasks and extending tasks are a variety of forms for textbook adaptation proposed by Richard (2001:4).